Forging a Vowbound Character

Vowbound campaigns open with a guided forge: a conversation that walks you from a spark of a concept to a sworn vow and a framed first scene. Every step offers suggestions, takes your own words, or lets fate decide — and before anything is committed you get a summary card where any row can be revised with ✎.

flowchart TD
A(["New Vowbound campaign"]) --> B["Concept<br/><i>3 omen-sparked suggestions, your own, or fate</i>"]
B --> C["Name<br/><i>previews from the Ironlander name tables</i>"]
C --> D["Stats<br/><i>an archetype, or assign 3,2,2,1,1 yourself</i>"]
D --> E["Assets — pick 3<br/><i>ranked by fit to your concept; browse the full deck</i>"]
E --> F{"World truths"}
F -->|"Quick"| G["Fate rolls all 11 truths"]
F -->|"Guided"| H["Choose each truth, one by one"]
F -->|"Skip"| I["Discover the world in play"]
G --> J
H --> J
I --> J
J["Denizens<br/><i>pick who stalks YOUR Ironlands, add your own, or skip</i>"] --> K["Bonds — up to 3<br/><i>people or communities you're tied to</i>"]
K --> L["Background vow<br/><i>the defining quest — extreme or epic, no roll</i>"]
L --> M["Inciting incident<br/><i>the urgent trouble that starts this story — and its rank</i>"]
M --> N{"Summary card<br/><i>✎ revise any row</i>"}
N -->|"edit a row"| N
N -->|"Swear the vow"| O["Committed: character forged,<br/>vows become progress tracks,<br/>truths & denizens become your World"]
O --> P["Your first roll:<br/><b>Swear an Iron Vow</b> (+heart)"]
P --> Q(["Scene 1 is framed — play begins"])

What lands when you commit:

Your character sheet — stats, meters (health, spirit, supply), momentum, and your three assets.
Two vows as progress tracks — the background vow and the inciting incident, each mirrored as a story thread.
Your World — the truths and denizens you chose, which every future scene honors as canon. Grow them anytime from the ✦ World tab.
Your first move — Swear an Iron Vow, rolled for real (+1 if you marked bonds), with momentum shifting on the result.

Vowbound is based on Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin, used under the CC BY 4.0 license. See full attribution.