For the raw list of assets, see the separate Asset page.
Weapons. Most Ironsworn carry one. Some even have to use them. They come in all shapes and sizes and styles, some personalized deeply.
And then there’s a truly Custom Weapon.
This asset pack features 1 Custom Weapon, an asset to represent a weapon you can build and shape into your own. Choose from 10 different mod cards for varying styles and approaches to make your weapon, your way.
The start of your journey involves the base Custom Weapon asset:
This asset should feel similar to the Starship asset: by itself, it does nothing, but has two abilities. The real value in the Custom Weapon are the mods you can attach to it, much like the Modules to a Starship.
Note that the first ability asks you to define two things about your weapon: Melee or Ranged, and if it is Light or Heavy. These will determine what customizations you can make to it later.
Take some time to envision your weapon. It’s a custom-made piece of work, meant for your character’s hands only. It has a name - what made you give it that name? What makes it special? Is it an entirely unique piece of equipment? A stock model you’ve spent years adjusting to your needs? Custom paint, decals, engravings to it? Make it yours.
No custom weapon is complete without customizations. When you Advance, you can purchase a Weapon Mod card to install on your equipment. These cards add extra abilities to your weapon, and let you better fine-tune just what your weapon is capable of.
Weapon Mod cards come in five varieties: Melee, Ranged, Light, Heavy, and Exotic. When you acquired your Custom Weapon, you decided if your weapon was Melee or Ranged and Light or Heavy. You may only use Weapon Mod cards that match your weapon’s type. In addition, Exotic-type Weapon Mods are usable by any weapon variety. For example, a Melee Heavy custom weapon could use any Melee, Heavy, or Exotic cards. You can even double up if you wish, for example, equipping two Heavy-type cards, to better portray the incredible heft and might your weapon has.
When you purchase a Weapon Mod, you may mark 1 of its 2 abilities immediately. You may Advance it to purchase the remaining ability with 2 experience, like any other asset.
See the separate Asset page for the collection of Weapon Mod assets.
Your custom weapon isn’t just a bludgeon or shot-taker. It’s significant. It’s important enough that it’s an asset card in itself - as well as potentially two more - with experience points invested into developing it. It is a part of you, it is an extension of your character and their capabilities, an aspect of your will, and in some sense a character all on its own.
You can involve it as little or as much in the story as you like, but there are opportunities to make your weapon’s presence in the story known beyond combat. Seeking upgrades for your weapon could be the reason you undertake a quest or long journey at all. Its capabilities might make you uniquely qualified to fight certain foes or complete certain objectives that others in the world couldn’t. It might be as feared as its owner.
While it might tempting to devise scenarios that separate you from your weapon or outright result in its loss or destruction, it’s not recommended for the same reasons you likely wouldn’t discard other Asset cards spontaneously. If such a thing should happen, it should be treated as the major turning point that it is: you’ve lost a substantial amount of experience from your efforts. Imagine how its loss changes everything, and what your character becomes in response.
The Custom Weapons asset pack heavily borrows from combat-related assets from multiple sources, mixing and matching existing Ironsworn and Starforged to create the weapon and the different mods. Using existing ‘vanilla’ assets can have a severe risk of overlap. If you are using the Custom Weapon, it is highly recommended to avoid using other combat-related assets such as Brawler, Gunner, Sniper, Archer, the Combat Talent assets from Ironsworn, and more. A full list of overlapping assets is pending.
This asset pack was written with Starforged in mind. If you’re playing Ironsworn, some conversions are available.
The base Custom Weapon asset doesn’t need much changed from it except for the third ability. Instead of legacy tracks, this “Ironsworn-ified” version will give you different - but hopefully still appealing - opportunities.
For Weapon Mods, conversions are pending work on the author’s part, but some basic advice for those trying to do it themselves: marking progress in combat is equivalent to 1 harm. You can replace Gain Ground with Secure An Advantage in-combat.
For those curious about the math, a ‘fully decked out’ Custom Weapon will cost either 14 or 17 experience, depending on if you started with or bought the Custom Weapon asset itself: Each mod is 3+2=5 experience (10 in total for both), plus 2+2(+3)= 4 (or 7) for the Weapon itself. It should be roughly comparable to buying and completing 2 standard asset cards.
As usual, this is a homebrewed work and may not be reasonable or balanced. Use in your own play at your own risk, and you’re welcome to make tweaks and make it your own thing if you like. If you expand on this idea, please, feel free to let me know through the usual channels, I’d be interested to know!
Please don’t sue me, Shawn:
This work is based on Ironsworn (found at www.ironswornrpg.com), created by Shawn Tomkin, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).
This work is based on Ironsworn: Starforged (found at www.ironswornrpg.com), created by Shawn Tomkin, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).