# Character Creation Challenge 2025: Day 12 - Ironsworn: Badlands - Martin Thompson, Vengeful Preacher tags: #articles/CharacterCreationChallenge/2025 #game/rpg/ironsworn-badlands > [!quote] [[Character Creation Challenge 2025]] > > ![[Character Creation Challenge Image.png]] ## Game of Choice You probably weren't expecting this, but we are headed back to the Wild West. And because it's me, we are going to a wilder version than you may have been envisioning. I have a particular fondness for Wild West with a solid dollop of horror and fantasy. So with that in mind, today's stop is going to be **[Ironsworn: Badlands](https://kstetson.itch.io/ironsworn-badlands)**. ![[Ironsworn - Badlands (cover).jpg|400]] What, you didn't know was that there was a supplement available to move **[[Ironsworn]]** from the cold, bleak, low fantasy, far northern Europe to the dusty, sepia-toned gunslinging action of the American West? Well, now you know. For various reasons, I think that it is just as effective in bringing you to the West as it is in dumping you in the snow. **Ironsworn** is just that good a system, frankly. The open license for creating things based on it means that there are a ton of available supplements going in all sorts of directions. Many of them for extremely reasonable prices, considering that [**Ironsworn** itself is available for free](https://tomkinpress.com/pages/ironsworn). **Badlands** is no exception; it's *pay what you want*, which is one of my favorite prices second only behind *free*. Given that you can get it for free and then go back and give the author a few dollars if it suits your needs or satisfies your hungers, I'm absolutely down for you doing just that. Of course, the mechanics are exactly the same and you need the core book in order to play **Badlands**. In the text are a new world workbook giving you new truths to choose from, some new oracles to trade out for the older ones in particular, new regions, new settlement names, new character names, and new wildlife. Sensible given the change in venue. There are some different moves because what's a Western game without gunslinging, right? There's a new map to go along with a new region and region write-ups, and there are a few changes in assets just to fit the flavour a little better. You get apothecaries instead of alchemists, bigwigs instead of empowered, hucksters instead of tricksters, preachers instead of devotions, scouts instead of wildbloods, and two-fisted instead of duelist (though on that last point, I would leave open the option of taking duelist if you wanted to be a double sword or knife-stabbing badass). You can probably work in all of the other assets from the original keep open the option of more fantasy in your Western, and I most certainly do. If you want to know about **Ironsworn** in general, feel free to go to my core page on that and look at all the links coming back into it. There are several previously extant *Character Creation Challenge* entries along with quite a lot of other discussion. ## Acts of Creation Let's stop pussyfooting around and just get into this thing, shall we? There are two major creation systems when it comes to any Ironsworn game. First, you create the world, and then you create your character. Things are going to go really quick here, because we've done this a few times, but we have an entirely new set of truths to go through which are inherently interesting. ### The Weirder West Truth, truth, truth. It's always about truth with you people.^[What do you mean, "you people?"] #### The Weird The first thing that we have to figure out is how weird is it out there? As usual, with an ironsworn setup, we get three choices, which range from none to quite a lot, as well as a possible quest starter, which goes with it. I'm not going to belabor things. I'm just going to stick in our choices and then talk about them briefly, very briefly. > Horrors walk the land and it is only the naïve or the lucky who could say otherwise. We must stand in constant defense against them. > > *Quest Starter: A group of Badlanders establish a settlement in a territory cursed by a malevolent horror. What evil plagues this land? Why are the Badlanders so intent on settling here? Will you aid them, or attempt to force them to give up this foolish undertaking?* We are just going to turn the volume all the way up on the weird here; you absolutely could do low fantasy Western with this and it would just be wonderful. There are very few games which would actually work for classic TV Western and here you go, but I was always a fan of **[Deadlands](https://peginc.com/savage-settings/deadlands/)**, but regretted that the system wasn't better than it was. Congratulations! I have better choices now! The quest starters here are particularly good. Defending a settlement from a malevolent horror? What kind of evil is it? Why do they want to? It's asking all the right questions that answering will drive your character into more engagement. Good stuff. #### Exodus Effectively, why are people out here in the West? > The religious strictures Back East prevented us from worshipping as we wished. We came West seeking the freedom to pray as our god dictates. > > *Quest Starter: A missionary arrives in the community to prosthelytize for the old ways. Is it revulsion or fascination that draws you to their words? If the community takes offense at these sermons, how will you react?* I'm going to take this answer and go even weirder though Utah is pretty weird. What if we have a lot of the pressure of the Badlands being settled caused by a growing popularity of Lovecraftian cultists of various sorts? After all, the early 1900s and late 1800s were full of weird religious experimentation from [Theosophy](https://www.theosophical.org/about/theosophy) on.^[Seriously, it was a fecund time for occultism/spiritism. See: https://relics.es/en/blogs/relics/occultism-in-the-19th-century-between-mystery-and-revolution .] Why not have the Cult of Dagon given equal standing with the Mormon Church? Mind you, the Cult of Dagon is going to have very little fun out in the middle of the Arizona desert, but maybe that's part of the interest. #### Native Peoples What's the current state of the American Indians in our take on the Badlands? > There is open conflict between settler and native. Violence regularly breaks out on both sides, and no one is safe from its reach. > > *Quest Starter: A noted combatant has laid down their arms and is trying to make peace. What made them change their ways? How do they hope to end the bloodshed? And what makes you think you can help?* For the record, I am sick of settings which suck all of the dramatic oppositional violence out of the world and turn things into simple misunderstandings. That's not the case here. There is active and well-informed enmity on both sides. No one in their right minds (including the Cthulhu cultists, which sets the bar for *"in their right minds"* quite low) wants to make peace with one another. Odds are good that anybody trying to sell you peace has a deeply malevolent plan, and that's the way we like it. #### Back East There's always a back east, isn't there? > Contact with the East is sporadic, but still important. Many still feel a connection to their Eastern kin. > > *Quest Starter: Contact with the East is cut off. What caused the disconnection? Who benefits and who suffers from it? How will you reestablish connection?* I have quite a strange inspiration for this particular choice: **[[Warhammer 40k]]**. The vast rift down the middle of the galaxy that tears the Imperium in half. In the case of the Badlands, it's due to massive geological activity somewhere in the area of the Midwest. There are a few small passages through the steam fields, the vast pools of oil burning on the surface of the deep rifts, which go down further than anyone has ever truly explored. But for the most part, the Badlands are cut off from back east. For the most part, that's the way the Badlanders prefer it. #### Communities Effectively how dense is the population of our Badlands? > We have established a foothold here in the Badlands. Some large towns could even claim the name city, and those dealing in the cattle trade or mining could even be called prosperous. > > *Quest Starter: Stagecoaches are forced to pay for passage along a trade road. This payment leaves several communities without sufficient winter stores. Who is making these demands? How will you set things right?* While the usual setting for Ironsworn tends toward extremely sparse small populations, given that we are completely cut off from the east, it seems like a good idea to have some large towns or cities on major trade routes. Not many, of course. For the most part, the population is sparse and spread out on small farms and ranches, with the occasional village/town standing between as a point of trade, community, and communication. #### Iron Horse Oh yes, the railroad. > Surveyors from the railroads have started to appear in the Badlands, planning out routes and taking notes. Perhaps even a few small rail lines have already been built. > > *Quest Starter: Word is that the railroad is coming to your town. This may mean prosperity, but will definitely mean problems. Are the benefits worth the drawbacks? Do you help or hinder these efforts?* Because we are cut off from the East, I envision that the primary rail lines in our badlands run north to south. A steel river for trade, transport, and all the other wonders that come with people moving easily. And the horrors, too. Besides, without a railroad, how would you ever rob a shipment of gold on horseback from rail cars? You couldn't. You absolutely need a railroad for that. I'm not giving that up for anybody. #### Beasts How are we set for wildlife? > Beasts of all sorts roam the Badlands. They dwell primarily in the reaches, but range into the settled lands to hunt. There, they often prey on cattle, but attacks on travelers, coaches, or even settlements are not uncommon. > > *Quest Starter: Professional slayers earn their keep by killing beasts. This particular slayer, famed throughout the Ironlands for their numerous kills, has gone missing on a hunt. Did they finally meet their match, or is something more nefarious at play. What is your connection to them?* While I'm stealing from other media, and that's what the greats do, they steal, I figure I might as well borrow heavily from another powerful, iconic figure in literature, and that's **[The Witcher](https://www.amazon.com/The-Witcher-Saga-8-book-series/dp/B07FK8KY54)**. One of my favorite things about Geralt of Rivia is that he is a mercenary monster slayer out there to make a little bit of jingle for his pocket going from town to town and generally being disliked by almost everyone he runs into.^[Plus he does use a weapon in each hand.] The tropes in play are very much beholden to original American Westerns, and it seems fitting to turn that back around here. There are enough unpleasant bits of wildlife to make it worthwhile for professional slayers to do their business sometimes in surprisingly populated areas. #### Guns Really, man? Really? > Guns are tools. Most folk who work dangerous jobs keep them, but those in more pacific professions have no need of them. > > *Quest starter: An acquaintance of yours who normally carries was caught in a bad spot without their shooting iron. What were the consequences? How do you aim to rectify the situation? And why weren’t they carrying in the first place?* I'll be honest, I was momentarily tempted to go with the idea that guns are extremely rare and precious, effectively equating them with black iron in the original **Ironsworn** - but there was no way I could actually make that work in a setting as dangerous as I'm describing here. Shotguns and rifles are extremely common. There are no farmers who don't have at least a shotgun to clear varmints, and hunting is more common than any other use. Pistols significantly less so in our Badlands. The relative precision machining necessary for revolvers is in short supply. They are tools, but they are precision tools, only seen in the company of people who have a need of such things. #### The Law How rampant is crime; is it Detroit or is it rural Ohio? > Crime ain’t exactly rare here in the Badlands. Folks are just about as likely to do what they wish as what they ought, regardless of what might be written down on a piece of paper. > > *Quest starter: They say it ain’t a crime if you don’t get caught, and you didn’t. But now the ramifications of your seemingly inconsequential act are becoming clear, and you’re starting to get caught in your own conscience. But now it might be too late. What did you do, and how can you make it right despite the long odds?* I briefly considered pushing the needle all the way to the top of the chart, but that seemed too chaotic. Choosing the least option didn't seem frightening enough. Unusually for me, I chose the middle path; it does go along with a common preponderance of cultists, violent internecine warfare, and a general need for troubleshooters in the very literal sense of the word. I think we can go with this. #### The Land How harsh is the environment? How inviting the landscape? > The Badlands are a cruel, but beguiling mistress. Gorgeous vistas and stunning sunsets belie the perils of the wide and dangerous land. > > *Quest starter: As beautiful as it is, the land can be deadly, especially if you end up in the wrong part. That’s why you’ve vowed to map the Badlands. What made you undertake such a vow? Are you working alone? How can you hope to complete it?* As much as I want to lean into all of the horrible, hideous things that happen out here, there has to be a reason that we as an audience are interested in what we're seeing. One of those aspects is the absolute stark and striking beauty of the place. You might be in a desert as desolate as the surface of the moon and hard to tell apart, but the next time you go around the next outcropping, you'll catch the horizon right in the face and take a moment to breathe and experience the beauty of it. You can look out the front windows of the ranch you built with your own hands and see the verdant plains stretching as far as your eye might want to wander. You can be sitting in a train going from one cattle town to the next, looking out the window and seeing scrub and trees and low rolling hills, which retain the water in glistening rivulets until they pour into stone gorges. It's hard and it's cruel and maybe it hates you, but it's beautiful, too. --- That's it for the truths of our setting, and I think that having gone through it, we all have a great idea of what kind of place we're dealing with and what kind of characters live here, which means, of course, we're on to the next step. ### How the West was One We come at last to actually putting our character together. Please open **Ironsworn** to page 33 because **Badlands** does not include character generation. It's got plenty of oracles to help you out, but the actual generation rules are in the core book. Again, you can have it for free, so that's not a big deal. #### Nomenclature What's in a name? Would not a rose, by any other name, smell as sweet? Sure, but we ain't smellin' roses here, pard. What if we just, you know, *generate* one? > [74, 89, 77] Martin "Rosin Jaw" Thompson. Well Martin Thompson is a good name, I'm not sure about that nickname. I think we might let it go for now. **Name:** Martin Thompson #### Statistically Correct As usual, we need to assign **Edge**, **Heart**, **Iron**, **Shadow**, and **Wits** just as always in **Ironsworn**. We'll also take our **Health** at +5, **Spirit** at +5, **Supply** at +5, and **Momentum** at +3 with a max of +10. I have an idea that Martin is a bit of a preacher. I'm not going to deny a little bit of inspiration from Clint Eastwood in one of his best roles after all. He is, of course, a gun-slinging preacher with a squint and an affection for too much of something going on… We'll figure that out as we go. We are going to need to have solid Edge and Iron, probably followed by Heart, with Wits and Shadow at the bottom. You have to be able to sling iron in this world, and being able to deal out and take a punch doesn't hurt either. A bit of courage that doesn't come out of a bottle goes a long way, but Martin's not much of a sneak at all. And while you know he's no materials engineer, he wasn't born yesterday, however, when things start getting complicated — well, the universe doesn't like Martin very much. | Stats | Value | | ------ | ----- | | Edge | +3 | | Heart | +2 | | Iron | +2 | | Shadow | +1 | | Wits | +1 | **Health:** +5, **Spirit:** +5, **Supply:** +5 **Momentum:** +3 (Max +10 / Reset +2) #### Vows of Fate As usual, we need to start with two vows: one of which is a long-term goal (our **background vow**) and another which is an immediate situation that we have to deal with (the **inciting incident**, or as we say in the indie field, "the kicker"). Since we have gone this far, I think we are going to take as our background vow **"Get revenge on the men who left me for dead."** Probably about as straightforward and classic since it's a background vow it's going to be rated Extreme in this case I'd like it to be theoretically achievable just really difficult. We need an inciting incident — something that we are embroiled in at the moment that can't be ignored, has some pressure involved, and which requires us to act. I'm coming up a little dry at the moment, so I'm going to roll on the default action and theme oracles to see what falls out, looking for a little inspiration. > [95, 72] Learn. Power. Well, that's interesting. Maybe Martin's in the very process of trying to figure out where the relic being worshipped by the local cult actually is. He has sworn to deal with the kidnapping bastards which have been preying on a small town named… [clatter, rolling on the **Badlands** ominous town names] > [89] … Perdition. n the [clatter] … > [80] … Sea of Grass. So his kicker vow is **"deal with the cult kidnapping people from Perdition in the Sea of Grass."** #### Bonded for Life Now we need the character bonds, which are people or places that we have a relationship with, and we can take up to three of them. Clearly, we need a bond with **Perdition**. We can figure out exactly why at some point in the future. We'll also take a bond with **Miss Rodriguez**, a lovely lady in Perdition who, shall we say, is free with her charms in exchange for consideration. We'll figure out the third at some point in the future. For now, that gives us two ticks on the bonds track as well. #### Asset Forfiture Lastly, we get to the final big boy stuff, which is picking our assets. This may actually be my favorite part because it's where we truly craft the mechanical reflection of what we're going for. Come to think of it, I may prefer figuring out the vows to this, but it's just slightly edging it out. We do get to dip into the new **Badlands** assets, which is a total bonus in my mind. I've already decided that Martin is going to be a **Preacher**, which is a particular path here. One of the things we get to choose is whether our God is vengeful, forgiving, or unknowable. Given that Martin is guaranteed to be a Protestant Christian in a harsh world, his God is definitely vengeful by default. We get the first ability unlocked, which lets us pray to God in our daily prayers and ask for a blessing, which will let us roll +Iron. If it's a hit, we will take +1 momentum. Since we've already gone this far, we might as well take **Vengeful** as a path as well. It's quite keen that it essentially means that if we fight back against someone who has wounded us, we get a +1 to the action roll and an additional +1 momentum on a hit. It's fun being vengeful. I feel like the setting compels us to take a combat talent here, and the obvious one would be **Two-Fisted**, but I don't want to do the obvious thing. Instead, we're going to take **Shotgunner** because I envision Martin really preferring to get up close and personal when he wants to hurt someone very badly. When we use a shotgun to strike a foe and score a strong hit, we get plus one momentum from knocking them back, stunning them, or generally putting them off balance. That's a pretty solid choice; I'm down for that. #### Equipment We don't really have to track that aggressively. As I see it, Martin is fond of his broad sombrero and his perfectly serviceable but nothing fancy grey linen shirt and ragged jeans. There are, of course, the omnipresent cowboy boots, even though he's never worked as a cowboy a day in his life. While he owns a pistol, he doesn't normally have it on his person, as opposed to his omnipresent shotgun, which on a good day stays slung across his back. On a bad day, he's firing it one-handed while riding on a horse, like Hell itself is chasing him. It very well might be. ![[Ironsworn-Badlands - CCC2025 - Martin Thompson (sheet).webp]] ![[Ironsworn-Badlands - CCC2025 - Assets - Martin Thompson.webp]] ## Exunt That's it. That's the lot. We have a preacher out looking for vengeance in a dirty, cruel land populated by cultists and dire beasts that walk the night, some in the shape of a man. He has a shotgun, a squint, and a taste for vengeance, as well as the Lord's blessing. It's a harsh place full of beautiful vistas and probably some of the best tamales ever seen by mortal man. Perversely, I'm currently thinking of Martin Thompson as a strange hybrid of Clint Eastwood's The Man with No Name and [Solomon Kane](https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Tales-Solomon-Kane/dp/0739450336). I think that might be exactly the right note to strike. It's certainly an interesting one.   Hopefully this has been interesting and enlightening, and you feel more than a little compelled to go out and pick up **Ironsworn: Badlands** to put together your own weird West and explore the darker corners of it. A reminder that you can go get all of it for free and start playing as soon as you download it. In fact, please do, then pop back and tell me how it went. Then send a few bucks to the authors involved because they deserve it. Tomorrow, things continue to get strange in the indie space. That's all I can tell you for now.