# Ironsworn: Delve tags: #game/rpg/ironsworn-delve #game/rpg/ironsworn ![[Delve (cover).jpg|600]] **Ironsworn: Delve** is Shawn Tomkin's expansion for **[[Ironsworn]]** — subtitled *Perilous Expeditions for the Ironsworn RPG* — and it answers the one genre itch the core game pretends not to notice: the deep, nostalgic pull of crawling into a dark, dangerous hole and not coming back until you've got the loot (or you're dead). Where the base game is all sworn vows and overland journeys, Delve hands the nostalgia economy exactly what it's been craving — a proper dungeon crawl — while keeping the engine's no-referee promise intact. You still need the **Ironsworn** core book, but at least you've finally got somewhere worth going down into. ## The Shape of a Delve A **site** — the book's term for any dungeon, ruin, tomb, cave, or stronghold worth exploring — is built from two modular building blocks: a **Theme** (what kind of place it is, from an ancient vault to a haunted locale) and a **Domain** (the physical space it occupies, like a barrow, cavern, or fortress), combined however fits the fiction. Every site also gets a **rank** from Ironsworn's standard progress-rank ladder — *Troublesome* through *Epic* — where the rank represents the site's scale, peril, and complexity, and sets how much progress each area you clear is worth (a Troublesome site pays 3 progress per area; an Epic site just 1 tick). Rank is the dial that tells you how much focus and danger the place deserves. ## The Moves of Exploration The crawl runs on a short, tight move set: - **Discover a Site** — when you resolve to enter a perilous site in pursuit of an objective, choose its Theme and Domain (asking the Oracle if unsure), give it a rank, and set its progress. Then you're in. - **Delve the Depths** — the core move, made as you traverse each area. Your *approach* picks the stat: navigate **with haste** and roll **+edge**, **with stealth or trickery** and roll **+shadow**, **with observation, intuition, or expertise** and roll **+wits**. On a **strong hit** you delve deeper — mark progress *and* Find an Opportunity. On a **weak hit** you consult a stat-specific table (mark progress, Reveal a Danger, Find an Opportunity, or a mix). On a **miss**, Reveal a Danger. - **Find an Opportunity** — the helpful flip side. On a strong hit from Delve the Depths you can pick or envision the opportunity rather than roll for it, then choose whether to take **+1 momentum** or leverage it with an action that gains a bonus. - **Reveal a Danger** — the risk table (or a check of the Theme/Domain card) that keeps the place deadly: hostile denizens, environmental or architectural hazards, blocked ways, lost gear, or worse. - **Check Your Gear** — when you need a specific helpful item and have at least **+1 Supply**, roll **+supply** to confirm you packed it. A weak hit means you have it but your resources are diminished; a miss means you don't, and the situation grows more perilous. - **Locate Your Objective** — the payoff as a **progress move**: roll your challenge dice against the site's progress (momentum is ignored). A **strong hit** finds your objective with the situation in your favor; a **weak hit** finds it amid an unforeseen hazard or complication; a **miss** means the objective eludes you, you've been misled, or the site holds unexpected depths — and if you keep exploring, you clear all but one filled progress and the site's rank climbs a step (unless it's already Epic). - **Escape the Depths** — when you flee or withdraw instead of pressing on, the move for getting out with your skin. ## Risk Zones and Denizens Two systems round it out. **Risk Zones** let you deliberately segment a site so the stakes ratchet up as you descend — some zones mark progress faster while making dangers more likely, tuning the tension to taste. And the **site worksheet** tracks the site's **denizens** — the creatures and monsters that inhabit it — with a matrix for deciding how likely a given threat is to appear, so your random encounters feel rooted in this specific place rather than pulled from generic table noise. The book also gives you full guidance for playing **without Themes and Domains**, stacking **multiple Themes or Domains** at once, and **creating your own**. ## And the Rest of the Book Beyond the crawl itself, Delve is a surprisingly full toolkit for making sites feel intentional rather than random. **Quest Milestones** guidance shows how to pace a delve so that reaching a site's objective *is* a milestone on your vow — milestones en route, within the site, and at the objective. A gallery of **eight Themes** (Ancient, Corrupted, Fortified, Hallowed, Haunted, Infested, Ravaged, Wild) and a matching spread of **Domains** (barrows, caverns, frozen caverns, and more) — each a full entry with its own features, dangers, and denizens — is what makes sites generate so cleanly, and there's guidance for hacking, stacking, and creating your own. **Augmented Assets** (with a rarity layer) give the gear-and-magic side room to grow across a campaign. And because a good dungeon is also a good map, there's concrete advice on **mapping a site** and drawing **relationship maps** for the factions and folk you meet down there, plus options for **streamlining dice rolls**, treating a **delve as a journey**, and playing a **one-shot delve** — with failure, of course, framed as something to mark and learn from. ## Editions - **Ironsworn: Delve** (2020) — the expansion, requiring the **Ironsworn** core rulebook. *In the library.* The Delve moves and tables are also gathered table-ready in **Ironsworn: Lodestar**, the free reference guide — see **[[Ironsworn]]**. ## References - [Ironsworn: Delve — Ironsworn RPG (official)](https://www.ironswornrpg.com/) - [Ironsworn: Delve — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/302260/ironsworn-delve)