I began roleplaying in junior high in the early 1980s with B/X Dungeons & Dragons and The Keep on the Borderlands. Before long, my friends and I were exploring the World of Greyhawk through published modules and adventures of our own making.
It was an amazing and unforgettable time.
I have always loved Greyhawk, The Lord of the Rings, and the strange wonder of old fantasy adventure. But over the years, I found myself increasingly drawn toward something more grounded: a style of fantasy rooted in the grit, danger, faith, violence, politics, and mystery of the medieval world.
I think of this as Medieval Fantasy.
It is not quite high fantasy, and not simply low fantasy either. It lives somewhere between the borderlands of history and myth. It is the world of castles, abbeys, border wars, old forests, saints, monsters, mercenaries, ruined keeps, forgotten gods, and hard choices. It draws inspiration from the legends of King Arthur, the brutal politics of Game of Thrones, and the real medieval world that shaped so many of our oldest stories.
While living in Portugal and traveling through Europe, I became increasingly fascinated by medieval history, especially the 11th to 13th centuries. I began studying that period more seriously and slowly started creating a fictional setting inspired by medieval Europe, but touched by myth, folklore, and the supernatural.
Much as George R. R. Martin drew inspiration from the Wars of the Roses, and Arthurian legend drew from the memory of early medieval Britain, Iron & Myth is inspired by the medieval world of the 12th and 13th centuries.
For years, I explored different tabletop roleplaying games, looking for the right system to capture this tone. I found many games I admired, but none that did exactly what I wanted. So I began the long road of creating my own.
Iron & Myth embraces the OSR spirit of rulings over rules, dangerous adventure, meaningful choices, and emergent play. At the same time, it uses modern, streamlined mechanics designed for speed, clarity, and tension at the table.
At its heart is the 2dX system: a simple, flexible engine built around character ability, risk, and consequence.
Iron & Myth is a game of ordinary adventurers facing extraordinary dangers.
It is a game of steel, faith, blood, shadow, and legend.
It is medieval fantasy, forged in iron and myth.
The following principles guide the design of Iron & Myth. They shape how the game is written, how it is run, and how it should feel at the table.
Iron & Myth emphasizes player skill over character-sheet solutions.
Players are expected to think through the situation, ask questions, assess risk, manage resources, and solve problems through the fiction of the world. The character sheet matters, but it is not a menu of buttons to press. It is a foundation for the character.
Iron & Myth also favors diegetic play.
Players describe what their characters do in the world rather than invoking a rule, skill, or ability by name.
A player does not say:
“I roll Stealth.”
Instead, the player says:
“I move toward the castle wall, keeping low among the trees and staying in the shadows.”
That declaration gives the Referee something to judge: intent, method, position, and risk.
The player describes the action. The Referee decides whether it succeeds, fails, or requires a Check.
Iron & Myth is built around verisimilitude: the sense that the world is real, consistent, and believable on its own terms.
The setting should follow its own logic. Its physics, technology, culture, faith, folklore, history, and dangers should feel coherent. The rules exist to support that reality, not replace it.
The Referee is not merely a rules adjudicator. The Referee is the arbiter of the world.
Iron & Myth embraces rulings over rules, but it is not careless or vague. The goal is not to be rules-light. The goal is to be rules-clear: elegant, direct, and easy to apply.
The 2dX system provides a consistent core mechanic while leaving room for judgment, consequence, and the living fiction of the world.
Less time looking up exceptions.
More time making rulings that fit the moment.
Iron & Myth is a gritty medieval fantasy game.
The characters are not superheroes. They are ordinary adventurers facing extraordinary circumstances. They may become hardened, respected, feared, or even legendary, but they remain mortal.
There is no resurrection. Death matters. Wounds matter. Exhaustion, hunger, fear, distance, darkness, armor, steel, and poor choices all matter.
The world is not built around the characters.
There are no balanced encounters, level gates, or guarantees of fair fights. Characters may go where they wish, but the world does not soften itself for them. A dragon is still a dragon. A haunted ruin is still dangerous. A warlord’s hall is not scaled to the party’s Rank.
The Referee should telegraph danger clearly. The players must learn to observe, prepare, bargain, deceive, retreat, and choose their battles wisely.
Magic is rare, strange, and rooted in the medieval imagination: curses, blessings, omens, relics, saints, demons, old gods, forbidden books, haunted places, and powers best treated with fear.
Iron & Myth is a game of risk, consequence, faith, blood, steel, shadow, and myth.
It is not about building perfect heroes.
It is about discovering what ordinary people will do when faced with a dangerous and mysterious world.
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