Developing Character: Brienne of Tarth

Brienne of Tarth's character sheet (click for full-size)

Welcome to our first session of Developing Character, where we turn fictional characters into Ironsworn characters.  I know character creation in Ironsworn is pretty easy, but I thought it might help to walk through it step by step and really dig into why the assets were chosen or stats were assigned.  So without further ado, here we go!

Brienne of Tarth
Game of Thrones

I wanted to start Developing Character with someone that just about anyone would recognize.  Brienne is also a great choice for an Ironsworn character because she has a clearly defined personality that lends itself well to being converted into Assets.

Part 1: Assets

When I start a build, I always try to start by asking myself "What defines this character?"  Basically I try to produce one single fact that I can point at and say, "without X this character isn't him/herself anymore."  For Brienne that's incredibly easy, she's obsessed with her honor and carrying out the vows she's made.  During the events of Game of Thrones her vow has led her into extreme danger time and again, but she refuses to yield until her task is done.  Her first asset is Honorbound.

The vow that gets Brienne into so much trouble during Game of Thrones is the one that she made to Catelyn Stark to protect her daughters, and later swearing her sword to Sansa (and House Stark).  Because of this, it makes sense that her second Asset would be Banner-sworn to indicate her connection to a liege lord and House.

I wasn't sure which way to go with Brienne's third asset as there were a couple that jumped out at me as possible choices.  My first thought was to give Brienne Ironclad because she's the only female character in the show to regularly wear plate armor.

However, the second choice was to give Brienne Bladebound to represent her named Valyrian steel sword.  I decided to go with this one because it helps to tie Brienne to the setting (her bond to Jaime Lannister which led to her acquiring the sword, for example) and produced more opportunities to challenge the character (as Brienne often is for carrying a sword with a lion hilt).

Part 2: Stats

Now that we have a pretty good idea of who Brienne is, it's time to assign her stats.  My go-to method is to start by assigning her +3 and one of the +1s first (determining her greatest strength and weakness).  The +1 was the easiest to assign, I put it in +shadow as Brienne is highly honorable rarely resorts to deception or trickery.  Given that her entire character is based around the strength of her vows and her courage in pursuing them, it became obvious that her +3 belonged in +Heart.  The other two stats fell into place easily, her predilection for heavy armor slows her down a little (+1 to Edge) while doing nothing to dull a keen mind (+2 Wits).

And there you have it, Brienne the Beauty is ready to step out into the unforgiving Ironlands!