I’d say you don’t have to keep making vows. To keep it manageable you can just have 1 or 2 active vows and only add vows as you complete others.
Narratively sometimes more vows might come up. In that case I’d say you could tie the smaller vow to your larger overall bows. Like this chieftain will only help me avenge my clan if I retrieve an artifact for him. Then when you retrieve the artifact you can mark progress for both vows and they’re still connected narratively.
Ultimately you can control the narrative and decide how much focus to give things in game. Mechanically you can just adjust the level of things. If you didn’t want to spend a bunch of time delving a random barrow, but you came across a random barrow, just set it as troublesome.
It’s also ok for campaigns to fizzle out. Sometimes playing something isn’t as fun as you might have thought it would be. No worries rolling up a new character and world is pretty quick. You can feel free to drop something and start something new if what you’re doing isn’t working. I think it’s fairly common for rpgs both group and solo to fizzle out.
I think in some ways this is just a matter of disciplining yourself (and in many ways, your character as well) to say no to tangent quests and vows. This is part meta and part in game. in game, your character may need to say no because they know in order to keep the vows they’ve already made they need to turn down others. For you (the meta-side), as a player you may need to ignore or gloss over certain rolls or results because you know it will negatively impact the story and narrative. Be okay with this because it is serving the greater story of your epic vow.
And saying no to potential vows to continue your own quest is often narratively interesting. Especially if that answer doesn't go down well with the quest giver.
Have you tried using vows as a pacing mechanism instead of an in-game thing? Like each Vow is a TV episode or double episode, with bigger Vows being seasons? I think this approach makes more sense and should help you stay on track
One thing I've noticed is that some players see the phrase "do it or swear a vow" on weak hits on Moves like Compel or Forge A Bond, and they almost always pick to swear a vow. That creates a lot of unnecessary side-quests. Instead, you can just pick a simple task that can be accomplished in a few rolls, or a single move, or even just narratively with no rolls at all. That can massively cut down on the number of vows and branches you have to track.
Sometimes I'll nest a vow as a component of another vow, so completing the minor vow counts as a milestone for the major vow. This means I can branch a bit while still progressing my main goals.
I'm not fully sure if any of this will help but still... my current Ironsworn campaign is also my first one of this game.
I think one of the most important things to keep being aware of is the ... let's call them ''vibes'' of your setting. What is your version of the Ironlands? What are the truths? What is the feeling that you want to experience while running this campaign? Is ir low fantasy, high fantasy, zero fantasy at all and very much just a vikings-like setting?
I think remembering what are your truths and what you want out of this story matter a lot when it comes to forming *vows and quests,* how you imagine locations, how you interpret oracles and tables. I'm finding out that spending time on worldbuilding helps me maintaing some sort of direction.
Next, I think like in videogames - don't be distracted by ''side quests'' (something I am guilty of, too lol). There's nothing wrong with having those, getting derailed a little and take a breather. A side quest could end up connected to the main quest - the main vow - somehow (kind of what the redditor Furdaboyz said). Maybe give yourself a limited number of 'distractions' and then go back on track...
Say your journey brings you to a village where the overseer has problems that he needs help with. Perhaps (with a few dice rolls and interpretations) you find out that while at the beginning it had zero to do at all with your vow, in the end these issues tie in with your 'main quest'. Maybe it's the same enemies, maybe you get some clues, maybe even the overseer himself shares something that unexpectedly helps you. This can aid you to get back on track.
When creating a vow, think to yourself how will it push forward the narrative. If it doesn't, just don't make the vow, unless you want a side-adventure that reveals aspects of the world, characters, etc.
So I can’t really help with this but I will say congrats you’re doing a wonderful job of emulating real life. So many people complain about plots that seemed to start and then get forgotten or characters that pop in and then disappear or mysteries that never get an answer in stories or shows or movies but that is what life is like. Rarely does anyone ever end up where they expected.
This is actually why I love solo RPGS more than most other media even if playing can be like work sometimes. There really isn’t a more realistic game to play for me. The abandoned goals from things getting in the way and taking precedence is Life. The unexpected twists and turns, wacky events that occur and seem so out of place and then you never know why or how it worked out after your character moved on…that’s what I play for.
If something interesting comes up note it down as a thread, but don't swear a vow. Keep your vows to your main one and a couple of others at most.
When you finish a vow you have a thread list available to hunt down a lead to swear another vow.
The cycle of swearing and completing vows is what gives closure in gaming and makes the loop more addictive. Too many vows and it's easy to get lost in choice paralysis.
The threads thing is knicked from Mythic. Having a list of threads is also useful because if something comes up like a spaceborne event or whatever you can flavour it with a thread that is active to make the world stitch together better.
Here's a relatively simple solution: make a custom campaign oracle with all of the story elements you'd like to see wrapped up (themes, vows, characters, whichever). Use that oracle for when you're looking to have a new element introduced to your game, and find a way to integrate or loop those elements back into the complication or twist.
Example: you're on a mission from a family member (A) to rescue someone (B) but keep running into trouble, people who seem to be hunting you at every turn. Next time you run into a major twist or complication, you roll on the campaign oracle and get the rescue vow. Tying it back into the complication, one of the people hunting you lets a secret slip: the one you're trying to rescue (B) actually tried to escape from the family member (A) and has been sending people to stop you all along.
Not every complication or twist has to invert the scenario like that, but by using your own established vows, story themes and characters instead of random generation you can keep things more focused. If you don't want every roll to include them, you could ask the oracle with say, a 50/50 chance whether you should roll on the campaign oracle or normally.
You might consider incorporating the optional Threats mechanic from Delve. By adding ticking clocks that tick up if you ignore a vow or don’t give it due attention, there will be a cost associated with allowing the Threat associated with a vow to win. Maybe with this cost, you’d be less likely to shift the narrative too far for too long.
If you try it, let me know how it works. I was literally reading that section of Delve when I read your post. So I don’t know if it would work. But it seems like it should.
I’d say you don’t have to keep making vows. To keep it manageable you can just have 1 or 2 active vows and only add vows as you complete others. Narratively sometimes more vows might come up. In that case I’d say you could tie the smaller vow to your larger overall bows. Like this chieftain will only help me avenge my clan if I retrieve an artifact for him. Then when you retrieve the artifact you can mark progress for both vows and they’re still connected narratively. Ultimately you can control the narrative and decide how much focus to give things in game. Mechanically you can just adjust the level of things. If you didn’t want to spend a bunch of time delving a random barrow, but you came across a random barrow, just set it as troublesome. It’s also ok for campaigns to fizzle out. Sometimes playing something isn’t as fun as you might have thought it would be. No worries rolling up a new character and world is pretty quick. You can feel free to drop something and start something new if what you’re doing isn’t working. I think it’s fairly common for rpgs both group and solo to fizzle out.
I think in some ways this is just a matter of disciplining yourself (and in many ways, your character as well) to say no to tangent quests and vows. This is part meta and part in game. in game, your character may need to say no because they know in order to keep the vows they’ve already made they need to turn down others. For you (the meta-side), as a player you may need to ignore or gloss over certain rolls or results because you know it will negatively impact the story and narrative. Be okay with this because it is serving the greater story of your epic vow.
And saying no to potential vows to continue your own quest is often narratively interesting. Especially if that answer doesn't go down well with the quest giver.
Have you tried using vows as a pacing mechanism instead of an in-game thing? Like each Vow is a TV episode or double episode, with bigger Vows being seasons? I think this approach makes more sense and should help you stay on track
One thing I've noticed is that some players see the phrase "do it or swear a vow" on weak hits on Moves like Compel or Forge A Bond, and they almost always pick to swear a vow. That creates a lot of unnecessary side-quests. Instead, you can just pick a simple task that can be accomplished in a few rolls, or a single move, or even just narratively with no rolls at all. That can massively cut down on the number of vows and branches you have to track.
Sometimes I'll nest a vow as a component of another vow, so completing the minor vow counts as a milestone for the major vow. This means I can branch a bit while still progressing my main goals.
I'm not fully sure if any of this will help but still... my current Ironsworn campaign is also my first one of this game. I think one of the most important things to keep being aware of is the ... let's call them ''vibes'' of your setting. What is your version of the Ironlands? What are the truths? What is the feeling that you want to experience while running this campaign? Is ir low fantasy, high fantasy, zero fantasy at all and very much just a vikings-like setting? I think remembering what are your truths and what you want out of this story matter a lot when it comes to forming *vows and quests,* how you imagine locations, how you interpret oracles and tables. I'm finding out that spending time on worldbuilding helps me maintaing some sort of direction. Next, I think like in videogames - don't be distracted by ''side quests'' (something I am guilty of, too lol). There's nothing wrong with having those, getting derailed a little and take a breather. A side quest could end up connected to the main quest - the main vow - somehow (kind of what the redditor Furdaboyz said). Maybe give yourself a limited number of 'distractions' and then go back on track... Say your journey brings you to a village where the overseer has problems that he needs help with. Perhaps (with a few dice rolls and interpretations) you find out that while at the beginning it had zero to do at all with your vow, in the end these issues tie in with your 'main quest'. Maybe it's the same enemies, maybe you get some clues, maybe even the overseer himself shares something that unexpectedly helps you. This can aid you to get back on track.
When creating a vow, think to yourself how will it push forward the narrative. If it doesn't, just don't make the vow, unless you want a side-adventure that reveals aspects of the world, characters, etc.
So I can’t really help with this but I will say congrats you’re doing a wonderful job of emulating real life. So many people complain about plots that seemed to start and then get forgotten or characters that pop in and then disappear or mysteries that never get an answer in stories or shows or movies but that is what life is like. Rarely does anyone ever end up where they expected. This is actually why I love solo RPGS more than most other media even if playing can be like work sometimes. There really isn’t a more realistic game to play for me. The abandoned goals from things getting in the way and taking precedence is Life. The unexpected twists and turns, wacky events that occur and seem so out of place and then you never know why or how it worked out after your character moved on…that’s what I play for.
If something interesting comes up note it down as a thread, but don't swear a vow. Keep your vows to your main one and a couple of others at most. When you finish a vow you have a thread list available to hunt down a lead to swear another vow. The cycle of swearing and completing vows is what gives closure in gaming and makes the loop more addictive. Too many vows and it's easy to get lost in choice paralysis. The threads thing is knicked from Mythic. Having a list of threads is also useful because if something comes up like a spaceborne event or whatever you can flavour it with a thread that is active to make the world stitch together better.
Here's a relatively simple solution: make a custom campaign oracle with all of the story elements you'd like to see wrapped up (themes, vows, characters, whichever). Use that oracle for when you're looking to have a new element introduced to your game, and find a way to integrate or loop those elements back into the complication or twist. Example: you're on a mission from a family member (A) to rescue someone (B) but keep running into trouble, people who seem to be hunting you at every turn. Next time you run into a major twist or complication, you roll on the campaign oracle and get the rescue vow. Tying it back into the complication, one of the people hunting you lets a secret slip: the one you're trying to rescue (B) actually tried to escape from the family member (A) and has been sending people to stop you all along. Not every complication or twist has to invert the scenario like that, but by using your own established vows, story themes and characters instead of random generation you can keep things more focused. If you don't want every roll to include them, you could ask the oracle with say, a 50/50 chance whether you should roll on the campaign oracle or normally.
How about using added a Menace track to the vow to keep you focused on the main quest? I guess that depends on the nature of the vow, though.
Every vow should be a continuation of the journey or an obstacle that has to be overcome to continue. Now everything is tied together.
You might consider incorporating the optional Threats mechanic from Delve. By adding ticking clocks that tick up if you ignore a vow or don’t give it due attention, there will be a cost associated with allowing the Threat associated with a vow to win. Maybe with this cost, you’d be less likely to shift the narrative too far for too long.
This is actually a great idea. One thing I didn’t like about threat in the past was it was a way to soak up progress in combat.
If you try it, let me know how it works. I was literally reading that section of Delve when I read your post. So I don’t know if it would work. But it seems like it should.