The Cold Iron
A downloadable game
THE COLD IRON is a lethal, symbolic, and contemplative solo TTRPG. It plays like a condensed narrative — ideal for zine lovers, survival horror enthusiasts, dungeon crawlers, roguelike fans, grimdark OSR players, and designers interested in minimalist gameplay loops. Perfect for short, immersive, and introspective sessions.
You are a Being drowned in torment, trapped in a cycle of death, rebirth, and bodily decay. You are the Lady’s hammer, sealed in meteoric iron that burns the unreal.
In the Oneiric Vale — a liminal in-between space that warps geometry and echoes your fears — each death returns you to the Iron Cocoon, colder and less human than before.
Your duty is to overcome a spiral of vertigo and sensory collapse. Face procedural environments, defeat aberrations born from your memories, and under the Oath of Iron, obliterate the Being that subjugated you and find a way out.
Six-sided dice, brutal loops, and existential reflection converge in a minimalist solo horror experience about loss of identity, resentment, forced transformation — and the cost of resistance.
A journey of solitude and hopelessness weighed with purpose, written in a language steeped in distorted nostalgia, melancholy, discomfort, and fatalism, THE COLD IRON is not a journey of redemption. It is a small, broken experiment — and your character is a playable horror.
Specifications
▹ Format: B5 (175 mm x 265 mm)
▹ Page Count: 28 pages
▹ Language: English
▹ Structure: Pointcrawl, procedural generation
▹ Dice system: d6 only
▹ Plain text, user-friendly, print-friendly
Credits
♦ Written by Nøk üиc4nny
♦ Illustrations by Katsuki Nakamoto
♦ Layout by Kaisel Zikaef
© 2025 All rights reserved
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Community Copy
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
‼️ Grab a Free Copy: Play, Rate & Comment ‼️
Free copies are available for anyone who needs them. If you get one, consider leaving a review and a comment-it helps the game reach more people and means a lot to me.
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
So far im enjoying it. One question on the Phenomenon table...Entropy...does it mean to just reroll this table, which is how ive been running it, or is there something I missed in the rules?
I reread them once more before trying my third run. And it just dawned on me about the Reward column of the Aberration Table, I'm guessing that's what I would roll, since it says roll reward....I might be an idiot haha. Correct me if I'm wrong please. Either way fun game
Thank you so much for your feedback, it means a lot to me.
Each Aberration defeated grants a fixed reward. However, if Entropy occurs, the next reward is random (it must be rolled on a d6).
I hope I was able to help.
ok I understand it now. It's not a random extra reward, it overrides the reward of the Aberration. Thanks!
I found it amazing! A very immersive and challenging solo RPG. I had never experienced anything like it.
Thank you so much, that means a lot to me
Muchas Gracias por la Copia Comunitaria,agradezco enormemente al autor del juego,muchas gracias
Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy the game