Ironsworn: Starforged Review: A Solo Game of Epic Adventures and Stories
Starforged, by Shawn Tomkin, is in my opinion the best expression of solo RPG design and play in existence. Go out and buy it if you don’t have it yet. Stop reading and do it! Review over, everyone can go home!
Ok, if you want to read more I’m more than happy to go into my love of Starforged.
For those of you new to Solo RPGs, Starforged is the second game using the Ironsworn engine (can we call it that?), which aims to take you on an amazing adventure across a lonely and hostile galaxy teeming with interesting planets, anomalies, factions, and NPCs. The box setting for Starforged takes place in a different galaxy where the remnants of humanity ran from a cataclysm. The humans of The Forge, as the galaxy is known, are rebuilding human society, with one eye always on their ancestral galaxy and the threat that drove them here.
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| Where will your adventures take you? Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash |
What is that threat? What was the cataclysm? How did the humans show up in The Forge? Are there spirits inhabiting derelict spaceships? Why is iron important to the people of The Forge? These are all questions you, as the player, create answers to as you create your character and the galaxy.
At its core, Starforged is a narrative game. It has tools, structures, oracles, and moves all designed to build a story and drive that story into interesting and creative places. There are tools for NPC creations, starship creation, world creation, sector creation, and more.
What do you need to play?
There are a variety of ways to play Starforged but I’ll cover some of the more common ways and what you’ll need for each of them.
Pencil and Paper: If you want to play in a traditional way, without any technology at all, you can certainly do that. You’ll need the physical book, character sheets, markers for your stats and momentum, a way to record your adventure such as a journal, and a couple of D10s and a D6.
It’s a pretty easy setup and it will allow you to play for hundreds of hours. The only downside is that unless you kickstarted the game and are waiting for your books in the mail, you probably aren’t getting the physical book right now. Luckily Shawn signed a deal with Modiphius so expect books to start showing up for retail in 2023!
You can use asset cards and other tools to help your physical play go a bit smoother.
Electronic Journal: This is how I play. Use an online writing program to record your adventure and use a character keeper of some sort. I can’t recommend Stargazer enough for being a one-stop shop for everything. It has move references, assets, space for adding factions, tracking your space travel, and more.
Playing this way all you need is a PDF copy of the book which you can pick up today. Stargazer even has built-in dice rollers, so you don’t even need physical dice, but I love rolling physical dice still!
You could also use a spreadsheet to track stats or any other number of tools.
Virtual Table Top: There are Starforged modules on Foundry and Roll20 if you like a bit more features and using the power of a VTT to play Starforged. For this, you’ll need a PDF copy of Starforged and whatever license your preferred VTT needs (some are free and some are paid).
All in all, the level of entry is still low compared to other traditional RPGs, but it isn’t as simple as some journaling games I’ve played. Which is fine, I expect to play a Starforged campaign for months, so the bit of extra work setting up a way to play is worth the investment.
Design and Feel
For being such a large core book (nearly 400 pages) it doesn’t feel like it. I only have the digital copy, so I can’t speak for the physical feel of the book (maybe one day!), but the PDF is laid out nearly perfectly, with everything hyperlinked and bookmarked. It makes finding the one rule you need easy. Assets are broken out into separate files, which I’m happy with even though I know it annoys some people.
The book chapters are logically organised and clear. For example, there is never a question about what is in the Adventure Moves chapter, it says it right on the tin. It even has graphics depicting a dice roll, telling you what it means and if it is a success.
The art direction is great. Joshua Meehan, the lead artist, and art director, did a fantastic job creating pieces that convey the wonderful but gritty realism of the setting.
Character and Setting Creation
Normally this is where I speak about character creation but Starforged has you creating much more than just your character. You create your character, the history of your Forge, the planet you start on, and the sector you are going to travel to.
And it’s not a chore to create it all. It isn’t a slog of charts and oracles, it is all very smooth. And when you’ve finished it, you have created a setting, character, and factions that are unique to you and your character.
Actual character creation in Starforged is simple enough, pick stats, biographical information, and assets, and you are ready to go.
You also get to create your spaceship, which is amazing. Characters in Starforged always start with a personal starship with its own characteristics and quirks.
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| Create beautiful and interesting worlds. Photo by John Fowler on Unsplash |
How it Plays
Gameplay in Starforged is broken into a cycle described as Fiction - Moves - Fiction. Typically you come up with fiction in whatever you like to record it (voice, video, long-form, short-form writing, or bullet points), and then a move is triggered where you roll dice.
This will lead to success, success with complications, or just complications and maybe suffering for your character. Then you will create fiction that will play out those complications.
Moves are made by rolling two challenge dice (D10s) and an action dice (a D6) and adding any modifiers from skills or assets or anything else to that action dice. If your action score is higher than both D10s, it's a strong hit and you are successful. If it's higher than just one, it's a weak hit and you have success but a complication happens. If your action score is below both challenge dice, it is a miss and you have consequences to deal with.
Moves will tell you what to do next, whether you get advantages, disadvantages, lose stats, or anything else.
The whole cycle contributes to an effective system in driving the story forward and always keeping the pressure up on your character. Things are never stale in Starforged.
If you want to get a better feel for how Starforged plays, check out one of the many great Actual Plays out there. Season 1 of Errant Adventures is good. You can also check out Rebel Sworn, my Star Wars-inspired campaign.
How it Ends
Does a Starforged campaign have to end? It doesn't! But there are a few ways you could satisfyingly finish a campaign.
You can accomplish your background vow. A background vow is a quest you create when you make your character. Normally it's an epic quest like ‘Take revenge on the Empire for killing my family’’. They can take hours and hours of playtime to accomplish and would involve dozens of smaller vows to complete.
Your character could retire or be horrifically injured. Naturally, this is sad but a cool mechanic allows you to bring another character in to restart the adventure.
Or you could find a good place to set the campaign down and come back to it in the future.
It's all up to you.
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| Not all Ironsworn will make it. Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash |
Should I Buy this Game and Who is it for?
As I say in my reviews, there are thousands of RPGs you could play solo, so should you take time out of your busy day to play this?
Of course! This is easily the best solo game out there, without a doubt! Go and buy it now. I’ve played 100s of hours of Starforged and I’ll play 100s of hours more. I can’t think of a time when I’d stop playing Starforged, maybe if Shawn does a second edition. Then I’ll play that edition for hours and hours.
Do you like sci-fi and sci-fi franchises like Star Wars, Firefly, or Aliens? This is the game for you. Play it as an epic space opera and save the galaxy from an evil empire. Or play as a desperate salvage operator, just trying to keep the lights on. Or throw space horrors into your game and hope your character can run fast.
Do you like to create the universe you are playing in? This is your game. Starforged has many tools for creating the universe you are playing in. Build the galaxy with the history you want or something random. Build each sector, each planet, and each settlement if you want.
Do you like narrative-focused games? Starforged is a narrative machine. Each story arc feels epic. Each mission spirals into drama. Each session you play is exciting and it will leave you wanting to find out what happens next.
Do you like games where you can forge alliances and make friends? Starforged has rules for creating bonds with NPCs and having them help you. Collect a ragtag assortment of allies to take down the evil empire.
There are many more reasons to buy and play Starforged. I could write about it for hours. I can’t recommend it enough, as Shawn Tomkin has made something special with Ironsworn: Starforged.
Buy Starforged at Drive Tru RPG.
Or the new Get Starforged website.
Want the physical book but didn’t get in on the Kickstarter? Don’t fear. Sometime in 2023, the physical books will be available via Modiphius.
Thank you for reading fellow Ironsworn and good luck out there in the Forge.
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Starforged: Ironsworn
- Croaker
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