Look what came in this week! This is where my time has been going for the last several days... (aside from doing a bunch of pre-release stuff for my track that's coming out next week)
What is Starforged? It's a spacefaring tabletop RPG from the same folks who did Ironsworn, where you take on perilous quests, swear vows, see them fulfilled, and chart new lands! It can be played with or without a GM. I have only played this GM-less, though in my experience that primarily works well with smaller tables of 4 or fewer since this puts all of the work on the players to both create the world and role play out the story at the same time. Some level of TTRPG experience is probably required to really get the most out of this game in a GM-less setting.
I played a lot of Ironsworn last year, and I have to say that Starforged is an incredibly polished version of Ironsworn. It's what I wanted Ironsworn to be. And I already loved Ironsworn. If you're a fan of the Powered by the Apocalypse system or other similar moves-based/rules-light systems, this is a game for you.
Anyway here's my favorite things:
GM-less play! My wife and I are both GMs, and this means we can never actually be in a party together because one of us is always the GM. Buuut with Starforged, we can finally play together!
Action-packed is the default state. The game mechanics are built to amp things up. The system operates on the concept of strong successes, partial successes, and misses. I love this because it keeps the narrative interesting, but it also makes rolling scary as hell because you're more likely to stumble into a complication than you are to succeed without a hitch. But hey, sometimes getting waylaid by the bad guy's goons right before departing on an expedition means that you end up accidentally stealing their skiff, and now you have a new ship. It's bursty and it's fuuun ๐
Experience can be gained through discoveries and connections. This is definitely an improvement upon the original Ironsworn, which was a bit more dependent on fulfilling vows and combat encounters. In Starforged, you gain exp by making discoveries, fulfilling quests (vows), and making connections with people. There are also new combat moves that don't just involve punchy punchy times, and you can still progress a fight by doing non-combat things. For example, we had an entire encounter where one character bluffed her way out of a hostage situation while my character took out a bunch of goons, and hopping between the social situation and fighting was seamless.
Loosey goosey, narrative-driven mechanics! I am constantly on a quest to fight in weird ways and solve problems with crafty or serendipitous plans in my TTRPGs. Why have a hack and slash sword fight when you can Jackie Chan your way out of a situation? Why fight impossible battles when you can accidentally discover some ancient machinery's weak point? This is certainly possible in many systems, but there are some TTRPGs that make this their whole jam, and Starforged definitely falls into that category. Not to say I don't like a good ol' fashioned brawl, but sometimes I just want to have the option to switch it up!
Okay I could go on but I'm going to stop myself here. Time to continue the campaign~!
