I took a day off*, and now I'm ready to get started making my character for Ironsworn: Starforged.
*I still agonized over potential Paths for a bit.
When I'm playing TTRPGs in groups I usually have an easy time making characters. But making a character for a solo game is so much more pressure! I'm basically flagging interests and setting the shape of this story all by myself! Ahh!
I'd better roll on the character inspiration table to calm me down.
Character Inspiration Roll: 70 - Prophet
Interesting! Seer is cool because it lets you roll for a prophetic vision, then take a Strong Hit (a full success) on a move if a situation "gives truth" to that vision. The other suggested Path for Prophet, Devotant, isn't doing much for me though.
I did a few more rolls and nothing really hit me, but one Path has stood since I was shuffling through asset cards last night: Navigator. Paired with Seer, it makes for a former Consultant who now uses their ability to see trends and predict outcomes to plot journeys through dangerous space. Not an Ace --- they aren't an especially gifted pilot --- just someone who is very good at flight plans.
Backstory
So that's the first two steps done. The next step is to create a backstory. Why did my character choose the life of a traveling Ironsworn? Let's Minority Report it and say they saw something in one of their Consultant visions that their employer really, really wished they hadn't.
Killing off my character wouldn't have been enough, since they'd already submitted the report. The only way to sufficiently strike it from the record was to sign an NDA (there is absolutely some Weird Forge stuff happening around contracts, I have decided), pay my character their severance, and lock the door behind them.
Background Vow
Oh this one is usually super hard to come up with! Haha niiice:
"I will break NDA."
This Iron Vow covers the practical steps needed to even make breaking an NDA possible. It also covers the legwork needed to make breaking that NDA have a deeper impact than personal catharsis.
Starship
How'd my character get this ship? By trading in options from their suspiciously generous severance package. I think this thing is an executive corvette. Your typical spacer looks at this model and instantly thinks there's a C-Suite nepo baby lounging in the cabin.
For a little more character, I rolled on the "quirks" table and got 57: patched hull covers a recent catastrophic breach.
A ship this expensive-looking attracted the wrong kind of attention, and some pirates made off with it. Turns out that troubling vision of a single shot to a flawed conduit blowing a hole in the cockpit and spacing the occupants was actually pretty helpful. Good thing we ignored that recall notice!
I rolled a 33 on the Starship Name table: Guiding Star. Feels appropriate enough.
Last Asset
OK, first we need to pick one more Asset. This would ordinarily be hard... but I want my character to have someone to talk to, and our AI Truth established that robots don't make great conversation partners around here. So I'm taking a Sidekick!
Sidekicks let me reroll results lower than their health value for moves related to their expertise. Their two upgrades let them help in other situations, but at least starting out expertise is the big choice. Hmmm. It'd be easy to go too broad or too narrow with this one. I don't want to be leaning on them constantly but I also want them to get a good amount of play.
Let's not overthink things, we can always tweak it later: Extravehicular Activities. Name roll of 33: Brianna Keelan, AKA "Buzzard" (she/her). Sounds right!
Stats
As for stats, we have a nice and simple standard array to assign out. No negative values, unlike many PBTA-ish games. But since getting a hit means you have to exceed (not meet, exceed) the value of at least one D10 by rolling a D6 and adding a stat, those 1s still feel weak.
Let's go with:
- Edge 1: quickness, agility, and prowess when fighting at a distance.
- Heart 3: courage, willpower, empathy, sociability, and loyalty.
- Iron 1: physical strength, endurance, aggressiveness, and prowess when fighting at close quarters.
- Shadow 2: sneakiness, deceptiveness, and cunning.
- Wits 2: expertise, knowledge, and observation.
Should Wits be 3? I like the idea that what a Consultant does cannot be summed up as "be weirdly smart." Shadow seems just as important for the purposes of making cunning plans, too. And a big Background Vow like that will take a lot of Heart to see through.
I'm leaving both the "fighting" moves at 1! Cue David Byrne saying "Uh oh!" as he's mugged by 14 people SFX. At least Buzzard may be willing to help out in a fight if she gets some upgrades.
Final Details
I could challenge myself to get really in depth with this physical description, but this post is already super long and I almost never do that with characters anyway. I rolled 93 "Wiry" for "First Look," and that feels appropriate.
On the job, they wear the grey-and-gold pressure suit that came with (and matches) the ship. Off the job they wear the Forge equivalent of low-key athleisure picked to accent their rotating selection of sneakers. The black iron totem they swear vows upon is a length of braided cabling, pilfered from their dismantled Consultancy Terminal. They usually wear it coiled around their wrist like a bracelet. And since I've been using they/them pronouns this whole time, might as well stick with 'em.
They seem friendly with a sort of nervous resolve. Their name is Adne Carse.