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Jul. 4th, 2022 08:15 amI feel like I mostly spent yesterday playing Starforged (I did do other stuff, but it was boring), which was great. I have no real plans for today either, so there will likely be even more Starforged.
I talk about how much I love Ironsworn and Starforged a lot, I know, but I really want to gush in specific about two mechanical aspects of the games.
1) Both games are built on the Powered by the Apocalypse system, which gives you basically three possible outcomes when you roll: a strong hit, a weak hit, or a miss. My first rpg, like many of us, was D&D, where if you fail a roll, the thing you're trying to do doesn't happen. Like, you're looking for clues, you roll a 2 on Investigation, and you just don't find them. That makes sense as an outcome but gods, it's boring. Ironsworn and Starforged doesn't do that. If you roll a miss on the Gather Information move, you still learn something - it's just that what you learn is "a dire threat or unwelcome truth that undermines your quest". That's so much better, because it doesn't simply say "no" and lead to a dead end - it opens up something new. Even in the places where a miss does mean you don't succeed, the game is explicitly written to open up new possibilities, even if they're awful. The lack of dead ends because of failed rolls is great.
2) This one is Starforged specific - I love the way the game encourages and rewards making friends. In Ironsworn, the only way you earn XP is by completing quests. In Starforged, you still earn XP from quests, but you also earn XP from exploring, and from making friends. Further, in Ironsworn, a bond was a binary state - you meet an NPC, you decide you want to be friends, you make a single roll, and if you succeed you get a few mechanical bonuses interacting with than NPC. In Starforged, you meet an NPC, make an initial Connection roll, and then you start a progress track to becoming friends - you get XP if you fill the track and form a bond with them. Marking progress on that track requires interaction with than NPC in a variety of ways - sharing intense experiences, helping them out or them helping you, etc - so you have to continue to interact with them if you eventually want to get that XP. My playstyle already involves a lot of making friends with NPCs, but I love the way the game actively encourages and rewards that. I think Ironsworn is rad and I still play it rules-as-written, but every time I do I miss the way Starforged handles NPC relationships.
I talk about how much I love Ironsworn and Starforged a lot, I know, but I really want to gush in specific about two mechanical aspects of the games.
1) Both games are built on the Powered by the Apocalypse system, which gives you basically three possible outcomes when you roll: a strong hit, a weak hit, or a miss. My first rpg, like many of us, was D&D, where if you fail a roll, the thing you're trying to do doesn't happen. Like, you're looking for clues, you roll a 2 on Investigation, and you just don't find them. That makes sense as an outcome but gods, it's boring. Ironsworn and Starforged doesn't do that. If you roll a miss on the Gather Information move, you still learn something - it's just that what you learn is "a dire threat or unwelcome truth that undermines your quest". That's so much better, because it doesn't simply say "no" and lead to a dead end - it opens up something new. Even in the places where a miss does mean you don't succeed, the game is explicitly written to open up new possibilities, even if they're awful. The lack of dead ends because of failed rolls is great.
2) This one is Starforged specific - I love the way the game encourages and rewards making friends. In Ironsworn, the only way you earn XP is by completing quests. In Starforged, you still earn XP from quests, but you also earn XP from exploring, and from making friends. Further, in Ironsworn, a bond was a binary state - you meet an NPC, you decide you want to be friends, you make a single roll, and if you succeed you get a few mechanical bonuses interacting with than NPC. In Starforged, you meet an NPC, make an initial Connection roll, and then you start a progress track to becoming friends - you get XP if you fill the track and form a bond with them. Marking progress on that track requires interaction with than NPC in a variety of ways - sharing intense experiences, helping them out or them helping you, etc - so you have to continue to interact with them if you eventually want to get that XP. My playstyle already involves a lot of making friends with NPCs, but I love the way the game actively encourages and rewards that. I think Ironsworn is rad and I still play it rules-as-written, but every time I do I miss the way Starforged handles NPC relationships.
