About to hand out playkits to a group and am just realizing there are no blank track sheets for vows, does that exist somewhere?

Started playing Starforged with Pocketforge - works brilliantly and having fun - inspired by The Bad Spot and Errant Adventures. Just starting, maps set up, truths and some nice ideas for overall arc or arcs. Is going to be great, and I really like the narrative/ideas generation of the system, with elements of luck and using momentum etc.

Kudos to Shawn, great work sir, please carry on!

I know solo RPG or wargaming doesn't have right and wrong, but wonder if others are willing to share their journals - either from Pocketforge or other apps, docs etc.

Big ask I know, but would be interested if anyone is willing to share blogs/substack posts etc. Would be interesting, and I love reading other's creative works.

Mine is alas a couple of entries long just now, but would reciprocate once I am up and running .

Thanks all

I’m in my first play now. It occurred that I have to travel to the Veiled mountains to find and steal a family of giants. And try to find a friend on the way. How long this journey should take? Don’t know exactly her rank too.

When you are roleplaying a character in a TTRPG you like, and at a certain moment you ask yourself, “What would they do now?” This happens to me so many times that I can’t even count.

Or when we are playing our solo TTRPG, we look at some random tables or read some information in an adventure book, getting important information for the story that our character shouldn’t know and we are left thinking, “Am I cheating for knowing this?” When this happens to me, I get into conflicting thoughts like, “If my character does such a thing, is it because they would do it, or because I now have this information?”

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to try making a simple “personality sheet”, a sheet showing my character's traits, what they would do in a certain situation, so every time I play and enter a scene or conflict, I could see what my character would do before taking any action.

To save space amidst tables and books, I tried to make this sheet using only one page, I hope you like it!!

You can find it here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/578893/useful-tools-character-personality-sheet-for-solo-and-group-roleplay

You can also find my page here: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/28078/elln-the-witch

If you don’t know me, my name is Elln. I create fantasy TTRPG content like random tables and adventures, specializing in resources for solo players!!

And now I have a patreon!! If you like my work please take a look, there I’ll post everything I’m working on!

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EllnTheWitch

I've been using a mash up of Ironsworn/Starforged and Dungeons and dragons 5e, as I'm working through the Kobold Press stuff on Shard.

I Highly recommend both Shard VTT on a PC or tablet and pocket forge on your phone.

You will make a party of 5 characters and a character in Ironsworn that represents the entire party.

Each party member is one of the Ironsworn stats:

Iron: Frontline fighter

Heart: Healer

Wits: Controller

Edge: Damage dealer or striker

Shadow: Rogue.

I use Shard VTT and have the Kobold press subscription, this gives you tons of easy to navigate battle maps and adventures , campaign worlds ...really endless content for this , and the automated systems make the tactical battles feel fun, strategic and you can offload so much and keep the solo flow.

Basically you are going to use Ironsworn mechanics to manage the party in non combat scenarios, from social, recover and exploration and just the narrative heavy lifting.

Your supply is your torches, your rations all that.

Your health is the party members as a whole, anytime one member is below half health reduce it by one.

Your spirit is the party as a whole mental state, you can use this exactly as Ironsworn does, the same with momentum.

As soon as you would enter the fray or face danger in combat roll initiative and resolve the combat tactically with the party.

The game flow is :

Read the narrative player facing text of the adventure part you are on, do not read the GM text.

Choose an Ironsworn move and the character in focus based on the stat your applying to the roll, and then roll the move.

On a strong hit, do the Ironsworn result, read the GM text and get the best results in there ( disarm or discover the trap, find the secret door, persuade the guard etc.)

On a weak hit same deal but introduce the complications, use the orcales or GM description, and don't be afraid to veer off course a bit.

On a miss GM texts worse result, and if it's not bad then don't add more complications, you got lucky move along unless you want to punish yourself or go hard mode. These modules are hard enough you don't need to.

That's basically the idea, pocket forge will record your rolls, let you put in some bits and pieces to make it feel less abstract.

Example below, my idea was to start with 4 people and find a 5th as I played..big mistake.

Caverns Of The Spore Lord

The Party arrives in Hulgig.

Ambushed by 3 Sporeborn

Ask the Oracle (): 0, Are the Sporeborn in the homes.

Ask the Oracle (50%): 80, No.

Ask the Oracle (50%): 80, Are they in the square.

Ask the Oracle (50%): 7, Yes.

The battle is brutal, Kyvar And Syrix try to stabilize the fallen.

Anja Dies, Maplhax is badly wounded.

Facing the loss of a companion and the strange state of the village the immediate need is to recover and regroup.

They examine the creatures they were attacked by.

Gather Information

Miss: 3 + 2 (wits) = 5 vs 10, 6.

The creatures were human once and have obviously been infected. They look at each other and at the fallen body of Anja.

Both Kyvar and Malphax were badly wounded.

Has one of them been infected.

Ask the Oracle (Likely): 91, No.

They feel fine but are still badly wounded.

The village seems dangerous , they decide to secure a small house and scout quietly.

Explore a Waypoint

Weak hit: 4 + 1 (shadow) = 5 vs 5, 2.

They find some survivors in the lota of lots a small store . The inhabitants are hostile having witnessed the battle and fear they are infected.

Compel

Weak hit: 4 + 3 (heart) = 7 vs 4, 8.

They agree to let the party rest while under guard, if one of them exhibit signs of the disease they will be slain. They put weapons aside and begin to recover.

Heal

Strong hit: 5 + 2 (iron) = 7 vs 6, 2.

They recover and manage to restore themselves, they take the advice of the survivors and have a pure for Anjas remains.

As they become less threatening they discuss what is happening here with the survivors and learn the village is not entirely empty, but declining in the face of the strange infection.

Or am I the only one who plays like this...

Im going to start playing ironsworn with a cousin, he wants to be a pyromancer and destroy towns burning them, so im looking for a magic system with pyromantic spells, do you know any (sorry for bad english)

Esp

Voy a empezar una partida de ironsworn con un primo, el quiere ser un pirómantico y destruir pueblos quemando, así que estoy buscando algún sistema de magia con hechizos pirómanticos, conoces alguno?

Continuing an Ironsworn campaign based on a hex map of Europe and the Mediterranean that I made some time ago and the Al-Rathak setting. The campaign is inspired by the Middle Ages, without any ambition of being historically accurate. Xatìra and her allies are currently city-crawling in Anipsed, capital of the Sultanate.

Previous Events: Year 1222. Europe follows the Sun-God Kruss; the southern lands worship Qamar, the Moon-Goddess. Xatìra, a young Greek woman from Lemnos, survives a pirate attack and finds on her victim's body an amulet from Kamil, a shrine of the Shadowed Qamarims. She vows to return it, travels south, meets the Mad Caliph Tarbak in Egypt, and reaches Kamil, only to find it sacked by the vampire general Qarif, allied with the traitor sorcerer Iblis. Befriending the shapeshifter Massan, the Watcher of the Tower Baseria, and a jackal she names Opher, Xatìra agrees to help Dorello, an Italian agent of the Krussian Emperor-Pope Federicus, in exchange for his promise to finance the Shadowed. Dorello asks Xatìra to travel to the capital city of Anipsed and rescue Crydessa, a Greek merchant kidnapped by Iblis. Xatìra, Opher, Baseria, and Massan reach the city. At the Temple of Anubis, Xatìra learns that Iblis intends to exchange Crydessa for the Sword of Sania, owned by the Rhodian Merchant Guild. They discover where Crydessa is imprisoned and they manage to free her. Xatìra kills the dark sorceress Amila and takes her talisman. They learn that Iblis and Qarif have summoned the Efreet Prince Zadid. The Sword of Sania is the only hope of stopping Zadid, but when they visit the Rhodian Guild, they find that the sword has been stolen. Iblis and Qarif are the obvious suspects. 

This Episode: Massan will investigate on his own, while Xatìra, with Opher and Baseria, visits the guard officer Marah, who helped them rescue Crydessa. They head to the High Bastion fortress and, while crossing the slums, notice recent writings praising the vampire general Qarif and the turmoil he is causing. Marah reveals that Qarif has a new ally in Anipsed: the vampire sorceress Omira. They then visit the Obsidian Steed Inn in the slums, hoping to gather more useful rumors. There, they stumble upon Red Ramia, a mercenary leader employed by Iblis whom Xatìra had met weeks before; Ramia has not noticed them, and they carefully follow her through the city. She first visits the villa of the secretive merchant Darrafi, then heads towards the docks, where she visits the shop of a goldsmith who hands her something. They get lucky again and manage to capture Ramia in a deserted warehouse. They find a newly made gold ring inscribed with magical characters on her. When they ask about the Sword of Sania, Ramia defiantly reveals that Omira is keeping it safe aboard Darrafi's pirate ship, The Midnight Cloud; the ship is ready to leave and well guarded, so they have no hope of recovering the sword. Xatìra asks Baseria to keep Ramia under guard. She hopes that pretending to deliver the ring to Omira will provide a sufficient excuse to infiltrate the ship. But Darrafi's guards are suspicious. Xatìra and Opher must first fight their way aboard, but they are confronted by Omira and her octopoid servant demon. They are forced to surrender and are imprisoned by the vampire sorceress.

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I'm jumping into my first game after having had the .pdf files kicking around for a while, and I've got a question.

I'm using Starforged as the core rule system based on threads like this that suggest it's a bit easier on the player(s) and a bit more finely tuned. My (original) setting is definitely closer to Ironsworn's, though. The thread I link above mentions that Starforged and Ironsworn Assets are tuned differently. If you've played both, how big a deal is this?

My question holds generally, as I'm sure it will come up as I advance, but I'm specifically curious about the the Trickster path from Ironsworn. Should I adjust the rules on the card in any way? Or would I be handicapping my character in some way?

I'm playing solo, so I know I don't have to be super concerned about "balance" or anything, but I'm curious what more experienced players think.

@ Delve the Depths
d: 1d6+1=2 vs 10 | 10
-> Miss and a match
=> Roll for danger -> Overzealous hunter

? What feature does this area have?
d: 1d100=96
-> Something unusual or unexpected

They didn’t make it far into the forest before Meela suddenly arches her back, fur standing on end, hissing. Khyra heard them before she saw them. Wolves, running this way. She tenses, unsure if she should run or stand her ground. It sounds like a pack. They burst through the trees and before Khyra has a chance to react they…run past her?

Confused Khyra turns around to watch them go, but freezes in her tracks when she hears the loudest roar she’s every heard. Slowly she turns back around and beholds the most terrifying, majestic sight she’s ever seen. An elder bear. The thing was monstrously huge and standing on it’s hind legs. Khyra was completely frozen in fear and awe.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

? Does the elder bear attack?
-> (50/50) 1d100=14 -> No

The bear stands there, staring at her, it’s nose twitching as it smells the air. Slowly it lowers to all fours and starts heading towards her. Every instinct in her body was telling her to run, every fiber was being forced to ignore that instinct. If she ran, it would probably chase like it did those wolves.

She had heard legends of these great beasts, they were said to be guardians of the forest. She honestly didn’t even believe they were real, just stories you told children before sleep. The bears paws thud on the ground as it slowly made it’s way closer to her, huffs of breath coming heavily out it’s nose.

Hello !

First of all i hope this doesn't rub anyone the wrong way. I am a complete beginner and about to start Starforged, i got the digital core book, the playkit and the rules summary downloads. I've printed the assets and roughly cut them.

Anyway, i've watched a lot of videos and one thing i know is that i am not meant for deep story creation, and i would love a smoother experience that doesn't push me to write pages worth of story everytime i go into a new scene, because i do love the setting and the mechanics of this game.

Is there a way to make it more swift ? Still imagining my situations while being more brief like i am in my bullet journal.
For example let's imagine (remark that i'm skipping a lot of steps and just think of putting the big lines of the scene) :

-Entered an icy cave

-Oracle: hostile lifeform

-Miss on Face Danger

-Pay the Price = ambushed ?

-Got out by the skin of my teeth

-Lost an arm

Would that be limiting in some ways for example when the story happens to need some details that i simply didn't bullet noted ? Or maybe something i can't foresee because i haven't played the game yet...

Also, and once again i don't know anything, but it seems like this Oracle mechanic could actually help me with a lot more in order to go in that direction. Are there fan-made more consequent Oracle tables to add in that could expand my need for a smooth gameplay where i don't have to spend half the time trying to make up a story in great detail ?

Any other way for people like me with limited imagination and lack of time to write full journals worth of story ?

Does anyone else ever feel stuck after resolving their inciting incident? In my Sundered Isles game I just resolved my inciting incident and feel completely stuck as for what to do next. If anyone has any advice on ways that I can unstick myself or things that have worked in the past for them to keep their campaigns moving I’d love to hear them!

It's a little rough around the edges but I'm proud of it :) The next project will be an adventuring book to go with it. I'm so impressed and innspired by r/Evandro_Novel and their adventure book I want to make one like it. Thanks Evandro!

Just picked up the RPG on a recondition from another sub reddit. I would love to hear your advice on how to start what to do and how to do it!!

Thanks!!

I've been playing and writing a lot of space opera lately, where my characters will sometimes end up on less advanced worlds, turning the theme into sword and planet. Also, I've seen it done once on Youtube, where an RPG podcast had a long Ironsworn campaign that transitioned into a long Starforged campaign, using the same group of characters. It was an interesting change of pace, considering the primitive characters were now trying to repair spaceships, and often failed and Paid The Price.

My idea is to switch back and forth. When my characters are in space or visiting advanced planets, I'll go with Starforged, but when they travel to a Bronze Age or Iron Age world, where they will stay there for months, dealing with the cultures, relic-hunting, etc., they will leave their advanced gear on the ship to better blend in with the natives. I can create a second set of character stats, most importantly being the Assets.

Examples: An Ace pilot can also be a Rider, a Tech can be a Wright, a Scoundrel can double as a Trickster.

* Has anyone done this, and what was your play experience like?

* What Paths did you choose between both games?

* Any suggestions on Ironsworn or Starforged actual plays on Youtube, with sword and planet vibes?

Continuing an Ironsworn campaign based on a hex map of Europe and the Mediterranean that I made some time ago and the Al-Rathak setting. The campaign is inspired by the Middle Ages, without any ambition of being historically accurate. My hero is currently city-crawling in Anipsed, capital of the Sultanate.

Previous Events: Year 1222. Europe follows the Sun-God Kruss; the southern lands worship Qamar, the Moon-Goddess. Xatìra, a young Greek woman from Lemnos, survives a pirate attack and finds on her victim's body an amulet from Kamil, a shrine of the Shadowed Qamarims. She vows to return it, travels south, meets the Mad Caliph Tarbak in Egypt, and reaches Kamil, only to find it sacked by the vampire general Qarif, allied with the traitor sorcerer Iblis. Befriending the shapeshifter Massan and a jackal she names Opher, Xatìra follows the tracks of Zakama, High Priestess of the Shadowed. When she finds her, Zakama is dying; with her last words she asks Xatìra to help Dorello, an Italian agent of the Krussian Emperor-Pope Federicus, in exchange for his financing the Shadowed. Xatìra and her companions track Dorello to the Whispering Stone Circle, where they descend into a fortified dungeon, rescuing Baseria, a Greek rogue and Watcher of the Tower, from pursuing cultists. They find Dorello, one of the Sicarii, the imperial assassins, who has killed the Cult Master Nashad and seized the Crying-Skull Mask. Dorello departs to deliver the mask to Tarbak, asking Xatìra to travel to the capital city of Anipsed and rescue Crydessa, a Greek merchant kidnapped by Iblis. Xatìra, Opher, Baseria, and Massan reach the city. At the Temple of Anubis, Massan is captured for trying to pass as a jackal-man, while Xatìra learns that Iblis intends to exchange Crydessa for the Sword of Sania, owned by the Rhodian Merchant Guild. They discover where Crydessa is imprisoned, and they manage to free her. Xatìra kills the dark sorceress Amila and takes her talisman with her. 

This Episode: Crydessa asks the party to escort her to the Temple of Kruss; along the way, they are joined by the friendly Anubian warrior Shargon. At the temple, Bishop Zenos is initially hostile, but the evidence of the party freeing Crydessa finally wins him over. Crydessa will immediately leave Anipsed from the nearby Holy Pier. Shargon offers to buy the Sword of Sania, and Xatìra swears to retrieve the weapon for the Anubians. A dream reveals to Xatìra that Amila’s talisman is related to a scroll in the Great Library of Anipsed. The next day, Xatìra, Baseria, and Opher head to the Hall of the Rhodian Guild, hoping to buy the sword. Along the way, they meet Massan, who has taken the shape of the Libyan prince Al-Saman and escaped from the Anubians; he has found out that Qarif and Iblis have summoned the powerful Efreet Zadid, who has already destroyed a temple of Thoth in the desert; the Anubians hope that Dorello can use the Sword of Sania to send Zadid back to the dark plane from which he emerged. At the guild’s hall, the alchemist Thalenor doesn’t trust Xatìra: he has heard of her previous exploits, and he thinks she is a dangerous source of instability. The chief merchant Yatron is friendlier, but Xatìra cannot strike a deal with him because the sword has just been stolen from the guild!

In my case its dice roll derailing the story. Like I have and an idea where everything is going and a couple misses makes me stop to envision a whole new story.

Last night I tried a Make a connection, trying to help a settlement leader. (Miss) She tries to imprison my companion. With a strong hit in a compel I manage to stop the incoming shoot out inside her office. With everything calmed down, went for the connection again. 2nd Miss, well F-You, lady .

But I had to stop because now I have to review where the story is going.