Today, we’re going to continue to build up our Starforged playtesting scenario. We have our Truths that define the broad stokes of the setting and now we need a main character.
I prefer to play SciFi roleplaying games (particularly solo ones) with a “crew” in whatever form this takes. I’m a huge fan of Zozer’s SOLO and one aspect that game taught to me appreciate is the interpersonal relationships of the crew and how those can ground the fantastic nature of SciFi stories to something more personal. In the past I’ve found that solo Ironsworn works best if you “run” a single character and allow other members of the party to be either an Irosnworn Asset or just flavorful NPCs that enable the fiction. Given all that I will create a single characer for now whom will often be the main focus of the fiction but there will be other crew members who will help carry the story forward. I’ll get to those later.
To help me get started I’m going to work off the Character Primer worksheet that is part of the playtest materials:
Board your ship: We are to take the “Starship Vehicle” Command Vehicle Asset and give it a name. The starship name oracles are not ready yet for the playtest so I will use another random table of names I have laying around which gives me the name “Long Odds.” Possibly the most fitting name for a vehicle asset in an Ironsworn game you could imagine. I set the health status tracker for this assset to +5. The first ability on the asset has been chosen for us:
“Your armed, multipurpose starship is suited for interstellar and atmospheric flight. It can comfortably transport several people, has space for cargo, and can carry and launch support vehicles. When you Advance, you may spend experience to equip this vehicle with module assets.”
There’s a lot of fictional positioning established here already and it feels immediately useful without any upgrades which is nice.- Choose three assets: I feel like I need to resolve some bits from the Truths experience first. The Truths document hinted that I might want to take the FUGITIVE and SCAVENGER assets. Well FUGITIVE doesn’t exist right now but SCAVENGER does so I’ll grab that. GEARHEAD looks appealing, particularly with someone who likes scavenging. I contemplated quite a few assets for my last one but I think HOVERBIKE makes the most sense for the type of work the character is doing.
- Create a connection:
- Name: Endus Olen
- Role: Supplier (Resupply)
- Looks: Ill-equipped, Tattooed, and Aged
- Disposition: Friendly
- Goals: Claim a resource
- Aspects: Critical, Addicted, and Suspicious
- Location: I assume they are located on the planet I have historically operated out of but have been very recently exilted from.
- Set your stats: Edge 3, Heart 4, Iron 3, Shadow 2, Wits 2
- Ok, here’s where I’m going to differ from rules-as-written. I’ve been using the “challenging” stat array from the Ironsworn Lodestar for a long time and I just prefer the flavor of it.
- Set your status trackers: No surprises here.
- Envision your character:
- Name: Hapi
- Looks: Unkempt and Weathered
- Goals: Refute a falsehood and Secure a resource
- Aspects: Technical, Resourceful, Cautious
I imagine that Hapi’s character will evolve as we get to know them (and they get to know themselves and their place in the story) better. I have a simplistic understanding of where they are coming from but almost no idea where they are going to. I gave them two goals to start, clearing their name of a crime they’ve been accused of (from the Truths exercise) and securing resources for their livelihood. This feels straightforward and I think I’m ready to begin play next.