There’s a sense of romance in every pirate tale. From classics like The Black Swan to modern franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean, there’s nothing like the spectacle of two ships blasting away with broadsides before clashing together in an epic swashbuckling melee. Dungeons & Dragons has tapped into this feeling a few times, with everything from Spelljammer to the Ghosts of Saltmarsh campaign book.
Fans of nautical adventure games will want to check out Ironsworn: Starforged Sundered Isles. It’s currently on Kickstarter with the goal of adapting the gameplay of Ironsworn: Starforged to nautical adventures. The best part about the game is that it offers all the fun of a role-playing game without the need for a Game Master.
Ironsworn is a fantasy role-playing game that puts players in a dark fantasy world on their own. The game is built to play against an oracle which tells players how to interpret their dice rolls and continue to tell the story. Finding a Dungeon Master can be one of the biggest barriers to roleplaying.
In 2022, designer Shawn Tomkin released Ironsword: Starforged which adapted the game to science fiction stories. Instead of a lone hero in a land full of monsters, players of Starforged are part of the crew for a banged-up ship in the strange frontier of space. They can choose to make their way as explorers, colonists, and, of course, space pirates.
The game is made up of several moves. As the player tells their story, they pause when they trigger a move. Usually, this is a moment when the story can move in different directions, like making a dangerous maneuver or attacking an enemy.
The player rolls a six-sided die and two ten-sided dice. The six-sided die and the character’s trait are compared to the numbers on the ten-sided dice. If the player's roll is higher than both, they succeed easily. If either of the ten dice is higher, the success comes with a cost of complication. If both are higher, the move is a failure. This is where the oracle comes into play.
Oracles provide writing prompts that keep the narrative going. Perhaps the maneuver is successful but the ship damages some component that needs to be fixed later. These charts are also useful for when the player is stumped on where the story goes next.
The oracles allow for solo play, but each game contains multiple game modes. Guided play reflects more traditional RPG play with a Game Master and other players. Co-op play allows all players to face the oracle and turns the story into more of a writer’s room.
The main book adapts Starforged to an Age of Sail setting. It includes new moves, tables, and advice on how to build a nautical fantasy setting. The book also includes several random tables that can be used with other pirate role-playing games to inspire enemies, allies, encounters, and ships.
Backers also receive an asset deck which features all the character elements that a player can use to customize their experience. Each one has moves that affect the narrative. These assets also include important parts of the ship.
Ironsworn: Starforged Sundered Isles is on Kickstarter until April 4th, 2024. Digital products are expected in April 2024. Print products are expected in November 2024.
