Ironsworn : Starforged Solo / Coop RPG Review

Today we discuss and walkthrough the solo/coop role playing system "Ironsworn: STARFORGED". This definitely took me by surprise. It is hard to imagine to many ways in which I could be more happy with this system.
Adventures in Solitaire Game Group: / 442911800922930
Hey! If you enjoy my content and are able /willing to contribute to my channel, please feel free to
tip through PayPal at paypal.me/AdventuresInSol
These funds enable me to produce content where finances may not allow otherwise.
But...please know that I will continue to produce content regardless, as this is a labor of love.
Thank you! 😻

[@shawntomkin]

Such a great (and kind) review! I am thrilled that Starforged was a good fit for you. Thank you for playing and sharing your impressions. And RIP to your printer.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

It was the work that deserved the words, to be sure. Thank you for the kind words and support for my dearly departed. Then again, just a reason to upgrade to an office quality laser printer :P. I look forward to seeing and reviewing more of your work.

[@IAcePTI]

What an awesome review. That are some preaty neat copys that you have there of the reference book, that is what im most hyped about to get. Starforged is such a great game, not only for solo but for small co-op group play. I think the most fun is the co-op with 2-3 people , sharing ideas and the work of the GM. No more prep needed to gave to one single person to get easely derailed and added to that, becouse the ideas are shared by everyone, makes something that the entire group is interested instead of the risk to just the gm be interested. Another plus is the asset cards. It realy is a great idea and easely hackable one. Do we need races, classes, skills? Throw it into asset cards. Not only is easy to create but easy to use it. No more the " Yx23+41/10 if it is close 10m of your character other then that Z=....." bs that the mage needs to remember but the GM keeps telling him. One card makes your "abilitys" easy to use and remember. The moves... i realy love the moves. First thing about fiction then what move that trigers by what you envision. It makes so simple. Yes people say is to mutch when some one say 50+ moves but in reality we cant use them all at once. They are beatifuly categorized in the "places" you gona use them. The reference move sheets make it easy to use. Combat moves when combating, sufer moves when you sufer some consequence, exploration when you are exploring...etc Other plus is the allrady created sheets that are so helpfull. Im realy hyped to get my copys. Looking at your copys and sheets made me realize that it would had been so awesome if we get some Starforged Box kit set. Manual book, Reference book, sheets and asset cards, we have everything except an Box... common Shawn xD BTW rip your printer, at least his last work was a masterpiece xD

[@shawntomkin]

Thanks for the kind words. I hear you on the box. I actually did look at a box set, but it unfortunately complicates VAT for UK and EU backers. As soon as you put things in a box, you lose the lower (or 0 in some cases) book rate for taxes.

[@IAcePTI]

@@shawntomkin oh dident knew about that. Thanks

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hi Ace, Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it as always. I agree with all of the above in regards to the gameplay. I have even looked online at player created cards ( in regards to your hacked cards comment ). There are some really neat concepts online made by players. I had one comment come in that wanted more info on one of the sections of the book. I may have to do a few shorter videos on the system to cover each of the areas with more detail, maybe even some tutorials. I am not sure on that but I do love the system enough to consider it some time in the future. Great to hear from you!

[@dharmainthenorth]

Superb review and overview - thank you! I've ordered the book and went all in with the hardback, printed cards and reference guide. I've dabbled in the past with solo RPGing but always stumbled after one or two sessions due to not having enough structure and it feeling more like creative writing with a handful of dice to roll. So your comments on the tables and handholding within this system were music to my ears.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

I really hope you find it as enjoyable as I have. Such a great system! I would love to hear your thoughts after you have had some time to play through the system.

[@bernardputersznit64]

Excellent! - I had been looking through explanations of the game. Yours is the best I have seen till now. Do keep these up.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hi Bernard, thank you so very much for your kind thoughts. I will, of course, do my best to do just that. Your comment made my day. Thank you! :)

[@JennerNuwen32]

I really hope you do more content on Starforged! It has quickly become my favorite solo rpg as of late. When I first saw mention of it I didn't really give it much consideration, thinking it didn't look like my cup of tea. How wrong I was! I literally just bought it 4 days ago and I'm obsessed. Lol.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hey JennerNuwen, I obviously felt much the same way. Took me by complete surprise. I have had a few others ask about continued content. I am not sure where that will lead. I know I want to see more Starforged content from the author. I am also seeing some good fan created content starting to come out. So I may have to do a video on some of my top content for the system. Such a great work by Shawn with Starforged, I agree. I am so glad you are enjoying it! Thank you very much for sharing. :)

[@patrickgaron1728]

Just bought the game. I wanted to say hi and check again your review to get a better understanding before I read the book.

[@jonnyjaynevlog-ventures5073]

Excitedly anticipating my copy in the mail soon!

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

I know exactly how you feel. I have been using the black and white DIY copy that broke my printer. It is definitely unwieldy. So ready for the pristine hardback color copy. Thank you for chiming in!

[@waltdog123]

And thought between this title and Hostile Solo?

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hostile: Solo is more similar to old school role playing that many of us are familiar with. In addition, Hostile: Solo is very "Theme" oriented. If you think of the Alien ( or Aliens ) franchise, then you are on the right track. In regards to the "old school" rules, they have been streamlined for solo play, but they also allow you to use some of the more intensive rules at your leisure. It is a great system. Starforged has more fluid mechanics and less rules mechanisms to track. It is more narrative in it's approach and is less theme driven. For this reason I would say that it is more friendly to the new solo role player. The theme is what YOU or your group make of it. I personally love both systems for different reasons. I am so very happy to own both. I hope that helps. Let me know if you are looking for anything specific in this comparison and I will do my best to clarify further. :)

[@johnreynolds1076]

This might be a stupid question, but what are those tabs I see in the reference guide? I need to have those :-) Also, I love the binder. You mention it's custom made. Could you explain how and what you used?

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

I use "ultra tabs" that I can purchase from my local Walmart. It's not a stupid question at all. They are a bit expensive in my opinion, but I can't do without them. In regards to the binder, I really should have worded that better as "customized binder". Meaning that I took a binder and added to it to make it my own for solo gaming. It is just a trapper keeper and then I added folders and dividers where needed along with other inserts from other binders that I thought would fit well. I also added tables for oracle rolls to make things easier on myself if I needed more than the core book/reference guide provided. Is that helpful?

[@johnreynolds1076]

@@adventuresinsolitaire very helpful! Some things will be hard to find in my country (the Netherlands), but I am going to try. Thank you!

[@johnreynolds1076]

@@adventuresinsolitaire p.s., I'd love to see more Starforged content as well. Maybe a playthrough? Or a more in depth how to play? Im just starting out and having a hard time actually starting. 😅

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

@@johnreynolds1076 You are more than welcome.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

In regards to more content, you kind of lucked out a bit. I am currently editing a video on learning solo role playing from scratch using starfored as the system. I am also doing a separate series of examples of how to do solo Co-op which will also use starforged as a system.

[@Eperogenay]

While the review was nice, the one thing that I was interested in hearing was the one glossed over completely. The default setting. Truths. The one part of the game that tells you what it's about, you just went 'you can do any setting' and left it at that, which was very disappointing. It makes it feel like this is a very generic game without it's own identity and that you HAVE to have a setting in mind before you start or it won't work.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hi Eperogenay, I am truly sorry to have disappointed you. I may do some individual videos on more detail on each section at some point. However....If you pause as I show some of the "tables" in the Truths section, you will see that these are indeed tables to roll on. Each of those tables helps to define what is going on in your "setting". You can roll on these or choose from these. It may be, for example, that you dont want advanced AI and dont want to roll on the AI table. It really does do a lot to help you completely randomize or give you ideas to help generate your own setting. You could even do a bit of both if you wanted. I dont believe the designer wanted to have a stiff setting that was predefined that may not have appealed to everyone. So roll on those tables, use them for idea generators, do both, choose a known sci-fi IP, make your own setting without the book. All of these are viable options. Hopefully that helps along with the slides that I presented with most of the table data. I personally love it as it really gave me that freedom and the author didn't force a "theme" on me. The only thing that it does do in regards to theme, is that it does focus a lot on the "vow" concept. I am actually not the biggest fan of the vows and tend to look at them as "solid" promises or contracts. I like the vow "system" but the theming of the vow I tend to change up. Does that help or make sense? If not, are there other details or info I could help with? I really appreciate the feedback btw ( it was very helpful ).

[@john-lenin]

FYI, Dungeon World is a badly bastardized version of Apocalypse World and moves in Apocalypse World aren't there to limit what you can do. They are there to illustrate how different characters relate to the world in different ways. That's why different characters have different books of moves.

[@adventuresinsolitaire]

Hey John-lenin, thank you for stopping in. I have not looked to heavily into Apocalypse World. That is interesting to note. Thank you for pointing that out. I appreciate it.