A Change in Style

I’ve been reading a few other play reports. While not everyone does this is, quite a few people record their rolls (what they do, outcomes, etc.). While it spoils the narrative flow, I think it makes it clearer why there are weird results and diversions. So, going forward, I think I’m going to do the same.

It should look something like this:

Gather Information: Strong Hit 8 vs 6, 2.
Envision what you learn. Then, take +2 momentum.

I’ll see how it goes for a while, but hopefully that will show some of the underlying reasons why the story jumps around.

Some mechanics

It might be obvious to you, but it wasn't obvious to me, that the main move to use for this sort of narrative adventure is going to be Face Danger. You start a scene, face danger, with some gather information and seize and advantage, then end the scene.

In my run through Operation Green Steamroller I wasn't doing that (new system, new environment (I was using the Foundry client instead of pen and paper) and an early morning start) and I made some dumb choices. I think it's a mark of the strength of the system that I could still tell a decent narrative (I mean, my story telling needs work, but the mechanics still supported it) even using the tools suboptially. In the Rescue Steffon story, the system didn't clunk along, it purred and although I faced many more complications it felt like the system was supporting me so I could concentrate on telling the story I wanted to tell rather than wondering what the mechanics were up to. That's a nice feeling.

I still have to get to grips a bit better with narrating the story as I go but I think that will come. I'm still getting used to juggling both the rolling and the storytelling alongside each other but it's much easier this way, and it will only get easier as I get used to do it.

UPDATE: When you make a scene, the reason everything is a formidable challenge and you use the clocks is to set the ultimate difficulty of completing the challenge. With a formidable challenge you fill a box every time you mark progress. But if you have a four sector clock you're likely to fill the clock with a lot of progress left unfilled and so get a poor result on the Finish the Scene roll (although I lucked out on a four sector clock to rescue Steffon yesterday). If you have eight sectors, you're much more likely to nearly or completely fill the progress bar and so get at least a weak hit or even a strong hit when you Finish the Scene.

Quest Starters

Generating your truths in Starforged (and Ironsworn) gives you related quest starters. These are optional, but are a group of ideas for possible quests that arise from the truths you generated. I'm making a list of them, and will add others to this list as I think of them.

Here in the Forge, a rogue faction holds an artifact of these interdimensional entities. What is the nature of this relic? What power or dark fate does the faction intend to unleash?
An explorer brings news. They’ve located an active gate in the depths of the Forge. Why do you swear to travel there? Which power or foe seeks to take control of the gate?
A forsaken people, sworn to no clan, live on an orbital station. A recent illness left many sick or dead. Supplies are urgently needed. Why were these people exiled, and why do you swear to give them aid? Which clan stands against you?
You vow to forge a new sword from the iron of an important object or artifact. What is it, and why is it meaningful to you? Who protects it?
A famed bounty hunter needs your help tracking down their quarry. What is your relationship to the fugitive? Do you swear to aid the hunter, or the target?
A cult seeks to take control of a site reputed to hold a Primordial artifact. What holy object do they seek? Why are you sworn to stop them?
Someone you love has been corrupted by the powers of the Forge. Why did they fall into darkness? Where are they now? Do you seek to save them or defeat them?
After years of isolation, the launch of a new data hub will connect several outposts to the Weave. But a person or faction seeks to stop it. What do they hope to gain by keeping those settlements in the dark? Why are you sworn to stop them?
You receive a covert message from an AI held by a powerful leader. It is a plea for help. What does it ask of you?
A faction is said to be experimenting with forgespawn DNA to create a new biological superweapon. Where are these dangerous tests being conducted?
Deep in the Forge, an Ascendancy beacon has activated. The mysterious signal has confounded translation. Why are you sworn to seek out the source of the signal? What other person or faction opposes you?
A group of settlers established a home in an abandoned orbital station under the light of a white dwarf star. The previous inhabitants were killed in a raider attack years ago, but it seems the dead do not rest there. The people are plagued by constant mechanical issues, strange noises, and unsettling visions.

Where I live (Truths)

I live in the Forge. The Forge is rather different to the galaxy where humanity evolved. We fled because spirits, angels our ancestors thought at first, arrived. But like so many things, it was too good to be true. Our ancestors at first welcomed these angels among them and once they knew everything there was to know they ravaged our worlds, tore down our defences and those of us who were lucky enough fled. Here we hid, survived. Maybe even started to thrive.

Ironically, the fallen angels provided a way for us to get away. Not all of humanity welcomed them and some had investigated their arrival. They discovered gateways that allowed them and although they didn’t understand the technology completely they reverse engineered the controllers sufficiently that they opened a gateway to the Forge and our ancestors fled, destroying the coordinates so we couldn’t be followed.

We have started to thrive here in the Forge. Things are still tough. Most of us are loosely organised into one of five clans, AWJ, Honshu, Li, Okon and Senna. The clans claim territory and there is both trade and skirmishes between them. Others eke out a living between the clans, maintaining neutrality. I’m proud to be part of Clan AWJ.

Everyone, even me, carries an iron blade. Some are small, daggers, kukris and the like. Others are gigantic, claymores and zwiehanders. Regardless of their size, we all acknowledge the commitment of a vow sworn on our blades. Being without a blade is to be without honour. Personally, I carry three, just in case.

Travelling through the gate changed us. We don’t understand how, but a sizeable part of the population wield powers that we call psychic and you might call magic. I can make others not notice me, if I’m lucky I can make them not notice more than just me. There are others who can accurately see into the future, create and control fire and more. There are stories that psychics can be corrupted by their gifts, consumed by flames, disappearing into the shadows, falling into madness as the futures they see consume their minds. But no one actually knows someone that has happened to.

Each of the clan territories has its own laws and while these are largely the same - we all recognise iron vows, frown on murder, rape, theft and the like, have equality before the law and so on - there are subtle difference. AWJ is strongly supportive of psychics while Senna regulates the use of psychic abilities strongly and Li tries to hunt them down and imprison them. Bounty hunters exist and cross clan boundaries with a certain amount of impunity but laws not upheld, like the Li imprisonment of psychics will not allow bounty hunters to roam in all territories - a bounty hunter trying to execute such a bounty in AWJ territory will be arrested for kidnapping if they get caught.

Although I don’t really pay much attention, unless it’s important for a job, we have many faiths. There are different patterns of gods and goddesses, and religious philosophies, between the clans - Okon and Li predominantly have very different worship practices for example - plus a few practises that are found across all of the Forge. Some, like me, basically ignore it. Some mutter the odd prayer, others are truly devout.

In the central areas of clan space, and along the main routes between them there are is a network of data hubs called the Weave that allows for near instantaneous communication between ships and outposts. There are stories these hubs are often the targets for sabotage and infiltration but who believes things like that? The further you get from the centre, the less likely to be connected to the Weave you are, and couriers replace them, although all the clans are expanding the outposts connected to the weave as fast as they can.

We have orders of sworn healers, and they train the next generation of healers. If you live somewhere connected to the Weave and you’re a clan member you can get almost miraculous levels of care. In more remote areas the level of care falls off - novice healers, riggers and emergency aid is the best many can do. If you’re in another clan’s territory it really depends on why, where and how relations between your clans are right now.

When we fled, our AI couldn’t make the transition through the gates we used. We’re told that we bought the cores, but they all died. Survival meant we didn’t look at redeveloping it first, we used the seers that had emerged instead. But Li and Senna aren’t keen on psychics and have looked at developing AI again, seers can’t be everywhere. There is nascent AI technology but it’s even rarer than seers. It is both coveted and wielded by those in power and there are stories, and some documented cases, of those in power using it as a weapon.

It seems like war is a constant. That’s not really true, someone in my line of work deals in precision in information. True, full-scale, war between any of the clans is actually quite rare. There have been two wars involving all the clans in the last 250 years and five more wars involving two or three clans in the same period. The two all-out wars lasted seven and twelve years respectively, the smaller wars lasted three to five years each. A total of 38 years in 250 is 15.2%. But if you count skirmishes, local flares along parts of borders, where adjacent sectors belonging to different clans fight, that adds another 187 years, so 225 out of 250 in total. Most sectors have not seen even 50 years of war, but it’s almost always lurking somewhere in the Forge. Although each of the clans maintains a standing military - typically space marines in small vessels that can attack in formation or each of which can land a squad to take a hostile outpost. Most of the military might floating around, and some might argue maintaining the near constant state of war, are the mercenary guilds. They’re relatively small individually, few are bigger than company sized, with eight or nine ships carrying a squad each, most are smaller - one or two squads - but en masse there are still a lot of them scattered across the Forge.

Life in the Forge is often hostile and dangerous. This is part of the reason for the sheer numbers of mercenary guild members. There are hundreds of deserted outposts and abandoned ships where forgespawn have eaten the settlers or crew. Mmm, tasty.

Some say the forgespawn are what drove the Ascendancy out, or killed them all. The Ascendancy is our name for those that came before. They were clearly advanced, spread throughout the Forge before us, and vaults remain. We explore them when we can but they seem only loosely tethered to our reality.

Most citizens never leave the areas served by the Weave. In those zones a lot of them never leave their home outpost. But those of us who travel to the more interesting bit of the Forge have all seen the horrors. Things from beyond, from later, from the afterlife, from other dimensions and so on.

About me

Hi, you can call me Bagpipes. That’s not my real name, it’s my call sign here in the Service. It’s a kind of joke. The Service was looking for people who could fit in, sneak around, go unnoticed. I have a real talent for it.

I tend to wear a loose fitting ship suit, and standing at 1.72 m it’s hard to tell if I’m a slightly tall gravity-born woman or a slightly short gravity-born man. The only place I really can't fit in without notice is among the Voidborn. My features don’t really make it any clearer, they’re angular and masculine for a woman, soft and feminine for a man. My voice, with a bit of training, is low-pitched for a woman, high pitched for man, but within range for either. Like a lot of spacers I keep my hair shaved short, and for my job I have a range of wigs, just in case. When I'm being myself I use they/them but professionally I use whatever pronouns are required by my cover

My skin is sort of honey tones. I don’t really quite fit in anywhere, but I don’t stand out either. Even in the Okon clan lands, while they tend to darker skins, I’m not remarkable enough to really stand out.

I was trained, at length, to move quietly, to hid, to use my natural assets to blend in and pass unnoticed. Lots of people the Service trained were probably as good at it as me. But I have an edge. I’m psychic, and my particular form of psychic ability manifests as a relatively strong, but equally specific compulsion. They call is darkness but if you hold a light meter near me, it doesn’t flicker. It’s your brain that paints it dark in your memory as my brain tells yours not to notice me. I have, apparently, tested latently positive for other psychic powers as well, but so far none have manifested for me.

I’m such a good spook, so hard to notice, that they named me after a legendary instrument from before the Cataclysm. One that was so loud and so raucous that it was, allegedly, used as a weapon of war.

The Service equipped me with a ship, Skirl, fitted with stealth tech. Of course, it’s not obvious she’s got stealth tech, she looks like a free trader, and I carry plans for having her refitted with an expanded hold. I’ve just never made it big enough to pay for them yet… I do actually run small cargoes and courier runs to keep up the cover. The interior spaces are busier than normal, with conduits and cables. That’s what happens when you retrofit a small trader with stealth tech! There are removable plate decks to keep customs happy too, they have somewhere to poke into, but I very carefully never smuggle anything. Well, not anything that will go under a plate deck anyway.

Alongside my flight suit, environment suit, tool kit, medkit, flashlights and communicator are a small collection of wigs and makeup, what looks like a second medkit but actually contains a hacking deck and a multitool that functions as an emergency knife and contains an interesting array of tools for dealing with mechanical locks, traps, fences and the like designed to keep me out of places. Oh, and my communicator is Service issue. Lets just say that it has access to channels and decryption tools that would make a military comms operator cry with jealosy but only if you really know where to look.

Callsign Conductor is my handler. Everyone in my training group has a callsign that's a musical instrument. Apparently they assign these cutesy themes at random, to each new batch of trainees, then when we graduate, we each get a handler with a related callsign. I don't know how it works, and I've never actually met Conductor in the flesh. Deaddrops and comm exchanges only so far. Operational security and all that.