“Prep Is Play”

 “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.”

— Mark Twain

I haven’t engaged with roleplaying games in a while, owing to a lack of interested players and time. Gathering multiple friends for any regular game session these days has become a common meme trope for the adult gamer generations. So I’m exploring a solitaire roleplaying game to engage my urge to return to that form...and immerse myself in some much-needed gaming escapism to deal with an onslaught of personal stress and <waves hand> all this nonsense going on in the world. My game of choice? Ironsworn: Starforged by Shawn Tomkin. I backed it in Kickstarter and, though I’ve read it and explored its numerous oracle tables, I’ve not yet sat down to play it. I’ve been developing a character in the back of my mind, along with an initial contact and a sector with some locations, but otherwise I’ve relied on the random table “oracles” to guide my sector set-up and other bits for which I’ve no immediate inspiration. I’m having fun determining the elements for my future adventures, even though I’m not actually playing the game. Or am I? Starforged includes a heading I think all roleplaying gamers can take to heart: “Prep Is Play.”

How many times have we immersed ourselves in a roleplaying game, reading rulebooks and supplements, developing adventures, determining stats for gear and adversaries, fleshing out details of an interesting location, crafting non-player-characters (NPCs) to drive the action? I recall days after school in my idyllic youth spent drafting dungeon maps, reading new modules or magazine articles, writing stats for monsters, and imagining new challenges to throw at characters. We spend our time mapping and populating dungeons, charting vast environments for sandbox gaming, plotting out episodes for narrative structured scenarios, or developing the setting components, character motivations, and incidents driving more free-form gaming. None of this seems like playing the game, but it can serve as a fun game-related activity, an essential part of preparation without which “the game” might not provide so much enjoyment. Even reading rules and trying out procedures help us prepare through playful activity.

The Starforged rulebook is a 404-page roleplaying game tome. The first 73 pages cover the nuts-and-bolts of the mechanics, leavened with some basics about the setting premise and core thematic concepts. It’s easy to get bogged down in these rules, especially if one is eager to start playing. The second chapter, “Launching Your Campaign,” contains an important message that sets the tone for the game: “Prep Is Play.” After reading all the rules, one begins further fine-tuning the setting to one’s particular, tastes, from making some choices about how certain cultural elements work in the game to developing one’s character, a starting sector and locations, and an initial NPC contact. This takes some consideration to account for the options presented as campaign possibilities, some reading of random tables for inspiration — or rolling on them — and thinking about the kinds of action and themes one wants to explore in the Starforged universe. This is all part of the game, as the rulebook explains, that by undertaking these pre-game exercises:

...You create a foundation of setting, character, and narrative opportunities. Then, you build on that foundation through play. This initial investment of time and creative energy is narrative momentum for your imagined world.... What you’ll do through the course of these exercises — making decisions based on established fiction, consult oracles, interpret creative prompts, envision people, places, and situations — is all part of playing Starforged.

I’ve already read the Starforged rulebook and have some familiarity with the game processes driving the mechanics. But now I’m diving into the setting and narrative aspects to hone the game to better reflect my preferences for this kind of science fiction gaming. The first step helps determine the nature of various elements of the Starforged setting. After outlining some default assumptions about the setting, the rules ask one to “Choose Your Truths,” making some decisions on the realities of your particular version of the setting. Some refer closely to the premise of the game: the nature of the Cataclysm that propelled humanity from its home into the fierce galactic region called the Forge and the means by which humanity fled there. Others cover broad sci-fi setting elements: law, religion, magic, communications and data, medicine, artificial intelligence, war, lifeforms, “Precursors,” and potential horrors. Each section offers three variations, some with additional random tables to determine specifics. Most also offer some “Quest Starter” adventure hooks and questions to ask yourself as your character. The rules encourage players to choose a particular “truth” option, roll for them randomly, or craft your own version. This is perhaps the most substantial preparation for the game, but in a way it’s introducing the setting and tone to readers and providing inspiration for adventure ideas and character elements.

Character creation does include the usual assigning of stats, but it primarily focuses on developing narrative elements. While one chooses two “paths” to define a character’s occupational role, the rules provide prompts and tables to determine one’s backstory and determine a “vow” to swear that guides character motivation through adventures. Everyone gets a starship, which the rules encourage one to enhance with a bit of history and some quirky details. Everything’s light on stats and rules, emphasizing story elements instead.

Creating a sector is reminiscent of the methods used to develop subsectors and systems in the classic Traveller game. Once again Starforged focuses more on descriptive aspects than stats and game information. Here the numerous “oracles” — tables of options to choose or randomly determine — offer plenty of diverse guidance determining settlement names, population, authority, and projects, even details on associated planets and the nature of troubling issues the sector faces.

Finally the player determines one NPC connection their character has in the sector, someone who might support their activities and serve as another setting element with which to develop a relationship. The rules guide one in determining their role within the sector, various aspects of their personality, general appearance, and their immediate goals.

Starforged offers encouragement for those preparing to play that game or any other. “In short, these exercises should be fun. They should spark your creativity. They should make you excited about diving into the world you’ve created.” And if it starts seeming like work, the rules suggest you “skip it or take a shortcut or move on.” Excellent advice for anyone undertaking work to prepare running a roleplaying game.

I’ve enjoyed all these exercises as preparatory play in my own exploration of Starforged. It’s also given me some practice determining details from the random table oracles and interpreting them in the context of the setting and my character as developed earlier. The oracle tables filling in the details at this preparatory stage also serve as tools during play to offer choices, random results, or inspiration for determining setting elements with which one can interact. They don’t drive play, but guide it, helping players “envision” what their character does, their surroundings, and the results of their actions (“envision” being another key theme guiding solitaire play in Starforged).

I still have a few portions to prepare for my particular journey into Starforged. I’d like to develop a few more details about my sector locations beyond what I’ve already done (notably details on the planets beyond the settlements they host). I’m also trying to determine how best to organize my information. The game offers PDF resources to write on, and I’ve used those, but I’d like to present my information in some manner reflecting the sci-fi setting, most likely a word processing file simulating a datapad; something for my own future reference, and a journal where I can chronicle my character’s exploits in a narrative format, rather than the usual notations on a character sheet. I expect I’ll continue developing new locations, contacts, factions, and planets, both as I play Starforged and in preparation for future sessions...all keeping in mind that “prep” is part of the fun of “play.”

“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond.”

— Hypatia