Sundered Isles - Expansion for Ironsworn: Starforged

Sundered Isles is Sundered .... Into Two Books!
10 months ago – Mon, Mar 25, 2024 at 09:34:33 AM

Hello, Ironsworn!

An important announcement for this update...

Over the weekend, I received my production samples for the Sundered Isles Wirebound Guidebook from the printer.

And I was not happy.

As I alluded to on the campaign page, this project outgrew its scope. Initially, I targeted a supplement of around 60-80 pages. Then 120. And now, as it turns out, 250+ pages of heavy paper in a wirebound format is just not a great experience. It is okay. It is functional. But it feels just a bit awkward. I love the feel of the Starforged Reference Guide, and this is notably less awesome. 

I considered my options. Lower paper grade to decrease the heft? No, I don't want to sacrifice quality. Cut content? Heck no. Use different binding? Also not a great option; the lay-flat feature is essential for the layout of the book and the at-the-table experience.

So, after a mild panic attack, I realized I had a perfect solution.

Not one book, but two.

Yes, two volumes.

Let me say four very important things:

• There's no need to change your pledge. If you are receiving the physical Sundered Isles Guidebook as part of your pledge, you'll now receive that reward as two books.
• There is no added cost, here or in the pledge manager, for the extra book.
• Shipping charges remain as estimated. If the weight of the second book increases shipping charges in your region, I will cover the additional cost.
• The Sundered Isles Digital Edition retains a single-book PDF format, ensuring that internal bookmarks and hyperlinks function as intended.
• This does not impact the project timeline. I'll need to sort out text references and prepare separate versions of my working files for digital and physical, but we are still on track for the Digital Edition next month and physical production soon thereafter.

Now let's dig into some details:

• Sundered Isles Guidebook One, Gameplay, includes setting information, options for guidelines for seafaring adventures, campaign launch exercises, and the moves reference.
• Sundered Isles Guidebook Two, Oracles, is self-explanatory. It contains the complete set of Sundered Isles generators and random tables for seafaring waypoints, islands, ships, settlements, characters, factions wrecks, ruins, treasures, and much more. Plus, cursed tables (see the campaign page for details on cursed oracles).

The two books will have similar page counts, each in the range of 125-145 pages. This is about the same page count as the original Starforged Reference Guide, meaning the quality and feel won't be compromised.

The aspect of this plan that excites me most is the additional level of at-the-table usability due to the way the content is split. Frequently referenced content can now be used in tandem. For example:

• As you work through the campaign launch exercises, which frequently point to the Oracles section, you can open both sections at once.
• You can easily reference a set of moves and a set of oracle tables at the same time. Less flipping around.
• If you are playing co-op, one player can manage the content in Guidebook One, while another references the oracles in Guidebook Two.

The relatively small format of the books (6x9 inches, or about A5) means they don't take up much space at the table, and the wire binding allows you to fold back a page completely, stack the two books, arrange them side-by-side, etc.

All that said, if two books are not an ideal scenario for you, for whatever reason, I perfectly understand if you need to drop out of the campaign. But I hope you'll see this as adding value rather than taking anything away.

And, in summary, I'll reiterate:

• No need to change your existing pledge
• No additional cost
• No additional shipping charges
• Digital Edition (PDF) is functionally the same
• No impact on the project timeline

I am updating the campaign page text and images to reflect this change as we speak, but I wanted to give you a heads-up on why that is happening. Also, because Kickstarter does not allow me to change the reward text once the campaign is underway, the pledge levels will continue to refer to Guidebook (singular) instead of Guidebooks (plural). I'll try to make this as clear as I can for new backers, but it won't be perfect.

Although this is a solution to a potential problem, I also think it's a better overall approach for Sundered Isles. And I am a bit bummed I didn't think of it a few weeks ago.

And who knows, if Sundered Isles does well, there may be potential for a Guidebook Three someday. Or, this handy split format might be used in other future Ironsworn products.

Feel free to comment below with any questions or concerns. 

Sundered Art!
10 months ago – Wed, Mar 20, 2024 at 12:08:38 PM

Hello, Ironsworn!

For this update, I wanted to highlight a few of the talented artists who worked on Sundered Isles and share a few of my favorite pieces.

As the book grew beyond my original imaginings, so did the art! I ended up commissioning around 45 pieces of art, which is nearly as much as I commissioned for Starforged. The reasonably aggressive timeline also meant I needed to cast a wider net. I brought several new artists on board, with talented Starforged artist Joshua Meehan continuing to serve as the lead artist.

And, perhaps unusual for a TTRPG Kickstarter campaign, the art is done, paid for, and in place in layout. It's very easy for a development and fulfillment schedule to slip based on the time and effort required for artists to work their magic, so I'm very glad that we are ready to move quickly and get Sundered Isles in your hands as soon as possible.

First up are a few pieces from lead artist Joshua Meehan. I think this particular one was perhaps the second piece created for the book.  I call this: You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Or maybe you're gonna need a bigger-er boat.

The flames of rebellion!

The lighting and mood in this one is so good!

And speaking of lighting, here are the iconic Twin Fates  — Wraith and Cinder — looming over the Sundered Isles. 

This piece is one of my favorite things ever. It has an incredible sense of scale, and I think it does a great job of showing us what a miss with a match might look like on an expedition. 

This piece of a seaside settlement doesn't adhere to the typical colonial architecture or ramshackle pirate den that you might see in an Age of Sail-inspired setting. There are grander vistas to discover among the isles!

I love the sense of seafaring freedom exemplified in this piece. And the touch of the fantastic!

Summon The Kraken!

Some gorgeous and mysterious seaside ruins by Joshua...

And, the "Sundered Isles Crew." You can check this piece out in the downloadable sampler. We use it to represent just a few possibilities for character archetypes.

I found a version of this piece when looking through artist portfolios, and commissioned the artist, Vyacheslav Milinchuk, to make some adjustments for use in Sundered Isles. I love the grand scope of these ancient ruins!

Vyacheslav is a talented concept artist with a specialization in environment design. They went on to create several pieces for Sundered Isles, including this foreboding wreck mired in a coastal swamp...

And this cave within a cave...

Bryant Grizzle was a somewhat late addition to the project, but they blew me away with this first piece of two ships encountering each other along a cliffside passage.

Along with this beautiful panoramic illustration for our Seafaring Waypoint oracles...

Bryant went on to create several other pieces for Sundered Isles, including the fabulous cover art! The filagreed prosthetic arm is gorgeous.

The illustration for this skull-like edifice was the final illustration developed for Sundered Isles. the artist, Phill Simpson, came into the project very late, but I look forward to working with them on future projects.

Of course, there is lots more to see in the full book — and at the proper size and quality that is difficult to convey in a web-based post. I'm excited to share it all with you!

Every artist on this project was an absolute pro and a joy to work with. If you are a fellow creator or an art director in need of talent, follow the links below and reach out!

• Joshua Meehan
• Vyacheslav Milinchuk
• Bryant Grizzle
• Phill Simpson

And one crucial final point: this art represents a vision for the Sundered Isles born out of a collaboration between me and the artists. It is inspiration, not a mandate. You'll have your own vision of the setting! You may even decide to leave the bounds of the sea and chart a course for loftier realms!

Thank you for supporting this campaign, Ironsworn!

New Pledge Tier: Just the Starforged Rulebook
10 months ago – Tue, Mar 19, 2024 at 11:31:04 AM

Hello, Ironsworn!

Based on a couple of messages and an informal survey on the Ironsworn DIscord, I've added a Starforged Core pledge level.

This tier is the Starforged hardcover rulebook + Starforged PDFs only. Choose this pledge if you're not interested in other rewards and missed out on the first printing. This rulebook-only pledge will ship early — likely by June — but is available only to backers in the US, Canada, UK, and EU. 

If you select this pledge and would like to include Sundered Isles as a digital-only reward, it is now available as an add-on.

The Starforged second printing is also available in the Complete Collection pledge, which includes the complete kit for Starforged + Sundered Isles at a bundle price. Those rewards will ship together later this year, with the Digital Edition PDFs sent to backers next month.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Sundered Factions!
10 months ago – Mon, Mar 18, 2024 at 12:52:52 PM

Hello, Ironsworn!

At this moment, I am celebrating that the backer count just ticked over to 2,500. That is an incredibly surprising and gratifying milestone. Thank you so much for the support!

I wanted to offer a quick sneak peek at how I am handling factions in the Sundered Isles. The isles have endured a long history of clashing factions, and foremost among those conflicts is the struggle against the tyranny of imperial powers.

I've reinforced the focus on factions in a few ways...

Setting Truths

The setting truths exercise, which many of you might be familiar with from Ironsworn and Starforged, helps build the reality of your world. It sets the tone of the campaign and lays the groundwork for the dangers and opportunities you will encounter. Depending on your choices, your setting might reflect the gritty reality of our real-world Age of Sail — or feature strange magic, cursed seas, monstrous beasts, and dreadful curses. Or somewhere in between. Your version of the isles will be uniquely your own, generated through these fun, guided exercises. A sandbox of possibilities ready for your characters.

For each category of the truths exercise, I've added prompts for the types of factions that might play a role in your setting. As you are working through your truths, you can make note of any factions of interest.

Then, in a later exercise, you introduce a handful of notable factions to your world, giving each a few bullet points to distinguish their role and characteristics. If you prefer to keep it simple at this stage, you  start with a placeholder description—for example, “Tyrannical Empire” or “Undead Pirates.” Quick and simple.

In short, you are tagging the things that interest you, the aspects of the world that will most influence your campaign. It's just enough worldbuilding to put the wind in the sails of your story.

Revealing Factions

The Sundered Isles Guidebook also offers tips and tools for managing factions within your world once your campaign is underway. This includes tracking faction activities that happen in the background, and revealing the forces and characters that you encounter in the course of your adventures. In solo play and co-op play, this gives the world a sense of place and history that exists beyond your character's immediate viewpoint. For a guide in traditional play, this section offers handy methods you can use to manage the ebb and flow of factions, and to determine how those factions intersect with the protagonists.

There are also around 40 summaries for sample factions that you can lift and shift into your campaign. Of course, they are presented as roll tables.

it's all designed to be simple and immediate. It's not a complex mini-game of faction management. 

Faction Oracles

Finally. I've added a new set of Faction Oracles to Sundered Isles. The Starforged faction oracles are quite good (he said without shame). These generators and random tables take it a step further by offering details across three different faction categories: societies, organizations, and empires. They are broadly system and setting-agnostic and would drop into your Starforged sci-fi campaign without much fuss. Use whichever you prefer, or mix and match.

Ready to Crush an Empire?

There's a lot more in the Guidebook. of course, and I can't wait to set you loose in a few short weeks to wreak havoc upon whatever factions you set your character against.

Thank you again for your support, and please join us at the Ironsworn Discord Community. Tag me there or comment below if you have any questions!

Sundered Starforged!
10 months ago – Fri, Mar 15, 2024 at 07:50:11 AM

I've had a couple of requests to talk about what new toys Sundered Isles might bring to your sci-fi Starforged campaigns, so let's take a look!

Let's proceed with the assumption that you aren't playing in a swashbuckling setting with an overlay of space adventure. So, we'll keep Treasure Planet out of the equation. We're talking fairly traditional adventure sci-fi, as opposed to galleons in space. For now.

New Assets

There are 55+ new character assets in Sundered Isles. Many of which drop right into your sci-fi game.

• A (oft-requested) robotic CONSTRUCT
• A merciless CUTHTHROAT
• An honor-bound DUELIST
• An OVERLANDER, experienced with dirtside missions
• A SOCIALITE, who succeeds through charm and wit
• A SWASHBUCKLER, who fights with flair
• An underestimated URCHIN (Newt from Aliens?)
• New modules suitable for your sci-fi spaceship, including a TROPHY VAULT and MAP ROOM

In addition, there are several new supernatural assets that can be used as-is in a more gonzo gothic sci-fi setting, or rethemed as technologies or genetic abilities

• The SORCERER, wielder of spells
• The JINX, cursed with foul luck
• The UNDEAD, risen to carry out their ill-fated quest
• The DAMNED, remade in a new form by death or desolation 

Next, there are assets that are sometimes rethemed from Starforged (and thus have some overlap). The beauty here is that you're free to pick the variation that best fits your character concept, as long as you aren't lumping two redundant assets into the same character. Two quick examples:

• The SCHOLAR stands in for the Starforged LORE HUNTER. This is a solid template for someone like Stephen Maturin from the Aubrey–Maturin books (Master and Commander).  
• The SPY, a less technology-focused, more cloak-and-dagger version of INFILTRATOR

There are some assets designed more specifically for the seafaring musket and cannon setting, such as SHIPWRIGHT, MUSKETEER, or WATERBORN. But, again, there's flexibility. Want to explore ocean planets as a semi-aquatic species? WATERBORN will do quite nicely. The Sundered Isles DECK CLEANER, armed with a scattergun, would make for a great shotgun-wielding sci-fi character. As much as possible, I use language that isn't overly specific to a time or setting.

Perhaps most importantly, there are some assets for crew and command. But let's talk about that in a moment.

The Sundered Isles Guidebook includes a helpful index of the default curated asset deck, which you'll also find in the downloadable sampler. However, I intend to publish a PDF cheat sheet of all the variations of "deck-builds" you might consider for specific genres, using assets pulled from Starforged core and Sundered Isles. It'll range from harder or industrial sci-fi, to gothic sci-fi, to swashbuckling sci-fi, and so on.

In short, remember that 120-crayon box you coveted as a kid? Or was that just me? Anyway, this is that — more shades, more variety. Plus a few of those really cool, sparkly and neon colors.

Crew and Command

In Starforged, you and your allies (fellow players) are assumed to be the sole crew on your ship. When sailing the Sundered Isles, you have the opportunity to command a crew — or even a fleet!

Luckily, the crew-related assets and guidelines port right over to sci-fil Starforged campaigns. They include:

• The CREW COMMANDER asset bolsters your leadership abilities while adding mechanical and narrative detail to your interactions with the crew. It uses a meta-resource, command, to represent the crew strength, loyalty, and morale. Your command will ebb and flow through the course of an adventure.
• When you take the helm of a pirate ship, the PIRATE CAPTAIN path offers boons for hunting for and seizing prizes, sharing the spoils to build rapport with your crew, and using your riches or infamy to gain an advantage when visiting ports. In space, no one can hear you Yarrr.
• By default, connections in Starforged are not a crewmember. They are notable NPCs whose lives only occasionally intersect with your own. However, you can assemble your own bridge crew with the COHORT asset, which makes a connection part of your crew as a specialist.
• Lastly, the FLEET COMMANDER asset is an evolution of your leadership late in your career— you are now a major player in your campaign setting.

Command and crew is largely abstracted, but it's just the right amount of flavor and mechanics to give this oft-requested feature a role in your sci-fi campaign. 

More!

This would be a very long update if I detailed all the ways that Sundered Isles can enhance your sci-fi Starforged campaign, but here's a quick summary of some additional features.

• Guidelines for managing shipwide supply when sailing with a crew
• New (optional) rules for wealth as a resource, including acquiring wealth, spending wealth, and managing the upkeep of your ship and crew
• A procedure for naval battles, which is also handy for naval-style space battles that progress from initial sighting to boarding
• Guidelines and setting-agnostic oracle tables for interludes, which are low-stakes character downtime scenes
• New recommendations for handling factions in the background of your campaign, and some extensive new faction generation oracles which are largely setting-agnostic
• Overland landmark oracles, useful for planetside journeys
• Some handy new general oracle tables, such as the magnitude oracle that can help answer questions related to the scale, extent, or capability of a thing

Check out these two preview videos for a look at some of these features.

Swashbuckling Sci-Fi: Peanut Butter and Chocolate

Lastly, the greatest potential for sci-fi Starforged and Sundered Isles is to build the Treasure Planet-style swashbuckling space campaign of your dreams. It offers endless mix-and-matchability of rules, assets, and oracles. Ready your ironclad exosuit, gather your pirate crew, and prepare for boarding!

Or just set sail and admire the view. Second star to the right and straight on till morning...

Thank you again for supporting this campaign. Whether you are planning on sailing among the isles or taking Sundered Isles with you on your spacebound adventures, I hope you find plenty of new options and tools to make your campaign better. Please don't hesitate to comment with questions!

Credits

• Sundered Isles cover art by Bryant Grizzle
• Spacefaring realm illustration by Joshua Meehan
• Asset icons by Nathen Græy