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Starforged is a science fiction tabletop roleplaying game by Shawn Tomkin, built so you can play it alone, with friends and no game master, or with a game master in the usual way. Its full name is Ironsworn: Starforged. You play a spacefarer in a dangerous, half-settled region of space, swearing vows and trying to keep them. The game itself handles the surprises a game master would normally provide, through a set of moves, a large stack of random tables called oracles, and progress tracks that measure how close you are to your goals.
The quick answer: to play Starforged you need the rules, three dice (one six-sided and two ten-sided), a character sheet, and a notebook. You make a character, swear a vow, and then tell the story one move at a time, asking the oracles whenever you need to know what happens next. If you want to feel how it plays before you read 400 pages, try our free browser demo, The Long Sleep of the Lodestar, which takes about 20 minutes.
What is Starforged?
Starforged is a standalone sci-fi follow-up to Ironsworn, Shawn Tomkin’s dark fantasy RPG from 2018. Starforged funded on Kickstarter in 2021, came out digitally in May 2022, and reached stores later that year in a deluxe hardcover distributed by Modiphius Entertainment. The core rulebook runs about 400 pages, and it ships with a separate Reference Guide, printable asset cards, and a playkit of character sheets and worksheets.
The default setting is the Forge, a cluster of stars your people fled to after a disaster struck their home galaxy. Settlements are scattered, starships are precious, and most of the map is blank. Reviewers often compare its tone to Firefly, The Expanse, and Dune: a lived-in galaxy where people take hard jobs to keep their communities alive. You can also ignore the default setting and use the rules for almost any kind of perilous science fiction.
You do not need to know Ironsworn to play it. Starforged stands on its own.
Who made Starforged, and is it free?
Shawn Tomkin designed and self-publishes Starforged through Tomkin Press. Unlike Ironsworn, the full Starforged rulebook is not free. The digital edition sells on itch.io as pay what you want with a minimum price, and the itch page also sets aside free community copies for people who cannot afford one.
A lot of Starforged is openly licensed, though. Tomkin Press releases the complete Starforged Reference Guide (rules summaries, moves, and oracles) and the text of the asset cards under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0), which lets other creators build on them, even commercially. The full rulebook text sits under a non-commercial license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). That open license is why there are so many fan tools, apps, and adventures for Starforged, including our demo.
How do you play Starforged?
Every session runs on the same short loop: describe what your character does, make a move if it is risky, read the result, and let the fiction move forward. Here are the four pieces that make it work.
Moves
A move is a named rule for a common situation, like gathering information, facing danger, or making a connection with someone. When your character does something that matches a move, you roll.
You roll one six-sided action die and add your relevant stat plus any bonuses. That total is your action score. Then you roll two ten-sided challenge dice. Beat both challenge dice and you score a strong hit: you get what you wanted. Beat one and you score a weak hit: you get it, with a cost or a complication. Beat neither and it is a miss: things go wrong, and the move tells you how to make them worse.
If both challenge dice show the same number, that is a match. A match makes the result more dramatic, for better or worse, and is a good cue to add a twist.
Momentum
Momentum is a number on your sheet that rises when things go well and falls when they don’t. You can spend high momentum to turn a disappointing roll into a better one. It rewards you for building on success and gives you a way out of a bad roll at the moment it matters.
Oracles
Oracles are the reason Starforged works solo. They are random tables you roll on to answer questions the story raises. Is the station abandoned? What does this planet look like? What does the stranger want? Starforged has oracles for planets, settlements, starships, people, creatures, derelicts, and much more, plus a simple yes or no oracle where you pick how likely something is and roll.
The trick is to read oracle results as prompts, not orders. You get two or three evocative words and decide what they mean for your story. That is where the surprise comes from, and why solo play still feels like discovery.
Progress tracks
Big goals do not succeed or fail on one roll. Instead, each vow, journey, fight, or connection gets a progress track of ten boxes. You pick a rank for it, from troublesome to epic, and harder ranks fill more slowly. Each time you make headway, you mark progress.
When you think you are ready, you make a progress move. This time you do not roll the action die. You compare the number of filled boxes against the two challenge dice. Fill most of the track and you are close to a sure thing; rush it and you risk a miss. It turns patience into a real choice.
Starforged adds legacy tracks on top: quests, bonds, and discoveries. Fill them by keeping vows, building relationships, and exploring, and you earn experience to spend on new or upgraded assets. Assets are cards for things like your starship, your path, a companion, or a module on your ship.
Starforged solo, co-op, or guided: which should you pick?
Starforged supports three modes, and the rules are the same in all of them.
- Solo: one player, one character, and the oracles in place of a game master. This is the mode most people buy it for, and the one the book focuses on.
- Co-op: two or more players share the story with no game master. Everyone makes moves, and anyone can roll on an oracle when the group needs an answer.
- Guided: one person acts as the guide, a game master who frames scenes and plays the world, while the others play their characters. This is closest to a traditional RPG night.
If you have never played a solo RPG, start solo with a short scenario. If you have a friend who is curious, co-op is a lovely middle ground: the same freedom, plus someone to gasp with when a match comes up. Our guide to solo RPGs covers how solo play works across many games, not just this one.
What do you need to start playing Starforged?
Less than you might think.
- The rules. The full rulebook, or at least the Reference Guide and playkit if you want to learn in short bites.
- Dice. One d6 and two d10s. Many players use two different colors of d10 so the challenge dice are easy to read.
- A character sheet. The playkit has one, plus worksheets for your starship and your sector.
- A notebook or document. Keep a short log of what happened and what you learned. It does not have to be pretty.
- Optional apps and tools. Because the Reference Guide is openly licensed, there are free fan apps and virtual tabletop modules that roll dice and oracles for you. They are handy but not required.
The book suggests building your opening scenario with a set of campaign launch exercises: you sketch your starting sector, a few settlements, a connection or two, and your character’s background vow. It is part of the fun, and it gives you hooks to pull on for your first sessions.
How is Starforged different from Ironsworn?
Both games use the same engine: action die, challenge dice, moves, momentum, oracles, and progress tracks. If you learn one, you can play the other in an evening.
The differences are mostly in scope and setting.
- Genre. Ironsworn is low fantasy in the Ironlands, a cold frontier. Starforged is space travel, derelict ships, and strange planets.
- Scale. Starforged adds starships, sectors, and a much larger oracle set for generating places and people.
- Advancement. Starforged swaps Ironsworn’s experience system for the three legacy tracks.
- Price. Ironsworn’s full digital package is free. Starforged’s rulebook is paid, with its Reference Guide openly licensed.
- Expansions. Starforged has a seafaring expansion, Sundered Isles, released in 2024, which needs the Starforged core rules.
Which to pick comes down to genre. If you want fantasy and a free start, begin with Ironsworn. If you want spaceships, go straight to Starforged.
Can you try Starforged for free?
Yes. The RPG Demo Library has a free browser demo called The Long Sleep of the Lodestar. A colony ship that vanished 81 years ago has come back, falling toward a settlement, and its beacon is reading out the names of its sleepers, including yours.
The demo is Act One of a three-act solo adventure. You pick a character, and the page tracks your stats, health, spirit, supply, starship integrity, momentum, assets, and vow as you play. Dice rolls wait for your click by default, so you feel each roll land. It takes about 20 minutes.
It is an unofficial adventure built on the openly licensed Starforged Reference Guide, with credit to Shawn Tomkin, and it is not a Tomkin Press product. If you want to finish the story, the complete adventure is sold as a PDF in our store. If you want to compare it with other games first, the full RPG Demo Library has demos for several systems.
FAQ
Is Ironsworn Starforged good for beginners?
Yes, if you take it in small steps. The book is long, but the core roll is simple, and the playkit summarizes it on a few pages. Playing a short demo first is the fastest way to learn the rhythm before you read the full rules.
Can you play Starforged solo?
Yes. Solo play is the main way people play Starforged, and the rules are built for it. Oracles stand in for a game master, and progress tracks give your story a shape without anyone planning it in advance.
Do I need to play Ironsworn before Starforged?
No. Starforged is a standalone game with its own complete rules. Ironsworn players will recognize the engine, but new players lose nothing by starting with Starforged.
What dice do you need for Starforged?
One six-sided die and two ten-sided dice. That is all. Many players add a second pair of d10s in another color for oracle rolls, but it is not required.
How long is a Starforged session?
As long as you like. Many solo players play for an hour or less at a time, and the game is built to pause at any point and pick up again from your notes.
Where to go next
If you want to know where Starforged came from, read our guide to how to play Ironsworn, its free fantasy sibling. If you love the writing side of solo play, our guide to solo journaling RPGs is a good next step, and what is a tabletop RPG covers the hobby from the ground up. Ludarium Letters, just below, sends new guides and demos as they come out.
The game is the reason. The people are the point.
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