Notes on playing Ironsworn: Starforged co-op
Supply. A single Supply value is shared between Players. When the value changes for one Player, each other Player should also adjust it. (Rulebook pg. 48)
Shared Iron Vows. The Swear an Iron Vow Move can be used to swear a shared vow. The vow does not have to be equally exciting for both Players, “they might also be something that one is committed to, with other PCs agreeing to help them in that quest.” In a shared vow, one Player makes the initial Move, but both Players share the Progress Tracker, and both Players gain XP (if any) when the vow is Fulfilled.
Combat. The Players share a common, single Progress Tracker, but they make the Enter the Fray Move separately. This is so that each Player will separately track if they’re In Control, or In a Bad Spot.
Session 0: Character Questions. Consider using the third-party addon “Ironsworn: Starforged Character Creation Questions”, by Jozef Frajkor. This can help give some initial link, or a glimpse of some shared history, for the characters in the game.
Session 1: Initial Shared Vow. To quickly introduce the Players to how the Iron Vows work, consider explicitly discussing with everyone out-of-character what initial shared vow could the team swear. Try to do it early, or at least discuss it early, right after introducing the initial drama, a.k.a. the inciting incident.
Connections. According to the Rulebook (pg. 162), “a connection can be shared–in which case you track progress on that connection together.”
Interpretation Disagreements. It’s a good idea to propose that in case of different views on interpreting the result of a roll or an oracle, in general the Player making the roll has the final say. (As long as it does not affect the other Player’s character in a way they don’t like, etc.)
Shared Progress Tracks
(From EdgeOfDreams, via)
The section labeled “Sharing Progress Tracks With Allies” (pg. 43) covers a lot, including the fact that any type of progress track can be shared. The main detail it doesn’t clarify is that each kind of progress track has a slightly different approach to sharing it:
- Vows - one PC does Swear an Iron Vow
- Connections - one PC does Make A Connection
- Combat - each PC does Enter the Fray separately
- Expeditions - there is no separate move to create the track
- Scene Challenges - one PC does Begin The Scene, but there is no roll, so it doesn’t really matter who does it
Other notes
(From EdgeOfDreams) “Even if I know more about the rules than you (for now), I am only a facilitator and fellow player, not the GM. We both have equal power to make decisions about the story.”
(From dude w/ the pronouns…) “ask the fellow player a lot for input on generating the ideas, oracle rolls, etc. exchange NPCs together, and share the load of the work - actively searching for input from the other player to contribute”
(From HellFell) “if someone has companion assets, the other should ask for permission to use them in their fiction (as in their responses, character building etc). Plus the onwer of the asset should be able to edit anything with no further discussion and no questions asked. Its their asset so they get the final say.”
(From HellFell) “check with each other what do you want from a game. Someone wants these things. Another wants those things. The job is to balance all these things so everyone gets to experience what they want. (Combat, exploration, connection gameplay etc)”
(From myself) “say what again I now find obvious, but for sure is not: that we can retcon any and everything when we want - though probably might be good to get mutual agreement - but that it’s “allowed” and that I do it all the time in my soloing” (basically, the Change Your Fate Move)
(From myself) “try to describe Vows as “story arcs”, in that the rank is a choice of “how many pages” rather than actually “difficulty””
(From myself) “a “yes, and…” attitude is the good rule of a thumb, as in general improv”