STARSMITH

ASSETS

A Fan-Created Supplement
for the Ironsworn: Starforged System

By Eric Bright
of Play Every Role
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 Copyright (c) 2023 Eric Bright of Play Every Role

LICENSING INFO
Ironsworn: Starforged is copyright ©2022 Shawn Tomkin and Absolute
Tabletop, LLC. For more information about what you can do with the
license, see the Ironsworn website.
This work is created by Eric Bright and licensed for use under the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY).
You may transfer the contents of this book to another medium (such
as The Augur, Roll20, Foundry, or Stargazer) or create derivative
works based on this content. The only thing I ask is that you let me
know how you are using it in your design so I can follow along! You
can contact me most reliably by email at [email protected].
If you have any questions or would like to collaborate on future
designs, please drop me a line!

WRITING AND DESIGN

All writing and design by Eric Bright.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NOTE: This is NOT OFFICIAL Starforged content! It is fan-made
content made available through the generous licensing of Shawn
Tomkin, creator of Ironsworn: Starforged. Please support him by
purchasing the original Ironsworn: Starforged products!

IMAGE CREDITS
All illustrations were created in MidJourney AI art generation and
licensed for commercial use as the law currently stands. Please
forgive the poor quality, seven-fingered hands, and other drastic
imperfections.
All icons are licensed for commercial use from Flat Icon. All icons
authored by Freepik except for Dragon by Icongeek26, Elements and
Gravity by Eucalyp, Fox and Rifle by Smashicons, Hologram by Nhor
Phai, Laboratory and Nanotechnology by Iconjam, Magic by
Wanicon, Networking by Uniconlabs, Police Badge by
Deemakdaksina, Rocket by Flatart Icons, Split by Jesus Chavarria,
Submarine by Surang

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NEW ASSETS ............................................... 5
Keywords ........................................................................ 5
Modules........................................................................... 6
Aeroponics............................................................................ 6
Armory .................................................................................. 8
Drones................................................................................. 10
External Refit ...................................................................... 12
Holodeck ............................................................................. 14
Stabilizers............................................................................ 16
Tractor Beam ...................................................................... 18
Support Vehicle............................................................20
Aquatic HOV ....................................................................... 20
Paths .............................................................................22
Constable ............................................................................ 22
Cosmic Constructor ........................................................... 24
Enhanced ............................................................................ 26
Linguist................................................................................ 28
Logistician........................................................................... 30
Precog ................................................................................. 32
Psionic ................................................................................. 34
Quantum Tunneler ............................................................ 36
Rebel.................................................................................... 38
Rocketeer ............................................................................ 40
Scientist............................................................................... 42
Security Guard.................................................................... 44
Telepath .............................................................................. 46
Voidshifter .......................................................................... 48
Well-Connected .................................................................. 50
Companions ..................................................................52
Crew Member..................................................................... 52
Flash Fox ............................................................................. 54
Furball ................................................................................. 56
Nano-Swarm....................................................................... 58
Waterwyrm ......................................................................... 60
Deeds ............................................................................62
Immortal Coil...................................................................... 62
Indefatigable ...................................................................... 64
Soulless ............................................................................... 66
Traveler ............................................................................... 68

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4 STARSMITH: ASSETS
NEW ASSETS
Contained in these pages are 32 new assets for Starforged with some
in each category. I’ve tried to stay true to the style of the original
assets except that I’ve added some keywords to save on space.

KEYWORDS
There were some phrases that kept coming up over and over again
on the cards that I decided to trim down to keywords. This allowed
more explanatory text on the cards for how to use the assets while
hopefully maintaining ease of use because the keywords are simple
enough to memorize. They are:

▪ Boost - This is the most common mechanical benefit on

assets. It means “add +1 and take +1 momentum on a hit.”

▪ Roll with advantage - If you’ve been around 5E at all, you

know what this means. It’s when you roll two action dice and
keep the higher of the two. This statistically is equivalent to
getting an add +1, but it just feels so much more fun!

▪ Roll with disadvantage - Rolling with disadvantage is rolling

two action dice and keeping the lower of the two.

▪ Roll a three dice challenge - This is the mechanic that

Shawn uses on some of the original Starforged assets where
you roll three challenge dice and keep two. It’s like
advantage, but if any challenge dice match, you must keep
those. This is a cool mechanic because matches are now
more likely which in turn gives you more swingy results of
either a strong hit with a match or a miss with a match.

STARSMITH: ASSETS 5
 MODULES
All modules are designed as upgrades or additions to your command
vehicle, but you could reskin them to be attached to support vehicles
much like the original Rover asset. For these modules, I tried to think
of some of the classics that were missing (like a Holodeck!) but also
modules that provide similar mechanical benefits to existing modules
while coming at it from a slightly different narrative framing.
AEROPONICS
It turned out that large tanks of water traveling at FTL speeds played
havoc with the inertial dampening systems. That meant that our main
water supplies in Eidolon-equipped vessels had to be spread out and
compressed through tons of piping throughout the ship. This also
made hydroponics a less practical option for growing fresh food
aboard ships than aeroponics.
Not only are the misters of an aeroponics bay more efficient for water
usage, but they were an excellent model used to get the first space
showers to happen. Any time one system can be used in multiple
places it is good because it leaves more space to house secondary,
tertiary and emergency systems.
The aesthetics of an aeroponics bay can also double as a hanging
garden or arboretum. This provides a pleasant atmosphere and the
smells of growing plants allowing the weary traveler to get a little taste
of being planetside while on a long journey.

6 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
I used the term “high yield” in the
first ability to get across the idea
that there is enough food
produced that you can afford to
trade it with settlements that may
need fresh veggies or fruit. In an
effort to discourage abusing this
ability, I added the fact that it
takes time to regrow enough food
for trading. That’s a big hit to your
food stores after all!
The second ability gives you a
bonus to Hearten in the garden. I
was imagining Saru tending his
plants in his private quarters on
the Discovery and the peace that
this brought him.
For the third ability, I wanted something that would drive some story
components. What if you found a way to grow some crazy powerful
plant like the heart-shaped herb in the Black Panther movies? I was
imagining going on a quest to find this special herb and then taking
the final ability of this asset with the XP awarded from that vow. This
not only gives you a vow to go after, but it can drive the story in other
ways. For example, once word gets out that you found a way to
cultivate this plant, your ships becomes more of a target for the
thieves, raiders, and corporate greed machines. You may be able to do
something magical with this herb, but it has painted a large target on
your back.

Quest Starter
The ship known as The Green Seed was one of the original
botanical iron homes carrying a plentiful catalog of plant species
when we migrated to The Forge. While it went missing during the
exodus event, rumors have been popping up of a drifting derelict
that matches its description. What plant of now mythic
proportions did it house? What need do you have of this plant?
What dangerous faction or faction agent is also after it?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 7
 ARMORY
No one heads out in the blackness of space without being prepared
for a raider attack, corrupt faction checkpoint, or a hostile encounter
with spaceborne lifeforms. However, some vessels are more
prepared than others.
A fully loaded armory has weapons that are DNA-coded to the ship’s
occupants, specialized boarding gear for breaching another vessel’s
hull, and high efficiency weapons such as rifles that simultaneously
fire a kinetic bullet and a directed energy blast. As the kinetic bullets
leave the chamber, it recharges the energy cell which allows the rifle
to continue functioning as an energy weapon long after the physical
bullets run out. The armory even has a recycling unit to turn spent
casings into fresh ammunition.
One of the most sought after tech upgrades to the armory is the
opposition coded ammunition. When these kinetic bullets are fired,
they are programmed to learn the patterns of an enemy and adjust
trajectory mid-flight through AI-powered probabilistic matrices
embedded in the bullet.
So why doesn’t every starship have its own armory? Simple: cost.
Keeping the armory stocked costs cash, the armory itself costs space
on a ship, and the swiftly evolving security systems to keep the armory
under lock and key costs a lot of computing power from the core
processor. However, for those who can afford the investment, the
payoff is worthwhile.

8 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability here is meant to
be in the same vein as the third
ability of the Internal Refit
module, but I wanted the abilities
to stack and complement each
other. You get a boost for the
weapons, and if that goes well,
you get to press the advantage
with a continuous add +1 until
your action die abandons you.
The second ability is meant to
represent a shock and awe show
of force style weapon. You can
use this to either overwhelm the
enemy with damage or to make
sure you are positioned well as
the fight continues.
The third ability is your AI-enhanced ammo that seeks out the enemy
giving you a “no 1s here” battle. This is mathematically equivalent to
a constant add +0.5 for the battle. However, the ammo only lasts a
single fight scene.

Quest Starter
The raiders aboard the vessel known as the Fang of the Forge are
known to have some of the fiercest weapons around. If you can’t
outrun them, there is no way to defeat them in battle. Surrender is
the only option. What specialized weapon do they have that you
desperately need? What do you hope to accomplish with this
weapon if you can secure it? What inherent dangers are involved
with using this weapon?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 9
 DRONES
Drones have long been a useful addition to planetside exploration
and combat, but starship sized drones are a different beast entirely.
Not only are they expensive to build and maintain, but they require a
computing system that can process multiple vectors at once with
near instantaneous communication. While crew members can take
manual control in extreme circumstances, these drones operate best
as their own extension of the core computer system of a starship
usually under AI guidance.
While combat was the first application of these large drones,
navigating FTL travel with the Eidolon drive was a swiftly discovered
secondary purpose. Releasing the drones before a jump allows the
Eidolon drives to more accurately triangulate positions, account for
red light shift, and create a stable gravity fold. After the command
vehicle jumps, the drones are able to ride the gravity wave mere light
milliseconds after the main vessel.
Additionally, some drones are affixed with stealth tech that can
produce large ghost echoes on enemy radars. This can buy the main
vessel the critical time it needs to prepare for battle, hide, or even
jump away. Of course, jumping away can mean leaving the drones
behind, but they can always be rebuilt from an onboard printer
specially adapted for drones or picked up at a later time after being
given an order to hide from enemy vessels.

10 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability comes directly
from the Combat Bot companion
asset. However, since this
module has much more utility,
the integrity is lower than the
Combat Bot.
The second ability lets the drones
guide you on journeys, but it is
difficult to travel at FTL speeds
and have the drones all catch up.
I felt the loss of integrity
represented them following
along in the command vehicle’s
wake and getting banged up
along the way.
The third ability is meant to be the
drones going out and leading
enemies away on a wild goose chase. Narratively, this could be that
the three drones stick close to each and mimic the signals of your
command vehicle so the enemy doesn’t know which one to follow, or
they could separate and throw out multiple sensor ghosts, radar
blinders, etc. No matter how you flavor it, they let your command
vehicle have a better chance of escaping notice hiding behind that
moon over there.
In my mind, each point of integrity represents a separate small
drone, and all of them work in concert when they attack or assist.

Quest Starter
A capital vessel for an influential faction left one of its drones
behind on the last Eidolon jump they made. If recovered intact, this
drone could provide valuable intelligence on the factions
movements, locations, and other navigational data.
Unfortunately, the drone was last seen headed into the Terragon
Nebula. What are the rumors surrounding the Terragon Nebula
that make it a dangerous place to approach? What other faction
may try to beat you to the drone?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 11
 EXTERNAL REFIT
They say you can never be too prepared. That’s why superior
command vehicles are outfitted for atmospheric flight, planetside
landings, and interstellar journeys. However, some starships go the
extra mile and do a full external refit. After all, most spacers only
have one starship, and it has to fit all their needs.
For starters, a full refit reinforces the hull which allows it go from the
low pressure environment of space to the high pressure
environment of underwater. The engines are also converted into
ionized plasma jets which can fire underwater and have a near 100%
efficiency rating so as to not contaminate the seas. While the ignited
plasma flash-boils the immediate water, the stream of the jets is so
tightly controlled as to allow precise mobility and limited effect on
overall ocean temperatures.
However, oceans aren’t the only place vessels need to go. Space
itself can be a dangerous environment beyond the pure black void
and lack of pressure. Plasma storms, corrosive nebula gases, lethal
levels of radiation, and micrometeorite showers can all be mitigated
with the proper shielding and multi-layered iron plating.
The most advanced starships can actually transform into whole new
vessel profiles with the help of modular nano-systems. This allows
the ship to adapt to dangers or environments on the fly without the
need for sitting in drydock. While it normally takes a good hour for a
ship’s transformation to complete, there is an emergency protocol
that allows it to complete a full transformation within seconds. This
swift transforming risks burning out the power core of a vessel and
damaging key systems, but many have found it useful in a pinch.

12 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
Yes, there’s a Submersible asset
in Sundered Isles, and yes, I put
my own version of a submarine in
this list of assets, but what if the
whole ship could be your
submarine?! I loved the shot of
the Enterprise coming up out of
the water in the second reboot
film, and now you can recreate
that magical moment with the
first ability here.
The second ability helps with
facing space environmental
dangers. This may be radiation or
other dangerous energies that
are swirling out in the void.
Inspired by Star Trek yet again,
the third ability is modeled after the Prometheus’ multi-vector attack
mode (Voyager) and particularly Booker’s morphing scout ship
(Discovery). This lets you change the ship to get a bonus to one stat’s
roll, but is detrimental for all other rolls. The list of stats at the
bottom of the card are meant to be used with a paper clip for you to
mark which stat is your advantaged stat at any given time. Because
the transforming can go wrong in lots of ways, don’t forget that you
can use a failure in the transformation as a consequence for a miss
in almost any move you make with your command vehicle.

Quest Starter
The science vessel known as the Chrysalis had its morphing matrix
go out of control. It is now switching rapidly between all of its
different modes and making random Eidolon jumps when it hits its
speed profile. The crew on board is sending out an SOS whenever
they are not jumping, but no ship has been able to mount a rescue
in time because of how quickly and randomly they make the next
jump. Who do you know aboard the vessel that is important to
you? What strange or dangerous research was the vessel rumored
to be undertaking when this disaster struck?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 13
 HOLODECK
Holodecks started as a pet project of a single engineer in order to
stave off boredom aboard one of the original iron home vessels.
Once the first fully functioning holodeck was up and running, work
spread quickly throughout the scattered fleet. Everyone wanted
their own personal hologram that they could physically and mentally
interact with.
Despite this more recreational beginning, holodecks soon became a
staple for the more practical purpose of expert consultation on deep
space voyages. Those who could afford the installation and
computer core upgrades necessary to run a full personality matrix in
effect were adding to their crew rosters both experts and
diagnosticians who didn’t take up food, air, water or other resources
required by flesh and blood.
In addition, users could load training simulations from a multitude of
topics ranging from combat tactics to medical procedures to
patching tears in ablative hull armor. One person could truly become
a jack of all trades by continually adding to their skill set.
On top of all this, the original recreational purposes served to help
keep up the spirits of travelers. Whether walking into their favorite
bar or playing out a character in their favorite novel, crew members
with access to a holodeck were able to capitalize on their leisure like
never before.
Unfortunately, the personality matrices are notorious for getting out
of control. It seems like every third starbase and starship has a
horror story of a holodeck trying to kill them. The worst part is that
sometimes it succeeds in doing so.

14 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability here is a way to
lower the XP cost of an asset. The
reason you can roll +integrity or
+an appropriate stat is to give you
room to frame it in the narrative
as you like. If it’s a really good
training program, you might
consider rolling +integrity. If it’s a
run of the mill training program,
but you’re pouring your heart
and soul into, roll one of your
stats that makes sense.
However, note at the end that you
must declare a “new” asset. That
means you can’t get the benefit
of a lower XP cost on the same
asset multiple times.
Additionally, when you max out your training cycle to 4 and mark
complete, you can’t start a new training cycle until you have
advanced and acquired or upgraded the asset you were working
towards. In other words, you can’t bank or “overcharge” your
training. One at a time only!
The second and third ability are fairly normal uses of holodecks in
scifi, so you’re likely familiar with them.
Don’t forget to have the holodeck run wild when you get a miss!

Quest Starter
A trusted friend convinced you to blow off some steam in the
holodeck by running their favorite Dickson Tracey holonovel, a
story about a detective taking on the mob. Unfortunately, while
inside the program, something went wrong and the safety
protocols shut down trapping you in the program. The only way
out is to see the story through to the end. Was this a random
accident, or was there nefarious code hidden in the holonovel your
friend sent? If if was nefarious, were you betrayed, or was your
friend used by an enemy? Are there clues in the story itself?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 15
 STABILIZERS
Ship stabilizers were always necessary components of starships as
one of the first problems that needed to be solved when traveling
even at sublight speeds was how to handle micro-particles that hit
the ship. A single hydrogen atom hitting on the bow of a vessel
traveling at a high enough speed was like setting off a nuclear
explosion. Solving that problem led to the invention of tractor
beams, but more specifically, it led to a deflector array mounted at
the front of the ship designed to push floating space particles out of
the way of a swiftly moving vessel. This set of upgrades allows for
even more safety aboard a command vehicle by moving larger pieces
of matter out of the way like asteroids, comet trails, or even orbital
debris from destroyed vessels or equipment.
Inertial dampeners were one of the next inventions created in order
to allow ships to enter and exit FTL speeds without all of the ship’s
occupants splatting against the interior hull. While this paved the
way for the Eidolon drive in the first place, upgraded inertial
dampeners can apply that same technology to the whole ship
allowing the vessel to absorb larger shocks or forces emitted from
solar winds, nebular weather, or even supernova shockwaves.
The top of the line systems can create isolated gravity bubbles
around a vessel to protect it from the shearing gravitational forces of
ultra-dense stars and close encounters with a black hole. The exact
science of this method is still not fully understood, but it is theorized
that it works similar to a warp bubble. This hypothesis does have
some evidence to support it as ships with malfunctioning graviton
fields have either disappeared only to reappear crushed, warped to
a nearby gravity well instantly, or even vanished entirely.

16 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is not to be used
all the time. Yes, there’s always
tiny debris in space, but this is
meant to be used for more
significant chunks of debris like
an asteroid field you found while
exploring a waypoint or a debris-
strewn graveyard of destroyed
vessels you come across in your
travels.
The second ability is meant to be
more broad than the first and
apply to any environmental
factors found out in space, but it
wouldn’t help during an attack as
that is not an environmental
issue. If a space whale created a
huge eddy of solar waves or a
nebula you were cruising in had acidic gases, then you would likely
get the bonus from this asset..
The third ability is meant to be defensive in nature only. Yes, you
might be able to Secure an Advantage by sneaking up closer to a star,
but these gravity compensators would really only allow you to
position yourself in the narrative rather than actually add a bonus for
that. I guess you could make an argument that this might help you
escape a tractor beam but only if the tractor beam was gravity-based
and only if you were on the defensive (i.e. using Face Danger).

Quest Starter
A crew of four young cadets were headed off for their first solo
mission to map a stormy nebula. For unknown reasons, their tiny
shuttle went too deep into the nebula and became trapped in the
swirling currents and storms. A rescue mission has been mounted,
but larger vessels have too big of a profile to survive the conflicting
nebular winds without upgraded stabilizers, and the closest vessel
with stabilizers is days away. Which cadet do you know who was
on this mission, and why are they important to you? What makes
you suspicious that being pulled in the nebula may have been
intentional rather than an accident?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 17
 TRACTOR BEAM
The tractor beam, short for “attractor beam”, is another engineering
marvel that has become so commonplace as to be taken for granted,
but this technology is far from ordinary. Understanding the physics
of tractor beams did not occur until a relatively short time ago. In
other words, it was far easier for civilization as a whole to migrate to
the Forge than it was to get tractor beams functioning. While the
concept had been in science fiction for centuries, it wasn’t until
humans mastered micro-gravity waves that this breakthrough
technology saw regular use.
In general, radial pulses of gravity waves are projected along a
hyperbolic plane around the outer edges of the target. As the waves
curve around the back, they pick up speed much like a sling shot
maneuver. This creates a tiny bubble around the object with faster
gravity waves coming from behind. From there, it is simply a matter
of pressure. More force from behind and less in front actually pushes
the target towards the tractor beam’s origin rather than pulling it.
This process does ensure that tractor beams work smoothly on their
target, but it can also be terribly slow at times.
While this technology has mainly be used with peaceful intent, it is
true that some have found ways to weaponize it by either
overloading the circuits causing multi-vector gravitic forces to push
the target in multiple directions at once or by reversing the polarity
of the beam (a much safer course for the origin vessel) thereby
creating a swift “punch” of gravity.

18 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is meant to be
used in a careful and calculated
manner. For example, capturing
an icy asteroid and towing it to a
mining colony station that is in
need of a source of water or
grabbing a single space mine and
moving it without it blowing up
your ship. There is no add on this
ability because you gain the
narrative positioning of having
the tractor beam.
The add comes with the second
ability where you get multiple
beams which can be used to more
precisely target an object, target
multiple objects, or narrow their
field to get even smaller objects.
For example, I was imagining using these more narrow beams to
rescue workers who had become untethered while performing
maintenance on a space station or hurriedly grabbing crew members
who had been ejected during a hull breach.
The third ability is like a giant battering ram. However, it can take its
toll on your ship if you’re not careful.
In general, my intention was that the tractor beam could not be used
on objects that were the same size or larger, only smaller targets.

Quest Starter
A science vessel observing a local black hole was knocked off course
when a large vessel exited the black hole and warped away with a
powerful engine of unknown design causing rippling waves of
energy across the sector. The science vessel is now caught on the
edge of the event horizon and cannot escape under their own
power. If enough starships coordinate their tractor beams, it may
be possible to save the science team. What else was this science
studying near the black hole? How did that large vessel escape the
black hole themselves? Where is the vessel now headed that has a
certain faction panicked?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 19
 SUPPORT VEHICLE
AQUATIC HOV
Land, air, and space are not the only mediums worthy of exploration.
Oceans, whether of water or other liquids, often must be traversed
to find the precious resources necessary for survival in the vastness
of the Forge. Moreover, some ocean worlds are only viable for
habitation in underwater cities because the surface waters are so
stormy. This, in turn, necessitates travel from water to space without
the benefit of a land launch. Cue the aquatic HOV.
Aquatic HOVs (human occupied vehicles) that are prepped for use
with a command-level starship are capable of being launched from
orbit directly into the deep waters of an ocean. This is admittedly a
little bit of a rough ride on the occupants, but injury occurrences are
well within the acceptable norms. This arrangement allows a
starship to be dispatched to a water world and then to directly assess
the quality of the ocean immediately. No need to wait for a
temporary base to be built on the surface or underwater.
Once the exploration is complete, the aquatic HOV fires its pre-
primed rocket booster to blast itself back into orbit where it can be
pulled into the command vehicle support bay and prepped for the
next survey mission. Recharging the rockets, cleaning of the water-
oxygen electrolysis system, and other maintenance can all be done
in a drydock-type environment inside the support bay.
The handy vehicles have room for several people, various scientific
equipment, and supplies enough to last for days depending on the
needs of the mission. The upgraded versions also include enhanced
scanners and robotic arms.

20 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability skips over the
launch phase and getting into the
water. I just assume that if you
take this asset, you want to
explore underwater, so you just
make it there automatically. If
you would like to make a roll to
see how successful you are
getting into the water intact,
you’re welcome to roll a Face
Danger move +the aquatic HOVs
integrity. Otherwise, the first
ability has you making moves
underwater.
The second ability gives you the
upgraded sensors, and the third
gives you the manipulator arms
so that you can grab underwater
goodies.
Note that what you don’t have are weapons. If you really want a
weapon system on your sub, you can of course have it. It’s your
game, after all! If that’s the case, I would suggest removing the
sensors and replace it with a weapons system. You might consider
granting a +1 to momentum on a strong with a weapons system or
something a little smaller in mechanical benefit as you would be
gaining a lot of narrative benefit already just by having weapons.

Quest Starter
The notorious pirate vessel known as the Orion Hunter supposedly
crashed on the planet Balylu, a water world with exceptionally high
gravity. The oceans of the world are so deep and water so
compressed by the gravity that orbital scans cannot get a read on
the derelict vessel’s location. What precious cargo was the Orion
Hunter rumored to be carrying when it went down, and why would
it be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 21
 PATHS
CONSTABLE
Law and order can be a fluid concept in the Forge. Jurisdiction claims
often overlap across sectors setting up conflicts between factions
and governments, and even within a single jurisdiction, the
governmental seat is often far enough away that the local authority
takes liberties with how they apply the law.
To help smooth this disparate situation, most governments agreed
to establish the position of constable as an authorized agent of the
government. Not all governments care or respect this authority, but
if a person comes in with the credentials of a constable, they are at
least acknowledged as authorized representatives of their respective
government.
As in most positions of power, the size of the circles of influence
matter. A constable from a larger faction is often given more leeway
than a constable from a smaller faction unless that smaller faction
wields more influence in the immediate area. It’s all a song and
dance deciding which laws supersede the others.
Regardless, most constables are more sheriff than diplomat. They
care more about bringing a criminal to justice than following the
niceties and protocols of governmental interaction. Constables are
people of action, people of purpose, and people of principles. This
singularity of focus can earn them more respect than any badge they
wear from their local authority.

22 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability may be viewed as
closely related to the third, so
allow me to differentiate. When
you Compel, you’re usually
making a command like, “Stop in
the name of the law!” or “Hand
over those stolen goods.” While
in certain narrative circumstances
you might Compel someone to
tell you the truth, that action is
likely better suited to a Gather
Information roll than Compel.
However, other than gathering
intel, if you are adding the phrase,
“in the name of the law” to your
ask, you are likely triggering the
first ability as long as the person
actually knows and/or respects
the particular authority you represent.
The second ability lets you more easily make connections after
solving a crime. There can sometimes be a little hero worship when
an authority swoops in to the rescue, and this gives you a bonus
toward establishing that relationship in a more formal way.
The third ability is basically the second half of the first ability on the
original Sleuth asset. In reality, this Constable asset is supposed to
be a reflavored version of the investigator concept presented in the
Sleuth asset.

Quest Starter
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger
followed. The gunslinger had the accouterments of a constable
from the faction known as the Dark Tower and was tight-lipped
about the crimes of the man in black. However, you know
something about the man in black that the constable does not.
What is it, and why does it compel you to join the constable on the
hunt for this mysterious criminal?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 23
 COSMIC CONSTRUCTOR
Cosmic radiation and other forms of background energy are a near
constant anywhere in the Forge, and it is rumored that some have
mastered the art of tapping into this energy with fantastical results.
Stories abound of those who wield light as if it were a physical force
of nature.
While these tales may sound fictitious, there has been speculative
science as to how these abilities could theoretically work. Those who
investigate the claims of light wielders say that it is simply a matter-
energy conversion happening. While science has found it easy to
unleash the destructive force of turning matter into energy, the true
holy grail has been harnessing the ability to turn energy into matter,
and light wielders are purported to be able to do just that.
If these cosmic constructors are real, their abilities manifest in vastly
different ways across practitioners. Most are said to make bright
yellow constructs of light, like the color of a common star, but others
have claimed to have seen green, purple, blue or red colors being
projected by a light wielder.
In addition to simple cosmetic differences, some users of this power
are said to be able to make intricate shapes with their ability, like a
giant fist used to punch combatants, while others are said to only
make basic shapes, like hexagons or circles or swords made of pure
light.
Whether any of these stories hold truth has yet to be determined
conclusively, but there is no shortage of unverified sightings of these
cosmic constructors across the Forge.

24 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The big idea behind this path is
simply making hard light shapes.
You start off with basic shapes
and expand as you upgrade, but
there should be a plethora of
ways to use this ability even with
basic shapes.
You could be like Ms. Marvel and
cast discs in front of you to walk
through the air, or you could have
a ring that lets you form
projections much like a Green
Lantern. You could even make a
light saber if you want, but the
energy use has a limit. Each time
you make a move aided by it,
you’re losing energy, so you likely
won’t make it through a whole
battle with energy to spare if you Strike with it every time.
In my head, I was imagining things like making a giant wall of light to
block a passageway (hence the picture), constructing a cage of light
around an enemy, making an emergency EVA suit out of light, or
maybe by the third level creating an intricate replacement part for a
machine that will last for a few minutes.

Quest Starter
Rumors tell of a cosmic constructor master living within an asteroid
belt circling close to dying star. How is this person rumored to have
gotten their powers? What dangers now face this light wielder, and
what good deed did they do in the past that compels you to go to
their aid now?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 25
 ENHANCED
Humankind has long sought immortality through genetic therapy
and enhancements. Efforts to slow the effects of aging, increase
muscle mass, and supercharge neurological connections in the brain
all yielded some fruit but only enough to ease the transition from life
to death, not make superhumans. While those experiments were
fully sanctioned and supported by governing agencies, more exotic
experiments were underway in hidden facilities across the Forge.
Strange and unknown DNA samples have been part of the treasures
found within precursor vaults, and for some scientists with a less
than ethical bent, this was an invitation to alter, and perhaps
upgrade, the human genome. Raids have been conducted to shut
down illegal labs that force genetic alterations on the poor,
misguided, duped and desperate.
While most people don’t survive the splicing of foreign DNA into the
body, there are those few who emerge with strange abilities or
augmentations. These people are known as the Enhanced.
One of the few universal laws in the Forge is that any experiment
designed to created an enhanced individual is illegal. In fact, most
municipalities make it a crime to be enhanced and will incarcerate
enhanced individuals giving them the choice between life in prison or
undergoing a dangerous DNA removal process.
Of course, these laws and procedures seem only to apply to the
common folk of the Forge as many high level officials and politicians
are rumored to be enhanced themselves. Those who can keep their
enhancements hidden may reap great benefits in the short term, but
no one can hide forever.

26 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
This asset is mainly a reskin of the
original Augmented asset but
with a genetic flavor rather than
cybernetic. The first ability has
you define your specific
enhancement and how people
react to it. You might have alien
DNA giving you strange and
unusual powers, have eagle DNA
to give you super sight, or have
lizard DNA giving you the power
to regenerate. While the lore on
the previous page marks all
enhancements as illegal around
the Forge, you should feel free to
flavor it in your own version of the
Forge as you wish.
Also know that the change to
your body doesn’t have to be immediately noticeable like a third arm.
It could be a change to your eyesight or your brain that offers you
new sensory details. It could be increased bone density and muscle
tension allowing super jumps. It could be regenerative healing. It
really is open to any interpretation you want.
The second ability gives you a second enhancement, but note that it
does not stack with the first one.
The third ability is meant to drive narrative. What if your DNA held
the key human immortality? What if it contains the roadmap to
reviving the ancient precursor people? You can also make this ability
repeatable if you want so that the third ability doesn’t become
useless after finishing the quest.
Quest Starter
Rumors of truly alien DNA being available at a certain black market
are swirling out from a distant sector. If these rumors are true,
whoever holds this DNA could hold the power to craft a history that
is as yet unwritten. One faction has a particularly nefarious
purpose in mind. What is it, and how does it threaten something
dear to you?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 27
 LINGUIST
As humanity spread across the Forge, the already diverse languages
morphed even further apart. Dialects of the same language would
not interact across the cosmic distances for so long that they would
become nearly entirely distinct languages with even more dialects on
each world or settlement.
Explorers, traders, and governments all recognized the need for
accurate translations, and as such, training programs sprung up that
installed trainees for years of immersion on worlds that used their
chosen language natively. The very best of these graduates
continued to shuffle from world to world every five to ten years
meaning that by their fifth decade of life, they had accumulated a
huge amount of experience with many languages allowing them to
express and understand nuances that many academic students
would miss.
A further progression of this type of linguistic study integrated the
use of obscure grammar rules into encryption methods. It turns out
that nothing hides meaning like extreme regional dialects rarely
heard outside of their original context. As such, some linguists take
up a second career in encryption and secure communication
technologies.
While most starships can’t afford to hire a full-time linguist, nearly
every major faction employ linguists in nearly all of their missions
and transactions. They have found the return on their investment to
be worth several times over the initial cost of training.

28 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
I really liked the idea of an asset
or ability that changed the Ask
the Oracle move probabilities.
Most actual plays that I’ve seen
haven’t dealt with the fact that
there are very likely thousands of
languages throughout the Forge.
Since it would be impossible to
know all of them, and equally
impossible to know what
languages would be helpful
ahead of time, I figured you can
just Ask the Oracle if you have
enough experience with a
language to be able to speak it.
(Did you ever take Elven as a
language only to find out that the
whole campaign took place in a
Dwarven city? Yeah. Don’t pick languages ahead of time!)
For the second ability, I envisioned this being used kind of like
discovering the Rosetta stone. You get small pieces of a language
from which you can eventually extrapolate enough other pieces to
begin primitive communication. From there, it’s just a matter of time
to learn the whole language. Alternately, you might notice an
encryption based on a weird quirk of one of your known languages.
Not only does this help you immediately, but gives you some
narrative direction since you now have a direction to go when
exploring the person who wrote the cipher.
The third ability is meant to represent you giving a rousing speech
that draws upon certain well-known or highly impactful stories or
idioms. “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.”

Quest Starter
A powerful all-frequency broadcast has been received from within
a dark nebula. The words are from an unknown, and so far
indecipherable, language, but they clearly carry emotions of fear
and pleading. What ship was lost in this nebula years ago, and
who did you know on that ship? Why do you feel compelled to
mount a rescue mission despite not knowing the language?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 29
 LOGISTICIAN
Many are the adherents to religion and spirituality, but few are those
who actually apply those tenets. Even fewer are those dedicated
followers of only logic and reason. Emotions constantly bubble to
the surface, and humans are notoriously bad at ignoring them when
a logical and reasoned response is necessary.
The logisticians are an order of people who are better than most at
suppressing emotions in favor of logic. They have strict training
monasteries where they devote themselves to the art and aesthetic
of pure reason. Adherents will often stay cloistered for decades
before venturing back into the world as a changed person.
It is said that a person who completes this taxing training gains such
a mastery over their own mind that no problem is unsolvable for
them. They have an intuition that allows them to gain insights simply
by silently meditating. When they read a text, they can read between
the lines with such accuracy that it seems magical in nature. If a
logistician speaks, you would do well to listen.
However, this level of strict training has its dark side as well.
Suppressing emotions takes its toll on both the body and spirit which
can lead to explosive outbursts of rage or worse. Many logisticians
try to keep this in check through Freudian releases of pent-up
emotions in more controlled environments. Some logisticians will
attempt to release their energy on hunting trips, taking up more
expressive art projects, or even by demolishing whole buildings.

30 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is essentially the
second ability from the original
Seer asset but through the
narrative lens of pure logic rather
than a prophetic vision. Think of
it as Spock or Sherlock Holmes
thinking ahead through all the
possibilities and teasing out the
most likely one. You can mentally
play out scenarios to see how
they came about or notice
something that other people
missed. It’s the embodiment of
the quote, “When you have
eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however
improbable, must be the truth.” -
Arthur Conan Doyle.
The second ability is an extension of the first except for when
research can give you the upper hand in a situation.
The third ability gives a new stat to Compel with. Normally, if you
were reasoning with someone, it would likely be a roll +heart because
the +shadow and +iron options don’t really fit a calm, reasoned
argument. However, I don’t think +heart really fits that either. I think
the +wits roll represents someone speaking super over the top
intellectually about a topic or situation so much so that you just have
to believe them. Think of it as big brain charm.

Quest Starter
The Order of the Mobius Mind was considered one of the premier
schools of logic before it was utterly destroyed by an unprovoked
attack led by a powerful faction. Which faction is responsible for
this attack, and what were they hoping to achieve with this attack?
What makes you think that someone from the Mobius Mind is still
out there, and why would you risk the faction’s wrath to find this
person?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 31
 PRECOG
Precognition was known to be total fiction until our people arrived in
the Forge. Some say precognitive abilities developed because of the
extreme survival conditions the people experienced on the first iron
homes, and others say it was exposure to an energetic rogue comet
that has not been seen since. Whatever the cause, we know that
precognition is now truth.
At first, it was thought that precogs were able to see far into the
future much like the prophets and seers of old, but as far as we can
tell, that’s not how it works. It’s more like a sixth sense alerting the
precog of danger a split second before disaster strikes. While not as
far-reaching as the abilities of a prophet, this danger sense makes for
formidable fighters.
Many of those with precognitive abilities become infiltration
specialists as they are adept are getting out of dangerous situations
quickly and with minimum casualties. They know when a bomb is
hidden and about to go off or when a set of blast doors are about to
slam shut. Even the few heartbeats they can see into future provide
the critical information necessary to make wise decisions in a split
second.
While these abilities are powerful, there is a natural limit to their uses
because they drain the body rapidly of energy meaning that a
prolonged conflict can often negate the use of precognition. While
this draining on the precogs is not necessarily a physical ailment, it’s
like the momentum has been drained from the person.

32 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
This asset is modeled after the
original Looper asset, but is more
like having a Spidey sense all of
your own. The first ability is
defensive in nature. When you’re
in a bad spot and on your heels,
your precog abilities kick in to get
you back in control. However,
there is a cost to pay in the loss of
momentum.
The second ability is offensive in
nature, the counterpart to the
first ability. You can anticipate
how your opponent will respond
to your attacks and adjust
accordingly. If they are going to
pull up their energy shield to
block your light saber, you can
quickly switch to a leg sweep.
The third ability is cool because it switches the values of the possible
outcomes on Secure an Advantage. You’re basically more likely to hit
with the add +2 but you can only get a +1 to momentum so that you
can’t spam this over and over again. You’ll always be draining
momentum to use this ability. The killer combo would be following
the Secure an Advantage with a move that builds back momentum.
Also note that this ability doesn’t have to be used only in a fight.

Quest Starter
A notorious spy and assassin is said to be on the way to infiltrate
the headquarters of a faction you are associated with. They have
asked for your help in defending the faction leader against this
attack. Why are you hesitant to help? What makes you think that
things are not as straightforward as you have been told?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 33
 PSIONIC
Psionics are those who have the power to influence another person’s
mind, will and perception. As you can imagine, this is another ability
that is generally outlawed as overriding a person’s free will is
considered the gravest violation. Those who are discovered to have
psionic abilities are known to disappear in the middle of the night as
either a casualty in the ongoing purge to root out psionics or as an
involuntary recruitment to a shadowy organization.
At one point in recent history, there was a movement to have
psionics register their abilities through the government and only be
able to use those abilities under controlled circumstances when all
parties agreed to it such as trade agreements. In fact, these espers
(as psionics were called at the time) became a standard part of any
treaty signing, business deal, or political interaction. However, when
it was discovered that a powerful esper had been influencing political
parties rather than negotiating in good faith, the psionic community
quickly lost the good will they had built and became hunted again.
Despite their pariah status, the psionic community has continued to
thrive in the shadows. With their ability to subtly influence those
around them, they are rarely discovered as long as they are careful.
It is only the high profile cases that continue to cause problems for
the community as a whole.
Some psionics make good money as a type of mental drug dealer.
For the right price, they can project life-like illusions into the mind of
person. For a willing participant, these illusions can be powerful and
feel like reality allowing someone to connect with a lost loved one or
interact with the lover of their dreams.

34 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is your basic
charm spell from fantasy lore
allowing you to influence the
behavior of another person.
However, there are restrictions so
that you can’t suggest someone
jump off a cliff. Note that if a
person wants to do the action
anyway, the add +1 stacks with
rolling with advantage. Also note
that the outcome of this Compel
roll would be the normal outcome
of the Compel move.
If you’d like to put some more
restraints on this ability, I would
suggest that on a weak hit, the
target is aware of the psionic
compulsion.
The second ability is a lie detector / truth serum. I debated on
making the Compel people to speak truthfully be instead a Gather
Information move, but ultimately I went back to Compel because it
really is about convincing people to speak truthfully only. The Gather
Information would come after the Compel because they could
choose to simply be silent rather than speak the truth.
The third ability lets you roll with advantage when leveraging your
illusion projecting power against a single target, but this doesn’t stop
you from trying to project an illusion against multiple targets since
having psionics in general gives you the narrative framing to do so.
You just wouldn’t get the benefit of rolling with advantage.

Quest Starter
The mastermind behind a particularly powerful crime syndicate
wields truly awesome psionic powers. Nobody with ill intent can
get close to this overlord without turning away at a suggestion, and
anyone who meets this person comes back with a different picture
in their mind of who this person is. One faction is desperately
seeking the identity of this criminal mastermind. How have you
crossed paths with this psionic in the past? What makes you willing
to undertake this mission?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 35
 QUANTUM TUNNELER
String theory long posited that each universe within the multiverse
had its own distinct vibrational frequency. Quantum tunneling is the
act of being so in tune with those vibrations as to ride them to their
next peak or trough. At least that’s the way the scientists explain it
to the lay folk. In reality, we believe that practitioners of quantum
tunneling are actually quantum entangling themselves to a specific
location that they can “feel” through the vibrational frequencies of
the universe. Of course, this is all speculation as the ability is more
an art and intuitive process than a scientific one.
As you can imagine, short range teleportation does lend itself to a life
of crime, and as such, a booming business sector has grown around
development of teleportation blockers. Unfortunately for most,
fortunately for a few, many of these blockers have ended up no
better than the snake oil of old. The theory of how quantum
tunneling works is advanced enough that defense mechanisms make
sense on paper but not advanced enough to actually make a working
product.
The best defensive products have been architectural in nature such
as the puzzler room that is a multi-layered cube with constantly
sliding parts and sections. An object or treasure that you want to
protect can be placed in a puzzler room which moves so often and so
quickly that when a quantum tunneler tries to infiltrate, they end up
with half their body in one section of the room and the other half in
another section. As the sections move, you can imagine what
happens to the tunneler.

36 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
I hate to keep making comic book
references, but that’s the best
way to describe these abilities
since the Quantum Tunneler is
Nightcrawler. You can BAMF
around over short distances.
I thought about making this drain
momentum to use, but ultimately
decided against it because there
are plenty of narrative and
mechanical consequences you
can apply to yourself on a failed
teleport. You might end up in the
exact wrong spot or stuck in a
wall, or maybe you show up in the
right spot but your equipment
didn’t survive the teleport.
The first ability here is the basic teleportation letting you jump
around. Note that jumping through an obstacle is inherently more
dangerous but can really build the momentum quickly.
The second ability is the combat version where someone is attacking
you and suddenly you show up behind them. It allows you to keep
the better positioning by being in control with the penalty of giving
up some progress that could have been marked. It makes combat a
bit slower but more sure.
The third ability is modeled after the second ability on the original
Looper asset but instead of anchoring yourself to a time, you’re
anchoring yourself to a place. Even if that place moves, like your
command vehicle, you go wherever it goes because it’s the actual
atoms of that location that you are entangled with, not its galactic
GPS coordinates.

Quest Starter
A cat burglar has plagued the local megacity and is thought to be
making their getaways using quantum tunneling. What items have
they been stealing that hold significance in your life? What pattern
have you noticed in the thefts that the local authorities have not
figured out yet?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 37
 REBEL
No matter how far humans have traveled away from our original
solar system, we have yet to escape our proclivity for tyranny and
oppression. Thus, we continue to need those who are brave enough
to stand up and fight. We need rebels.
At this point in history, factions hold more sway than governments.
They dictate the rules of society to fit their own needs rather than the
needs of the people. Whether their ultimate goal is fueling the
insatiable hunger of capitalism or stamping out thoughts and beliefs
contrary to their own, tyrannical factions have very little in the way of
regulations or oversight to stand in their way. Enter the rebellion.
While no one enjoys the loss of life that comes when an interstellar
war is waged, it is widely acknowledged that rebellions led by
principled freedom fighters are about the only method to throw off
the shackles of an oppressive faction. Laws simply don’t apply once
a faction gets big enough to hold the majority of the power and
resources, and the old mantra of “absolute power corrupts
absolutely” still holds true.
Rebels can take on many guises from soldier to spy to infiltrator to
saboteur, but all of them dependent on one crucial currency:
information. Without a reliable network of intelligence gathering, no
rebel can be successful. And so it is that you may get a garbled
message one day from an insider with clout pleading with you and
saying, “Help me, Joni Juan, you’re my only hope.” Will you answer
that call?

38 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability has you choose a
faction that you are fighting
against. Unless you designed
your campaign around the idea of
a rebellion, you likely won’t be
able to name a faction to fight
against during character creation,
so expect to take this asset later
in the game.
The phrase “to protect a
community from the actions or
influence of that faction” in the
first ability should be interpreted
loosely. Vowing to destroy a
newly established mining facility
could be seen as protecting the
community from an oppressive
power. However, like with all
vows, it is usually best to keep its conclusion open to multiple
outcomes rather than a binary choice of the mining facility being
destroyed or not.
Both the first and the second ability can be used without becoming a
direct combatant. You might be an office worker inside the faction
and working to sabotage things from within. You may be an avowed
pacifist who sabotages by throwing off the timing of events
important to the faction and smuggling out innocents or rebellion
leaders before they are arrested.
The third ability is obviously combat oriented. When you get fired up
and are ready to the take the fight to the faction, you get a bonus
when you begin the battle.

Quest Starter
The Hand of the Holy Equilibrium espouses that the only way to
ensure there are enough resources for everyone to live well is to
cull the human population. Through manipulation and abuse of
psionic power, people across the sector volunteer to be culled and
view it as honor to do so. Who do you know that is on the Holy
Equilibrium’s next target planet? How did they save your life once?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 39
 ROCKETEER
Jet packs were always a dangerous means of locomotion. The flames
shooting down toward the ground meant that the users inevitably
caught on fire themselves. The most successful jet packs from the
Old World were actually hydro-powered which limited their use to
recreation on lakes and oceans. However, with the advent of
technology that can produce and use localized gravity waves, the full
power of the jet pack has finally been unlocked.
Since jet packs now run off of modified gravity waves, they can be
sealed and used in almost any environment. Need to do some
underwater exploration? Strap on a jet pack over your diving gear
and let it gently propel you through the waters. Need to do some
emergency hull repair? Use your jet pack to perform the
maintenance without the need of a tether. Almost all jet packs are
rated to maintain full functionality in air, water and space equally.
There are also multiple configurations of jet packs. Some are slim
and no larger than a small book bag. These can provide modest
thrust and are particularly useful when the user needs more mobility.
Other models utilize a larger pulse generator for greater thrust as
well as smaller stabilizers that extend in front of the user that give
them the ultimate in fine control and maneuverability.
Many people assume that using a jet pack is as simple as strapping
in and pressing the button, but that’s not true. Most first time users
end up with bumps, bruises and broken bones because it is difficult
to learn how to balance one’s body mid-flight. It takes long hours of
training in safety facilities before a company will even sell you a jet
pack and risk their reputation on your flight abilities.

40 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
I went back and forth on whether
this should be a support vehicle
or path. I ultimately landed on a
path because I felt like you would
likely take your jet pack with you
even on a support vehicle. The
limited fuel of the jet pack lends
itself to only being used in the
most necessary of circumstances.
The first ability gives you some
narrative framing and also a
powerful add +2 at the cost of one
fuel. I was imagining jumping
across canyons or rivers, but you
could equally use the jet pack out
in open space as well.
For the second ability, I was
imagining the Mandolorian getting knocked down by a big tough
alien with an axe. As the blade falls towards Mando, he flips on his
jet pack and shoots backwards out of the way of the axe. You may
have to suspend disbelief a bit for the jet pack not to set you on fire
in that case or modify your concept of a jet pack to actually be pulses
of gravity rather than fiery jets.
The third ability should be seen as the jet pack helping you on a
journey, not necessarily being your full-time vehicle as you journey.
If you’re traveling across a jungle world, you may need jump assists
to clear a particularly thick tangle of undergrowth or make it across
the piranha-infested river.
Also note that if you’re not making a move, you’re not burning fuel.
That gives you the narrative license to use your jet pack for simple
movements like flying to the top of a one-story building.

Quest Starter
Crater Valley is on the dark side of a rocky planet that is
gravitationally locked to always face its sun. Due to a thick asteroid
belt, meteors fall in this valley nearly constantly creating huge
craters. A ship went down and is stranded in one such crater. What
cargo were they carrying that you desperately need?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 41
 SCIENTIST
In the Forge, it seems that the wonders of science never cease. This
is partially because knowledge has been widely recognized as the
only unending resource available which in turn made going into
experimental sciences a very lucrative career choice. Failure is no
longer seen as the enemy, but a necessary step on the road to
making scientific breakthroughs that not only change the world but
also make the parent company a lot richer.
The race for knowledge (and cash) has led to most scientists having
an extremely narrow focus for their field of expertise. For example,
engineers and maintenance crews are left to be the experts on the
Eidolon drive, but a scientist might be an expert on the methods by
which an Eidolon equipped ship returns back to normal space after
an FTL jump. They figure out how it works, and then the engineers
actually make it happen.
Being a scientist is also a relatively safe career even on frontier
worlds in the Forge. The narrow expertise makes it hard for a faction
to replace a scientist even if the faction doesn’t like the scientist’s
results, and competitive factions are reluctant to sabotage or
otherwise impede a scientist’s research in the hopes that one day the
scientist will work for them.
While many scientists enjoy the daily work of discovery in the lab,
there are those few adventurous ones who seek out discoveries
through field research. They want to apply their knowledge out in
the messy conditions of real life to make sure their discoveries can
stand up to the rigors of true application.

42 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
This asset is like the original Lore
Hunter asset and Gearhead asset
combined except that this is more
specialized. When you take this
asset, you’ll want to think of an
area of expertise for your
character. You want to pick
something that fits the flavor of
your character but also is
applicable in multiple situations.
Having a super-narrow focus is
great in the lore (on the previous
page), but you might want to be
just a bit broader so the
mechanics actually happen.
Something like “FTL travel” or
“Xenovirology” or “Holographic
Personality Matrices” is fine.
The first ability here is more action-oriented in that you are making
something to help in a specific situation. The second ability is the
counterweight to this in that you are digging for info so that you can
make a plan at the next step.
For the third ability, I was imagining the trope of trying out a sciency-
type thing in a dangerous situation. “Are you sure we can ionize the
induction coils to bypass the force field?” “Well, in theory, that would
cause more electrons to bond at the circuit point breaking the power
flow to the force field. Either that or the force field will explode. Let’s
find out, shall we?” Throws the switch.

Quest Starter
Balari Gowan is the foremost scientist in the field of black hole
gravity waves. She was scheduled to be the main speaker at a
conference yesterday but never showed up. Local authorities
suspect she was abducted but have no leads. Which faction do you
know that is doing experiments with black holes? What dangerous
application are they seeking to achieve? If they succeed at their
purpose, someone you care about will be put in danger. Who?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 43
 SECURITY GUARD
At one point, people speculated that all security guards of the future
would either be drones or cybersecurity experts and thus be digital
in nature. However, whether ancient talismans protecting warriors
from monstrous creatures or knights protecting their king, security
has always had a physical component, and today is no different.
The difference is that in today’s world, security guards need to be
trained and equipped to handle a larger variety of threats. They
could be dealing with an android fighter that has many times their
strength, defending from a swarm of drones with the advantage of
numbers, or turning away sycophants who would use and abuse
their client. A security guard must be ready for any eventuality.
To prepare for such threats, security training schools have popped
up across the Forge but none as successful or well-regarded as the
Sapphire Anqa. Known for their four-pronged approach to security,
graduates of the Sapphire Anqa are in high demand and fetch the
highest compensation rates. Many factions will flat out lie and say
their facilities are protected by Sapphire Anqa guards just to reduce
the chances that a criminal will attempt to steal their goods or
resources.
One of the most useful tools a security guard has is their intuition for
danger. It is said that the Sapphire Anqa are able to read the hearts
of human and beast alike as portrayed in the now legendary story of
Sa’lim Fazran stopping a rockhorn mid-charge to protect his young
ward and crown prince.

44 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability gives you a bonus
add value that can be used six
times in total over the course of
completing a protection vow. The
idea behind this is to incentivize
taking risks for whatever it is that
you are protecting. If you feel like
this doesn’t last long enough, you
could add a recharge rule that
lets you add +1 to the die value if
you successfully Sojourn in the
presence of your charge.
Some may argue that the second
ability is better covered with Gain
Ground or React Under Fire, but
this is meant to be physical in
nature. It’s actual fighting and
combat, and therefore I believe
Strike and Clash are better suited.
The third ability gives you a method to Gather Information with heart
rather than wits. You rely on your well-trained and well-developed
sense of intuition. I imagine a scene where someone is trying to
sweet talk their way in to see your charge, and you can tell right away
that something is off. The +2 momentum along with an add +1 may
sound like a huge reward, but remember it’s only if you actually
uncover a threat. When you successfully Gather Information, you
could just as easily find out that there is no threat at all.

Quest Starter
A faction with a penchant for shady technology development has
just hired Sapphire Anqa trained guards to protect a warehouse
near the local starport. The authorities suspect a dangerous new
technology is about to be delivered into the wrong hands but don’t
have evidence to act. Why are you eager to volunteer to find out
what is in the warehouse before it’s too late?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 45
 TELEPATH
Telepathic abilities allow a proficient user to connect to the mind of
another person, usually these connections are benign in nature and
used mainly for communication purposes. If possible, military
groups like to have squadron leaders with telepathy so they can
transmit orders without fear of being intercepted by the enemy. The
more powerful the telepathic abilities, the more people the telepath
can link to.
Those who are joined together in a telepathic link are known as a
myalo, and being a member of such a group takes practice, patience,
and forgiveness as sometimes thoughts are shared too readily. With
time, myalin (members of a myalo) can filter the thoughts that they
send across the telepathic link. Strong emotions make it more
difficult to suppress the sending of some thoughts, but most learn
well enough to make the connection more useful than a detriment.
Because of the openness of the minds within a myalo, myalin
typically form close bonds with one another in a familial way.
Like all tools, the way telepathy is used makes a difference. General
communication is not frowned upon, but more invasive means of
telepathy are the well-known darker side of these abilities. A
powerful enough telepath can see through the eyes of a nearby
person or creature with or without their consent.
Even more powerful telepaths are able to alter the memories of a
person or creature, again with or without their consent. Sometimes
this ability is put to use to help someone who is grief-stricken to
forget about the loss of a loved one, but more likely than not, these
alterations are more nefarious in purpose. Usually, these alterations
are not permanent and need regular maintenance to stay altered.

46 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is a basic mind
link, but you have to be in physical
contact with the person to
establish the link. While I didn’t
put that it needed to be a willing
participant, I think that is the
proper implication. If you try to
establish a link with an unwilling
participant, you might consider
rolling with disadvantage instead
of getting the boost. I didn’t put
how long it takes for the link to
fade on a weak hit so you can use
that as a miss consequence on
other moves if necessary. Also,
feel free to remove or alter the
limitation on how many links can
be active. I just used a number
that made sense to me.
For the second ability, it should also be understood that you are in
physical contact with the person. It’s not easy to alter someone’s
memories, so it requires time and proximity. The memory changes
are never permanent, so they could come back to haunt you at the
worst time (like when you roll a miss with a match).
The third ability was originally the old locate object spell just
hijacking someone’s senses to do so, and then I realized that if you’re
hijacking senses to locate an object, you can hijack senses period.

Quest Starter
The leader of a faction suffered an attack by a telepath who
completely erased some memories. To make matters worse, the
memories are not returning even after a fortnight of waiting.
Talking through multiple issues with the leader’s staff and trusted
confidants has not revealed any gaps in memory to clue them in on
the subject of the missing memories. What clue do you have as to
the topic of the missing memories? Why are you willing to track
down this telepath in the hopes of learning about these memories
before the leader gets them back?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 47
 VOIDSHIFTER
The Void is home to myriad unknown objects, entities and energies.
One such energy travels the cosmos as a bright neon ribbon flowing
like a sine wave and has been proven responsible for altering the cell
structure and DNA of certain humans predisposed to this mutation.
With this new physiology comes the ability to morph ones physical
appearance for a short time, but that’s only for the ones who survive
the initial onslaught of energy.
The first time this energy ribbon was encountered, none survived.
Ship’s logs show the captain and chief medical officer racing against
time to stop their bodies from, in essence, slowly melting off their
frames. We now know this is what happens when a human’s
particular DNA cannot handle the morphogenic changes induced by
the energy ribbon.
For those that do survive this change, their bodies gain the ability to
change shape and appearance. The longer someone works to
master this new skill, they better they get at it. While this does sound
like a superhero-like trait that would be desired, no one goes out
looking to gain shapeshifter abilities because over 99% of the people
who encounter the energy ribbon don’t survive.
At first, clandestine and surveillance operations were happy to utilize
this ability for their own ends, but after the first few recruits caused
havoc impersonating generals, high priests, and others, most
organizations keep voidshifters around only to be able to track them
more easily. They are often given desk jobs from which they are
never unshackled. Due to this, most ships that encounter the energy
ribbon strip the data from their logs as soon as possible so that they
are not reported and screened for the voidshifting ability.

48 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
Overall, this asset is meant to be a
little more Mystique and a little
less Venom. By that, I mean that
I envisioned this being about
changing from a human looking
one way to a human looking
another way. I don’t think it
allows you grow larger, smaller,
or thinner like Mr. Fantastic.
Note that the shapeshifted form
does not last indefinitely. I left
the time limit intentionally vague
as a “short period of time” so that
you can use this as a dramatic
failure if you’d like.
While the second ability is meant
to be a direct boost to combat, I
still don’t necessarily envision it as a full Venom-like transformation.
I don’t think your arm turns into a blade or hammer. Instead, I think
you can temporarily increase the density of your bones or ratchet up
the tension in your tendons to make you stronger, faster, and
generally more athletic. The limit on this ability is based off of the
number of uses.
The third ability is meant to be a bit more subtle. Like your lungs
gaining better filters to help you survive toxic gases, your skin
tightening to help you survive in the vacuum of space a few seconds
longer, or your circulatory system helping to distribute and regulate
heat better as your ship heats up near a star. In my mind, this is an
almost automatic response of your body in times of danger rather
than something planned or practice.

Quest Starter
The voidshifter energy ribbon just traveled through the Xorian
sector where the starship Y’nidia, transporting four families to a
newly built space station, was caught in its path. The Y’nidia’s last
broadcast was an SOS that their ship could not jump away in time,
so they would try to launch life boats and spread out in hopes of
saving some from the ribbon. Who do you know on the Y’nidia?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 49
 WELL-CONNECTED
Humans have been social creatures since time immemorial, and life
in the Forge is no different. The unfortunate truth is that it’s often
more about who you know than what you know, so those who
develop their social graces see exponential payoffs more quickly.
While this seems manipulative and inauthentic to some, there are
those few people who truly care in an authentic manner about even
the smallest relationship, and it’s these elite socialites who can make
the deal when it counts.
A prime example is the story of Luthia Barthelway, a humble pizza
delivery girl in the megacity New Atlantis on the watery planet of
Mizuvoda. There wasn’t a billionaire in the city that she hadn’t
delivered pizza to, and she picked up a thing or two about each one
during her deliveries. Soon, people were calling Luthia for advice on
how to get just one minute with Jeve Stobs or Gill Bates, but Luthia
didn’t bite. She knew better. She told them she would do what she
could, but she was only a pizza girl with no real insider information.
One night, Mr. Stobs was having another late work session with his
development team who was hungry and tired. The pizza hit the spot,
but more importantly, Luthia struck the right chord by serving
individual slices to everyone. Not out of slick self-promotion, mind
you, but just because she cared. While serving the team, she heard
several mentions of “Where are we going to find an expert on AI
partitioning protocols this late in the project?”
Luthia hadn’t the slightest idea what AI partitioning was, but
someone else she regularly delivered for was known for coding AI.
“I may know someone who can help,” said Luthia. After that night,
Mr. Stobs ordered pizza much more often.

50 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is all about setting
up a two-move combo where
having an expert opinion is
useful. The obvious combo is
Secure an Advantage and then
Gather Information, but it could
equally be Secure an Advantage
followed by a Face Danger where
the expert can walk you through
defusing a bomb or followed by
Gain Ground where you capture a
strategic position because you
called up someone with access to
the classified blueprints of a
compound.
It’s basically you saying, “I might
know someone who can help.”
Note that it really is “might.” This
is not using a normal connection. It’s you making up a brand new
NPC who may being willing to help you this time and become an
actual connection after working with you.
The second ability is about becoming a friend of a friend. It
strengthens all the bonds in the relationships.
The third ability is about name-dropping, but if you miss, your name-
dropped connection may be totally mad that you blatantly attempted
to use their reputation for your own gain.

Quest Starter
Reality is breaking. A micro-tear in the space-time continuum is
threatening to become a full breach within one week. The local
authorities are keeping the potential breach a secret but need help
gathering a team of experts to immediately address the issue
before it becomes a crisis. Who do you know that has dealt with a
related problem before? What makes getting them to the micro-
tear a difficult and dangerous task?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 51
 COMPANIONS
CREW MEMBER
What started as a loosely aligned group of iron homes wandering
through the Forge grew into something much more. Mutual
protection pacts led to the cooperative creation of more advanced
defenses and starships to insure they would make it to a new home.
Of course, this was predicated upon advances within several
scientific disciplines which further entwined the alliance members
through shared experiments and results. By the time the iron homes
were being decommissioned, the alliance was so firmly formed that
only a name was needed: CAP, the Conglomeration of Allied Planets.
The CAP command center, CAP-COM, was established on a central
planet, and the Academy of Studies for CAP, or ASCAP, formed a few
short years later. With general peace in the immediate regions, an
armada of cutting edge starships were designed and built with a
primary purpose of exploration to connect with far flung or
floundering iron homes. This interstellar naval branch of CAP was
dubbed the STARMADA!
The academy churned out top level engineers, scientists, medical
doctors, counselors, technicians, security officers, diplomats, and
commanders who all joined together, almost as a family, for 5-year
missions of exploration. The crew, led by a competent core of
officers, learned to work as one and to boldly go through the Forge
seeking out new worlds and offering assistance to those in need.
While the primary mission is exploration, the Starmada is well-
equipped to defend themselves when the need arises. However,
diplomacy is always the first choice; violence the last.

52 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is a copy of the
original Sidekick asset’s first
ability except that it is narrowed
to use within their role on the
ship. However, you don’t
necessarily have to be aboard the
command vehicle to use this
ability. For example, a security
chief might escort you planetside
on a diplomatic mission that
turns hostile. If you were to Face
Danger by having them race you
to a defensible area, you could
use this ability.
The second ability is the classic
Star Trek: Next Gen round table
discussion led by the wise Captain
Picard. You may want to use the
implicit condition here that you would need to have time enough to
conference in order for this ability to be triggered. For example, if
you are in the middle of a starship battle, you likely wouldn’t take
time out to conference like this, but if you were stranded in an acidic
nebula that was slowly eating your ship’s hull, that would be an
excellent time to conference.
The third ability I affectionately refer to as the Red Shirt ability. The
scene went out of control quickly, and the poor crew member who
only had one line of dialogue just got vaporized. However, that gives
the captain enough time to make a dramatic escape or even turn the
tide back to the side of the good guys.

Quest Starter
A faction of rogue AI are on a mission to bring peace to the galaxy
by assimilating all life into a single unified hivemind. To fuel their
nano-tech and horrific starships, they gather resources by using
powerful tractor beams to rip the water and outer crust from a
planet which is then sorted into constituent elements. Their fleet
was last spotted headed to a sector you are familiar with where the
people have decided to fight. Who lives in that sector that once
saved your life so that you now feel compelled to help save theirs?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 53
 FLASH FOX
The creature known as the flash fox is a native of the desert world
Nizligi where the vast stretches of sand are only interrupted by rocky
canyons made of pure obsidian. The instability of the planet’s core
leads to frequent earthquakes where columns of obsidian will swiftly
shoot upward or flat stretches of the rock will shatter to become a
gaping hole. To traverse this ever-changing landscape, the flash fox
evolved the ability teleport over short distances.
This ability may have also been an adaptation to hunting in the
stifling hot deserts where the sand can scorch the feet of a creature
who stands on it for too long. The flash foxes can teleport towards
their prey, take it down, and teleport back to less hot areas of shade
to feast.
When these wondrous creatures were first discovered, humanity
attempted to exploit them as pets and attack dogs, but a group
known as the Nine-Tailed Shepherds built a series of orbital space
stations in order to protect the planet from poachers and those who
would exploit its resources to the detriment of all life there. The
Nine-Tailed Shepherds strive to work in harmony with the odd
ecosystem of the planet to keep their own communities alive while
still maintaining the natural environment of Nizligi.
Occasionally, a flash fox will take a liking to one of the shepherds and
choose to stay with the human as a constant companion. The foxes
who make this bond adapt quickly to life in space and learn to work
with their companion human in many capacities from defending the
planet against raiders to gathering scientific data in hard to reach
places on the planet’s surface.

54 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is similar to the
Rockhorn asset’s first ability but
for mobility instead of attacking.
The rockhorn gets a roll of +1 to
+5, so I gave the flash fox a boost
on this since it has lower health in
the first place. You might use this
to Secure an Advantage, Gain
Ground, React Under Fire, or any
other move where you need to
get to a hard to reach area that
would otherwise be inaccessible.
The second ability represents
your fox teleporting to you and
then quickly teleporting again to
turn a direct hit on you into a
grazing wound. However, doing
this puts your fox at risk as well.
The third ability is meant to emulate Nightcrawler’s quick BAMF
attacks. The fox teleports in, bites, and teleports back out over and
over again. I thought about making this give you more momentum
instead of a bonus on the roll but ultimately settled on the same
wording as the Combat Bot asset’s first ability.

Quest Starter
The Nine-Tailed Shepherds have put out an emergency bulletin
asking for help tracking and apprehending a raider group who
captured several flash fox families from Nizligi and made a clean
get away. They believe the raiders are intending to set-up a
breeding program to sell pups to the highest bidder. An old fable
from your youth always made you admire the fox. What was the
tale, and who was it that told you this tale so often? Why would
they want you to risk going after the raiders?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 55
 FURBALL
The species colloquially known as furballs are tiny animal like a cross
between a cat and a monkey who spend most of their time slouched
in a spherical shape. When they finally decide to move around, it is
at the speed of a sloth.
Despite their ability to proliferate swiftly and in large numbers,
furballs were near extinction on their native world due to
environmental stress stunting their reproductive cycle. After careful
study and deliberation, a group of scientists stepped in to
domesticate them finding that to be the best option for their future
survival. While many animal rights groups protested this action,
extensive research has been done on the creatures which showed
that living with a human as a pet has many benefits for the furball as
well as the human. It is a great success story of saving a whole
species.
Since the publication of this research, furballs have been widely
adopted not only as household pets but as service animals in the field
of mental health. The cooing noises these creatures make resonate
at a frequency that produces endorphins and feelings of tranquility
in most organic forms of life. They are beloved by all and held up as
an icon of peace across the Forge.
The only problem they have ever presented in society is their
occasional over population. When background cosmic harmonics
coincide with times of particular peace and contentment, furballs
asexually reproduce at an exponential rate. While this is normally
seen as a blessing, it has led to damage on starships where the
physical spaces become crowded with a full huddle of these adorable
creatures. That happenstance is known as the foible with furballs.

56 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability represents your
character gaining comfort from
their relationship with their
furball. These cuddly little guys
can melt even a heart of stone.
Most of the time they just sit
there like a ball of fur, but every
once in a while when you stop
petting, they sit up on their hind
legs and look at you with those
eyes begging for more cuddle
time. (Just got a dog who is
basically this!) However, that
nearly full-time bonus comes with
a cost if you bring your furball
into dangerous situations.
The second ability is about using
your furball as a diplomatic
animal companion. They can help calm nerves and establish trust
where it otherwise might not be possible. You might Secure an
Advantage by getting someone to vouch for you or Face Danger by
trying to talk down an angry faction leader. I guess this is emotional
manipulation, but it comes in a tiny package of cuteness.
The furballs are basically born to love and be loved, so when you
make a move in the same vein as per the third ability, you get a boost.
That means your relationships flow more smoothly when everyone is
chill with the furball love vibes.

Quest Starter
One faction leader wants to make amends with a rival faction
leader, and a gift of a furball is widely viewed as the most sincere
gift possible since they can detect the stress of a situation.
However, while the gift is meant to genuinely start a new chapter in
the relationship between the two factions, tensions are still high.
Why do you need these two factions to cooperate? What is at stake
if they don’t?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 57
 NANO-SWARM
At the advent of nanites, they were banned from being able to self-
replicate. It was thought that a swarm of nanites might consume all
matter in the universe turning it into a giant glob of gray goo. While
that hasn’t happened yet, there was no way to enforce the ban and
self-replication became the norm for these tiny bots.
The field of medical sciences was one of the first to adopt the use of
nanites to deliver medication to or operate on specific cells, but their
uses soon became more universal. At this point, many high grade
tool kits are not actually tools but a group of nanites that can change
their shape into whatever tool is needed at the time. They can also
increase or decrease their density, heat-resistance, or any number of
other characteristics given enough time and programming.
Surveillance was the next logical jump for these creations. They
could spread out across an environment so thin as to be nearly
undetectable while logging precision data on all aspects of the area
and those in it. As is always the case, this led to an arms race where
nanite defensive experts worked tirelessly to protect people from the
ever-evolving abilities of a swarm.
The first military to adapt the use of nanite swarms in combat was
ostensibly trying to limit the amount of human casualties. The bots
were programmed to simply overwhelm and incapacitate enemies
thereby winning the day without the loss of life. Unfortunately, there
are those bad actors who took nano-swarms to the next level of
violence by having them literally consume their enemies to fuel their
regenerative powers.

58 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
This asset is like a combination of
the original Sprite, Utility Bot, and
Combat Bot assets. However, it
does take you time to reprogram
the swarm to suit your needs, and
they lose power with each use. I
imagine a tiny touch pad and
holding compartment worn like a
watch on your wrist that is used
to deploy and program the
swarm.
The first ability is a boost to
engineering or techie type
characters. Don’t have a self-
sealing stembolt handy? Have
your swarm become one that
keeps the equipment running
long enough to get true repairs.
This is like the Utility Bot.
The second ability helps you to spy on others and is very similar the
Sprite asset. Again, I imagine you’re looking at the view screen on
your watch control pad and have a wireless earbud to hear what’s
going on. I’m sure this could be set to record so that you could use
it to Secure an Advantage through blackmail if that’s the type of
character you enjoy playing.
The third ability is its attack mode which means you can get one add
+2 and then one add +1 before they need time to recharge and self-
replicate again.
Quest Starter
A nano-swarm’s programming was distorted in a surge of unusual
energy. The original purpose of the swarm was surveillance, but it
is now consuming and destroying the building that it was sent to
spy on. No organization has come forward to take responsibility,
and the city at large is becoming increasingly at risk. Without the
original programmer’s codes, the swarm cannot be remotely
deactivated. Who do you think is responsible, and what telltale sign
did you notice about the swarm that hints at the owner? What
makes you think that you can stop this spreading swarm?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 59
 WATERWYRM
Waterwyrms are great dragon-like sea serpents from the planet
Lerih that can grow up to the thickness of the largest species of tree
and the length of several space shuttles. They are the undisputed
top of the food chain on their home planet and hunt with speed,
cunning, and ferocity. What we did not expect was the empathic
connection they can make with a human.
Bonding with a waterwyrm takes time, skill, an open heart, and a lot
of luck. While we don’t know the scientific nature of how a lasting
bond works, we do know that those with intentions of oceanic
exploration and mastery are more likely to be accepted by a
waterwyrm than eaten by it.
Once a ritualistic bond has been forged, a shell is collected from the
sea floor den where the waterwyrm made its home. This shell is
fashioned into a necklace and worn much like a charm and helps to
focus and channel the empathic connection and communication
between human and beast. These shells are often handed down
through three or four generations as a waterwyrm’s lifespan is far
longer than our own.
Seeing not only their usefulness in exploring newly discovered water
worlds but also their joy at doing so, vast saltwater tanks were
developed to allow waterwyrms to accompany their bondmate on
interstellar missions to new planets. With enough patience and
practice, the human bondmate can harness and ride the waterwyrm
through the seas of these strange new worlds.

60 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability is a carbon-copy of
the Rockhorn asset’s first ability.
It is just framed a little differently
in the narrative.
The second ability makes use of
the waterwyrm’s long serpentine
body. Depending on how big you
would like to make your
waterwyrm, they could entangle
anything from a shark to a whale
to a fishing boat to a huge cruise
ship. Remember that whatever
size you make your waterwyrm,
you’ll need a command vehicle
with enough space to fit their
saltwater tank if you want to take
them with you on your travels
through the stars.
The third ability is purely for exploration of an underwater region. I
imagined that characters would have a diving suit of some kind so
that you can sustain this exploration over the long haul, but you can
flavor it as them swimming with their head out of the water as you
ride along if that suits you better.
Notice that on most of these moves you only get narrative framing
and rolling +its health. I didn’t put any adds on the abilities because
the waterwyrm has a high health that you can utilize making it
almost like an add already.

Quest Starter
An underwater city on the planet Waiji had a catastrophic failure of
its protective dome. Because the surface of the planet is toxic to
humans, the survivors are in small lifepods spread out on the
ocean floor by strong currents. Who do you know on Waiji that is
among the missing? What do they still owe you that you are willing
to mount a rescue mission?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 61
 DEEDS
IMMORTAL COIL
It is whispered about the Forge that the key to unlocking immortality
has been found. They say that the perfect fusion of humanity and
machine has been discovered and that this technology is only
possible through intricate programming of subatomic quantum
computing. What are humans, after all, except a jumble of
programming that occurs through chemical processes in the body?
But if this rumor is true, none have seen the evidence of it yet.
Through the ages, humans have been able to extend life and the
quality of that life through medical treatments, healthy living, and
enhanced nutrition, but these methods have yielded diminishing
returns for the cost investment. Thus, true immortality began to be
pursued through technology like self-replicating nanites. As these
experiments progressed to human subjects, world after world and
sector after sector placed bans on the research. Humanity was
united in the fact that they knew we were never meant to live forever.
Despite that belief, if you ask most people how long they would like
to live, the answer is always, “a little longer.” This led to body
augmentation that provided physical benefits to those who could
afford it and to the rise of the cyborg subculture. The line between
legal augmentation and illegal immortality research began to blur
which allowed more and more secretive experiments to be carried
out and failures to be explained away.
Are we there yet? Did someone truly make the final breakthrough?
The leaders across the Forge say no, but the rumors persist.

62 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
Maybe this is my wish fulfillment
of becoming Data from TNG, but it
seems like becoming a living
machine is a trope worth bringing
to Starforged. As this is a deed,
there is an extreme or epic quest
that must be fulfilled to make this
happen. When gaining this asset,
I imagined that the artificial body
is unique and cannot be
replicated for some sciency
reason. If your robot body dies,
you die too, but the second two
abilities combine to give you
effective immortality.
The second ability lets you store
your consciousness, your life’s
memories and feelings. What
originally took an extreme quest can now be done directly on your
ship. In addition, you can alter your own memories. I just thought it
was a cool story idea and excuse to change your personality if you
needed one. Does a memory haunt you and make you hesitate when
you should act? Who would you be if you erased that memory?
What if you erased all memories of a key relationship? How would
that change the way you interacted with them in the future?
The third ability probably stems from the fact that I always end up
killing the characters I love. I am way too hard on myself with all the
misses I get. This completes the hat trick for immortality, but your
ship has to survive for it to work. Also, this should be a good plot
hook for future stories. If someone finds out that you have the only
functioning simulacrum building and conscious uploading computer
in the galaxy, you will become hunted for the tech.

Quest Starter
As an immortal machine, you are plagued by thoughts that you are
not truly yourself. Are all your feelings just facsimiles of the real
thing? What vow can you swear to prove to yourself that you have
retained your humanity despite this unique transformation?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 63
 INDEFATIGABLE
When a command-level vehicle goes down, word usually gets around
eventually, but it’s a common enough occurrence that it’s not given
a second thought. When a command-level vehicle goes down and
the captain survives, that gets a little more traction in the rumor mill.
When a command-level vehicle crashes, the captain survives, and
then they are granted a new ship, that’s a whole new level. That’s a
name that gets known as either an unstoppable force of nature or
someone who is bat-dung crazy.
As can be imagined, building a starship isn’t cheap. Anyone who has
the gumption and competency to complete a single mission in an
order of magnitude that it is able to pay off that debt is usually in a
class all their own. Sure, there is always talk of nepotism and
unearned favor, but the truth is that usually these people have pulled
off a major stunt, a real feather in their cap.
This sort of notoriety can go a long way in providing the social capital
needed to leverage certain situations to their favor, but it can still be
an albatross at times. Family members of crew that didn’t survive the
crash, corporations who had a vested interest in the original vessel,
and even surviving crew members can all become antagonistic
towards these captains who didn’t go down with their ship. This can
lead to confrontations down the road that will complicate almost any
mission the captain is now on.
It is said that captains in this position meet once a year at a bar in the
Hovinar sector called the Crumbled Heap to commiserate, swap
stories, and drown their sorrows. It is also said that if you want a job
done right, go to the Crumbled Heap on the 53rd day after the Forge
New Year and find the captain deepest in their drink.

64 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability grants your
character some minor celebrity
status that they can leverage to
get what they want. This started
off as only working when rolling
+iron, but I realized that the
celebrity status would really work
in any situation.
The second ability is about either
pumping you up or pumping the
crowd for information. Either
way, it takes a successful Sojourn
to activate. I would also consider
limiting this to one use per
community or at least giving it
time to recharge when used in
the same community. I don’t
think you could go night after
night to the same dive bar telling the same story and get the same
reaction each time. “Did I ever tell you about the time my ship blew
up?” “Yes! Please don’t tell us again!”
The third ability represents your character capitalizing on what they
learned from the experience of losing their ship. They now are more
confident in pushing a ship to its limits and are more willing to take
a hit in order to build the momentum towards a winning strategy.

Quest Starter
The elite bounty hunter, Teff Abob, survived when their vessel, the
Eno Evals, crashed on a desert world. Now Teff Abob is on a
rampage searching for you in order to earn themselves a new ship
from an unknown benefactor. Who is Teff’s benefactor that they
would send a galaxy-renowned bounty hunter after you, and what
did you do to draw their ire?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 65
 SOULLESS
Some people just want to watch the world burn. Others will watch
the world burn and simply don’t care. These are the most dangerous
type of person.
When people come to the brink of desolation, something can snap
inside of them. They lose their strongest connection to humanity and
become willing to walk a darker path to accomplish their goals. “The
ends justify any means,” is their mantra. We call these people the
Soulless. They have been touched by a fate worse than death, total
and complete hopelessness, which leaves them willing to go to any
length to accomplish the few goals they may still care about.
While this state of being would never be wished upon anyone, it can
manifest certain otherwise latent abilities. It is said that a true
soulless one understands the mind of twisted tormentors and
nihilistic ne’er-do-wells so intricately that they can look upon a
horrific scene and instantly know the method to the madness. Many
soulless make it the mission of their remaining life to hunt down
dastardly characters who enact upon others what was once inflicted
upon themselves.
While this sounds redemptive in theory, in practice the soulless don’t
care who they hurt along the way to complete their missions.
Consumed by guilt over their own apathy, they cling to the one way
they may still make a difference: their iron vows. Whole cities have
burned for a soulless to find a quarry, suns have gone nova for a
soulless to stop a tyrant, and droves of innocent people have been
left hurt and scarred in the wake of a soulless.
May the Forge spare you meeting such a one as this.

66 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
This asset started off as the
mirror image of the original
Revenant asset, but took a darker
turn. It’s now an asset that can
be used to turn your character
into an anti-hero like the
Punisher. You’re still going after
the bad guys, but you’re going
about it in a very dark way.
Where Revenant used spirit as a
way to fight off death, I wanted
this asset to use health or iron as
a way to fight off desolation. The
first ability does this in the exact
same way as Revenant’s first
ability.
The third ability allows you to
Gather Information +iron but only in darker scenes of suffering.
Where this type of situation might cause normal people to lose spirit,
a soulless character chokes down their bile, grits their teeth, and
bears the suffering. The bonus momentum is not meant to celebrate
these scenes, but to represent the soulless moving closer to their
goal of hopefully ending further scenes like what is before them.
The second ability represents the anti-hero’s willingness to cause
suffering or torment in the name of stopping suffering or torment.
For example, say your character has captured a low-level mobster
who says if they give up the name of the next goon higher in the food
chain, they’ll be killed. A soulless one doesn’t care. They’ll still
pressure the mobster to snitch and let them face the consequences.

Quest Starter
A serial killer is on the loose in Asteri City, but worse yet, a soulless
one has decided to take the law into their own hands in hunting
down the killer. The serial killer is leaving a trail of bodies, and the
soulless is leaving a trail of broken people. They both need to be
stopped. Who is the soulless to you that you think you can still
bring them back from the depths of their despair? Which victim of
the killer did you know, and how did their death impact your future
in a dark and unforeseen way?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 67
 TRAVELER
In the desperately few historical records that exist from our time
before the great exodus to the Forge, there are mentions of an
almost faith-based belief in the multiverse. Before holo-vids, whole
stories played out in flat-screen entertainment called movies about
alternate realities and timelines coming into conflict. These myths
actually weren’t far off the truth. The multiverse is real, but what the
stories didn’t explain was how dangerous interactions between
these multiversal realities is.
According to our top scientific minds, the amount of energy needed
to travel between universes is on an order of magnitude beyond all
but the most unusual coincidental catastrophic events that release
large quantities of energy. For example, it might take a ping pong
effect of ten or more supernovae cascading into a wormhole at the
same time a sector-wide ionic storm rages in a nebula on the other
side of the wormhole. To then travel across time takes even more
energy. This level of energy can be enough to fracture the very
structure of the multiverse.
There are stories of people who wield the fantastic ability to jump
between worlds, but the laws of nature fight against interference of
in the natural order. Each of the infinite branches of the multiverse
want to stay as their own separate branch, and when they collide or
collapse together, there are dire consequences for both realities.
These dangers haven’t stopped those we call travelers from using
their gifts. Famously, four travelers showed up at the Crumpled Heap
telling how they had traveled back from the future to stop the
universe’s destruction, and as they were telling the story, they simply
faded from existence. Mass hallucination, or truth?

68 STARSMITH: ASSETS
Commentary
The first ability represents the
dangers of messing with
alternate realities. What a crack
in the multiverse looks like is
completely up to you, but it
should be pretty bad. However, I
added the term “localized” to
denote that it doesn’t destroy the
whole universe (unless you want
it to).
The second ability has you use the
first ability from the original Seer
asset, but you frame it in a slightly
different way. Instead of a
prophetic dream, you get a
glimpse of a potential future
timeline. Much like Dr. Strange
looking ahead in the Infinity War,
you can search timelines for probable outcomes and use that
knowledge to stay the course and avert disaster.
The third ability is another exact copy but this time of the original
Looper asset. You can link yourself to a specific time and then travel
back to that specific point in time, but it gets harder the further away
you are from it. The only thing I changed was letting you jump back
farther in time up to years.
While the second and third abilities don’t technically add to clock
from the first ability, you should feel free to do so. Just be aware that
adding to the clock more often would give you lots of cracks pretty
quickly.

Quest Starter
A lone pilot has arrived out of Eidolon space in an unusually
designed starship claiming that another cataclysmic event like the
one that caused the great exodus to the Forge is coming and that
the only way to prevent it is to align action steps with that of a
parallel universe. What do you notice about this pilot that gives
credence to their tale? Who is this pilot a carbon copy of that you
have known from this reality?

STARSMITH: ASSETS 69