Knight Frame
A downloadable tabletop RPG
Knight Frame is a supplement for Ironsworn Starforged that includes new moves to do framejousting: fights between high-speed humanoid mechs called knight frames.
Unlike usual moves, players will only roll specific dice when doing a framejoust move, which introduces a strategic element in combat. Will you reroll your challenge dice or will you reroll your action dice? This is a proof-of-concept mechanic that hopefully players will have fun playing with.
In addition to new moves, Knight Frame also adds oracles for creating a frame, a ship, and monsters. Some of the results are deliberately weird, to help introduce a surprise element into games.
We hope you have fun with Knight Frame, and please send us feedback via itch.io's comments!
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This is nice! Question: is Manuever supposed to be only for when you're in control?
Nope. You can Maneuver regardless of control.
Groovy, thanks for that.
So, I've been using this in a Starforge game to explore a different part of a setting I'm using for a writing project. It's fun, but trying it on Dangerous and Formidable challenge so far either I've gotten lucky or it's kinda easy? 3-4 Progress is no joke, especially if 1) you go into a Framejoust with relatively high integrity (using the Snubfighter asset, so +3/4) and farming rolls until you get a +5/6 on your action die seems kind of OP. It has led to an amusing scene where my character on a solo scouting mission managed to a) sneak his mech to an enemy outpost, b) get ambushed by a merc in a shwanky mech, c) proceed to dodge the initial strike and after a Strong Match Maneuver +2x Strong Hit Lock On wreck said merc's face in before causing said installation to surrender. The merc got away (because why waste a good rival so soon?), but it was still very amusing to turn into 621 on my guy's 2nd vow when I had just planned for him to start out as a regular pilot.
Hahaha, yeah you're right.
When me and my friend playtested this, our characters already had around 10-12 assets each, with 4 on our ship.
I decided to increase the progress to encourage my mech pilot friend to use Lock On instead of Strike. Another intent was to make fights go faster and perhaps make it feel fast-paced.
It does have a lot of balance problems and using action dice isn't the best idea.
For future iterations I planned to put in a Speed and Distance mechanic which serve as a replacement to action dice. Speed and Distance determine how much progress you mark and also how likely you are to succeed vs. challenge dice. These two are increased or decreased depending on what you choose to do, making it feel like a real dogfight between mechs.
The mechanic posted here overall is proof of concept but honestly I've moved on to other projects.
Me and my friend decided to stay with vanilla Starforged, and I am designing a different RPG.
I do hope Knight Frame inspires somebody because Ironsworn/Starforged has a lot of space for crunchy mechanics that I haven't seen anyone do.
This is wicked, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.
I. Love. This!
Glad to hear it!