Sundered Isles introduced the concept of character interludes to the Ironsworn family of games. An interlude is a low-stakes, character-focused downtime scene. It is a chance to deepen your character’s personality, interests, and background—or add detail to the people and places of your setting.

Some example interlude scenes:

• Practice a trade or craft
• Get lost in a memory
• Take in an awe-inspiring view
• Confess a secret

• Partake in a sparring match

Interludes help vary the pace of your sessions. They give your story and character time to breathe outside the pressure of risky actions and costly outcomes.

Interludes for Starforged

Sundered Isles includes an inspirational table of interlude scenes. Since the example interludes are relatively genre-agnostic, you can reference that table as-is for your Starforged spacefaring adventures.

However, if you undertake a spacefaring expedition alone, you'll need to ignore results which imply the presence of others. In addition, the Starforged Space Sightings table is meant to generate encounters and experiences at interstellar waypoints, but doesn't include interludes as a potential prompt. If you would like to "patch" Starforged to better support interludes in your campaign, I've assembled a PDF file that includes:

• A new Spacefaring Waypoints table, intended to replace the original Starforged Space Sightings table. Use this table to help reveal what you encounter or experience at an interstellar waypoint. It includes interludes as a potential result.
• A new Cosmic Matter table, which separates sightings such as asteroid fields and nebula clouds into their own subtable. This makes those results less common, helping create space for interludes in the main table.
• A modified version of the Interludes table that is organized into two sets of results—one for when you are traveling alone, and another for when you are among companions or crewmates.

Introducing an Interlude

When you Undertake an Expedition, the occasional interlude can help you envision how your character spends their time while traveling. An interlude is also a perfect distraction as your character waits for the eidolon drive to recharge during a layover at an otherwise unremarkable interstellar anchorage.

An interlude is directly prompted as a result on the modified Spacefaring Waypoints table, but you’re free to simply introduce an interlude instead of rolling for a sighting or event on that table. In addition, you can use interludes to help envision how you spend your time during a Sojourn, or while traveling with others outside the scope of an expedition.

Interludes are low-risk, low-stakes. You might trigger a move in the midst of an interlude scene—such as Hearten to boost your spirits in a moment of peace, Compel to defuse an argument, or Secure an Advantage to train or prepare—but the outcomes of those moves should reflect the low-key nature of the situation. If you have questions about an interaction or event, simply decide what happens or Ask the Oracle. If a situation is not dramatic or uncertain, don’t otherwise make a move.

Explore the Sundered Isles to Learn More

Check out Sundered Isles for additional guidance on introducing and envisioning interlude scenes. In addition, you'll find a bounty of other tools and options for your spacefaring and seafaring campaigns.

Credits and License:

Art by Joshua Meehan

The text of this article and the associated PDF file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.