A Paragon Playset

Star-Bones is a playset of the Paragon roleplaying system. You’ll need the base AGON
rulebook (printed or digital) to play this game. Learn more at agon-rpg.com

Intro
Your rough life on the seas has brought the shadow of the noose over your bow. Let’s skip
all that rotting in a jail cell and sail straight into hell itself. You play a crew of ruffians seeking
freedom, wealth, and fame in the Estreyan; a wild, strange, and mystical ocean.

You’ll travel the many known and unknown Seas of the Estreyan with your crew; looking for
ever greater treasures and contending with ever more daunting threats. What will your tale be?
Where will fate take you in the end; lauded in story, swinging on a rope, or somewhere even
stranger still?

About This Playset

If you’re wondering if this game is right for you, some easy comparisons are Pirates of the
Caribbean, Sea of Thieves, and One Piece. Larger than life rogue-ish heroes mixed with
curses, navies, monsters, and treasures. Some stranger elements from stories like Annihilation,
The Terror, and other surreal or horrific voyages add an interesting twist to the pirate
formula.

2
 Characters
The player characters are Ruffians. While Domains
most of this playset will scream “Pirate!”, ¤ Able Body: Leap, run, bash, pull, swing,
players shouldn’t feel forced into any specific swim, grab.
type of crew or character archetypes. ¤ Keen Mind: Cunning, knowledge,
expertise, skill, handiness.
Change Quick-Guide ¤ Strong Will: Force of personality,
entertaining, spinning a yarn.
AGON Starbones ¤ Starry Soul: Intuition, Curses, Luck.
Epithet Station
í í í í í í í

Regarding the ship: as usual, any of the

Lineage & Upbringing &
domains may apply depending on the
Pronouns Pronouns
situation.
Pathos Tide
Agony Doom Stars
Eight Stars replace Divine Favor.
Fate Damnation
Divine Favor & ¤ Swashbuckling - Daring, bravado,
Virtues Stars adventure, valor.
¤ Skullduggery - Scheming, deceiving,
Glory Infamy sneaking.
¤ Devilry - Fear, intimidation, ferocity.
Station ¤ Revelry - Charm, entertaining, drinking,
Station replaces Epithet. It should be a few connections.
words that loosely describe the player’s role ¤ Peculiarity - Luck, curses, blessings,
on the crew of the ship. It doesn’t need to unpredictability.
represent any real traditional ship role, and ¤ Savvy - Knowledge, skills, precision.
overlap between players is O.K. ¤ Veterancy - Wisdom, experience,
resilience, authority.

Upbringing & Pronouns An unknown star is filled in by the player

Upbringing replaces Lineage and informs the when they make their Ruffian. It represents
player’s strongest domain. It describes their some specific aspect of their character (it is
background and circumstances that brought ok to have overlap with other Stars or other
them to this point. players).

All Ruffians begin with 2 marks in their own

Star, then two more to distribute as they
please.

3
 Characters Cont.
Bonds
Players can form Bonds with non-player
members of the crew. Use this to flesh out life
on board the ship. Crewmates have smaller
Name dice unless they are a legendary figure.
Legends
When creating a new ruffian, each player can
record one feature of the Ship and the Crew
that relates to their Station. It can be used
like any other advantage. Further additions
or changes to the Ship and Crew can update
existing Legends or be recorded anywhere
else on the Legends list.
Contests
Harms have been renamed.
¤ Sacred contests are Tough (spend 1 star if
you suffer).
¤ Perilous contests are unchanged (mark 1
Tide if you suffer).
¤ Mythic contests are Ominous (spend 1 star
to enter).
¤ Epic contests are Hellish (spend 1 Tide to
enter).
4
Crew features might apply to the whole crew
or may even be a specific individual. Ship
features can be any part of the ship and may
be as specific or general as you want.
If the ship is ever lost or destroyed any ship
specific advantages are lost. The Peril Player
can suggest a contest to salvage specific
advantages from the ship.
Dice of the Damned: In any contest any
player can propose a Wager. If two or more
players wish to enter the wager each marks
one Tide. After the contest is resolved, so is
the Wager.
If the Best Player was in the Wager
they’ll earn Infamy equal to their current
Damnation.
 Game Cycle
Change Quick-Guide Voyage
Sacrifice is replaced by Chart a Course.
AGON Starbones The Peril player holds a short scene where the
Respite Becalmed players find out about one or more Treasures
Exodus
í í Spoils
from rumors, maps, books, superstitions,
etc. Feel free to bring in taverns, old
Spoils Steps acquaintances, rumors, and more.
1. Tomorrow we Die 2. Eat Drink 3. Be Merry
The player with the highest Infamy gets to
decide which Treasure to pursue, but players
Voyage Changes
can spend a bond with them to Sway them to a
Sacrifice Chart a Course Treasure of their choosing.
í í

Vault of Heaven Bearings

Spoils
The ruffians celebrate their successes with
drinking, music, and storytelling. It might
be a night on the town, around a campfire, or
beneath deck.
Tomorrow we die
This replaces Destiny of the Island. The
Peril player records the Treasure(s) gained
and records any notable events from the
Endeavor.
The Vault of Heaven is replaced by Bearings.
As players spend time gathering treasures,
supplies, and information, their ability to
delve deeper into the Estreyan improves.
The Peril player makes a mark if the players
improved their position in the Sea by dealing
with Omens, gaining resources, and becoming
more familiar with the strange Estreyan Sea
(Mark two if it was greatly improved).
For every mark each player can record a tally
in a Star of their choosing. At every 3 marks
players will also get a Boon.

Eat, Drink The Peril Player will also record any new
This replaces Great Deeds, and remains Omens that may have arisen during the
largely unchanged. Players should feel free session.
to retell their stories with embellishment and
outright lies.
Be Merry
This replaces Virtues. Every player will give
each player (including themselves) one tally in
two different Stars, depending on how they
expressed their ruffian that session. When a
Star’s tallies are full, that Star gets two marks
(and the tallies are reset to 0).

5
 Endeavors
Sessions will follow a similar structure to
Islands from Agon with a few key differences.
What defines the Endeavor:
¤ Treasures
¤ Keepers
¤ The Sea it takes place in
Steps of the Endeavor
1. Set Sail
2. Trials
3. Battle
Treasures
Treasures may be anything; if the players
want it, it’s a treasure. Treasures may be
tangible valuables, artifacts, narrative events,
or character driven objectives. Any claimed
treasure can be recorded to be used as
advantage dice later. Some treasures may have
other mechanical or narrative effects.
Keepers
Each Treasure will have one or more
Keepers of some sort. These are the primary
obstacles keeping the players from their
treasure. Keepers can be anything; a pirate
crew, a storm, a trap-laden ruin, an undersea
kingdom, or even your own crew (if crew
relations has taken a turn for the worse).
Players may use anything on the Omen list
in the Ledger as inspiration for Keepers or
opponent advantages in contests.
6
Steps
1. Set Sail
The players have some initial run-in with the
Keepers; this results in a contest. Regardless
of the outcome the players don’t claim the
treasure here. The main objective should be
to introduce the situation in a way that makes
the players care and gives the session stakes.
Some good ways to make players care:
¤ Introduce non-player characters (in the
crew or out of the crew) with their own
wants and entanglement with the Keepers.
¤ Threaten the player crew and the world
around them.
¤ Appeal to player character details and
story.
2. Trials
The players will face a number of Trials to
get into a position where they may claim the
Treasure from the Keeper. The Trials are
dependent on the nature of the Keeper and
how the story progresses.
3. Battle
Unchanged; The “Seize” contest should
generally be centered around claiming the
Treasure, it’s up to victorious players to state
what that looks like. While players should
generally help those in need, they should
also be trying to get something out of it
themselves.
Whichever player was best in the “seize”
contest records the treasure on their sheet in
addition to their Legend from that session.
Players are encouraged to pass
Example Endeavor 1 Example Endeavor 3
Treasure Treasure
Gray Knife Gus’s Sea-Chest Cleansing the Daredevil Curse
Keepers Keepers
Gus’s Unreadable Map, an Imperial Warlord The ingredients needed for the cleansing
Set Sail ritual and the curse itself.
The Late Gus’s partner has mayorship of a Set Sail
town, but now it is in dispute by an Imperial Some superstition turned out to be correct;
warlord. The deeds showing ownership are now the crew and the port they sailed into
in Gus’s strongbox. How do the players keep have been cursed to be daredevils. Try and
the warlord at bay? resist the curse.
Trials Anyone suffering from the curse is compelled
Figure out the first clue, Deal with the to do increasingly dangerous things without
Warlord’s goons coming to destroy the fear. If a player receives the curse, they record
strong-box, Determine the final resting place it as a chain until they are cleansed. While
of the strong-box. cursed every contest is Hellish, but using
Battle Stars grants 2d4. Any time a player doesn’t
Argue and battle on the Mayor’s behalf. Will partake in a suitably dangerous approach to a
the players try and take the gold that was in contest they mark 1 Tide.
the strongbox? Trials
Convince a healer to help you, gather
Example Endeavor 2 ingredients from dangerous locations, resist
Treasure
the impulses of the curse, Make it back in
Imperial Canned Goods time to the healer.
Battle
Keepers
Josephine’s Admiralty Harbor Finish the cleansing ritual across your ship,
crew, and the nearby town as the full strength
Set Sail of the curse comes to bear.
It’s been 3 days since your last good meal, and
the crew is restless. Calm them somehow.
Trials
Get into the Harbor, get past the guards,
blast your way out of there, get the goods to
the ship.
Battle
Battle out of the Harbor.

7
 The Peril Player
The Ledger
The Peril Player will be working off of the
Ledger, recording the events of the sessions
in a particular Sea. The Peril Player should
record the name of the Crew and Ship on the
Ledger.
Bearings
As players gather treasures, supplies, and
information their ability to delve deeper into
the Estreyan improves. This is represented by
Bearings, updated by the Peril player during
the voyage phase.
At every 3 marks players earn a Boon. Peril
players can also use these 3 mark groups to
pace the campaign: You may allow players
to move to a new sea after 3 marks, you may
allow them to retire after filling up all 9 marks
in one Sea, you may lock legendary treasures
behind a certain amount of bearing in a sea,
etc.
Different Seas may have different
requirements and rewards for increasing
Bearings.
Omens
Omens replace Divine Wrath. Omens might
be anything threatening to the wellbeing
and success of the player crew: monsters,
hazards, curses, people, or the ruffian’s own
flaws. Omens should be used to complicate
Endeavors by providing advantage die.
Adding Omens - Any of the following is
good reason to add a new Omen:
¤ Some group, person, or creature wants to
harm, interfere with, or pursue the players.
¤ The Sea has some widely present threat
or problem. (E.g. a nasty species of tooth-
fish).
Peril players shouldn’t be shy about adding
and using Omens frequently. As players spend
time in a single Sea each endeavor becomes
more and more entangled and interesting
if you spice it with Omens from previous
sessions. It also helps the players feel like
their actions and experiences matter.
Removing Omens - Players can remove an
Omen by dealing with the source of the
Omen within the narrative: making peace,
escaping, finding an ongoing solution, etc.

Voyaging to a new Sea

When starting off in a new sea, the Peril Player will record the name of the Sea and a number
of new Omens. They can also record a number of Omens that followed the players from their
previous sea (two to three is about right). The omens that followed them may be small, large,
or a Sea changing event.

Different Seas may suggest different challenges and requirements for moving between Seas,
but the Peril player should always defer to the desires of the players; don’t withhold fun!

8
 On the Horizon
Starbones is a work-in-progress: this
rulebook is Version 0.1. The core rules found
here are prone to changes. If you have any
feedback email me at gsoper@gmail.com, or
comment on the store-front you acquired this
from.
I’d love feedback on these areas in particular:
¤ Did you feel that the Dice of the Damned
wager was compelling enough to use? I’m
trying to add an element of gambling and
“vainglorious” antics.
¤ What are your experiences creating your
own Endeavors? What was it like to run?
¤ What was it like holding multiple sessions
in the same Sea? How did the Ledger with
Omens and Bearings work out?
These are some more likely upcoming
additions to this core playset:
¤ Replacement for A Hero’s End
¤ Safety and Cultural Notes
¤ Further graphic design refinements to the
core rules.
¤ Replacement for Homecoming.
¤ Playerkit with lists, tables, generators, etc.
¤ More illustrations.
More advanced additions like online play
Sheets may depend on the success of this
playset and specific desire for them.
The main way I plan to add onto Starbones
is through “Seas” the Peril Player can draw
from for session and campaign material.
Each Sea will have be a collection of
Treasures, Keepers, Locations, Omens,
Leadership contest suggestions, and nice
Mysteries sprinkled throughout.
Some varieties of Sea I’m interested in
exploring:
¤ A fog-shrouded sea of mystics and cults
practicing dark arts.
¤ An colonized imperial sea embroiled in
war.
¤ A pirate paradise; vast caves filled with
traps.
¤ A big open ocean filled with leviathans.
¤ Rocky spires with fishermen, lighthouses
atop them and Merfolk beneath the waves.
¤ One massive island with unexplored
depths.
¤ And a whole host of weird and strange Seas
that expands beyond normal Pirate fiction.
I’m also interested in supplementing this by
adding themed Collections of content to be
used in any Sea.
¤ Scoundrels and Pirates
¤ The Crew
¤ Empires and Armadas
¤ Curses and Dark Arts
¤ Monsters and Animals
¤ Ruins and Ancients
¤ Etc.