@julian no real upstart experience on my side. so far I love systemd. the syntax for config files, the status reports, the overall feel of the tech just seems right (and mainstream also).

My take on the systemd unit for the Debian Jessie platform. Requires a nodebb user set up and NodeBB installed to /var/nodebb:

[Unit]
Description=NodeBB forum for Node.js.
Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
After=system.slice multi-user.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=nodebb

StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=nodebb

Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/var/nodebb
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node loader.js --no-daemon --no-silent
Restart=always

[Install]
Alias=forum
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable with sudo systemctl enable nodebb.service and start with sudo systemctl start nodebb.service.
Thanks to @Apxukoc and @julian for the original unit and tips.