13th Age RPG: D&D with Modern Design

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > 13th Age RPG: D&D with Modern Design

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

When is this game finally coming out? It's been a few years since I played tabletop and I might as well start with an improved 4E.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 02:54 on Oct 17, 2012

# ¿ Oct 11, 2012 03:31

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:48

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

fosborb in the OP posted:

13th Age starts from 4e (sorry grogs!) and builds from there. 4e, briefly, has problems with ability scores, skill challenges, magic item treadmills, feat taxes and bloat, and lengthy combats. 13th Age attempts to address these issues!

So for people that have been following this, did 13th manage to fix the above issues?

# ¿ Oct 17, 2012 02:52

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Still new to DMing, and liked the effort 4E put into making this role easy to understand. Does 13th Age do the same thing?

# ¿ Oct 18, 2012 20:03

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Are there any 13th Age setups available for online tabletop yet? Maptool or something?

# ¿ Jan 23, 2013 17:11

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Just to be certain, those preorders were for physical copies and not only digital ones, right? I can't seem to understand the game just from reading PDFs.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2013 18:44

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

That's worrying because I have to move soon...

# ¿ Mar 14, 2013 09:37

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Dark Mother and Gambling Man sound like improvements on the originals - might use some of those in a regular campaign just to avoid certain connotations (ie. Lich King :rolleyes:

)

Don't really like their writeup for the White Queen, though. I'd prefer a Bathory-type figure, a wraith that still haunts the site of her former rule.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 09:48 on Apr 3, 2013

# ¿ Apr 3, 2013 03:49

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

ZenMasterBullshit posted:

Hell, if you wanted Fem!Crusader to focus more on converting people Just making her Joan D'Arc but for the Dark God/desses amassing an army of outcasts and losers, all those that fall out of favor with the Church or the empire will find a cot and a sword under her banner, as long as they're prepared to give their life for the cause of destroying all demonic influences on this Earth would be a much less creepy and cooler way of doing that concept.

Looking forward to more Icon writeups, anything sounds more interesting than the aggressively generic Crusader. I'd just as soon leave some of the original Icons out of my game entirely.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 01:22 on Apr 4, 2013

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 01:19

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Should shift its focus from a few hellholes to conquering everything that is not the Empire and switching the emperor to something more than human, the crusader is Imperialism.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Apr 4, 2013

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 01:25

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

The Emperor Reborn is the only god I'll ever need.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 01:36

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Using the complete gender-flipping is totally unnecessary but there are a few interesting concepts in there. I agree with Anomaly, the Gambler is a pretty classic trickster-devil.

TheAnomaly posted:

I think a better gender swap would have been a cold and calculating military commander who thinks in terms of longterm victory and views her soldiers as resources to be spent. It swaps the fiery nature of the Crusader for a cold and calculating one

Would be perfect for the imperialistic Crusader that denounces other faiths.

vvv That's another interesting one. vvv

Jackard fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Apr 4, 2013

# ¿ Apr 4, 2013 01:43

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

HomegrownHydra posted:

I'm playing in an AD&D campaign right now and our DM just has one person roll initiative for the group to determine if we go before or after the enemies (who use one initiative roll). The order we go in is up to us, and can just be a matter of going around the table. While I used to be inclined toward a complicated system of initiative, I've found that I have never once missed rolling my own initiative and prefer this super simple method.

The compromise method I would use is to not have the monsters roll at all. Instead, I'd just have each person do a skill check to determine if they go before or after the monsters. The precise order would be determined by the players (although generally spellcasters should go first).

Going to borrow this, initiative was far too much trouble for the DMs of my previous campaigns.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 05:37

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Tollymain posted:

That's King Radical in boxer shorts. This makes a surprising amount of sense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFTurZz_N_M

# ¿ Apr 15, 2013 14:43

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

waderockett posted:

13th Age will be available for purchase at Gen Con. Unless the printing facility burns down. Or the world runs out of oil, requiring us to ship via caravan through marauder-infested wastelands.

How do I change my mailing address for the preorder?

# ¿ May 13, 2013 20:29

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Tigsaw posted:

The guy who is going to run our 13th Age game said he wanted to add in an assets and drawbacks system from some Evangelion game he played. It has things like:

That sounds like an extreme and overcomplicated version of Negative Backgrounds

E: How long does a single combat usually take in this? I grew tired of 4E's hours-long battles, but some people are hesitant about the "faster combat" blurb on the official site.

quote:

The escalation die and everything seems like its just get out of combat as soon as possible and back to "Fantasy tea party" My friend Justin Trolls that about all RPGs, I find it hilarious.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 17, 2013

# ¿ May 17, 2013 02:22

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Is this the sort of game that would benefit from a character builder program and if so is there one in the works?

# ¿ May 21, 2013 22:48

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Only now noticed this game has no Warlord class. It was my favorite thing from 4E.

:negative:

Jackard fucked around with this message at 05:25 on May 25, 2013

# ¿ May 25, 2013 05:22

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Taran posted:

The first expansion book is going to have the Battle Captain though. That should help things.

That name makes it sound like a prestige class or something, pretty sure BC was a 4E paragon path.

# ¿ May 25, 2013 05:44

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Evil Mastermind posted:

Hey Wade, sorry if this has come up before, but is there going to be an epub version of 13th Age?

For the Nook? That would be great.

# ¿ Jun 15, 2013 22:39

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Did they send out that email confirming mailing address yet?

# ¿ Jul 1, 2013 05:42

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Evil Sagan posted:

Oh man, that is my kind of setting! I'm a little skeptical about their decision to make three books out of this setting, but I suppose it's better than making one that caters to three systems. Hopefully the Icons will be good; the way I see it that would be the real crux of the whole thing.

Yea that looks pretty fun.

# ¿ Jul 2, 2013 23:03

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

NinjaDebugger posted:

That's a strange way to say "For Sommerlund and the Kai!"

I believe I have found my class.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2013 01:51

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

My book just arrived in Michigan. :magical:

At last, an alternative to Pathfinder and WFRP

Jackard fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Aug 5, 2013

# ¿ Aug 5, 2013 19:37

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

So just doublechecking, there's really no mechanical issue with me giving racial ability scores the middle finger and allowing players to choose anything like the Humans do? Because these standard choices seem pretty arbitrary, I don't like them at all.

E: Also condensing races along with this; this is way too many elves for one. Going with them generally having a mercurial nature instead of dividing them by skin color.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Aug 6, 2013

# ¿ Aug 6, 2013 19:23

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Are any of the game aids on this page outdated? http://www.pelgranepress.com/site/?tag=download&cat=248

Was there anything missing, like smaller character sheets?

Jackard fucked around with this message at 07:11 on Aug 8, 2013

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 07:06

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Is there a map available of the 13th Age without the text and symbols? I'm planning a campaign for a younger age.

Wade's Bear King reminded me of Princess Mononoke/Narnia/Hobbit, so I'm going for a bunch of animal Icons:

Seas
H. Whale
A. Crab
V. Hydra

Plains
H. Wisent
A. Koru
A. Roc

Hills
A. Lion
A. Bear
V. Goat

Forests
H. Elk
A. Wolf
A. Boar

Jackard fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Aug 9, 2013

# ¿ Aug 8, 2013 23:02

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

The symbols are cool, but that's a terrible font. Text should be legible, I can't make out the white on black at all...

There's a lot of whitespace too.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Aug 11, 2013

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 07:18

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Ditching the hexes and redundant titles should free up some space for you to work with. Gw2 assets are (should be??) squares anyways...

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 07:37

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

You kinda need the borders for a White Wolf look.

Doublehex posted:

Now you mentioned redundant titles - I don't see anything on there that I mentioned more than once.

So, you're using symbols, right? Why are you giving an explanation of each one with a giant block of text?

Jackard fucked around with this message at 07:54 on Aug 11, 2013

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 07:47

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Doublehex posted:

GW2 icons WERE squares, but I actually shrunk them for my hexagon frames. I think the issue with the lack of white space is the core of my philosophy behind the character sheet - images. When you got lots of images taking up space, room is going to be an issue.

You simply aren't using space efficiently, and the hexes play a large part. Use your assets more intelligently.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2013 07:54

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Lord Frisk posted:

As a GM (in roll20) you can turn the grid off and just use pretty overland maps. As a player I'll tell you what I loved and can't play without: macros. They make the game flow so much faster than rolling and adding, plus you can set them to include the value of the escalation die. Roll20 may have a lot of stuff you don't need, but it's very unobtrusive with its functionality.

Where can you get these macros? Or do you have to make them all by hand?

# ¿ Aug 13, 2013 05:31

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

If some ability scores are inherently inferior to others, what houserules would one use to make all of this go away?

Jackard fucked around with this message at 16:38 on Aug 14, 2013

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 16:33

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

RyvenCedrylle posted:

So I've got an idea. See how this grabs you (plural).

Toss out ability scores. You don't need them. Nothing in the game references the raw 3-18 score except rolling stats and leveling up. Take 12 Background points total. Use one Background for HP, one for AC/attack, one for PD and one for MD. If you only have three Backgrounds, one of those defaults to 0. Allow two Backgrounds for skill checks or drop all skill DCs by about 3. Never look back.

Eh? I might do a Page XX or blog about this...

Sounds plausible, but how to determine Initiative and levelup bonuses? What if the backgrounds change later on? Is their maximum still 5?

A more thorough writeup would be nice. I've already thrown out racial ability scores in favor of the Human approach because the default choices were awful - I wouldn't be opposed to throwing out a little more.

Jackard fucked around with this message at 19:37 on Aug 14, 2013

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 19:25

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Was also planning to reskin HP as Fate - someone wrote this a few years back for 4E, but I can't seem to find the post anymore. It probably works better with 13A terminology anyways - Staggered/Recoveries sound more fitting than Bloodied/Surges.

Fate is an immediate and tangible force in the world, where
characters gain levels by pursuing greatness and carving out their
own destinies.

Hit points represent the fact that you are simply not destined to
die today; normally lethal attacks will go slightly wide, narrowly
graze you, or just happen not to strike major organs - but even
destiny has its limits, and each near miss taxes that uncanny luck.
When your hit points reach zero, your luck has finally run out, and
an attack has struck true.

Minions are those who are not destined for greatness - they might be
quite dangerous due to their experience and strength, but due to
pettiness, lack of drive, or some other cause, destiny has passed
them over and they cannot rely on fate or fortune to save them from
serious harm.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 20:08

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

RyvenCedrylle posted:

Remember, each one of these is ALSO a Background and I think 5 or more Backgrounds is asking a lot for a character. Personally I'd stop at 4 and have a couple run double-duty but generally, that's the idea. Also, I've never seen a 13th Age character with a 19 attack stat. So there you go, ability scores gone, not a ton of houserules.

Would you still be able to swap points between backgrounds?

RyvenCedrylle posted:

And yeah, I'm totally going to do a Page XX on this. I want to play this character setup now.

Do that and I'll make a character sheet for it :v:

Jackard fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Aug 14, 2013

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 20:29

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

Rolling for stats hasn't been a thing since the Infinity Engine games. They started presenting it as an alternative to point buy all the way back in Third Edition.

# ¿ Aug 14, 2013 22:20

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

PlasmaMan posted:

I'm running a game for new RPG players, and one problem we've run into is that although backgrounds and icons are both really really good for connecting characters to the world, as new players they haven't quite gotten the hang of getting their characters to mesh with each other. after I played Dungeon World recently, I got the idea to take the Bonds system, blow it up, and plug it into 13a.

there are a lot of bonuses, definitely more than enough to outweigh the XP you get for resolving a bond in Dungeon World, but I've always thought it is more fun to grant the players larger, more interesting bonuses and balance by providing greater challenges than it would be to provide measly +1s per day or something.

Sounds pretty cool, never heard of this before.

Flaky Biscuit posted:

Anyway, poll time - are there any special features anyone would want in a 13th Age character creator? I'm already putting in automation like the ability to have the computer pick the best armor and whether or not to use a shield, but there were other things I was thinking of (build recommendations, stat help, stuff like that), and there's probably a bunch of stuff that I can't even think of.

Printer friendly and the ability to rename stuff like items

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 04:19

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

RyvenCedrylle posted:

edit: OR Health, PD, and MD/Init. AC is middle of three. That might even be better.

Would this be without the heavy armor complication?

# ¿ Aug 15, 2013 19:35

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

P.d0t posted:

Would it be possible to convert forced movement stuff to like, "disengage + increase to far/long range"?

I don't remember 4E having any forced movement that would send targets that far away. They would still be Nearby.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 19:46

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:48

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

By the way, is there a thread for discussing tools like Roll20?

I tried reporting a bug - uploading to cards/tables has no option for selecting art already in your Library - but clicking the report button only sends me to the wiki??

# ¿ Aug 17, 2013 20:59

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