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No, there's some really uneven balance and some very poor explanations about how certain things work. For example, the Sorcerer spell progression is completely unexplained.
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May 14, 2013 21:54
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DarkHorse posted:For 4th the only book they really need is the Player's Handbook, and if you're willing to babysit them through the rules they only need to read character creation parts. That, or they can read the Rules Compendium if you have it (you should) and use a character builder. Yeah, but really I don't want their first experience to be so complex, in character building or combat rules. I'm aiming for the D&D Basic experience - 15-minute chargen tops (maybe an hour around the table including shared character history, beer and bad jokes). Even the Compendium is extremely dense and complex why compared to, say, BECMI. I've also grown very very tired of complex rules in general. My Rolemaster (yes, I actually played it) / 3.5e, five books, seven splats days are long gone. I want one book.
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May 14, 2013 23:16
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In case y'all missed it, Rob posted a beta cover for 13 True Ways on his blog. http://robheinsoo.blogspot.com/2013/05/five-13th-age-progressions.html drat. Amazing art. And also it sounds like the core book is going to be 320 pages. 
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May 15, 2013 01:32
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I think Wade answered this on the last page but I scrolled through and didn't see it: When will we know the status of the SUPER SPECIAL EDITIONS that we have right of first refusal?
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May 15, 2013 02:14
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Mors Rattus posted:Question regarding Chromatic Destroyer heritage. It seems less useful than I first thought, looking at it. After all, the Sorcerer is often going to be spending turns gathering power, and because of the Escalation Die, fights don't last overly long. Between that and the fact that every Breath Weapon is a Daily spell, how often are you really going to have multiple Breath Weapons up anyway? Hmm. I haven't played in a group with a sorcerer who had Chromatic Destroyer heritage, so I can't tell you how it actually works out in play. However, I've been in battles that lasted long enough for a sorcerer to conceivably use two breath weapons; and shorter battles where the sorcerer could have opted to attack during a turn rather than gather power. Overemotional Robot posted:I think Wade answered this on the last page but I scrolled through and didn't see it: When will we know the status of the SUPER SPECIAL EDITIONS that we have right of first refusal? I emailed Simon, and will let you know what I hear back! Unrelated but awesome: 13th Age on YouTube!
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May 15, 2013 04:32
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Ran the first session of my summer game today, and while I'll eventually edit the audio and post it up, here's the short version: The party started off receiving their reward from the semi-canon one-shot that led into the campaign (a rune for everyone), and then went around investigating to see what was going on in town. When they stopped by the pawn shop of Cogwell Grave, gnome and shady character, to sell some loot they were offered another job, since they'd proven reasonably adept at retrieving strange things from underground. Grave's man Gary had suffered an "accident", and the party was to go to Gary's place in the Knockerton slums and retrieve a custom walking stick Graves had given to Gary for repairs--anything else they found they could keep, since Grave assured them that Gary wouldn't miss it. In the cul-de-sac where Gary lived, they found Celerity Swiss, a sutra chanting exorcist attempting to keep the local hauntings down. Turns out Gary had dug himself a basement and broken into an ancient mausoleum, and most of his goods were stuff he was grave-robbing. The party retrieved the walking stick, but the party paladin has a specific vendetta against the undead, so they pressed on to purify the place. Assaulted by undead, the only living person they found was a half-mad necromancer who claimed to serve "Anchor", but the party handily won the day, in no small part because whatever trick the ranger pulled that lets the Escalation Die start at one when he gets a good initiative synergizes really well with barbarians, especially when the barbarian gets the rune benefit that lets them do +1d10 damage when the EDie is 3+. They did find a crystal spire where a well-dressed man had been lashed to it and messily sacrificed. Mission complete, the party headed topside where they ran into Quentin Knocker III, slumlord and literally Looten Plunder, who was looking for a missing assistant of his. The party asked uncomfortable questions, and Knocker took the earliest opportunity to leave, which meant the bard didn't have to explain why he was wearing the assistant's clothes after stealing them off his messily sacrificed corpse. Current hooks for the future: a dwarven timber-baron was assaulted by seabirds, knocked into the harbor, and devoured by a saltwater crocodile that should've been living a ways east in the Fangs. An unknown pair of sorcerers had a fight, and one of them was messily pecked to death by either a flock of invisible birds or one invisible creature with a whole bunch of beaks. Delicate treaty negotiations are ongoing between the elves and dwarves.
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May 15, 2013 04:51
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The elven lawsmith also made sure the necromancer'll stand trial for what must be hundreds of unsolved murders. Also, a dwarven boat crashed, leaving mysterious luggage downriver.
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May 15, 2013 07:45
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Overemotional Robot posted:I think Wade answered this on the last page but I scrolled through and didn't see it: When will we know the status of the SUPER SPECIAL EDITIONS that we have right of first refusal? Simon replied: quote:It will be printed at the same time as the other books, and put on pre-order before the books are shipped. Escalation edition orderers will get first refusal, then Kickstarter backers, the other pre-orderers, then we’ll open it up. To have the chance of getting it, you must be able to receive emails from simon@news.pelgranepress.com. I will announce publicly when the email has gone out.
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May 15, 2013 13:20
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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: "Dependent Effect: The pilot’s sense of self-worth is overly influenced by the opinions of others. They must choose one person and, if their opinion of the pilot is ever negative, the pilot takes a -10 to all rolls for 1d5 hours and must choose a new person to become dependent on." I have some reservations about this, especially considering most of the other players are new to tabletop gaming and have to learn all the existing rules. Can I get some second opinions on this?
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May 16, 2013 11:45
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I think with a new system or new players it's best to just play as written and then modify or house rule as needed. Otherwise you're salting the potatoes before you've tasted them. It sounds like he wants to mechanically reinforce characterization, but that could backfire and restrict creativity instead of sparking it. Reasons for one character needing another character's approval could emerge organically from backgrounds and be interesting. But if the reason is "terrible modifiers otherwise", it's not something that will be explored beyond that. Maybe he doesn't trust players to do interesting things?
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May 16, 2013 12:35
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Mystic Mongol posted:You can fix this retroactively by having the bite reappear a few times in the presence of the undead. Use this to get an investigation into covert undead activity rolling, but each time it happens the necrosis spreads. They better find a cure... and soon! (dun dun dun) I think their next destination is simply going to feature a dying old holy man who is in tune with the spiritual world just enough to identify a man who has been blessed by an agent of the Priestess. But not enough in tune with the material world to ask why before he bequeathes the Holy Breastplate of St. Sebastian unto him.
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May 16, 2013 13:26
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My group has finally set a time to kick off our campaign and I am as amped as I can be 
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May 16, 2013 16:09
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Tigsaw posted:"Dependent That honestly doesn't sound fun to me? I understand Evangelion generally suffers from fairly damaged characters, but a -10 is basically as good as being knocked out for that number of hours. It really depends on what he wants to achieve with that kind of system, but 13th Age is a more "positive" system in that you start from a baseline and just get benefits from there, and penalties from your own abilities are rare. I'd think it'd be better to concentrate on the fun, positive stuff in the core rather than worry about adding a benefit / punishment system. Those are notoriously hard to design well, anyway.
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May 16, 2013 19:15
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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 just seems....unfun? Like a -10 is basically "You're doing nothing at all ever" which I guess fits Eva, but it's not a fun thing to play. There's way to do severe drawbacks without crippling people especially in a character based game like 13th Age. Also Eva is bad and he should watch some real mecha. 13th Age Getter Campaign. 
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May 16, 2013 19:28
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I'm pretty sure that's actually from the Eva hack for Dark Heresy, where a -10 is crippling, but that's because you're a schmuck, not "never do anything ever" territory. It's still a bad idea, though. Suggest to him instead that the best means of encouraging roleplaying is to be given hooks, plot threads and memorable NPCs in the game. That way he can encourage you to act in ways he wants, you're not hamstrung by weird rules that are only occasionally enforced, and perhaps the best part, he doesn't have to keep track of a dozen or more house rule conditions while he's busy running the game.
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May 16, 2013 19:39
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Desty posted:I'm pretty sure that's actually from the Eva hack for Dark Heresy, where a -10 is crippling, but that's because you're a schmuck, not "never do anything ever" territory. It's still a bad idea, though. Yeah. It strikes me as a very specific flaw to simulate a specific plot with a specific character in a specific series, rather than a general flaw suitable for character consumption.
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May 16, 2013 22:18
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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: 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 |
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May 17, 2013 02:22
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So I spoke to my GM friend, sharing my concerns (many of which were echoed in this thread), and he said he hadn't planned on making it a mandatory thing like it is in the Evangelion game, the drawbacks are just going to be the price we pay for any additional bonuses we want built in to our characters. I don't think I'll be taking advantage of it, but if someone else wants to be a double expert wizard at the cost of being literally crippled, well that's their call to make. That said, I did link him to the negative backgrounds, which sits better with me, so with any luck he'll take a liking to it.
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May 17, 2013 03:40
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In my game, our group of 6 (rogue/barb/barb/ranger/bard/paladin), an hour is roughly accurate. Everyone gets 3 or so turns, and actions are really easy; roll attack, and if you hit, roll damage. Not a lot of action paralysis, no fiddling with 5 foot steps. The escalation die is helpful; I remember a lot of 3.X battles where you'd miss, and they'd miss, and you'd miss...with the bonuses you get with your good attacks at first level, your +s are at minimum going to add 35%-50% to your to hit. With the escalation die and a few bonuses, you will be hitting your enemies.
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May 17, 2013 04:37
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People calling the Escalation Die an easy button or a shortcut aren't looking at all the numbers properly. The damage output and HP values are made with it in mind. Without it, the PCs would have a real hard time getting to the next full heal-up with any recoveries left. It's a pacing mechanism, and gives fights their own dramatic arc. In the first round the PCs get wrecked, then they gradually crawl back and blow the monsters away with the big guns they've been saving.
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May 17, 2013 05:23
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It's also important to remember that the Escelation Die is a momentum tracker. If the PCs are huddled behind a wall waiting for better bonuses, it winds down instead of ticking up. It answers How real is this poo poo getting? on a scale of 1-6.
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May 17, 2013 05:44
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Jackard posted:That sounds like an extreme and overcomplicated version of Negative Backgrounds Honestly in our group of 5 adventurers, a 4-5 round combat takes about 15 minutes. (At level 1-3)
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May 17, 2013 19:04
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Kenderama posted:Honestly in our group of 5 adventurers, a 4-5 round combat takes about 15 minutes. (At level 1-3) I have only played on game of 13th age  but that seems right. When you remove the goofy 5-foot-step game and have the escalation die I can't see how it would approach anything near 4E combat length
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May 17, 2013 21:17
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Syntaxed posted:I have only played on game of 13th age Since I almost exclusively play RPGs via IRC nowadays, my main concern as far as getting bogged down is stuff like the normal condition tracking and effects as they relate to the escalation die. Both of those are more so group attention span issues and reasons to swap to something like roll20 though.
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May 17, 2013 21:35
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Man, all the places where I forgot rules really jump out at me when I'm editing the audio. Anyway, here's Session 1 of Glitterhaegen Nights, which may not actually take place during the night at all. Session 1-1 Session 1-2 Session 1-3 Session 1-4 Featuring djw175 as Bozzy the Bar-bear-ian, Rhinoceraptor as Apostrophe Jones the Other Barbarian, Lord Frisk as Jack the Bard, Golden Bee as Kordelia Poe the Rogue, Jakse as Rurik the Paladin, and Frocobo as Blake and Gizmo: the Ranger and his faithful porcupine. Apparently Sendspace only keeps things up for 30 days, anyone have a better (free) option?
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May 18, 2013 00:30
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I think it's section 1-2 (during the zombie fight) when we all bust out laughing for no reason. It's because in chat I typed "If you're having Ghoul problems I feel bad for you son" to which Rhinoceraptor responded "I got 99 problems but a lich ain't one." Knowing that we're on the record, I'll keep jokes in audio form.
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May 18, 2013 01:23
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Is the Barbarian Kickstarter-only at the moment? My download's chapter 4 skips over them. I have Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and the rough draft Monk.
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May 18, 2013 03:27
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Zurai posted:Is the Barbarian Kickstarter-only at the moment? My download's chapter 4 skips over them. I have Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Wizard, and the rough draft Monk. The barbarian isn't in the fully laid-out pdf drafts, but if you have access to the Escalation Edition version it's in there. I assume they're looking for a few more interesting things to give it before calling the barbarian done; I think the talents for cleric/sorc spells and terrain tricks added some interesting options for rangers.
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May 18, 2013 03:39
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PublicOpinion posted:The barbarian isn't in the fully laid-out pdf drafts, but if you have access to the Escalation Edition version it's in there. I assume they're looking for a few more interesting things to give it before calling the barbarian done; I think the talents for cleric/sorc spells and terrain tricks added some interesting options for rangers. Wait, are there things different between the last Escalation Edition and the laid-out PDFs? I thought it was just formatting and prettiness.
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May 18, 2013 08:16
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There are a few things different, although I couldn't tell you what exactly off-hand. When we prepared our first session I used the full pdf and my players the finished chapters, and we had to sort out a few issues first. Nothing major or hard to interpret though.
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May 18, 2013 08:18
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The only difference I'm sure of is that classes which previously had 6 background points got bumped to 8.
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May 18, 2013 08:20
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PublicOpinion posted:The only difference I'm sure of is that classes which previously had 6 background points got bumped to 8. Basically there was an optional rule where every class got 8 background points instead of either 6, 8 or 12 and that was swapped to be the default. Also I'm enjoying the podcast so far. Are there any special permissions you needed in order to post it? Because the game KidCoelacanth and I are doing is probably also going to be recorded and we want to make that available as well.
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May 18, 2013 09:42
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I sent Wade a PM before posting it to double check, and he said we are all firmly out from under the NDA and can post whatever. I've seen kidcoelecanth's character art on tumblr and am interested in how that game goes!
PublicOpinion fucked around with this message at 05:28 on May 19, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 10:06
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Pyradox posted:Basically there was an optional rule where every class got 8 background points instead of either 6, 8 or 12 and that was swapped to be the default.
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May 18, 2013 14:41
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PublicOpinion posted:I sent Wade a PM before posting it to double check, and he said we are all firmly out from under the NDA and can post whatever. I've seen kidcoelecanth's character art on tumblr and an interested in how that game goes! Speaking of which!  I've finalized the design for my 13A character so I might as well show it off too!! Pyradox was a huge help in getting the clothes and details in order so hella props to him. Chroma "The Rainbow Warrior" Rusch (Human Fighter) is the reigning champion of the Empire Fight Federation and is basically an amalgamation of many of the big-name pro wrestlers of the WWE. Her OUT is that she can "see the true colors of man" (an ability I'm keeping slightly in the dark for now), and she's loud, boisterous, and packed with charisma. I'm really psyched to start playing her, because I've reskinned dual weapons into FISTS and will be dropping powerbombs and DDTs all over the place in combat. The flexibility this game allows is really awesome and I can't understate how drat excited I am. kidcoelacanth fucked around with this message at 17:26 on May 18, 2013 |
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May 18, 2013 17:20
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Awesome design and concept. That's the smallest title belt I've ever seen though.
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May 19, 2013 06:24
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Golden Bee posted:Awesome design and concept. That's the smallest title belt I've ever seen though. Seconding this. Wrasslin Belts need to be big and gaudy, otherwise nobody's gonna give you proper respect.
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May 19, 2013 07:18
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I'm not up on my wrestling, but I can only see some Ultimate Warrior DNA, and I thought he retired at the start of WWE.
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May 19, 2013 08:15
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Y'all make good points. Will beef that sucker up next go.
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May 19, 2013 16:03
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kidcoelacanth posted:Y'all make good points. Will beef that sucker up next go. Hey you have to start small, otherwise the Champion of the Age tower shield belt buckle would mean nothing!
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May 20, 2013 17:37
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