13th Age RPG 2E

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Buyer’s fatigue is a real thing and with the frequency of kickstarters and new editions of games every couple years I agree with sureshot sureshot . Heck it isn’t like I don’t already have enough unplayed games to be able to do a different weekly game every week until I die without ever buying anything else.
 
I think that they should use race, species, and kin in series one per every three books. Don't tell anyone, just print 'em and sell 'em. Make some popcorn. Watch the internet explode.
 
I'll be on board for this one. I have the whole line and look forward to the new edition.

I'm kind of surprised they aren't rolling 13 True Ways into the core Player's Handbook, though. That material will appear later in Further Adventurers. It would've been nice to have all the classes in one book.

Now the only question is how much Pelgrane is going to soak me for that slipcase and screen.
 
Zimzerveran said:
I'll be on board for this one. I have the whole line and look forward to the new edition.

I'm kind of surprised they aren't rolling 13 True Ways into the core Player's Handbook, though. That material will appear later in Further Adventurers. It would've been nice to have all the classes in one book.

Now the only question is how much Pelgrane is going to soak me for that slipcase and screen.
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Imo it would have made the core too large. Along the lines of the hardcover version of Pathfinder 2E.
 
Besides possibly Planet of the Apes rpg (even then only after reading or viewing reviews of it). I might also buy 13th Age.

Before 5E and PF 2E it was going to be my replacement fantasy rpg.
 
Zimzerveran said:
I'm kind of surprised they aren't rolling 13 True Ways into the core Player's Handbook, though. That material will appear later in Further Adventurers. It would've been nice to have all the classes in one book.
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I would hope that they include the Druid Class in the core book this time - it feels like it should be with the core character classes.

I like how versatile the 13th Age Druid Class is, covering Druids, Shamans, Elementalists, and whatnot.

(One could also argue for the Necromancer Class to be corebook as well, given that characters can begin play with Icon Relationships with the Lich King)

But yeah, I hope the Druid Class is considered mainstream enough for inclusion in the core rulebook.
 
Mankcam said:
I would hope that they include the Druid Class in the core book this time - it feels like it should be with the core character classes.

I like how versatile the 13th Age Druid Class is, covering Druids, Shamans, Elementalists, and whatnot.

(One could also argue for the Necromancer Class to be corebook as well, given that characters can begin play with Icon Relationships with the Lich King)

But yeah, I hope the Druid Class is considered mainstream enough for inclusion in the core rulebook.
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I can agree with that. The other classes are a little less traditional (I'm looking at you, Occultist).

At the end of the day, I'll grab whatever they put out for 2e. The other classes will still be usable until Further Adventurers comes out anyway.
 
Between Shadowdark, Dolemwood, Black Sword Hack, D&D 5E Lord Of The Rings, and 13 Age, it looks like my D&D fix is sated.
All those titles hit different beats, but somehow still feel more D&D to me than the recent era WotC releases.
I'm not interested in any upcoming WotC D&D 6E at this stage, and I can't see that changing.

Given WotC's track record over the last twelve months, I don't anticipate wanting to add any fuel to their fire for quite a while.
Most of the WotC releases after 'Rime Of The Frostmaiden' make me feel that I'm not their target customer these days.
Not to mention all the other grief they caused with the OGL grab/scandal, and the upcoming digital platform emphasis.

13th Age seems much more my wheelhouse in many ways. Very narrative at times, yet light to mid crunch at other times. Perhaps a bit too 'gamey' at times for my tastes, but I have other trpgs that aren't; so this is fine.
It's actually quite easy to GM, and customising threats is no biggie at all.

Additionally the books provide some very rich setting seeds that easily fire up my imagination.
I'm having fun running 13th Age at present

There is a pretty good press release for 13th Age 2E here:

pelgranepress.com

13th Age Second Edition

pelgranepress.com pelgranepress.com
 
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Mankcam said:
There is a pretty good press release for 13th Age 2E here:
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I appreciate where Rob noted that they saw common powers that people were more likely to take, and instead of spiking those, they made the other powers more fun. So not taking away the fun ones people liked already.

I’m pretty psyched for 2E. It is one of my faves. I am much more likely to run 13A than 4E (or 5E, or 1+2E - all the actual D&Ds I have). Honestly, if I did have to order them, in likelihood of me running it would be 13A, 1+2E, 4E, 5E.

But as mentioned by others, I have other games that scratch different D&D itches.
 
Size of the book is not an issue for me either as long as it’s properly organized. Looking at you 1E DMG.

I also liked that in 13th age they made no defence of the Rust Monster or similar monsters.

They have en entry in their equivalent of the monster manual. Yet unlike Paizo the 13th age devs just simply say “ if players see such monsters they will turn them into paste”.
 
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Side note, it is much easier for me to rationalize the GM/Player book split since I often provide copies of the player book for my players to use.
 
i'm a little further down, but backed for both in hard cover. I rarely do real books, but my group has a few that like them.
 
I’m really tempted, but I need to give it some more thought. It does seem like most of my issues with 1E are getting addressed so that’s good.
 
I backed it, I’ve never played but I own a number of 1e books and it looks like it can really deliver the “epic fantasy” I crave that 5e has so far been unable to manage.
 
UnplayedRanger said:
I’m really tempted, but I need to give it some more thought. It does seem like most of my issues with 1E are getting addressed so that’s good.
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what were your issues?
 
Well this is great - I just got paid and I have been waiting for this !!!
I'm running 13th Age at present, and between this and Shadowdark, both flavours of D&D are sated for me.
I always upgrade, so I thought I'ld just jump in right away and go for the limited edition bling, the covers look great, the GM screen and map look cool
Then down the track I might buy an additional standard PHB for a 'table copy' (we'll see...)
Ok done, money transferred to my credit card in advance

Let's hope I don't have any unexpected costs this month...
 
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For anyone on the fence, the 2 volume slipcase is available as a 48 hour early bird. Not calling out Fenris-77 Fenris-77 at all here.

Also, side note, early bulette plus GM screen as add on is cheaper than buying the combination item. Plus big d6 available as add on! I had one already, but maybe if I buy a second one they will mate!
 
Nooooo. Not at all. :grin: I didn't see that early bird deal and I'm certainly not considering backing it.
 
Mankcam said:
Well this is great - I just got paid and I have been waiting for this !!!
I'm running 13th Age at present, and between this and Shadowdark, both flavours of D&D are sated for me.
I always upgrade, so I thought I'ld just jump in right away and go for the limited edition bling
Then down the track I might buy an additional standard PHB for a 'table copy' (we'll see...)
Ok done, money transferred to my credit card in advance

Let's hope I don't have any unexpected costs this month...
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I added on a table copy. May add one for my son as well down the road. The dice ... I just can't resist special dice.
 
Vargold said:
I added on a table copy. May add one for my son as well down the road. The dice ... I just can't resist special dice.
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Yeah I can't afford it at present, but I'll likely add a 'table copy' before the Backer Kit gets locked down
 
I've generally heard good things about 13th Age but it strikes me as rather "high powered" in nature. I find 5e D&D to be too much of a "fantasy superheroes" game -- so probably not a good fit for me?

(Of course, I certainly don't need yet another FRPG...)
 
i would say that's a fairly good characterization of 13th age. it's very good, but if you don't like the genre, it'll rub you a bit wrong. It does have the Primeval Thule setting, which is a little more sword and sorcery.
 
Akrasia said:
I've generally heard good things about 13th Age but it strikes me as rather "high powered" in nature. I find 5e D&D to be too much of a "fantasy superheroes" game -- so probably not a good fit for me?

(Of course, I certainly don't need yet another FRPG...)
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Yes it is high powered, its the opposite of D&D games like OSE or Shadowdark.
(A more low-powered version of 13th Age/Archemage Engine would be welcomed actually)

In 13th Age, the PCs have three tiers: Adventurers (L1 to L4), Champions (L5 to L8), and Epic (L9 to L10)
The Levels don't correlate to D&D Levels, but I would say that 13th Age L1 starting characters are perhaps equal to L6 to L8 characters in D&D 5E.
It can take a while to go up Levels, and the GM can throttle that a fair bit and slow it

Most typical D&D campaigns would be equivalent of Adventurer tier campaigns for 13th Age, perhaps transitioning to Champion tier by the end.

Even though it is high powered, I go slow with character progression, typically as many major story arcs equal to the character's Level before a Full Level Up can be justified - eg: one major story arc for L1 characters, then another two major story arcs for L2 characters, then another three major story arcs for L3 charcters, and so on.

At certain milestones they can get smaller incremental level-up awards however, and this keeps players happy.

I tend to keep play in the Adventurer tier, although if I ever run one of the 13th Age iconic campaigns then they could eventually go to Champion tier.

I have found that levelling hasn't been the focus of the 13th Age sessions I have run, which have ended up with much more narrative-emphasis than expected. Until a combat scene occurs, it has felt closer to Fate Core than D&D for some reason.
 
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UnplayedRanger said:
Some underwhelming class powers. Icons not making any sense. And gimmick rolls on monsters (though they seem to be ramping this one up).
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I liked the 13A that I got to play well enough, but your issues seem to be the same as mine. I do recall a thread on 13A icons that I read once, though, in which I saw some absolutely brilliant advice - just replace the Icons with more local/regional figureheads. Which ones specifically can depend on the scope of the campaign. Important nobles, guild leaders, religious figureheads, military leaders, that one innkeeper(you know the one), the lord of the beggars, etc. Things that are way easier to justify being relevant on a regular basis than the elf queen and the golden wyrm(I hope I got those names right. It's been a minute.). If I ever got to play again, I'd definitely be using that advice.

I also didn't like that one of the monsters - and not even a high-level one - could just abscond with one of your limbs. I didn't mind monsters having gimmicks, but I didn't care for some of them being unavoidable bodily mutilation effects. HP is meant to represent a lot of things, and one of them is how you're not in (much) danger of permanent mutilation/death while you still have some. Effects that bypass this, especially with such a major permanent effect, just seem cheap to me.
 
Mankcam said:
The Levels don't correlate to D&D Levels, but I would say that 13th Age L1 starting characters are perhaps equal to L6 to L8 characters in D&D 5E.
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Out of curiosity, what is that based on?
 
AsenRG said:
Out of curiosity, what is that based on?
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It's kinda just how it feels to me.
PCs begin the game with Unique backgrounds or traits, and all throughout the book it pushes that it is not aiming for a zero-to-hero experience, because you are pretty much well on the heroic path from the start. Level 10 is pretty much demi-god.
I just frame it to my players using that vague handwave of equivalent levels, it gets into their heaadspace that their characters are already accomplished or quite seasoned.
 
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FreeGamer said:
I also didn't like that one of the monsters - and not even a high-level one - could just abscond with one of your limbs. I didn't mind monsters having gimmicks, but I didn't care for some of them being unavoidable bodily mutilation effects. HP is meant to represent a lot of things, and one of them is how you're not in (much) danger of permanent mutilation/death while you still have some. Effects that bypass this, especially with such a major permanent effect, just seem cheap to me.
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I'm not sure what monster this is. Do you remember by chance?
FreeGamer said:
just replace the Icons with more local/regional figureheads. Which ones specifically can depend on the scope of the campaign. Important nobles, guild leaders, religious figureheads, military leaders, that one innkeeper(you know the one), the lord of the beggars, etc. Things that are way easier to justify being relevant on a regular basis than the elf queen and the golden wyrm(I hope I got those names right. It's been a minute.). If I ever got to play again, I'd definitely be using that advice.
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this is what I did for my Norse version. I made pretty heavy alterations to the icon rules as a whole. I also made them represented by runes and had them drawn from a bag instead of rolled and got them one shot magic items.
Mankcam said:
I have found that levelling hasn't been the focus of the 13th Age sessions I have run, which have ended up with much more narrative-emphasis than expected. Until a combat scene occurs, it has felt closer to Fate Core than D&D for some reason.
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I can see this. Leveling wasn't a super focus for us either. I leveled them at narratively interesting points. It's not an especially tricky tacky game. The backgrounds do a lot of work here for that narrative emphasis.
 
Mankcam said:
It's kinda just how it feels to me.
PCs begin the game with Unique backgrounds or traits, and all throughout the book it pushes that it is not aiming for a zero-to-hero experience, because you are pretty much heroes from the start. Level 10 is pretty much demi-god.
I just frame it to my players using that vague handwave of equivalent levels, it gets into their heaadspace that their characters are already accomplished or seasoned.
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Yeah, given that there's only 10 levels, I'd expect 1st level to be at around 3rd level already, but I was surprised to know it's starting a lot higher than that:thumbsup:.
 
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