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Ok, so anyone want to take a gander (goose joke) at selling or unselling me on this 13th Age bundle. The sheer amount of stuff you get for about $40 is tempting, but I really need to stop buying stuff I won't use. The thread about it on the purple site was, uh, underwhelming...
13th age, IMO, is the best “modern” D&D. It’s smooth, the math is tight, the commentary in the book is useful, funny, and definitely targeted at GMs who have been here a while. It’s lighter than 3 or 4e, and I would argue lighter in many ways than 5e. It does high fantasy like gangbusters - I ran a Vikings literally destroy the world with a flood game with it featuring Norse gods and giants and a pile of corpses big enough to block a mythical river and a dead ship. For the players each class is well contained, and there is advice on what kind of player is going to like which class, including complexity.

the new version should be coming out soon, and this will be 100% compatible.

edit: let me put in a little more since i have read the TBP thread a bit.
  • it has some interesting classes, like the occultist, which does most of it's actions as reactions. It has a 4e bard-alike in the Commander. The wizard has a class feature called Vance's Polysyllabic Verbalizations which lets you rename your spells in some very Vancian way and get a little boost. The necromancer has a class feature called Cackling Soliloquist which... well, lets just read that
If you spend your move action, your quick action, and your standard action casting a daily spell that ordinarily only requires a standard action—while screaming grandiloquently, cackling maniacally, or megalomaniacally describing the grandeur of your plans and the futility of your enemies’ resistance—the daily spell is recharge 18+ after battle instead of daily, and you can invent a slight improvement to the spell, especially if it’s partly story oriented, that provides an extra benefit determined by the GM or by you (with GM approval). (For example, if you cast ray of enfeeblement and wax eloquent on how the recurring villain you target will bow before you, you could suggest that your target also loses its next move action as the ray forces it to its knees.)
Note, it seems fine to us to let you use this feature with any daily spell you pick up thanks to one of the necromancer talents, but the no power crossover rule for a spellcasting multiclass (see page 104) still applies.
  • everyone waxes on about Icons. People like them, though i didn't find them particularly amazing. Basically Big Players in the story who might have some agent give influence. Like The Archmage, the Priestess, the Orc Lord, or the Diabolist. Some of them are complex, like the Prince of Shadows. You can have a relationship with them, good, bad, or mixed, and things happen based on that. It's sort of neat, but i hear 2e is going to improve it a lot.
  • Combat is TotM, and has range bands. You roll big piles of dice, or take averages. They talk about how it is fun to roll big piles of dice.
  • the monsters are some of the easiest to homebrew I've ever seen. They are mathematically very tight, and they have lots of advice on making new ones. I often took ones from the book, tweaked it, and it worked great.
  • it has 3 levels of power - normal, champion and epic. 10 levels in the game. They talk about why these things are this way in detail.
  • It has Mooks and they are fun. groups of 5 that have an hp pool. you are encouraged to invent ways to have the damage spill over to the next one. There were may mooks killed by other mook's heads being lopped off to become deadly projectiles.
It's sort of beer and pretzels, and it's lots of fun.
 
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13th age, IMO, is the best “modern” D&D. It’s smooth, the math is tight, the commentary in the book is useful, funny, and definitely targeted at GMs who have been here a while. It’s lighter than 3 or 4e, and I would argue lighter in many ways than 5e. It does high fantasy like gangbusters - I ran a Vikings literally destroy the world with a flood game with it featuring Norse gods and giants and a pile of corpses big enough to block a mythical river and a dead ship. For the players each class is well contained, and there is advice on what kind of player is going to like which class, including complexity.

the new version should be coming out soon, and this will be 100% compatible.

edit: let me put in a little more since i have read the TBP thread a bit.
  • it has some interesting classes, like the occultist, which does most of it's actions as reactions. It has a 4e bard-alike in the Commander. The wizard has a class feature called Vance's Polysyllabic Verbalizations which lets you rename your spells in some very Vancian way and get a little boost. The necromancer has a class feature called Cackling Soliloquist which... well, lets just read that

  • everyone waxes on about Icons. People like them, though i didn't find them particularly amazing. Basically Big Players in the story who might have some agent give influence. Like The Archmage, the Priestess, the Orc Lord, or the Diabolist. Some of them are complex, like the Prince of Shadows. You can have a relationship with them, good, bad, or mixed, and things happen based on that. It's sort of neat, but i hear 2e is going to improve it a lot.
  • Combat is TotM, and has range bands. You roll big piles of dice, or take averages. They talk about how it is fun to roll big piles of dice.
  • the monsters are some of the easiest to homebrew I've ever seen. They are mathematically very tight, and they have lots of advice on making new ones. I often took ones from the book, tweaked it, and it worked great.
  • it has 3 levels of power - normal, champion and epic. 10 levels in the game. They talk about why these things are this way in detail.
  • It has Mooks and they are fun. groups of 5 that have an hp pool. you are encouraged to invent ways to have the damage spill over to the next one. There were may mooks killed by other mook's heads being lopped off to become deadly projectiles.
It's sort of beer and pretzels, and it's lots of fun.

Thanks! This was what I was looking for! I'm still on the fence, as I have that feeling like I need another RPG like an additional hole in the head, but its a seriously good deal... hmmm....
 
Thanks! This was what I was looking for! I'm still on the fence, as I have that feeling like I need another RPG like an additional hole in the head, but its a seriously good deal... hmmm....

The Eyes of the Stone Thief is an excellent dungeon and this includes the 5e version.
 
Thanks! This was what I was looking for! I'm still on the fence, as I have that feeling like I need another RPG like an additional hole in the head, but its a seriously good deal... hmmm....
We'll persuade you to pull the trigger:thumbsup:!
The Eyes of the Stone Thief is an excellent dungeon and this includes the 5e version.
...like this:grin:!
 
Thanks! This was what I was looking for! I'm still on the fence, as I have that feeling like I need another RPG like an additional hole in the head, but its a seriously good deal... hmmm....
It is a seriously good deal, and for a good cause. If it’ll make you feel better, two of my best campaigns were in this system. It’s a lot of fun and I think just an incredibly well designed d&d.
 



Included the reddit one because it unfurls to have all the text.

The Dead Internet Theory is amusing, even if probably untrue:smile:.
This unformatted wall of text comes from the Reddit r/bundleofholding subreddit. It's cross-posted from the official Bundle of Holding blog, Beyond the Bundle, where the post is nicely formatted and linked. Reddit kept rejecting the formatted post. No idea why.
Probably because the site's AI hated the Dead Internet Theory, and unformatting it made it so it didn't spot it...oh, no, wait, wrong decade to post that! Sorry!
*Jumps in time machine to post on a thread that's yet to be:wink:*
 
This unformatted wall of text comes from the Reddit r/bundleofholding subreddit. It's cross-posted from the official Bundle of Holding blog, Beyond the Bundle, where the post is nicely formatted and linked. Reddit kept rejecting the formatted post. No idea why.
I just figured I'd post the unformatted version since it unfurls the text- I also posted the link to the blog above that.
 
Some interesting notes re: BoH in light of the current OGL craziness. First, in the emailed update yesterday, it was affirmed that anything you have in your Wizard's Cabinet is safe regardless of what happens. Second, I'll note that the 13th Age Bundle mentioned earlier runs through 1/25, while a new bundle for Dungeons on Demand--an explicitly 5e collection--also runs through 1/25.

 
Hwaet Pubbers!

We're hoping to fund the evolution of BEOWULF Age of Heroes with some Bundle of Holding deal goodness!
If you missed the Kickstarter grab this! It is a great one on one system that does a great job of emulating the source material. Lots of love went into this product.
 
How useful is this if I don’t have 5e-branded rule books apart from the free Basic and Adventures in Middle Earth?

Alternatively what’s the minimum I’d need? 5e PHB? DMG? Not really feeling like buying anything WotC at the moment but dipping into the secondary market is possible.
 
How useful is this if I don’t have 5e-branded rule books apart from the free Basic and Adventures in Middle Earth?

Alternatively what’s the minimum I’d need? 5e PHB? DMG? Not really feeling like buying anything WotC at the moment but dipping into the secondary market is possible.
You definitely would need the Player's Handbook but could probably skip the DMG.
 
If you missed the Kickstarter grab this! It is a great one on one system that does a great job of emulating the source material. Lots of love went into this product.

My second bundle this week. That may be a record for me except for the occasional related bundles that are offered. :tongue:

Stay tuned!

A repeat of the everything HERO 4E bundle would be appreciated if you are taking requests. :wink:

Somehow I missed that one, or perhaps it hasn't been offered.
 
A repeat of the everything HERO 4E bundle would be appreciated if you are taking requests. Somehow I missed that one, or perhaps it hasn't been offered.
There are two Champions 4E Bundles: 4E Essentials and 4E Universe. They debuted in April 2017 and were revived in June 2020. You can still get the Champions 4E Starter Pack ($49.95) from the Bundle Store. It's based on the Core Collection of the 4E Essentials offer. With those books you can run a four-color superhero campaign for a decade.
 
There are two Champions 4E Bundles: 4E Essentials and 4E Universe. They debuted in April 2017 and were revived in June 2020. You can still get the Champions 4E Starter Pack ($49.95) from the Bundle Store. It's based on the Core Collection of the 4E Essentials offer. With those books you can run a four-color superhero campaign for a decade.

Thanks for the heads up on the starter pack. I got the early bundles in 2018 and 5E bundles in 2021, I must have just missed the 4E bundles. It isn't a huge deal, I've already got everything I want in paper, but it would be nice to have the pdfs, I can be patient. :smile:
 
How useful is this if I don’t have 5e-branded rule books apart from the free Basic and Adventures in Middle Earth?

Alternatively what’s the minimum I’d need? 5e PHB? DMG? Not really feeling like buying anything WotC at the moment but dipping into the secondary market is possible.
You can totally run BEOWULF from the free basic version. I must check if that’s still there. Who knows anything just now?
 
And Allan shows once again how much he hates me with this Advanced Adventures mega bundle. and here I am looking at this weekend introducing the friend group kids to D&D. We were thinking DCC because the chaos of the funnel is hilarious, but this is in that space too, and I bet largely compatible
 
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