D&D General The 13th Age 2nd Edition Kickstarter Has Launched

Updated, streamlined, and backwards-compatible!

Screenshot 2024-05-08 at 10.41.20.png


13th Age was released 10 years ago as a 'love letter' to D&D. Designed by D&D 3E's Jonathan Tweet and 4E's Rob Heinsoo, it streamlined the game and introduced innovations such as the Escalation Die, and it's One Unique Thing, a trait that every character has which is individual to them.

2nd Edition is now here--streamlined, clarified, backward-compatible, and updated with revised classes, monsters, and more. And, unlike the single book format of the original, this version comes in the form of a 240-page Player's Handbook and a 160-page Gamemaster's Guide.

You can pick up both books for £40 in PDF or £100 in hardcover format, plus dice, a GM screen, and more.

There's a free preview document available (12-page PDF).

Designer Rob Heinsoo spoke to EN Publishing's Jessica Hancock about 13th Age 2E last year on the Not DnD show.

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Morrus

Morrus is the owner of EN World and EN Publishing, creator of the ENnies, creator of the What's OLD is NEW (WOIN), Simply6, and Awfully Cheerful Engine game systems, publisher of Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, and co-host of the weekly Morrus' Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk podcast. He has been a game publisher and RPG community administrator for over 20 years, and has been reporting on TTRPG and D&D news for over two decades. He is also on the socials.
Weiley31

Weiley31

Legend
The beta test rule packets are out if anybody signed up for Playtest materials before. These I think, according to the email, are the most completed version of the rules bar further playtesting.
 
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Ramaster

Ramaster

Adventurer
Making my way through the rules since yesterday. This game looks great! I always regretted not playing 1e more. Hopefully I'd be able to give 2e a go!

The only thing that I don't like all that much about the system is Icon relationships. They feel very "forced" to me. I don't mind the Icons at all, I think that's an interesting/bold design choice. But making it so that EVERY character has a connection to them... feels a bit lame.

My two cents and, as I've said, the rest is looking super neat!
 

Baumi

Baumi

Adventurer
Ramaster, the good thing is that you can ignore Icons if you want. There might be a few Talents that feed into that but just ignore it and it will play fine.

I found Icons very Intersting and helped me shape my campaign (it shows what the Players are interested in and automatically includes in in Gameplay), but at higher levels I got overhelmed with the number of Icon Events that I had to fit in. I hope the new Rules fixes this, and from a very short thumbthrough it looks like that it is now more in the hands of the players instead of the gm .. this should take a bit of the load off.
 


L

Lord Shark

Adventurer
EzekielRaiden said:
Here's hoping they addressed some of the issues with the Paladin, which was always a bit of a disappointment in 13A.
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Looking through the playtest beta, they've added champion- and epic-tier talents to the paladin, so you're not stuck picking from the same little pool of talents for your paladin for your entire career (like the 5E battlemaster). Smite and Lay on Hands are now both class abilities so they don't cost a talent pick. Smite also scales in damage by level rather than by tier (up to +10d12).

It's still one of the simpler classes though.
 

Ramaster

Ramaster

Adventurer
Baumi said:
Ramaster, the good thing is that you can ignore Icons if you want. There might be a few Talents that feed into that but just ignore it and it will play fine.

I found Icons very Intersting and helped me shape my campaign (it shows what the Players are interested in and automatically includes in in Gameplay), but at higher levels I got overhelmed with the number of Icon Events that I had to fit in. I hope the new Rules fixes this, and from a very short thumbthrough it looks like that it is now more in the hands of the players instead of the gm .. this should take a bit of the load off.
Click to expand...

Yes! That's one of the things I like about the system. It's quite modular.

If you don't like the "Backgrounds as skills" systems you could just implement a rudimentary skill system similar to D&D / PF with very little effort, for instance.
 

Yaarel

Yaarel

🇮🇱He-Mage
Baumi said:
Ramaster, the good thing is that you can ignore Icons if you want. There might be a few Talents that feed into that but just ignore it and it will play fine.

I found Icons very Intersting and helped me shape my campaign (it shows what the Players are interested in and automatically includes in in Gameplay), but at higher levels I got overhelmed with the number of Icon Events that I had to fit in. I hope the new Rules fixes this, and from a very short thumbthrough it looks like that it is now more in the hands of the players instead of the gm .. this should take a bit of the load off.
Click to expand...
Somethings are better as an opt-in, rather than an opt-out.

The Icons themselves are interesting. But I agree the relationship to them and even which persons become Icons need to be more optional, and up to the players.
 

jmartkdr2

jmartkdr2

Hero
Yaarel said:
Somethings are better as an opt-in, rather than an opt-out.

The Icons themselves are interesting. But I agree the relationship to them and even which persons become Icons need to be more optional, and up to the players.
Click to expand...
Swapping out the existing icons for something totally different (ie FR-style gods) seemed like the easiest thing to change in 13th Age, at least to me.

You just need to make sure your replacement has global (or at least setting-wide) reach.
 

Blue

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
Ramaster said:
Making my way through the rules since yesterday. This game looks great! I always regretted not playing 1e more. Hopefully I'd be able to give 2e a go!

The only thing that I don't like all that much about the system is Icon relationships. They feel very "forced" to me. I don't mind the Icons at all, I think that's an interesting/bold design choice. But making it so that EVERY character has a connection to them... feels a bit lame.

My two cents and, as I've said, the rest is looking super neat!
Click to expand...
Icon Relationships make the character important before they are powerful, often a failing with level-based RPGs. It connects them to the world in positive and negative ways. The Icons are intended as the movers and shakers of the world, and this is also a clear signal to the DM which you want to see in play often. If several characters have positive or complicated relationships with the Priestess and negative or complicated relationships with the Archmage, that signals interest in a very different focus than if those were with the Elf Queen and the Orc Lord, for example.

I ran a 4 year campaign using the first edition, with a good number of characters. Icon Relationships help me steer and give the players various spotlight times - they were a welcome tool.
 

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