13th Age Discussion: A Love Letter to The Best Parts of D&D

[I'm A Banana]

You had me at "escalation die."

The icons also sound awesome.

Some of the class mechanics sound a little lame, but we'll see -- absolutely wanting to pick this up.

 

[Balesir]

Been following this for a while and I definitely intend to give it a go.

 

[Isaac Chalk]

It'd be all fine and dandy but the whole piece sounds too much like a marketing piece and not enough like a gamer honestly telling me what he thinks about the game. I don't usually come to ENWorld expecting promotional flyers. I want someone who really had it in his hands and can tell me how it played, not how it was directed for him to write down.

You're in luck, because "someone who had it in his hands and can tell you how it played" describes me perfectly. I even described part of my playtest under One Unique Thing. I don't work for 13th Age's designers or publisher and am not doing paid promotion for their company; I'm just a gamer who's had to keep quiet about his latest passion for a number of weeks and is eager to finally be able to talk about it.

What did you want to know?

 

[Aehrlon]

I too am interested more in how it plays than anything else. I can't help but make one observation, the timing. Will this come out ahead of D&D Next? Probably. Will it steal some of the thunder for 5E D&D? Maybe a little if they're released within a few months of each other.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing that I'd add is that the game is deliberately designed so that it is quite straight forward to mix and match this with other games, especially other D20 games. It would be quite possible to use just the setting or to completely ignore the setting. While the game is most definitely playable just using the book it would also be of great value as a source of ideas to be incorporated into other worlds or other systems and/or as an interesting game world.

I am highly inclined to use 13th Age and DCC as sourcebooks for my upcoming C&C campaign.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do NPCs and monsters benefit from the escalation die, too?

Is the One Unique Thing explicitly non-combat-related? ("My unique thing is that I cut off heads more easily than other people.")

How much guidance is there in building new Icons?

How similar are the monsters to standard D20 monsters?

How convertible is existing D&D and D20 material to 13th Age, and vice-versa?

 

[Someone]

As a fan of Ars Magica and Feng Shui, I'll checking out the game for sure. In the worst case sounds like there'll be many salvageable ideas there.

 

[pauljathome]

It'd be all fine and dandy but the whole piece sounds too much like a marketing piece and not enough like a gamer honestly telling me what he thinks about the game..

I have no association with the game or with Pelgrane Press other than as an external playtester. I assure you that what I'm saying is my honest opinion.

 

[pauljathome]

Do NPCs and monsters benefit from the escalation die, too?

No

Is the One Unique Thing explicitly non-combat-related? ("My unique thing is that I cut off heads more easily than other people.")

Non combat related

How much guidance is there in building new Icons?

Some but not too much. But there well might be more in the final version.

How convertible is existing D&D and D20 material to 13th Age, and vice-versa?

If you mean campaigns and rules, very convertible.

If you mean existing adventures. then definitely less so.

 

[pauljathome]

I too am interested more in how it plays than anything else. I can't help but make one observation, the timing. Will this come out ahead of D&D Next? Probably. Will it steal some of the thunder for 5E D&D? Maybe a little if they're released within a few months of each other.

The last I checked they were hoping to have it out for August (Gencon, presumably). Which I'd guess is at least a year ahead of DndNext.

They were working on it before DndNext was announced. And while there is definitely some overlap in goals and approaches it is a very different game with very different objectives.

If anything, it is DndNext that is stealing 13th Age's thunder. I imagine that, given the designers, there would be more buzz if people weren't paying so much attention to DndNext.