Look what showed up on my door: Loot and Shadows of Eldoran

[SteveC]

Just thought I'd let folks know that both Loot and Shadows of Eldoran showed up in print at my doorstep.

The look nice in print, very shiny. That's both a reference to Firefly and actually true: the paper is very glossy and shiny.

I am currently running Shadows, and have been using Loot for treasure, so I'm glad to get these in print.

I'm not sure if your FLGS can order them yet, but mine is looking into it right now.

The only thing I haven't liked about the books is that they have black and white interiors. Some of the art has come out a little dark in my opinion, but they're both really nice books (content is king) and I recommend them.

 

[ruemere]

Would you mind elaborating a bit on what exactly can be found in there? Chapter titles be helpful, ditto for new rules and statblocks.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[Balesir]

Chapter titles won't be very useful, I'm afraid, for the following reasons:

- Shadows of Eldoran is an adventure for characters starting out at 1st level in 13th Age. It includes a nice outline for the town of Eldoran and its Wizard Guilds, plus an adventure (which I haven't finished reading, yet) set in the town. As such, the chapter headings will give a few spoilers, but no real idea of the adventure structure (at least, they didn't give me that).

- The Book of Loot has chapter headings that are simply a list of Icons, for the most part. The magic items in the book are listed under Icons, with the idea that they will tend to crop up in adventures associated in some way with that Icon. Several of the items come with tidbits of background and plot hooks related to the Icon, and many of them seem really fun in the way they use both the rules and the Icon concepts. There are also some "mundane" treasure ideas and guidelines/food for thought, plus some thoughts and guidance on creating items and artifacts of your own.

It's early days, yet, but I can definitely recommend Book of Loot and Shadows looks promising so far.

 

[SteveC]

Would you mind elaborating a bit on what exactly can be found in there? Chapter titles be helpful, ditto for new rules and statblocks.

Regards,
Ruemere

Let me talk about it a little. For Loot, the book is arranged by Icons, and has one or more items of each adventure tier for each spell item slot. It's really a lot of items.

The items make up 95% of the book, but there is also a master list of items by item location rather than Icon.

Shadows as an adventure is very good. It is not as "gonzo" as some of the other 13th Age stuff, so if you weren't interested in crazy-go-nuts adventure, you might like it.

I'm currently writing a story hour for it, which has mega spoilers for the adventure. You can read it here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?364342-13th-Age-storytime

--Steve

 

[ruemere]

Thanks. I'll watch it like hawk.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[SteveC]

So I just had session three of my 13th Age game, and wanted to write a little more about the adventure.

I'm really enjoying running it so far because of its structure. I'm not going to do any spoiler here (but the Story Hour will update tomorrow with episode 2, which is full of spoilers!)

The adventure has an initial scene that serves as a sort of hub. When you finish the scene, you have about half a dozen leads to pursue, each of which can lead to each other. Essentially, the group can investigate any number of leads, each of which will take you eventually to what's really going on.

The game has a progression where "lead x tells you about faction y, which in turn tells you about faction z." The cool thing is, if you made a different choice, you could have gone directly to z, which might have led you back to x." Confusing? It's tough to write more without spoilers.

One thing that might be considered an issue by some, is that it uses a little Illusionism: the GM is given the option as to where the clues lead to, so the group can skip sections of the adventure if it's getting too long. I like this style of play, but some don't.

Each of the leads and locations is well detailed, with NPCs and information gathering. I'm choosing to focus on some of these characters that tie into the group's background in my story hour.

I would recommend this adventure as a starter over the current 5E offerings, actually.