Imaro
Legend
Session 1 : Character Creation
So my group started (what will hopefully be a long-running) 13th Age game over the past weekend and I thought I’d do a write-up containing my own thoughts on character creation in the game. First a little about our group… It is a mostly male group, with some occasional female players who may appear in later write-ups, as they were not here for character creation. The groups max size is 10, though rarely do we have a full house since many of the players are casual. The ages range from 10 years old all the way up to early 30’s. The premise of the campaign is pretty simple, everyone (some for their own personal reasons) are doing a one year and one day stint in the 11th legion of the Dragon Empire, of which they had finished exactly 6 months when the game starts. We decided that starting the campaign in the middle of their tenure would be good because it would give the PC’s some 6 months of interaction and deeds that could be filled in either beforehand through established history, or through flashbacks and memories as the game progresses. In addition I gave every character either a single, free +1 bonus to a background related to service in the Dragon Empire legions or they got the background; “Servant of the Dragon” at +1 for free. The campaign will be a round robin DM game where I and another player will be alternating as the GM, with me up first.
The first two hours of game time were taken up by character creation. We created a total of 3 characters in an hour, which for 4 players (with no electronic aids) all working at the same time wasn’t bad at all. The last character was made in the second hour (this was due to the fact that one player arrived late, otherwise I think all 5 could have been done in an hour). In order to speed up character creation we used print outs of the class sections from the PDF as well as two hardback copies of the book. The following characters were created which I will do more detailed write-ups for at the end of this post
[TABLE="width: 500"][TR][TD]Player[/TD][TD]Character Name[/TD][TD]Race[/TD][TD]Class[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Sy[/TD][TD]Vince[/TD][TD]Wood Elf[/TD][TD]Ranger[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Je[/TD][TD]Kal'Ruik[/TD][TD]Half Orc[/TD][TD]Paladin[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Aj[/TD][TD]Quinnton[/TD][TD]Human[/TD][TD]Fighter[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Sa[/TD][TD]Link[/TD][TD]Half Elf[/TD][TD]Barbarian[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Imaro[/TD][TD]Eli (Elijah)[/TD][TD]Human[/TD][TD]Cleric[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]Character creation was pretty easy (thought initially there was some confusion concerning how to compute AC). We voted that each player should be able to decide whether they were going to roll or use point buy, it ended up being 3 rollers and 2 going point buy. Funnily enough the longest part of character creation wasn’t picking talents or feats (I think the fact that 13th Age siloes feats by class, has charts that list the effects and page number of feats, as well as the game having a minimum of general feats available to all PC’s really sped the process of selection up). The longest part of character creation was each player deciding on their One Unique thing (and one player, Aj, still hadn’t decided by the time we began playing but promised to have it ready by the start of our next session).
I would say the hardest thing for the players to understand during character creation was the role of icons and their relationships with the PC’s. I think the initial assumption was that the icons were the “gods” of the game but after some more clarification from myself (especially about how the Icons were just powerful NPC’s and would basically be used to help me and the other GM, Je, determine what the PC’s were interested in interacting with in the world as well as what might randomly pop up in an adventure), things went pretty smoothly with everyone leaving their exact relationship with the icons vague but noting whether the relationship was positive, negative or conflicted. I think there was a wide enough selection in icons by the players that it won’t feel like the same Icons are popping up every story… but a few that will also provide a sense of consistency since they were chosen by multiple players (Elf Queen, Crusader, and Orc Lord).
Finally, I think backgrounds were probably the most enjoyable part of the character creation mini-game, though explaining the concept to the younger players was certainly more effort than just plopping a skill list down and having them pick, the easiest way I found to explain them to the kids were that they really were the background things their character had been and/or done before or during their time in the legion. After that they pretty much got it, though backgrounds were skewed heavily toward the occupation end of the spectrum, Sa (whose the youngest player in our group) did surprise me by requesting a son and wife and then making one of his backgrounds “Loving husband and father”.
All in all I would say character creation was a pretty quick and enjoyable experience.
My top 5 take away(s) would probably be…
1. Make sure your players fully understand the nature of the icons in your game…
2. Having a general campaign structure made character creation and integration easier for a round robin game...
3. Don’t’ think of backgrounds as just skills, they really are different beasts
4. Probably give people time to think of OUT’s before character creation begins…
5. Consider designing a “giveaway” list for the Barbarian class like every other class has. Not sure why this is the only class that has to purchase all of its gear during character creation
After creating characters we had about 2 hours left for game time which, if anyone is interested in hearing about, I can go over in a follow up post. Below you can find more detailed write up's of the PC’s we created during character creation including their OUT’s and backgrounds...
Player: Aj
Character Name: Quinnton
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Class Features: Threatening
One Unique Thing: Undecided
Attributes (Point Buy): Str 18 Con 18 Dex 14 Int 10 Wis 8 Cha 8
Talents: Counter-Attack, Heavy Warrior, Power Attack
Maneuvers: Brace for it, Deadly Assault, Defensive Fighting
Feats: Linguist, Toughness
Backgrounds: Time Spent as a Mercenary for the Dragon Empire 2/ Former gladiator of Axis 3
Dragon Empire Legionnaire 3/ Former Investigator for the emperor 1
Relationships: Dragon Emperor (positive): 2/ The Orc Lord (negative): 1
Player: Sa
Character Name: Link
Race: Half Elf
Class: Barbarian
Class Features: Barbarian Rage
One Unique Thing: I am the last in a line of elves that were gifted by the Elf Queen with the innate ability to tame and control dragons.
Attributes (Rolled): Str 19 Con 16 Dex 14 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 11
Talents: Building Frenzy, Unstoppable, Whirlwind Frenzy
Feats: Unstoppable(Adventurer Feat)
Backgrounds: Thief from the back alleys of Shadow Port 3/ Former demon hunter 2 /Servant of the Dragon 1
Forester for a minor noble of the Dragon Empire 2/ Loving father and husband 1
Relationships: Elf Queen(positive): 2/ Prince of Shadows(conflicted): 1
Player: Je
Character Name: Kal’Ruik
Race: Half Orc
Class: Paladin
Class Features: Smite Evil
One Unique Thing: I was a gladiator until a personal visit from the Priestess caused me to take up the calling of the paladin.
Attributes(Rolled): Str 18 Con 14 Dex 8 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 17
Talents: Cleric Training, Fearless, Lay on Hands
Spells : Hammer of Faith
Feats: Toughness
Backgrounds: True believer of a burgeoning cult 2/ Fought in the slum pits of Axis 3/
Demoted captain of a Dragon Empire legion 3/ Experienced Adventurer 1
Relationships: Priestess (positive): 2/ The Orc Lord (negative): 1/Crusader(conflicted): 1
Player: Sy
Character Name: Vince
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Ranger
Class Features: None
One Unique Thing: I am the only elf in the world with eyes that are slitted like a cat and the color of ice.
Attributes(Point Buy): Str 16 Con 10 Dex 18 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 10
Talents: Animal Companion, Double Melee Attack
Feats: Animal Companion (adventurer feat)
Backgrounds: Former thug in the city of Shadow Port 2/ Trained to survive in numerous environments 3
Bounty hunter for the Elf Queen 3/ Servant of the Dragon 1
Relationships: Elf Queen (positive): 1/ Prince of Shadows(negative): 1/High Druid (conflicted):1
Animal Companion Stats: Maltese Tiger
(Acts before Character)/Crit Rnge +2 vs. lower initiative opponents
AC: 16 PD: 14 MD: 10 Hit points: 20
+5 vs. AC/ Dmg 1d8
Player: Imaro
Character Name: Eli (short for Elijah)
Race: Human
Class: Cleric
Class Features: Bonus Spell: Heal, Ritual Magic
One Unique Thing: I am the reincarnation of a god of fate and death from a future age, who doesn't know how he died and now serves a younger version of himself while searching for a way to stop himself from being killed in the future.
Attributes (Rolled): Str 17 Con 15 Dex 14 Int 13 Wis 18 Cha 14
Talents: Domain (Death), Domain (Lore), Domain (Strength)
Spells: Hammer of Faith, Javelin of Faith, Heal, Turn Undead, Spirits of the Righteous
Feats: Domain Lore (adventurer feat), Domain Death(adventurer feat)
Backgrounds: Keeper of the secrets of the dead 4/ Inquisitor of the Shadowed Man 3
Overcame the Ordeals of the Shadowed Man 3/ Fate's Assassin 2
Relationships: The Crusader (conflicted): 1/ The Priestess (conflicted): 1/Lich King (negative):1
So my group started (what will hopefully be a long-running) 13th Age game over the past weekend and I thought I’d do a write-up containing my own thoughts on character creation in the game. First a little about our group… It is a mostly male group, with some occasional female players who may appear in later write-ups, as they were not here for character creation. The groups max size is 10, though rarely do we have a full house since many of the players are casual. The ages range from 10 years old all the way up to early 30’s. The premise of the campaign is pretty simple, everyone (some for their own personal reasons) are doing a one year and one day stint in the 11th legion of the Dragon Empire, of which they had finished exactly 6 months when the game starts. We decided that starting the campaign in the middle of their tenure would be good because it would give the PC’s some 6 months of interaction and deeds that could be filled in either beforehand through established history, or through flashbacks and memories as the game progresses. In addition I gave every character either a single, free +1 bonus to a background related to service in the Dragon Empire legions or they got the background; “Servant of the Dragon” at +1 for free. The campaign will be a round robin DM game where I and another player will be alternating as the GM, with me up first.
The first two hours of game time were taken up by character creation. We created a total of 3 characters in an hour, which for 4 players (with no electronic aids) all working at the same time wasn’t bad at all. The last character was made in the second hour (this was due to the fact that one player arrived late, otherwise I think all 5 could have been done in an hour). In order to speed up character creation we used print outs of the class sections from the PDF as well as two hardback copies of the book. The following characters were created which I will do more detailed write-ups for at the end of this post
[TABLE="width: 500"][TR][TD]Player[/TD][TD]Character Name[/TD][TD]Race[/TD][TD]Class[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Sy[/TD][TD]Vince[/TD][TD]Wood Elf[/TD][TD]Ranger[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Je[/TD][TD]Kal'Ruik[/TD][TD]Half Orc[/TD][TD]Paladin[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Aj[/TD][TD]Quinnton[/TD][TD]Human[/TD][TD]Fighter[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Sa[/TD][TD]Link[/TD][TD]Half Elf[/TD][TD]Barbarian[/TD][/TR][TR][TD]Imaro[/TD][TD]Eli (Elijah)[/TD][TD]Human[/TD][TD]Cleric[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]Character creation was pretty easy (thought initially there was some confusion concerning how to compute AC). We voted that each player should be able to decide whether they were going to roll or use point buy, it ended up being 3 rollers and 2 going point buy. Funnily enough the longest part of character creation wasn’t picking talents or feats (I think the fact that 13th Age siloes feats by class, has charts that list the effects and page number of feats, as well as the game having a minimum of general feats available to all PC’s really sped the process of selection up). The longest part of character creation was each player deciding on their One Unique thing (and one player, Aj, still hadn’t decided by the time we began playing but promised to have it ready by the start of our next session).
I would say the hardest thing for the players to understand during character creation was the role of icons and their relationships with the PC’s. I think the initial assumption was that the icons were the “gods” of the game but after some more clarification from myself (especially about how the Icons were just powerful NPC’s and would basically be used to help me and the other GM, Je, determine what the PC’s were interested in interacting with in the world as well as what might randomly pop up in an adventure), things went pretty smoothly with everyone leaving their exact relationship with the icons vague but noting whether the relationship was positive, negative or conflicted. I think there was a wide enough selection in icons by the players that it won’t feel like the same Icons are popping up every story… but a few that will also provide a sense of consistency since they were chosen by multiple players (Elf Queen, Crusader, and Orc Lord).
Finally, I think backgrounds were probably the most enjoyable part of the character creation mini-game, though explaining the concept to the younger players was certainly more effort than just plopping a skill list down and having them pick, the easiest way I found to explain them to the kids were that they really were the background things their character had been and/or done before or during their time in the legion. After that they pretty much got it, though backgrounds were skewed heavily toward the occupation end of the spectrum, Sa (whose the youngest player in our group) did surprise me by requesting a son and wife and then making one of his backgrounds “Loving husband and father”.
All in all I would say character creation was a pretty quick and enjoyable experience.
My top 5 take away(s) would probably be…
1. Make sure your players fully understand the nature of the icons in your game…
2. Having a general campaign structure made character creation and integration easier for a round robin game...
3. Don’t’ think of backgrounds as just skills, they really are different beasts
4. Probably give people time to think of OUT’s before character creation begins…
5. Consider designing a “giveaway” list for the Barbarian class like every other class has. Not sure why this is the only class that has to purchase all of its gear during character creation
After creating characters we had about 2 hours left for game time which, if anyone is interested in hearing about, I can go over in a follow up post. Below you can find more detailed write up's of the PC’s we created during character creation including their OUT’s and backgrounds...
Player: Aj
Character Name: Quinnton
Race: Human
Class: Fighter
Class Features: Threatening
One Unique Thing: Undecided
Attributes (Point Buy): Str 18 Con 18 Dex 14 Int 10 Wis 8 Cha 8
Talents: Counter-Attack, Heavy Warrior, Power Attack
Maneuvers: Brace for it, Deadly Assault, Defensive Fighting
Feats: Linguist, Toughness
Backgrounds: Time Spent as a Mercenary for the Dragon Empire 2/ Former gladiator of Axis 3
Dragon Empire Legionnaire 3/ Former Investigator for the emperor 1
Relationships: Dragon Emperor (positive): 2/ The Orc Lord (negative): 1
Player: Sa
Character Name: Link
Race: Half Elf
Class: Barbarian
Class Features: Barbarian Rage
One Unique Thing: I am the last in a line of elves that were gifted by the Elf Queen with the innate ability to tame and control dragons.
Attributes (Rolled): Str 19 Con 16 Dex 14 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 11
Talents: Building Frenzy, Unstoppable, Whirlwind Frenzy
Feats: Unstoppable(Adventurer Feat)
Backgrounds: Thief from the back alleys of Shadow Port 3/ Former demon hunter 2 /Servant of the Dragon 1
Forester for a minor noble of the Dragon Empire 2/ Loving father and husband 1
Relationships: Elf Queen(positive): 2/ Prince of Shadows(conflicted): 1
Player: Je
Character Name: Kal’Ruik
Race: Half Orc
Class: Paladin
Class Features: Smite Evil
One Unique Thing: I was a gladiator until a personal visit from the Priestess caused me to take up the calling of the paladin.
Attributes(Rolled): Str 18 Con 14 Dex 8 Int 8 Wis 13 Cha 17
Talents: Cleric Training, Fearless, Lay on Hands
Spells : Hammer of Faith
Feats: Toughness
Backgrounds: True believer of a burgeoning cult 2/ Fought in the slum pits of Axis 3/
Demoted captain of a Dragon Empire legion 3/ Experienced Adventurer 1
Relationships: Priestess (positive): 2/ The Orc Lord (negative): 1/Crusader(conflicted): 1
Player: Sy
Character Name: Vince
Race: Wood Elf
Class: Ranger
Class Features: None
One Unique Thing: I am the only elf in the world with eyes that are slitted like a cat and the color of ice.
Attributes(Point Buy): Str 16 Con 10 Dex 18 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 10
Talents: Animal Companion, Double Melee Attack
Feats: Animal Companion (adventurer feat)
Backgrounds: Former thug in the city of Shadow Port 2/ Trained to survive in numerous environments 3
Bounty hunter for the Elf Queen 3/ Servant of the Dragon 1
Relationships: Elf Queen (positive): 1/ Prince of Shadows(negative): 1/High Druid (conflicted):1
Animal Companion Stats: Maltese Tiger
(Acts before Character)/Crit Rnge +2 vs. lower initiative opponents
AC: 16 PD: 14 MD: 10 Hit points: 20
+5 vs. AC/ Dmg 1d8
Player: Imaro
Character Name: Eli (short for Elijah)
Race: Human
Class: Cleric
Class Features: Bonus Spell: Heal, Ritual Magic
One Unique Thing: I am the reincarnation of a god of fate and death from a future age, who doesn't know how he died and now serves a younger version of himself while searching for a way to stop himself from being killed in the future.
Attributes (Rolled): Str 17 Con 15 Dex 14 Int 13 Wis 18 Cha 14
Talents: Domain (Death), Domain (Lore), Domain (Strength)
Spells: Hammer of Faith, Javelin of Faith, Heal, Turn Undead, Spirits of the Righteous
Feats: Domain Lore (adventurer feat), Domain Death(adventurer feat)
Backgrounds: Keeper of the secrets of the dead 4/ Inquisitor of the Shadowed Man 3
Overcame the Ordeals of the Shadowed Man 3/ Fate's Assassin 2
Relationships: The Crusader (conflicted): 1/ The Priestess (conflicted): 1/Lich King (negative):1
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