New 13th Age 'Escalation Edition' Coming Next Year!

There's a new version of 13th Age coming! Pelgrane Press announced at Gen Con that the 13th Age 'Escalated Edition' will be coming to Kickstarter next year. It will be backwards compatible with the current game. They'll be starting a playtest program very soon, which they are inviting game groups to join.

13th Age was released in 2013, designed by Rob Heinsoo (D&D 4E) and Jonathan Tweet (D&D 3E), and is a 'variant' of D&D.

 

[p_johnston]

On a happier note I am super excited for this. I super love 13th age and a lot of what it does. It manages to hit like 85-90% of what I really want out of an RPG and the few bits I don't like are easy enough to chop off.

Also especially compared to pathfinder and D&D the monsters are so much easier to run and make.

 

[TrippyHippy]

So ... 14th Age?

It get’s worse when they use it for adventures in Glorantha’s 3rd Age.

 

[Mark Craddock]

13th Age had a couple of blemishes for me - though I wouldn't say I dislike it.
I don't care for the One Unique Thing - as it has the tendency to turn my games silly (i.e. "I'm the only halfling who is actually a baby goose and my name is Ryan Gosling.")
The Icon relationships rolled every session feel chaotic, forced, and impertinent to the story the group is telling. Sometimes they make no sense at all. (I've scrapped the concept of the Icons in some games.)
And then the worst is the inflated die rolling. As you go up in level, having to keep increasing the damage dice gets tedious, throwing big fistfuls of dice around every turn.

I ran a 13th Age Campaign for about 6 months and never used the Relationship dice. Worked fine without it.

 

[Reynard]

Sigh. I posted the links above. You’re free to read them if you’re interested in anything more than knee-jerk hot takes of a tweet from a Tweet.

His “unsettling opinions” are literally him just reporting nuanced scientific facts.

Listen, we all know that tweets are thoughts distilled to their Platonic Ideal and should always be taken literally and at face value no matter what.

 

[Retreater]

I ran a 13th Age Campaign for about 6 months and never used the Relationship dice. Worked fine without it.

Yeah, I eventually learned better and dropped them myself.
My group that had been playing 13th Age swore it off and said "never again." I do have an online group where one player specifically is interested in this system - but I've yet to find a great implementation on a VTT.

 

[hairyscotsman2]

Yeah, I eventually learned better and dropped them myself.
My group that had been playing 13th Age swore it off and said "never again." I do have an online group where one player specifically is interested in this system - but I've yet to find a great implementation on a VTT.

Foundry VTT has a really good implementation module. It's got the content of 13th age core, 13TW and the first Bestiary. Character sheet builds easily too.

 

[Willie the Duck]

just likes to be loud when proving how smart he is, and wording it terribly so as to gain an unfair reputation.

So, a nerd who grew up with a with an overly healthy view* of their intellect thinking everyone should revel in their brilliance, only to satisfyingly disprove the notion in an unfortunately public manner? Sounds like most everyone on every D&D forum since forever, most of us just had that life lesson in middle/high-school, probably pre-internet, and not-while-quasi-famous. We should invite him over.
*or masked insecurity, or both.

I'm a little surprised this is getting a new edition. I've played 13A, although not enough to be and expert or have found all the bugs/glitches/unfortunate confluences of rules/etc. It seemed to me to very much do what the stated goals were, and those people who glommed onto it felt it really did what they wanted from a D20 D&D-esque system. Other than the quickstart edition or a new edition to improve format or clarity, I thought this was a complete project.

 

[Asacolips]

Foundry VTT has a really good implementation module. It's got the content of 13th age core, 13TW and the first Bestiary. Character sheet builds easily too.

That’s my system! We’re really proud of the system/sheet we built for Foundry VTT, and we’ll definitely be adding support for the new edition once we know more about it. The new edition being backwards compatible is a great sign for that being possible.

 

[Eric V]

That’s my system! We’re really proud of the system/sheet we built for Foundry VTT, and we’ll definitely be adding support for the new edition once we know more about it. The new edition being backwards compatible is a great sign for that being possible.

Are there plans to make Bestiary 2, Eyes of the Stone Thief, etc. available?

 

[Jer]

I'm a little surprised this is getting a new edition. I've played 13A, although not enough to be and expert or have found all the bugs/glitches/unfortunate confluences of rules/etc. It seemed to me to very much do what the stated goals were, and those people who glommed onto it felt it really did what they wanted from a D20 D&D-esque system. Other than the quickstart edition or a new edition to improve format or clarity, I thought this was a complete project.

After nearly 10 years of use any system can use a look and a revision, if only to incorporate new techniques and ideas into it. I can see some places where mechanics don't quite work as intended or their original intent isn't the way people are actually playing the game, and ways to improve that experience are welcome.

My only concern is complexity creep in the character classes, which is where I suspect a large chunk of the revisions will be being made. After a decade the folks who make the game may project their own game designer lack of interest in simplicity and need for a more complex experience onto the folks who play their game. The new classes that have emerged for the game since the original book have been more and more complex in their mechanics with no classes that I can think of that implement a new class with a very simple, elegant design package that folks who don't like a lot of complexity in their character mechanics enjoy playing (like the 13A Barbarian, Ranger and Paladin do IME). I'm hopeful that whatever they do keeps the game simple for the folks who like simplicity while providing complexity for the folks who enjoy complexity - the current edition does a good job of that IME.