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

[pauljathome]

Now available to pre-order.

However, PDF downloads are not yet enabled, so if you're pre-ordering for that, you may wish to hold off for a while yet.

Also note that, at first, the only pdf you'll get will be the Playtest pdf. The completed version and final version will come out later (you'll get them for free, of course, just there will be a delay).

At the risk of sounding like a corporate shill, I was impressed enough with the playtest that I've preordered. Despite the outrageous shipping charges to Canada .

 

[Incenjucar]

The escalation die sounds fascinating, as do all the class abilities except "yammer at the DM until he gives you bonuses." Yammering should be its own reward.

 

[wilbymilstone]

After reading this I am now very interested in 13th Age. It sound just like what my friends and I did with house rules for our D&D gaming!

 

[Li Shenron]

Sounds interesting, and the authors are very good designers...

Unfortunately there are dozens of other fantasy RPG that also sound just as interesting. For what fundamental reason should I prefer to try this specific one out?

 

[Felon]

I played a single playtesting session that was essentially just a big fight. Nobody at the table seemed impressed. Takes aspects from FATE, takes daily/encounter/at-wills from 4e, has a bunch of fiat-based abilities a la Ars Magica. None of the mechanics for the characters were particularly fresh or gripping.

I played the bard because they wanted feedback on it. But it couldn't really do much of anything, seemed to ostensibly be a support class, but was patently inferior. It also had that annoying 3e and 4e dissonance where martial characters seem to get the best of all worlds: excellent armor and damage adsorption, while still hitting as hard as any spellcaster.

It also had that 1st edition feel where the softer characters felt like they were at the DM's mercy in regards to deploying ranged attacks, because there's no rules for cover and distances are completely abstracted. In such a system, should there be soft targets?

The escalation die is a step in the right direction, but it would be better be a resource characters (notably support characters) build up rather than just a handout that inevitably turns battles to their favor.

Like I said though, it was one shallow session, and I'd like to see future playtest revisions.

 

[pauljathome]

Sounds interesting, and the authors are very good designers...

Unfortunately there are dozens of other fantasy RPG that also sound just as interesting. For what fundamental reason should I prefer to try this specific one out?

Because it sounds interesting, and the authors are very good designers

Given the authors and the fact that it actually WAS fairly widely playtested you can expect the authors to do (at the very least) a competent job of accomplishing what they set out to accomplish.

But absolutely no game is for everybody. 13th Age isn't even trying to be.

If, after reading threads like this, your reaction is "meh" then it is quite possible that this game is NOT for you.

If your reaction is "Sounds like some really cool ideas mixed in with stuff that I don't care for" then it may be worth checking out as a source for you to mine. That is pretty much my opinion and why I bought it.

 

[Ry]

I played this game for one session, and I thought it was awesome.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I'll probably be getting it, but one hot button for me was mentioned:

healing surges.


[MENTION=96952]Isaac Chalk[/MENTION] or anyone else who knows the answer, can you tell me more about how they're used?

I don't totally object to healing surges per se. I do object if they pull you ot of the narrative (e.g. If someone misses me I healing surge. or If an ally hits some dude, I healing surge.)


Did they integrate healing surges into the narrative flow well?

 

[Windjammer]

I'll link to my own playtest report.

http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=548468&postcount=66

A monster cheat sheet I created to ease GM'ing 13A is available here (it was specific to my campaign, so it's very selective):

http://postimage.org/image/4f86cw3nn

 

[Alphastream]

I can see why someone who loves 4th edition would be put off by this system.

And yet, 4E is the favorite system of most of my playtest group. The biggest 4E fans actually were the biggest 13th Age fans. None of our gamers were playing 13th Age out of disenchantment. We like a variety of games and we like to playtest.

We like how 13th Age spoke to 4E. Arguably, it does so more than D&D Next (at this time, I won't be surprised if that changes - especially with additional modules). 13th Age at-wills and powers often feel like 4E and the game attempts to have probably a 3E level of balance (as compared to earlier editions). The game has solid crunch, yet is clearly supporting imaginative open play. There is a lot for a fan of any/all editions to like.

I bought the book on pre-order already, as will probably 4 of 6 gamers in our group.

I played the bard because they wanted feedback on it. But it couldn't really do much of anything, seemed to ostensibly be a support class, but was patently inferior.

In contrast, I really liked the bard. One of my favorite classes is the arcane trickster from 3E (ok, it is really a prestige class, but...). In playtesting 13th Age I originally went with a rogue-wizard and I was disappointed with the results (13th Age has said they are aware of and fixing the multiclass issues). The next session I played the bard. It was part marshall/bard and part arcane trickster (without the sneak attack). I really liked the battlecries, which are basically additional effects you add to your basic attacks (which in 13th Age are pretty strong). Then there are the spells and songs, which are basically powers that inspire/heal. I felt absolutely as strong as any other PC (we playtested level 7) and I had fun both building and playing the PC. For feats, I liked how it was possible to poach a power from another class and to use a different ability score for all my powers. My final build used feats and backgrounds to be as good with traps as a thief, to have a wizard spell and cantrips, and to still do cool bard-specific stuff. Very cool.