Download 13th Age's New Quickstart!

ruemere · Aug 13, 2021

The three great things about 13th Age game:
1. The SRD: 13th Age SRD
2. 13th Age characters are self-sufficient - you can run 4 different martials and still finish a scenario (I ran a campaign with no clerics or wizards). Mind you, creating subpar heroes is still possible.
3. Character and monster writeups are short, sweet and simple. And yet bestiaries are incredible.

The three bad (read: unfortunate or that hasn't aged all that well) things:
1. HP inflation. Monsters at 14th level are often big bags of HP.
2. Default setting is such a gonzo mix of tropes...
3. Rules could use a lot of clarifications and erratas.

The three ugly (read: extremely not to my taste - so your opinion may vary) items:
1. Improv approach. Way, way too many times players and GMs are invited to have a cup of tea and negotiate specifics.
2. Pelgrane Press support of the game is about releasing toolkit books. Nothing's ever is ready-to-run. There is no single setting - you're expect to make up your own. While it spurs one's creativity, after a year or two you start to ask yourself - why would I want to buy a book?
3. Released adventures have often extremely bland combat encounters. Not everyone can be Paizo, but come on, it does not take that much work to add twists, third dimension, developments, NPC agendas...

There is also 13th Age Glorantha, a book I would love to use one day, but it came out after I got burnt out (and brought its own bag of issues, like - who are the PCs and what are they supposed to do - or why do we need runes, or how I am supposed to explain them to players without narrative framework to back them up).

Weiley31 · Aug 13, 2021

ruemere said:
The three great things about 13th Age game:
1. The SRD: 13th Age SRD
2. 13th Age characters are self-sufficient - you can run 4 different martials and still finish a scenario (I ran a campaign with no clerics or wizards). Mind you, creating subpar heroes is still possible.
3. Character and monster writeups are short, sweet and simple. And yet bestiaries are incredible.

The three bad (read: unfortunate or that hasn't aged all that well) things:
1. HP inflation. Monsters at 14th level are often big bags of HP.
2. Default setting is such a gonzo mix of tropes...
3. Rules could use a lot of clarifications and erratas.

The three ugly (read: extremely not to my taste - so your opinion may vary) items:
1. Improv approach. Way, way too many times players and GMs are invited to have a cup of tea and negotiate specifics.
2. Pelgrane Press support of the game is about releasing toolkit books. Nothing's ever is ready-to-run. There is no single setting - you're expect to make up your own. While it spurs one's creativity, after a year or two you start to ask yourself - why would I want to buy a book?
3. Released adventures have often extremely bland combat encounters. Not everyone can be Paizo, but come on, it does not take that much work to add twists, third dimension, developments, NPC agendas...

There is also 13th Age Glorantha, a book I would love to use one day, but it came out after I got burnt out (and brought its own bag of issues, like - who are the PCs and what are they supposed to do - or why do we need runes, or how I am supposed to explain them to players without narrative framework to back them up).

Eh I just like to import stuff from 13th Age Glorantha into regular 13th Age. Cuz how awesome is it to slay Archdemons with a Duck? And not the 13th Age Glorantha's looking versions of ducks, but an actual 13th age Hero duck that looks like today's ducks.

Eyes of Nine · Aug 14, 2021

Morrus said:
13th Age, Pelgrane Press' 'love letter to D&D' was released in 2013. It was designed by D&D 3E's Jonathan Tweet, and D&D 4E's Rob Heinsoo, and contains a number of innovations on the traditional ways that D&D works.

That bit's not the news, though. The news is that Pelgrane Press has just released a Quickstart for the game, which you can download for free!

View attachment 142130

The Quickstart is a free 19-page PDF. It doesn't contain an adventure, but they do recommend the intro adventure Crown of Axis (£4.95) or the free Make Your Own Luck. There are also pre-generated characters and free adventures on the 13th Age resources page.

This Quickstart introduces a couple of 13th Age's innovations (One Unique Thing, and Backgrounds -- which is their replacement for skills), information on the Icons (the powers that be in the game), and a brief introduction to combat, montages, and other sundries.

In other news, 13th Age is currently running a Humble Bundle, so you can pick up hundreds of dollars of 13th Age material for about $20. It's labelled as a 'software bundle' but it's a collection of PDFs, including the core rulebook, a ton of adventures, maps, and supplements.

Humble 13th Age Bundle: Treasures! Maps! Adventures!

Start your own tabletop RPG adventures with 13th Age, 13 True Ways, and more! Plus, pay what you want & support charity!

www.humblebundle.com

View attachment 142131

I can't say enough - spend $30 on the bundle, and get a $25 voucher off any product in their store. I used mine to get the core rules in HC (it showed up like 2 days later). May be the best bundle I've ever bought through Humble.

Hurin70 · Aug 14, 2021

I know this is superficial, but I have to say... I am not loving that cover art.

Lord_Blacksteel · Aug 16, 2021

I like 13th Age but how helpful is a quickstart with no introductory scenario? Even if you could just add in something from a freeRPG day with pregens it seems like it would up the utility quite a bit.

ruemere · Aug 16, 2021

Lord_Blacksteel said:
I like 13th Age but how helpful is a quickstart with no introductory scenario? Even if you could just add in something from a freeRPG day with pregens it seems like it would up the utility quite a bit.

No worries.

First, the humble bundle: