Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunders
Most Anticipated Tabletop RPGs Of The Year
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Going shopping...
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6212830" data-attributes="member: 27160"><p>Well, the fact that it has both 3.x/Pathfinder fans and 4E fans interested and enthusiastic indicates that it must have <em>something</em> going for it, it seems to me <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>From my perspective it combines some of the mechanical "tightness" and coolness of 4E with lighter combat (TOTM) and what is designed to be an "easy" introduction to collaborative world building.</p><p></p><p>The first part manifests in neat mechanisms like the escalation die (and how that interfaces with some character abilities to make combats about a rising crescendo rather than BANG-fizzle) and the non-grid-but-still-dynamic-combat that uses "nearby" and "far away" and "engaged" as its "zones".</p><p></p><p>The second part manifests in Icon relationships and backgrounds. The world background is meant to be an incomplete sketch - the choices the players make in chargen and in play drive the expansion of the background to fit what they are interested to explore. The "Icons", for example, are the "movers and shakers" in the world - and the PCs have relationships with them specified in chargen. There are 12-13 Icons (new settings would generally have their own set), but those the players pick as related to their PCs in some way will regularly be "pinged" to appear. Backgrounds are freely defined, and should ideally be completely unlike skills; "can handle a boat" would be a skill, "was once a pirate off the coast of Altania" would be a background. If, previous to chargen, there were no pirates off the coast of Altania? Well, there are (or were) now.</p><p></p><p>If heading in these directions is of interest to you, then 13th Age offers an easy path from D&D in this direction for both GM and players. If the general direction doesn't interest you there might be ideas you can "borrow" among the neat mechanisms included - but the <a href="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13316" target="_blank">Archmage Engine SRD</a> might give you those at no outlay...</p><p></p><p>Edit: d'oh - and I forgot the One Unique Thing, which both makes your character special/gives a reason you might be a hero and gives an opportunity for players to contribute to world building. It's part of my "second part" features.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 6212830, member: 27160"] Well, the fact that it has both 3.x/Pathfinder fans and 4E fans interested and enthusiastic indicates that it must have [I]something[/I] going for it, it seems to me ;) From my perspective it combines some of the mechanical "tightness" and coolness of 4E with lighter combat (TOTM) and what is designed to be an "easy" introduction to collaborative world building. The first part manifests in neat mechanisms like the escalation die (and how that interfaces with some character abilities to make combats about a rising crescendo rather than BANG-fizzle) and the non-grid-but-still-dynamic-combat that uses "nearby" and "far away" and "engaged" as its "zones". The second part manifests in Icon relationships and backgrounds. The world background is meant to be an incomplete sketch - the choices the players make in chargen and in play drive the expansion of the background to fit what they are interested to explore. The "Icons", for example, are the "movers and shakers" in the world - and the PCs have relationships with them specified in chargen. There are 12-13 Icons (new settings would generally have their own set), but those the players pick as related to their PCs in some way will regularly be "pinged" to appear. Backgrounds are freely defined, and should ideally be completely unlike skills; "can handle a boat" would be a skill, "was once a pirate off the coast of Altania" would be a background. If, previous to chargen, there were no pirates off the coast of Altania? Well, there are (or were) now. If heading in these directions is of interest to you, then 13th Age offers an easy path from D&D in this direction for both GM and players. If the general direction doesn't interest you there might be ideas you can "borrow" among the neat mechanisms included - but the [URL="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13316"]Archmage Engine SRD[/URL] might give you those at no outlay... Edit: d'oh - and I forgot the One Unique Thing, which both makes your character special/gives a reason you might be a hero and gives an opportunity for players to contribute to world building. It's part of my "second part" features. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Going shopping...
Top