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.

 

[Haplo781]

"New edition of 13th Age"

Perks up

"Backwards compatible"

Perks down

 

[Retreater]

So ... 14th Age?

 

[GMMichael]

So ... 14th Age?

15th Age might be more appropriate. Converting the 3(e) to a 5(e)?

Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity to play the first one, but the innovations (on D&D 3.5) looked great.

 

[Mezuka]

Very interested.

 

[Nightfly]

Never gotten the chance to play 13A, sadly, but I want to. This news makes me very happy.

 

[Retreater]

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.

 

[Arilyn]

I love 13th Age. Excited for this!

 

[Mezuka]

On Discord, user Maneval#0450 shared these notes from the Gen Con panel.

• Rob opened with an anecdote about playing 13th Age during the pandemic and finding how his monk was great but the fighter sucked.
• Briefly discussed Behemoths: Path of the Koru. Similar to Drakkenhall (each chapter by a different author)
• Announced Escalation Edition (new edition)
• "We put a lot of advice in [13th Age] that turned out not to be true."
• will be backward compatible so Bestiaries can still be used
• Feat progression in original 13th Age worked more like Adv: +2, Champ: +4, Epic: +6... new edition: may be condensed into a single feat that says +2, bump to +4 at champ, bump to +8 at epic.
• Original team of Rob and Jonathan along with Lee Moyer and Aaron McConnell returning
• new pictures of the icons?
• lots of new full color art
• monster stats not changing
• Icon Followers will be after Escalated Edition
• Prophets of the Pyre, 10 lvl [Gareth Hanrahan] campaign. 95% done. Shorter in page count than stone thief

 

[grankless]

Disappointed that Jonathan Tweet is coming back after Pelgrane said they dropped him after his fun little "race science" tweets.