What ideas from 13th Age are people using for dnd?

[NinjaPaladin]

Yeah, failing forward doesn't mean that you never fail. It's not for combat situations, and not for every check, I think. Regarding the locked door, I would react to a failure as a GM depending on my group:

- If they have other ideas, and this was the easy option, then hey, now they can try something else. Lockpick breaks in the lock, now try the rooftop.
- If they don't have other ideas, but I have an easy redirect, then I can use the redirect. Lockpick breaks in the lock because you had to hurry to avoid an approaching guard, but as he passes you (hidden in the shadows), you see the key dangling from his belt. Voila, redirected.
- If they have no ideas and there's no logical redirect, and all they'd be able to do is retry, then I'd have them fail forward. The door opens, but because the lock wasn't picked quite right, the lock screeches as the door slides open, alerting every guard on this floor to a possible intruder.

The important thing is that the players are never flat-out blocked on progressing.

 

[dnoonan]

I've been tackling this on the macro level for a couple months now, because we're taking a campaign setting, Primeval Thule, and designing it simultaneously for 13th Age, Pathfinder, and 4e. The good news? Really, it's all fundamentally D&D (tell no one!).

The rules differences matter, sure, but I haven't found anything in 13th Age that isn't eminently portable to another version of the rules. It takes work, but the conceptual equivalents exist (especially if you're porting from 13th Age to a mature, robust system like either Pathfinder or 4e).

The one thing that would be tricky would be directly translating a 13th Age PC into PF or 4e. A conceptual translation isn't too hard, but some sort of "x always equals y" conversion document wouldn't deliver solid results.

But escalation dice, icons, and monsters (conceptually) are pretty smooth. And here's another thing you could potentially use in D&D: 13th Age is full of really good ways to de-emphasize the 5-foot grid that PF and 4e rely on. Some of those techniques are eminently portable if you're cautious about it.

(Aaaand here's the obligatory KS link for Primeval Thule: kck.st/11dxIWq)

--Dave.
(@davidnoonan on Twitter)

 

[Weather Report]

I really like the sound of the engaged/close/far zones action to support TotM play, can someone tell me more?

 

[Ahnehnois]

I never used the grid much anyway, but I'll also be interested to see how distances and movement and such are handled.

 

[Dragonblade]

I really like the sound of the engaged/close/far zones action to support TotM play, can someone tell me more?

I don't know if you ever played old school AD&D theater of the mind, but the 13th Age rules are just a slightly more structured way of how I used to play AD&D. Essentially, most positioning is abstract and based on how the DM describes the scene and how the players describe where their PCs are in relation to what's going on. Pretty much how theater of the mind combat always work.

13th Age slightly formalizes things a big by designating an enemy as nearby or far away. That just tells you that you need a single or double move to reach them. Simple. No square counting or grids.

If you are locked in combat with an adjacent enemy you are engaged with them, if not you aren't engaged. If you are not engaged you can pretty much move anywhere you can reasonably reach, although other un-engaged enemies can try to intercept you and force you to engage with them.

Being engaged is really simple. It just represents that an enemy is right there in your grill and you have to focus on fighting and defending yourself from them. You can attack and maneuver or move around anyone you are engaged with, no problem.

If you try to disengage you have two options. You can simply move, but every opponent engaged with you gets an OA. Or you can make a disengage check. If you succeed, you move and no OA. But if you fail you lost your chance to move that round, but you don't get the OA at least.

Also, if you try to target an enemy you aren't engaged with using a ranged attack, or spell attack that isn't designated as a close quarters combat spell, then you can get hit with OAs also.

That's it. Short and sweet. You don't need to worry about threatened squares or any of that stuff.

 

[Dragonblade]

Another thing, I'll note. If you really like using grids, you could easily use a grid if you wanted, and if you like minis, they are certainly useful for designating who is engaged with who and general position. But none of these are required in 13th Age. The rules are so simple and intuitive, it really easy to run theater of the mind only combats.

 

[Dragonblade]

I've been tackling this on the macro level for a couple months now, because we're taking a campaign setting, Primeval Thule, and designing it simultaneously for 13th Age, Pathfinder, and 4e. The good news? Really, it's all fundamentally D&D (tell no one!).

I'm really excited about your setting, Dave, and have already backed it! I've been a big fan of the Sasquatch team's prior design work. Tome of Battle is one of my favorite D&D books of all time. I love the multi-system support approach, and doing a 13th Age version has me super excited. 13th Age is like the D&D I've always wanted. The feel of AD&D (to me anyway), with the best mechanics from 3e and 4e design eras in one amazing game.

Considering how Rob and Jonathan, and you and others are all WotC alums, 13th Age and your new setting feel like something that I'd see as official D&D in alternate universe.

 

[Imaro]

I don't know if you ever played old school AD&D theater of the mind, but the 13th Age rules are just a slightly more structured way of how I used to play AD&D. Essentially, most positioning is abstract and based on how the DM describes the scene and how the players describe where their PCs are in relation to what's going on. Pretty much how theater of the mind combat always work.

13th Age slightly formalizes things a big by designating an enemy as nearby or far away. That just tells you that you need a single or double move to reach them. Simple. No square counting or grids.

If you are locked in combat with an adjacent enemy you are engaged with them, if not you aren't engaged. If you are not engaged you can pretty much move anywhere you can reasonably reach, although other un-engaged enemies can try to intercept you and force you to engage with them.

Being engaged is really simple. It just represents that an enemy is right there in your grill and you have to focus on fighting and defending yourself from them. You can attack and maneuver or move around anyone you are engaged with, no problem.

If you try to disengage you have two options. You can simply move, but every opponent engaged with you gets an OA. Or you can make a disengage check. If you succeed, you move and no OA. But if you fail you lost your chance to move that round, but you don't get the OA at least.

Also, if you try to target an enemy you aren't engaged with using a ranged attack, or spell attack that isn't designated as a close quarters combat spell, then you can get hit with OAs also.

That's it. Short and sweet. You don't need to worry about threatened squares or any of that stuff.

Emphasis mine... The intercept was a really simple and intuitive solution to the "walking around the fighter" (whether on the monster/NPC side or the players side of things) issue that always gets brought up when discussing TotM combat.

 

[dnoonan]

Considering how Rob and Jonathan, and you and others are all WotC alums, 13th Age and your new setting feel like something that I'd see as official D&D in alternate universe.

You may be on to something there, Dragonblade. Primeval Thule is really a focused take on the broader D&D genre. Think of it as less Tolkien to provide room to double-down on Conan and Cthulhu.

And I don't want to speak for Rob and Jonathan, but when I read through 13th Age, I see a parallel approach: "Let's focus more on some particularly great parts of the broader experience."

Maybe that's why it's so easy to take 13th Age ideas and apply them to other rule sets—the 13th Age ideas are distilled down to the essence, and thus they're more portable.

--Dave.
Back Thule!

 

[Weather Report]

I don't know if you ever played old school AD&D theater of the mind, but the 13th Age rules are just a slightly more structured way of how I used to play AD&D. Essentially, most positioning is abstract and based on how the DM describes the scene and how the players describe where their PCs are in relation to what's going on. Pretty much how theater of the mind combat always work.

13th Age slightly formalizes things a big by designating an enemy as nearby or far away. That just tells you that you need a single or double move to reach them. Simple. No square counting or grids.

If you are locked in combat with an adjacent enemy you are engaged with them, if not you aren't engaged. If you are not engaged you can pretty much move anywhere you can reasonably reach, although other un-engaged enemies can try to intercept you and force you to engage with them.

Being engaged is really simple. It just represents that an enemy is right there in your grill and you have to focus on fighting and defending yourself from them. You can attack and maneuver or move around anyone you are engaged with, no problem.

If you try to disengage you have two options. You can simply move, but every opponent engaged with you gets an OA. Or you can make a disengage check. If you succeed, you move and no OA. But if you fail you lost your chance to move that round, but you don't get the OA at least.

Also, if you try to target an enemy you aren't engaged with using a ranged attack, or spell attack that isn't designated as a close quarters combat spell, then you can get hit with OAs also.

That's it. Short and sweet. You don't need to worry about threatened squares or any of that stuff.

Nice, thanks, I played TotM from 1986 to 2005, when I started my 3rd Ed campaign and felt compelled to use a grid, these 13th Age rules are sort of similar to what I have always done, I like it, elegant.