Your best 13th Age thing

[Blue]

Poll coming. What do you like the most about 13th Age if you were forced at gunpoint to pick only one thing.

Pick one?! You are an evil, evil person. The number of times I clicked a different choice before pushing the vote button was obscene.

 

[Blue]

The Backgrounds discussion is interesting: If they are completely free-form, I think they missed the mark a little. Not because of the concerns that Balesir has - though I think those are valid. No, I think they missed out on the chance to inject setting & theme into the game via the skills.

Actually, they 100% do what you suggest, just not in a "standard D&D" way. The setting is defined in broad strokes specifically for the GM and players to make their own, and the backgrounds (and One Unique Thing) are a way for the players to help flesh out the setting.

They explicitly call out making the world your own, for your table. And character creation aspects both detail it and with Icon Relationships tie the PCs to movers and shakers so that even before they are powerful they are prominent; PC are protagonists of the campaign.

 

[Morrus]

What sort of backgrounds are people using? I'd love to see some examples.

 

[Blue]

What sort of backgrounds are people using? I'd love to see some examples.

Ex-Imperial Dragoon of the 25th Legion (Sea Wall)
Bearded Casanova [on a dwarf]
On the run since the day I was born
Crooked Investigator for The Three
That place? I designed it.
Hunter of Renown
The Urchin of Axis [said to rhyme with "The Merchant of Venice"
Scum and Villainy
High society eligible bachelor

 

[Rel]

Those are GREAT, Blue.

My players are new to this kind of open ended system but they came up with a few good ones.

Failed to become a Paladin of the Great Gold Wyrm
Studied at the Shadowport Library
Has been hunted
Ex-Member of the Nightraven Thieves Guild in Concord
Worker of Rune Magic

 

[Kender42]

It really takes a certain type of player to really latch onto the idea of Backgrounds and make them shine. I have seen a lot of what I classify as "wargamers" who come up with backgrounds like "Healer".

Pfeh. It's really annoying as a GM to run into these when you have other players who do things like:

• Hunted Mushrooms as a Dark Elf Slave
• Koru Behemoth Hitchhiker
• AWOL From The 14th Orcish Legion

It's so easy to build stories and even worlds around good backgrounds. So you have to draw out the folks who want to just use "Healer" or "Scout" and try and get their creativity going.

 

[Rel]

It really takes a certain type of player to really latch onto the idea of Backgrounds and make them shine. I have seen a lot of what I classify as "wargamers" who come up with backgrounds like "Healer".

Pfeh. It's really annoying as a GM to run into these when you have other players who do things like:

• Hunted Mushrooms as a Dark Elf Slave
• Koru Behemoth Hitchhiker
• AWOL From The 14th Orcish Legion

It's so easy to build stories and even worlds around good backgrounds. So you have to draw out the folks who want to just use "Healer" or "Scout" and try and get their creativity going.

I'm lucky that my players aren't like this. But I plan to run 13th Age as a one-shot in a couple months and want the players to fill in Backgrounds and One Unique Thing at the table so I need to be prepare to encourage folks who say "Healer" by asking, "Healer for who? A Combat Medic for the Crusader is very different than Village Witch Doctor or Cleric with the Elven Griffin Ambulance."

 

[Mallus]

[MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] - yeah, those are great.

re: Backgrounds - these are the 3 I'm thinking of for an elven ranger/eco-terrorist, Lady Edelwehrr.

• Reluctant princess - "I'm not wearing those shoes! Where are my boots? And swords?"

• Involuntary temple acolyte - "My Dad couldn't marry me off, so he sold me to the church."

• Elven jihadi - "We're fighting to save the Old Forests by ANY MEANS NECESSARY."

Her OUT would be: I am the last Einhornreiter (because I rode off with the last Einhorn while fleeing the Elf Temple).

 

[Morrus]

I wonder if stealing something from Numenera could help any players struggling with backgrounds or 1UTs.

Numenera uses a format if "I'm an X Y who Z".

X being an adjective, Y being a noun/occupation, Z being an activity.

I'm a dancing farmhand who plays the trombone. Or something better.

 

[Hand of Evil]

mix of things that lead it to more role and story-telling interaction with the players.