I remember snagging 13th Age when it was first released. It was D20 based, so it was familiar, but too far from my OSR comfort zone, so it went on the bookshelf. That was 10 years ago, and now having heard so much good said about 13th Age over the past few years, I regret not giving it a closer look.
From the 13th Age website:
13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run the kind of game you most want to play with your group. Created by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, 13th Age gives you all the tools you need to make unique characters who are immediately embedded in the setting in important ways; quickly prepare adventures based on the PCs’ backgrounds and goals; create your own monsters; fight exciting battles; and focus on what’s always been cool and fun about fantasy adventure gaming:
- Icon relationships and One Unique Things offer exciting storytelling possibilities
- Backgrounds provide a simple, flexible skill system drawn from characters’ personal histories
- Escalation dice enable fun, fast-moving D20 combat.
- Owlbears will rip PC’s limbs off to feed their young.
For 18 bucks, you can snag a very sizeable 13th Age Bundle (27 PDFs and a coupon for 25% off Print at the Pelgrane Website)
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While fairly well designed, 13th Age is very definitely still a niche game, which appeal is dependent on your game play style. I like the simplicity of in-play gaming by removing skills and other elements that slow down play IMO. But I can see this simplifying as being a turn off to a lot of D&D players.
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