In the last post we looked at Adventures in Middle Earth or AIME as a better take (for me) on D&D 5e. In this post we will look at a game that surprises me still as an equal, but very different alternative.
Between 3e, and 3.5e D&D and Pathfinder, I purchased the 13th Age RPG. The designers openly taut it as their own “Home Rules” version of D&D. Who are they to publish what most of us do regularly, as if anyone cares? They are Jonathon Tweet and Rob Heinsoo, each lead designers of previous D&D editions.
My very small hold over from 4e. One of it’s many problems was rules redundancy. Not long after coming out, the original three core books were effectively out of date. In the 11th hour, these little, weighty travel books came out with a much clearer presentation of the concepts, but too little too late. The game was likened by some to a video game. Others said all of the character classes were the same, just dressed up differently. If you had issues with it, you were not alone, but it kept the game going. Some even liked it.
Just another D&D clone would probably have worked in the low point that was D&D 4e, but to survive in the future, 13A needed something more. Pathfinder for example took the cast aside 3/3.5e and kept running with it. Still effectively recognisable as D&D 3e, Pathfinder let the grumbling, persevering 3e gamers stick with a trusted friend, and the presentation was awesome. You could even take most 3e content and squish it into the Pathfinder world, so minimal waste of those massed volumes.
Some useful bits left over from my Pathfinder days. 3e done better, but still the book bloat and creeping rules redundancy. Second edition has come out, which would have annoyed me if I had stayed.
13th Age spent a year or two lost on a crowded book case, waiting patiently for me to see the light. I had browsed and what I saw was not to my liking. It was more D&D than D&D. It had fast track levelling (I thought), tiny monster stats blocks that just looked like combat stats and the art was not my taste (too much awesome Wayne Reynolds in Pathfinder spoiled me). I almost sold it a couple of times, heck, I almost threw it in with another clear-out for nothing!
I cannot remember the exact day, but one day I sat down with it and it clicked. I think the Icon section at the front left me cold and I have read that in other reviews. The Icon relationships are an optional pivot point for the game (everything is optional, which is made very clear when you read it). Being the first rather dense chapter made them a mild obstruction for me to moving forward, but once I got into the text proper, the game started to sing.
What did 13th Age do differently?
Lots of stuff, but lets look at the core mechanics first;
Levels. There are 10, they are meaning-full, you can/should improve incrementally and being world changers, each marks a stage in your saga. If you are going to have levels, this is how to do it. The designers even shun experience points in favour of DM driven turning points. If the DM thinks you have earned a reward through adventuring or role playing success, they are encouraged to dole out bits of level improvement, getting rid of hard level jumps.
Combat. Is cleaned up and simplified and the mechanics have returned to the “Theatre of the Mind” style that 4e replaced with war-game like figures and grids. Yes there are hit points, but this is epic stuff. This is D&D high power, just as the originators would have liked. These characters, like Conan or John Carter do get hurt and fight on tomorrow. They are destined, they are not going to be held up by trivialities like broken bones or twisted ankles. It also borrows from the best of 3e and 4e editions, without any stodginess or rigidness.
Magic. Magic is also simplified, logically and epically. Less spells, that grow with the magic user and the characters are playing big time heroes, not piddling mages who may or may not make it to next week. The core concept that you need to get your head around in 13th Age is, your characters are going to be world changers. They are starting out as minor legends in their own circles, moving in to the big time. This is the other extreme of the D&D spectrum from AIME. Instead of ordinary people doing extra ordinary things, this is about extraordinary, fated beings taking the express road to high danger.
Classes. This is the big one for me. As stated in magic above, the player characters are special, not just fillers in an artificial class based structure. You are not a thief, you are “Xxxxx” The Thief of Shadow Port. Your class is as flexible as any in the D&D world, but it is also a definition of you as a mover and shaker. That just makes sense to me. If you are going to have prescribed classes, then make them special, points of difference. Make class a pedestal not a cage. One of the classes, The Oracle can only be represented by one character in the world at a time.
Skills are also handled in a broad background/career form, so class abilities are specific specialist abilities, with general stuff like swimming, boating, rope handling being handled by your past life as a fisherman for example.
Ok, that is the core four mechanics addressed, now for some other stuff that makes 13A unique, not just in D&D, but in RPG’s generally.
The “One Unique Thing” or OUT concept allows you to add in a story element that really promotes player ownership. The OUT is a non game breaking anything that only your character has or does. It can be anything really, so expect to be surprised*. This, along with the writing style that openly promotes player driven world building, encouraged GM modifications and embedded story driving elements wake my imagination up.
The Bestiaries, adventures, core and add-on books all stir up ideas with plain speak and gentle humour. The authors even talk about their differing opinions in the text. The side bars are enlightening, welcoming and hilarious. I find the openness of the writing refreshing. Sometimes I just pick up a book at random and read for the pleasure of it. No other game does that for me!
There are other aspects to 13A that I will leave for you to discover, but I am hooked. If I am in the mood for D&D done right or want to introduce new characters to the hobby, it is my go to. There are just too many story creating aspects built in and as pure D&D it is clean, fast, approachable and relatively easy. A good night can be had, just coming up with character concepts.
Ironically, there is a 13A take on Glorantha (D100 Rune Quest), that I find much more appealing than the original. Wheels within wheels :)
*While reading the Bestiary 2, I thought of a character concept based on a white Dragon-born Necromancer, who is the last surviving custodian tasked with the sacred duty of ushering the recently departed faithful into the after world. He can see/speak with the dead within the confines of his cemetery. The problem is, his cemetery has been swallowed by a living dungeon without him (The Stone Thief pictured above), leaving him with a quest, with a sacred mission and unfinished business. He is also hated by the Necromancer, one of the world’s Icons, who sees him as a competitor.
Another character idea is a living Dwarf-forged who spent an age guarding a chamber in a lost Dwarven city in silence, listening and watching until a seal was broken to a vault he is bonded to. He now travels the world seeking those who broke the seal to put things right. He has a complicated relationship with the Dwarf Lord (another Icon) as he is seen as property, not an independent being.