13th Age has some unique character creation elements.

One is literally unique.

The “One Unique Thing” gives the player, no that’s not right…...empowers the player……….no, still not right……..compels the player to come up with a cool reason for being who they are and explain why they are going to be some of the great movers and shakers of the world.

Think on this for a moment. You are given full creative license to come up with a very good reason to be special, to pay into story building, even world building. This is not a mechanical advantage. Those come from your class, race, level etc, which in 13A are generally more powerful than in regular D&D, especially 5e. It is a story driving element.

But wait, there’s more!

The background system (aka skill system) is open to (aching for) creative interpretation as well, which means you can mix the two together to make a really strong backdrop for your character to hang their story off.

Cool huh?!

Well, guess what, there is even more!

Icon relationships tie the characters to their world through it’s movers and shakers. The big names of the default world (or your own, using the same Icons, or not), are connected to your character either positively, neutrally or negatively and act directly or indirectly. The big names of the neighbourhood are part of your legend.

That is a lot to think on, right from the get-go.

A character is developed over only 10 levels, so they can have a relatively meteoric rise (or not) and each level is considered a major turning point. Starting power is higher than D&D’s normal assumption that a character is a cookie cutter clone of a type, relatively weak and expendable. In 13A, your character is an established force from level 1. Their story should reflect that. Destined is probably the right term.

I like to think of the whole process like a series of novels or a TV series, like Supernatural of the Dresden Files for example. Both start from humble beginnings, progress from instalment to instalment with character growth and a heightening of the character’s importance in their world. In series 1 of SN, the boys are scared to death of “Yellow Eyes”, a relatively serious demon type. By the 10th+ series, they are conversing with his boss, expelling or destroying many like him and have an Angel as an ally (and it turns out God as their puppeteer).

The Dresden Files is similar with Harry developing from respected, but minor force to major event shaper (he destroys an entire species of vampire!).

The assumed trope that the main characters of a story are destined to be major forces in said story makes sense, so 13A gives you the tools from the ground floor to pay into the long term growth of the story, which it is assumed, revolves around them.

Here are a few examples;

Kor’gai’kerix. is a White Dragonborn Necromancer who was the “chosen voice” of a Mausoleum (White) Dragon, tasked with oversight of the Great Necropolis, built on the ruins of an ancient holy city near Axis, the capitol. His task was to usher the souls of the dead to the afterlife, make the restless dead less restless and generally make the place run well. He has 5 background points in that (Necropolis Guardian and Death-pathway Usher) and 3 left for a shorter background as a Dragonborn Messenger (his first job).

For Icon relationships, he could have a negative 2 relationship with the Lich King as his philosophy on death is directly opposed to the LK and a positive 1 with the Emperor for services rendered.

His link to my campaign (based around The Stone Thief campaign) is the loss of a large part of the Necropolis to said Stone Thief, including the disappearance of his patron/master, Unkor’Un’Korax the Mausoleum Dragon.

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Uuru-um (literally “Left Side-Sentinel” in a lost ancient tongue), an ancient construct (stone Golem like, maybe Dwarven, maybe not) Fighter created to protect an important Tomb from a bygone era (last age, maybe earlier). After an age of barely lucid awareness (5 BP “tunnel traffic”), it is woken to defend the Tombs contents against raiders, and prevails, but is forced to destroy the tomb, burying the raiders and its own companion wardens inside. It wandered the underworld for a while before finding an entrance to the surface.

After wandering the surface for a similarly unknown period of time (time means little to a tomb guardian, it’s part of the job description), spending some of that time in it’s native statue-like state, (generally avoiding contact with others), but always watching and listening (3 BP “silent world watcher”). It is compelled to return to the tomb when the Stone Thief threatens it. The actual location of the tomb is a always known to Uuru-um, but it struggles to articulate where, simply heading in the correct direction as able. Our-um’s sword is sculpted on to it’s right hand, making it impossible for it to hold anything else in that hand.

Its Icon relations are 2 conflicted from the Dwarf KIng (curiosity-possibly obsession regarding where it came from and what it was guarding), 1 negative from the High Druid as he sees this construct as an abomination from an ancient age (maybe he knows more than he lets on).

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“Pebble” is a Human (maybe an Assimar or Teifling, maybe something else), class unknown to the player, who awakens on a vast plain with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Background and Icon points are left to the GM to make up and disseminate as relevant to the player. The player has no knowledge of their class, background or OUT, but it comes back as used, so develop as needed by the GM.

She has no idea why, but the Stone Thief calls to her.

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Murimell Mordok (“Angry Little Mountain” in her barbarian tongue) was a Dwarven child, taken by Orcs as a slave/play thing after a losing battle between Dwarves and Orcs (3 BP “surviving in an Orc war camp”), until she was rescued by a Barbarian raiding party of human mountain dwellers who bought her up (5 BP “Mountain barbarian”). Never fully content in her adopted home and nursing a deep hatred of her Orc captives, she strikes out to find her true place in the world. The Stone Thief is a known thing to her, a legend of her adopted clans lore and a challenge to be overcome when encountered. She feels her fate and its are somehow intertwined.

The Orc Lord hates the thought of a Dwarven slave-survivor doing well, so 1 negative pt, the Crusader feels she should be compelled to work for him, 1 conflicted point and the Dwarf King is intrigued by her mixed existence 1 positive pt.