13th Age - A New Game by Jonathan Tweet & Rob Heinsoo

[Dragonhelm]

So it looks like 3e's Jonathan Tweet and 4e's Rob Heinsoo are pairing up to create their own game, 13th Age. You can read the announcement for further details.

So, like Pathfinder, it seems to be both setting and rules. Morrus from EN World noticed that some of the rhetoric surrounding this game sounded like the 5e rhetoric.

Lots of interesting stuff there, and some great art. Thoughts?

[Turambar]

Ohhh thanks for posting! Sounds intriguing indeed; I love Jonathan Tweet's works. It's also published by Pelgrane Press, an excellent publisher whose games are the ones I have been playing most in the last years.
I wonder how adaptable is the game going to be to different settings.

[Dragonhelm]

The 13th Age Escalation Edition is now available for preorder.

13th Age Escalation Edition

I'm debating on whether to get this or not.

[Zarvox]

Huh. I'll wait and see, but Pelgrane Press tends to put out pretty good stuff.

[Turambar]

The 13th Age Escalation Edition is now available for preorder.

13th Age Escalation Edition

I'm debating on whether to get this or not.

It looks interesting, but after reading the interview with Jonathan Tweet I am not so sure. The part about "crunchy bits" in combat, and "powers" does not sound good to me; I definitely don't like Rob Heinsoo as a designer.

[Dagartha]

i'm intrigued by 13th Age but i need to get reports from folks who've bought/tried it before i drop another $45 on a book. i mean i'd like to, but now is not the time.

i love my hobbies (gaming, guns, books, music) but i gotta find something less expensive, like leaf collecting.

[Matthew L. Martin]

The more I see of this, the more intrigued I get. It's looking like the streamlined, story-focused but still robust D&D that people have been promising but haven't delivered. (4E and C&C come close, but 4E relies too much on the grid and C&C on equipment and Old School feel.)

And it seems to be close to Dragonlance in tone, and the setting's laden with Icon-ready NPCs. For my own favorite era, the Original Fifth Age, I can nominate the following:

The Red Devourer (Malystryx)
The Green Deceiver (Beryllinthranox)
The Blue Tyrant (Khellendros)
The Black Distorter (Onysablet)
The White Hoarder (Gellidus)
The Silver Guardian (Solomirathnius)
The Gold Sage-King (Aurumnus)

The Puppet King (Gilthas)
The Exiled Prince (Silvanoshei or Porthios--this is a case of an icon preparing his successor)
The Dwarven Prophet (Severus Stormhand)
The Afflicted Kender (Belladonna)
The Minotaur Warlord (Chot Es-Kalin)
The Draconian Commander (Kang)
The Enigmatic Protector (Hogan Bight)
The Death Knight (Lord Soth)

The Grand Master of the Knights of Solamnia (Liam Ehrling)
The Governor-General of the Knights of Takhisis (Mirielle Abrena)
The Chief Legionnaire of the Legion of Steel (Silver Claw)

The Head of the Academy (Palin Majere)
The Master of the Tower
The Shadow Sorcerer

The First Master of the Citadel of Light (Goldmoon)
The Dark Master of the Temple of Takhisis (???)

All of these are active figures (well, Soth's iffy ) who can be connected to a PC's story in numerous ways.

[Turambar]

Looking at the character sheet it doesn't look streamlined at all.

[Zarvox]

Maybe I'm grossly in the wrong here, but why does this product even need to exist? Doesn't the industry have quite enough rules sets for high fantasy already?

Just looking at my bookshelf, I've got
-3e D&D
-4e D&D
-Castles & Crusades
-Warrior, Rogue, & Mage.

You start looking at the stuff I don't own, and you tack on systems like
-True20
-Palladium Fantasy
-Hackmaster
-SAGA
-Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay
-Storyteller
-Dragon Age
-Fantasy Craft
-Runequest
-Dungeon Crawl Classics
-Lamentations of the Flame Princess
-1e D&D
-2e D&D
-Pathfinder



Rules sets tend to be pretty exclusive. They typically take a fair bit of work to master, so once your group has settled on Hackmaster, you're probably going to stick with Hackmaster for the foreseeable future, at least for your high fantasy needs. A rules set isn't like a setting or adventure, where you can go through a half-dozen in a year if you're really super into gaming. When you pick up a rules set, you're stuck with it for a while.

Given this, how is there still room in the market for more of the damned things?



EDIT:
What I'd like to see more of is stuff that can be made to work for most any system. Consider Pelgrane Press' 'Lorefinder' book. It's a rules add-on to Pathfinder to make it easier and more fun to run investigative games in a high fantasy setting, but it's child's play to use Lorefinder with any system. If you've got a cool idea for a rules system in a fantasy rpg, why do you need to turn it into an entire new game? Just release it as an add-on for existing games. The way I see it, it's a lot less work for the publisher, and will reach a lot more customers.