Heart of Gold: a 13 True Ways update

by Rob Heinsoo

Smilin’ Sammy G, as he is known to his friends, was the first of the characters created by fans who supported the 13 True Ways Kickstarter. Sammy comes to us from Alex Paciga, who created a legendary bard with a truly sunny disposition and depths which will make him *interesting* to be around.

This painting of Sammy is by Lee Moyer, of course, who conceived of character portraits as the style for the new book’s chapter openings. Sammy G’s portrait is presently slated for Chapter 5, the grab-bag chapter that I presently refer to as either Gamemaster’s Grimoire or Olde Schoole. The hidden depths I referred to earlier make Sammy a natural fit for this chapter, but I don’t want to say too much so that Alex’s creation can receive his full ovation in print.

So when is that going to happen, you ask? Hopefully Q1 of 2014. There are two things that could push us into Q2: me butting heads with the developer over character class issues or Jonathan and I getting all labor-of-love and working harder to match the standard set by the core book. If we take that longer path, we’ll approach 13 True Ways as we did the Escalation Edition for the core book: we’ll send backers and pre-order customers a usable early draft that will keep getting better as it trundles toward the finish line. Otherwise, there’s something to be said for happy surprises, and we’ll only share the bits that need playtesting.

We’ve indulged in some periods of 13 True Ways silence while I was working on the core book and the Bestiary. We’re now returning to once-a-week updates on 13 True Ways. These updates will soon include other mechanical bits. People have sent us all kinds of good feedback on the monk at 13thAgePlaytest@gmail.com, and we’ll be asking for your help with other aspects of 13 True Ways.