13th Age GenCon Follow-up!

[[The Emperor, original pencils by Aaron McConnell, newly painted by Lee Moyer]]

We had two fun 13^th Age panels at GenCon a couple weeks ago. We didn’t record the 13^th Age Second Edition panel or the Monster Design Workshop, so I’m going to report a few questions that came out of the panels or that were asked frequently at the booth.

To ask other questions or hear more answers, you will be able to find me playing Ask Me Many Things on the unofficial 13^th Age Discord at 11 a.m. PST on Monday August 19^th.

When is 13^th Age 2^nd Edition going to be out?

My goal is to have the laid-out printer-ready PDFs delivered to Pelgrane for the printer by the end of this year. Barring weird shipping events, that would get the printed books distributed before GenCon 2025. And would also get PDFs onto backers’ screens early in 2025.

The timing is working well so far. We’re already editing chapters in the Gamemaster’s Guide that are not likely to change much during playtesting.

The art process is also going great. For fun, this update includes my two favorites of the illustrations that got completed yesterday, the revised Emperor and Simone Bannach’s Drider Sorceress.

If you compare this new illo to Lee’s work on the original Emperor illustration that he and Aaron created for 1^st Edition, that’s a fair representation of the art upgrade in 2E!

[[Simone Bannach]]

How long is playtest feedback going to be useful?

For big things, until the end of September. For small things, longer than that, into October certainly, and for typos and numbers that are easily corrected, into November.

As mentioned, pieces of the Gamemaster’s Guide are already in editing. They’re less likely to have major changes during playtesting.

The Classes chapter from the Heroes’ Handbook will be the last thing we finish.

What’s your favorite mechanic in 13^th Age that has made the transition to 2E?

I said the One Unique Thing.

Jonathan said the way in which spells and powers and resources are only refreshed when you’ve fought a certain number of battles, so that all your die rolls matter. Heroes get their oomph back in a dramatic arc after facing their weight in challenges, instead of by sleeping it off or using a wand to heal themselves.

What’s the biggest change in 2E?

For a game that’s perfectly compatible with its earlier supplements, there are a lot of changes. As players, the biggest class changes are in the bard and fighter and ranger.

The only change to update adventures to 2E is that you might want to use the new battle building math, which recognizes that parties with higher numbers of player characters gain power exponentially, not linearly.

As a major improvement in play, it could be that the 30 pages of examples of using icon connections will allow one of the game’s storytelling mechanics to work as intended. We didn’t do examples in 1E.

What is 2E doing to make the game easier to learn and play?

Examples of icon connections, examples of skill checks, and a new example of play covering some of the weird stuff instead of just sticking to the basics. Also graphics added to the character creation chapter and new character sheets!

There are a couple other answers to this question but we’re in the middle of the changes and I’ll wait until we’re sure to talk about it.

[[A question from the booth]] Should I buy this 13^th Age “Battle Scenes” supplement?

All the 1E adventures work great with 2E, and that includes the books we should have called Mini-Adventures instead of Battle Scenes. High Magic & Low Cunning, The Crown Commands, and Fire & Faith aren’t just battles, they’re books of mini-adventures that can be useful in most any campaign.

[[Another question from the booth]] Did I miss the Second Edition Kickstarter?

Yes, but you only missed its main phase. The official campaign is over, but right now you can still Late Pledge on Kickstarter. When the Kickstarter Late Pledges turn off, the game will move to Backerkit. So if you want to get in on the project and see the Gamma Playtest Packet, you can still join in.

Hey, you skipped the Monster Design Workshop!

To my surprise, we started by fixing a monster from a previous year that hadn’t quite worked out. Then our circle invented a new monster together that taps into the old chestnut of earlier ages finding stopgap solutions that eventually expire! I’m not sure yet which books these creatures will show up in, but we got two interesting new monsters in a one-hour workshop!