by Rob Heinsoo Today’s column introduces a critter that was originally going to be part of the High Druid’s World issue of 13th Age Monthly. But High Druid’s World is full of stats for powerful druids and druidic dragons and the dire raccoon kinda rolled out of contention. Unlike most of our monster stats, these […]
Author Archives: Rob Heinsoo
by Rob Heinsoo The true magic items of 13th Age are meant to be quirky. But if you’ve played several times with the same magic item, its originally-funny quirk may not seem that special anymore. A good magic item quirk is a license to roleplay, and if you or someone else in the group has […]
by Rob Heinsoo We started a new 13th Age campaign a couple weeks ago with me in the GM-seat. Jonathan lobbied to start at 8th level. I turned down the petition, writing faux-earnest advice text as if lifting from some book that’s not quite 13A: Although it’s not an evolutionary process, the metaphor of progress, […]
I’ve been looking through old design files, finding interesting mechanics that we never got around to exploiting, and passages of writing that dropped through the cracks through no faults of their own. Here’s one such passage, an introductory paragraph that Jonathan must have written back when the druid was going to appear in the core […]
Inspired by the new rune narration mechanics in the upcoming 13th Age in Glorantha book, I’m experimenting with a twist on the icon relationship rules in my Dragon Empire 13th Age campaign. As before, a roll of a 5 or a 6 on the six-sider gains an icon relationship advantage. But in this campaign, the […]
With a sly flourish on Twitter, Michael E. Shea asked how Jonathan Tweet and I ask for skill checks: Attribute? “Choose an appropriate background?” First Method There are a couple of ways to call for checks in 13th Age. Jonathan’s is simplest, and he gave it on Twitter (at @JonathanMTweet if you’re not following him […]
by Jonathan Tweet and Rob Heinsoo When creating characters in a d20-rolling RPG, some of us will always want to roll ability scores. Others hate the randomness, or the risk of rolling up a less-then-competent characters, and opt for point-buy systems. In our games, we let players choose the method they like. When we make […]
Cal Moore created the lightning elemental as part of the newly published High Magic & Low Cunning: Battle Scenes for Four Icons. I tweaked the stats a bit to get them to play more like our other elementals. High Magic & Low Cunning includes stats for the 7th level version of the lighting elemental. The […]
by Jonathan Tweet Keep large bugs as pets, sometimes very large ones and often edible ones. Ferment food in holes in the ground, a treatment that nicely softens bug exoskeletons. Worship ecstatically, even violently, in front of shapeless idols. Mark family relationships with stylized scars. Cut mementos off the bodies of the dead before burning […]
I’m excited about this year’s 13th Age Monthly lineup. The first three months show off the mix of GM material and player goodies we’re aiming for. The artists are doing splendid work, and in fact for much of the year, 13AM is likely to be the place to see color 13th Age art. As you […]