The Icon Riffs series offers inspiration for adventure design and improvisation at the table. The ideas presented aren’t numbered, because numbered lists imply a certain consistency between results. These lists are evocative rather than consistent. They’re also not thorough. This isn’t an attempt to list all the things that could be associated with the icons. There are huge numbers […]
Author Archives: Rob Heinsoo
An interviewer once asked us, “If someone has never played a tabletop RPG, why would 13th Age be a good game for them to try?” Well, that interview never ran, so we’re going to share our answers here. We designed 13th Age for experienced GMs, but it can be a great entry point into the hobby for new […]
Despite our chatty and occasionally informative sidebars, we don’t get around to explaining all our design decisions in 13th Age. Today we’ll take a look at a 13 True Ways design choice that could use a bit of explanation. Multiclass penalties The multiclass system in chapter 2 of 13 True Ways is a tool whose […]
by Rob Heinsoo Here are answers to the trivia questions from a few days ago, along with bonus stories and links. A. What monster in the core 13th Age rulebook became one of the player characters in my home campaign? The demon-touched human ranger on page 235 is one of just two human antagonists in […]
By Rob Heinsoo Welcome to the first-ever 13th Age Trivia & Miscellany 7-Question Non-Contest Experience. If you’re into trivia contests, oh happy day, hooray. Make your answers to one more questions as comments below and we’ll give a shout out later to the first person who correctly answered each specific question. If puzzling over obscure […]
My Playtest Feedback Process by Rob Heinsoo I’m just about to start going through playtest feedback for 13th Age in Glorantha. I thought readers of this blog might be interested in how I process playtest feedback for 13th Age books. Sometimes I read playtest feedback right away. But usually I wait and read as much […]
This newly arrived 13th Age zombie has two inspirations. First, I’ve been reading Jason Sholtis’ compilation of The Dungeon Dozen: Random-Tables for Fantasy RPGs. “Reading” may be the wrong word, but I’ve definitely been picking it up and allowing photons from its pages to slam into my eyeballs. Second, I like the way one of […]
Greg’s Stolze’s 13th Age novel, The Forgotten Monk, is punching through Kickstarter goals for another 7 days. That’s Pat Loboyko’s wonderful cover art above. The earliest stretch goal summoned stat write-ups for several of the characters and monsters in the novel. My advice will be that the protagonist, a monk who acquires the name Cipher […]
by Rob Heinsoo A few weeks ago a man in a toga told me that he was considering giving up on 13th Age because it was too complicated. He was two fruity Halloween cocktails away from being staggered, so I pursued quickly to learn what he was having trouble with. The problem turned out to […]