How do you keep an empire together? One obvious answer is the ability to move people and things quickly and easily from one place to another: trade goods, armies, officials, citizens. Perhaps just as important is the ability to move information across long distances. Are the forces of the Orc Lord mustering to attack from […]
Category Archives: 13th Age
13th Age game
text by Julian Kay Why let spellcasters have all the fun? This variant rule for the 13th Age RPG expands the ritual rules to those don’t wield magic, giving them an option to use their backgrounds in fantastical fashion. Pushing a castle gate with strength alone, deducing a culprit from a footprint, foiling a massive […]
“The world blew up in a thousand atomic fireballs.” – Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards (1977) “Books (including tomes, librams and manuals), artifacts, and relics are of ancient manufacture, possibly from superior human or demi-human technology, perhaps of divine origin; thus books, artifacts, and relics cannot be made by players and come only from the Dungeon Master.” […]
13th Age designer Rob Heinsoo takes you on a tour of the monsters he has known and loved throughout his gaming career, before finally naming on a particularly powerful and clever adversary as his favorite monster. 13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can […]
13th Age permits players to take negative relationships with Icons, to define their characters in opposition to these mighty foes. Sometimes, though, it’s tricky to reconcile that opposition with the mechanical benefits of icons. It’s easy to justify getting a benefit from a positive or conflicted relationship – I’m a loyal follower of the Crusader, […]
In a virtual version of their popular 13th Age Monster Design Workshop, Rob Heinsoo, ASH LAW and Wade Rockett explore principles of F20 monster design and, based on audience suggestions, spitball a joy-eating fungal threat. 13th Age combines the best parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming with new story-focused rules, designed so you can run […]
Also, check out Robin D. Laws’ “9 Tips for Remote Tabletop RPG Play”. Greetings, fellow dungeon dwellers! Today, I wanted to talk about playing 13th Age on the Roll20 virtual tabletop. However! Because I’m a Roll20 noob, I asked Aaron Roudabush, the master of 13th Age online play, to share some tips. You can purchase […]
Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan writes game books meant to be turned into wide-screen adventures. Book of the Underworld goes one better: the sunbearer golems who march an endless path through the four warring Kingdoms of the Mechanical Sun aren’t just made for cinema, they’d also work splendidly as the subject of a area-control and route-carving wargame! In […]
When you need a new monster in 13th Age, customizing an existing monster is a great option. For this post, we’ll turn an existing monster—the human thug—into a variety of guards from across the Dragon Empire by adding a single, distinctive special ability. Player characters in 13th Age (and almost every other RPG) tend to […]
A funny thing happened on the way to the Crown of Axis arena. Wade’s request for a cover image featuring two powerful female gladiators had been executed in style by Aaron McConnell: original sketch For a change, Aaron decided to hand-paint the piece, old school instead of digital. That turned out to create a delivery […]