I’ve started running a new 13th Age campaign for my Fire Opal Games comrades and their families. The PCs are (apparently) questing to recover a goddess who most of the world has forgotten. The Elf Queen has several statues of the missing goddess in one of the halls she devotes to her friends, and she […]
Tag Archives: Rob Heinsoo
Sometimes a class is a bit more than a single class! The new demonologist class in Book of Demons is a bit like the druid in 13 True Ways in that it uses talent choices to define its class features and spell lists. The three demonologist paths—corruption, flame, and slaughter—have features in common, including resist […]
Recently we’ve gotten some feedback from players on the summoning mechanics for champion and epic tier druids and necromancers that coincides with how we handle summoning in new books like 13th Age Glorantha and Book of Demons. In this column, I’m going to take the opportunity to extend one of our summoning improvements to the […]
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 […]
Jonathan and I usually agree on the mechanics of 13th Age, but our memories don’t always agree when it comes to how key mechanics were created.* The escalation die is a prime example. I remember using the escalation die in a bizarro 4e game, fighting minions of Torog, back before we started work on 13th Age. […]
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 […]
by Rob Heinsoo When I read the fun Wrath of the Orc Lord organized-play adventure written by ALL CAPS WOMAN, aka ASH LAW, I decided I’d want another orc variety or two if I was running the adventure myself. For those keeping pace with the 13th Age OP seasons, Wrath of the Orc Lord is just about over. But I […]
We sent the 13th Age manuscript to the printer last week. It’s a good feeling. The book looks great. I think you’ll be able to see the quality of Chris Huth’s final layout work for yourself. The magnificent editing job performed by Cal Moore is probably harder to see. Cal spotted innumerable problems and knew […]
Obskures.de recently interviewed three-fourths of the creative team behind 13th Age. (Aaron McConnell was on deadline and chained to his drawing table that week.) In this installment, co-designer Rob Heinsoo is on the hot seat. obskures.de: How did you get involved in gaming, and how did you make the leap to becoming a professional? Rob Heinsoo: […]