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MAJESTIC Overwatch
by Jay D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/24/2015 13:03:20

I enjoy this product very much, but you will need other books to get a playable game from it: Moon Dust Men and Galileo Uplift.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
MAJESTIC Overwatch
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The Dracula Dossier: Dracula Unredacted preview
by Nathaniel J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/08/2015 18:58:26

Dracula Unredacted is the best gaming handout ever made. Hyperbole be damned, it's true!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Dracula Dossier: Dracula Unredacted preview
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The Dracula Dossier: Dracula Unredacted preview
by ian s. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/28/2015 10:46:27

from the preview it looks to be a very interesting take on Stoker's novel. Not sure I'll buy it but for someone unfamiliar with the novel it would be a fun way to enjoy the story.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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The Dracula Dossier: Director's Handbook preview
by ian s. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 09/28/2015 10:43:44

As a preview it has really done its job and I am impatiently waiting to get my hands on the finished product



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Dracula Dossier: Director's Handbook preview
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Trail of Cthulhu: The Book of the Smoke
by Flames R. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 09/23/2015 04:12:18

The Book of the Smoke is an oddity. The intentional use would be as an in-game prop for any setting where an occult London would be researched; however, it is best suited for Trail of Cthulhu, particularly the Bookhounds of London (a great read, by the way).

The text itself is a look at London’s occult scene. It is separated by places and persons. The majority of the book deals with places for investigators to, well, investigate. This is the genius of the book.

With a style similar to one found in a folklore journal, the author lays out rumored locales of high strangeness. These places, seeds really, are left wide open for clever keepers to nurture into something else.

The best part: After an investigation check, the Keeper can hand a tattered page or two from the book as a clue for the players to take in. They can make what they will of the academic, somewhat biased text. Since it’s a text clue, the Keeper can save his poker face for bigger moments in the game.

And it keeps in flavor with the game.

Some figures are well-known (Aleister Crowley, for example); others are not. The author does well making the read sound authentic. It’s “written” by a contemporary of the occult movers and shakers and it reads like it.

Overall, The Book of the Smoke feels like an extremely focused product, which is a disservice to it. There is a great deal that can be mined from this book, but it’s not as readily available (or advertised) as that. If you’re a fan of supernatural horror, take the time to check out this read. It’s system neutral, but tied to the late 1800s and 1900s (some times vary, but the majority fall there).



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[4 of 5 Stars!]
Trail of Cthulhu: The Book of the Smoke
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Shadows of Eldolan
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 09/04/2015 04:06:25

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This adventure clocks in at 72 pages - since I only have the softcover, I can make no qualified statements on the pdf's electronic features.

This book was moved up my reviewing queue due to me receiving the softcover of the book for the purposes of a fair, critical review.

First of all, this begins as a kind of gazetteer - the city of Eldolan, depicted with a nice b/w-map, comes fully detailed herein - and it is a n interesting backdrop: Situated near the Archmage's metropolis of Horizon, but far enough away to be a sovereign entity, we still have, obviously, a magocarcy on our hands - with 3 different wizard schools, there is quite a bit of inner- and inter-school rivalry suffusing the town's social structure. It should also come as no surprise that the members of the school obviously sport several privileges, with anyone nonmagical being relegated to the status of a second-class citizen-. On the plus-side, the overabundance of magic also means that there are quite a few unconventional amenities - from anti-vermin bombs to the lamplighter's guild that illuminates the districts at night with magical light. It is against this backdrop and the status quo of an overexerted city watch that also has its issues with the feuding wizards that this adventure is set.

So, our fresh heroes begin play in this settlement at the request of, obviously, their iconics, with several potential tie-ins as hooks being provided.

This being an adventure-review, the following obviously contains SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

...

..

.

All right, still here? Great!

We begin this module pretty much in media res as the PCs are at a small market square, only to have a cart erupt in zombies to spread the Lich King's panic in the streets - a task somewhat undermined by the pumpkin-headed, pumpkin-throwing zombie provided. From here on out, it becomes obvious pretty fast that the authorities are terribly overexerted and require assistance and so the modular investigation begins - depending on the clues gathered after the assault, the PCs have a lot of leads to follow, which a GM can easily interconnect - essentially, the structure of the module is generated in a way that allows for the respective sub-chapters to lead into another and avoid dead-ends - so structurally, we have a sound set-up at our hands.

Coincidentally, each of the clues leads to another district of Eldolan. In the commons, further investigation and asking around sooner or later points towards a rather nasty gang of thugs, who can be beaten or persuaded into divulging the information regarding the target of the enigmatic Dreammaster, a dealer of drugs that has been undermining the pricing of the dreamleaf drug. His hide-out, as it turns out, is solidly fortified in a smartly constructed hide-out within an abandoned theater - beyond his smart-fighting flunkies and actually sound security protocols, the dreammaster provides for a great show-down on the dilapidated stage, making perfect use of 13th Age's great terrain-based attack-tricks - including a nice get-away route for the second half of the fight, phase two of the boss, if you will - alas, an undead will eliminate the dealer before he can divulge too much -only that he has been acquiring junkies...alive and dead, for some unknown buyer.

A particular peddler of the bodies of the dead would be potential competition and so, an organic lead - asking around the more dangerous taverns at the docks (hopefully avoiding too bad a tavern brawl) may actually yield non-violent results when interacting with the pragmatic criminal - the lead thereafter pointing the PCs towards a small, yet nevertheless deadly cult of minions of the Diabolist - hopefully managing to interrupt a human sacrifice - otherwise, the PCs will have to not only defeat the cultists, but also the deadly demon summoned.

In the temple district, a man can identify one of the initial zombies as a recently deceased friend - though, oddly, he should not be among the walking dead: After all, his body was supposed to be properly consecrated and buried. Confronting the local adherents of the priestess with these facts will require a lot of finesse and tact, but should the PCs succeed, their descent into the catacombs will sooner or later not only unearth a sabotage of the magical funeral rites - and find themselves besieged by undead in a harrowing fight in the middle of the tight subterranean confines, while also unearthing the presence of a hostile agent within the ranks of the Priestess' followers.

In the higher-class district of the saddle, a haunted and since then abandoned brewery has obviously also played its part in the operations of the Lich King's servant's conspiracy - here, we imho have some of the most exciting combats in the module - with very interesting terrain hazards and solid tactics, the challenge posed here is cool - even before the inclusion of a drunken ghost to lighten the mood.

Now finally, the PCs may have also found hints that led them to a nice shop of magic curios and encountered the eccentric owners here - but ultimately, sooner or later, their opposition will realize that they have a group of deadly foes in the PCs - and thus, the cabal called seekers will sooner or later try to assassinate them as they collect their evidence, piece by piece. Alas, much to the PC's chagrin, the evidence collected points towards the operations of the Lamplighter's Guild - and obviously, the PCs can't simply waltz into the prestigious place. Thus, some subtlety is required - and, within the compound, hopefully some discernment between loyal lamplighters trying to weed our foreigners and members of the cabal seeking to eliminate the meddling PCs...

Still, this final trek should prove enough information to convince one of the owners of the emporium to divulge the necessary information - and realize that the other owner is the head of the conspiracy. Thus, the PCs enter the final, short mini-dungeon to confront the mastermind in his own abode, duking it out not only with his incomplete flesh golem, but also with his superb defensive strategies - the PCs will have to be at the top of their game to prevent the escape of the mastermind - and may not even notice his escape until it's too late! A furious finale indeed!

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to an easy-to-read, aesthetically-pleasing two-column b/w-standard and the pdf sports several solid b/w.-artworks as well as a significant array of gorgeous b/w-cartography for just about every combat in the adventure. The paper of my print edition is a nice, high-quality glossy type.

Cal Moore delivers perhaps the one genre 13th Age is imho worst at here - an investigation. While the system's notion of failing forward is a required design-choice for a good investigation, the system is somewhat hamstrung by the sheer matter of the fact that it does not cover non-combat challenges that well. Now the task, in the absence of a codified skill-system, would be to properly depict the logical progression of the legwork - and surprisingly, the module did excel beyond my expectations in this arena and manages to offset the fatigue that sometimes settles in such an arena of too few dice rolls via clever use of relationship dice, which coincidentally also help prevent stagnation of the investigation.

On the plus-side, this module manages to not only mitigate the brunt of the system's less refined components, but also capitalizes on its strengths - there is not a single boring combat herein. Not a single one. With terrain-specific attacks, unique tactics and challenging boss-fights, the combat-component is simply fun and highlights well a massive strength of the system. This module is fun and more grounded than what I expected to get here. My players most certainly had an interesting time playing this module and enjoyed it - though it should be noted, that for a GM, the lecture is somewhat less captivating than one would expect, mainly due to the actual plot behind the whole conspiracy being none too exciting with the villain's motivation being opaque and pretty bland. Now my players didn't mind, but personally, I was pretty glad they did not pause to question the motives of their foes or their modus operandi, something I, as a GM, did not particularly care for.

This may sound negative, but it should be testament to this module's quality that its accumulated set-pieces and fast pace can transcend these notches to the point where they do not show. In the end, this module was a surprise for me, mainly because it is pretty hard to portray the genre within 13th Age's rules-framework, much less in a way that proved to be this fun, this well-structured. My final verdict will hence clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded down only due to the lack of meat behind the motivations of the primary antagonists - while it did not show in my playtest, I can see particularly inquisitive groups interested in complex motivations, especially those with a ToC or CoC (or other investigation-heavy RPG)-background potentially being frustrated with this component.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Shadows of Eldolan
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The Book of Loot
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/20/2015 03:22:00

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This book clocks in at 72 pages. I received this book in print for the purpose of an unbiased, critical review and it thus was moved up in my reviewing queue. Even if you are not interested in 13th Age, please read this review. Finally: I do not own the pdf version of this book, so I can't comment on it.

All right, so if you've been reading my reviews for a while, you'll know what my introductory spiel will be here: If there is one thing I loathe about d20-based systems, it would be that they wrecked magic. What do I mean by this? The massive rules-interaction possibilities and mathematical crafting rules ultimately enabled players to create their own legends, yes, but at the same time, the system necessitated a codification of magic items, armor, etc. via the paradigms of gold, spells known and feats invested. Ultimately, this practice led to a plethora of humorous posts on how the ecology in any such a world would not work properly (or be driven wholly by murder hobos...) - google it and you'll surely find one or two such issues and I'm not even scratching the surface here.

While I am perhaps one of the more anal-retentive GMs out there regarding the feeling of the world I play in, one of the guys who design customs, rune-languages etc. to enhance internal consistency of a world, this component is surprisingly not the one that has irked me the most. What has galled me to no end is that magic just lost its luster and glory, it became not only easy to codify, it became predictable, with all unpredictability stemming ultimately from a huge array of sourcebooks that not only perpetuated power escalation among options like spells, but ultimately also among magic items based on said spells. With the Christmas-tree syndrome becoming more and more apparent (and loathed by at least a certain part of the target demographic), alternate means of power gain closer to our beloved fictional narratives were sought, found and implemented, with legacy weapons being refined into legendary weapons over the years and various system-modifications allowing for a playstyle that does not hinge on covering your PC in more magical bling than an early 90s rapper. (Note: While I am a goth/metal-head, I actually like hip hop...go figure, this was not a barb.)

Now 13th Age does several thing right with the magical items - from potential jealousy to quirks that are projected onto the character, the basic premise of 13th Age imho managed to offset this exceedingly grievous complaint many a person has with magic items: In 13th Age, magical items may once again feel like MAGIC, like something unpredictable. Now yes, the 13th Age system does assume the Iconics as movers and shakers and if you recall my review of the core book, I wasn't too thrilled by them. Now obviously, the items herein are grouped by iconic that created them (or that thematically fits them) - and honestly, the items provide more indirect characterization of the respective iconics than the base book's write-up. The Archmage's pomp, the Diabolist's reality-rending, the difference between the savage magic of the High Druid and the Emperor - the item classes actually feel differently o an extent I did not anticipate.

And yes, this book does have, obviously, some traditionally "useful" items - like a robe that teleports you out of danger when you reach 0 HP or an armor that deals fire damage to any supernatural being teleporting while in your proximity. It is not these items that have made me grin, almost continuously, from ear to ear while reading this book - it is the sheer, vast, huge imaginative potential of the items herein: Take for example the Dwarf King - a beard of entanglement is at the same time ridiculous and awesome - it has the whimsical quality I expect from magic. Or take the incredibly faithful hat that will show up EVERYWHERE you end up, including the 3 items you put in its compartments. I quote the book: "[...]stripped naked, hurled through a portal into the abyss and carried by a demonic roc to its nest in an uncharted, infernal mountain range -and you'll find your hat waiting there." And yes, you pet your hat as if it were a pet. This is awesome on so many levels!

Students of classic literature will surely enjoy the helm that can go full-blown Castle of Otranto as a defensible watchtower, while advocates of a certain barbarian and his timeless question of what is best in life most certainly will enjoy the throne-threading sandals. Now if you're like me, these examples alone (by far not the only ones, btw.!) will be enough to make you love this book, but if you don't have humor and do not enjoy this type of thing, then rest assured that there are enough "serious" items herein - what about e.g. a ring that declares you as one of the Elf Queen's consorts for your easy and daily fix of debauchery and court politics? Or what about the literal hand of winter that may or may not force you to draw the season back to where it belongs once it gets out of control? Or perhaps you prefer the more subtle side of things and with it a girdle that makes you the ultimate chameleon - but perhaps at the cost of finding out that interpersonal interaction and potential conflict ultimately are a crucial component that defines us.

Beyond these glorious, specific items, treasure trove generators, general item-creation advice and concise lists of items by chakra and a few potions and oils further complement this absolutely stunning book.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a nice two-column b/w-standard and the book comes softbound and on glossy, thick high-quality paper that withstood my page-skipping while I was sweating terribly due to my Scandinavian ancestry.

This book, much like the superb Bestiary of 13th Age, is more inspired than I ever believed it to be possible - the Book of Loot was NOT a book I looked forward to reading and when I did, I was continuously and constantly blown away - so much so, that I have used A LOT of the items herein - in 13th Age, PFRPG, DCC - their playfulness and imaginative potential is downright genius and they bring back a sense of the unpredictable, of the MAGICAL.

Author Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan delivers an absolutely stunning assortment of items that breathe narrative potential, that inspire, that actually feel like they could spring straight from the pages of your favorite fantasy novels, with the vast majority of them being able to support a story all on their own - or even a campaign. Add to that the novice-friendly advice in the beginning and we have a book that is a little masterpiece - it constitutes one of the best magic item books I've read since 2nd edition and brings back defining characteristics of what magic items can be - more than a sum of endlessly recombined numbers, bonuses and parts, more than just a mathematical bonus-machinery. And yes, there are such items herein, but ultimately, even these have some sort of component that makes them transcend their system-dependency. I consider this book an excellent buy for all d20-based systems and as such, this book receives 5 stars + my seal of approval and status as a candidate of my Top Ten of 2015 - a capable GM who understands the mechanics of 13th Age and another system can easily convert them. GLORIOUS!

Endzeitgeist out.



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[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Book of Loot
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13th Age Bestiary
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/14/2015 04:59:12

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This massive book clocks in at 240 pages. I have received the color hardcover version of this book for the purpose of providing an unbiased, critical review.

A task that has been harder than I thought at first. Why? Because it's a "first bestiary/monster manual"-type of book. I mean, come on, how many ways can you say: "This book contains orcs, ogres, etc." To me, as a reviewer, there is NOTHING more boring than the first bestiary, ESPECIALLY since the advent of 3.X.

Let me ramble for a second: When I began playing, bestiaries were actually that - they were fashioned after the medieval catalogues of fantastic creatures and thus provides stats, yes, but more importantly, they provided information on society, habitat, tactics. Flair. Things that set my mind ablaze with ideas. Then 3.X hit and as much as I like the mechanical complexity and wealth of options PFRPG et al. provide, as much do I loathe what this has done to monsters. Instead of receiving a fully-fleshed out creature with a place in the world, a modus operandi etc., we get some dry numbers, two lines of fluff and that's it.

In 3.X and its inheritors, monsters felt like machines, less like living, breathing creatures to me. Pathfinder has inherited this issue, though thankfully, a broad array of templates and unique signature abilities has somewhat mitigated the process of making monsters just HP-exchange units. Now granted, I can very much appreciate (and continue to do so!) well-crafted creature-mechanics, but I still catch myself wishing for a simpler time once in a while - or for a time when monsters still had story, still had a place.

What does this have to do with 13th Age? Well, in my original review of the core book, I called 13th Age somewhat schizoid in some design-decisions. In none is that more apparent than in the stance on monsters. Personally, I HATE the fixed damage-values monsters usually deal in 13th Age. However, the nastier specials, which provide upgrade-abilities for harder games or to showcase elite adversaries, are downright inspired. While the core book's monsters have fallen into the blander than bland routine for the most part, with no significant lore-upgrade to their roles, 13 True Ways provided pretty much a personal El Dorado for me - a vast array of utterly unique backgrounds for devilkind to choose from, each more inspiring than the last? Yes, please! Gimme more!

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I very much assume that you are not that interested in my rambling on and on about 13th Age's ogres versus that of other d20-based games or this book's version of a critter or absence/presence herein. What I do assume you to be interested in is quite frankly the consequence of monster-design for 13th Age being ridiculously easy and streamlined - namely, whether to buy this book or not. After all, it is a first bestiary - not too much uniqueness in here, right? I know I wouldn't have purchased this book based on its premise alone.

Well, you would be right on one hand - and, like me, dead wrong.

The first thing I feel obliged to mention is that each monster-entry herein not only comes with one simple statblock - instead, the respective beasts come with multiple ones, providing upgrades and often, utterly unique abilities beyond the what the base creature has to offer - if you're coming from a pathfinder bakcground, think of it as the difference between a regular critter and its mythic counterpart; if you're coming from an old-school gaming background, think of it as the difference between a skeleton and a skeletal champion. Yes, this pronounced.

Furthermore, the respective creatures actually get their place to shine - where PFRPG's bestiaries are not read for inspiration (that's something I draw from the creature-themed campaign supplements), this book does provide that in spades. With nomenclature where applicable, advice for building battles, in-character quotes, relationships with icons and yes, copious adventure hooks, this bestiary delivers in spades. Want an example? Well, take the chimera - these creatures actually come with a built-in template for each of the iconics, all providing different bonuses and flaws that serve tor ender the creature distinct for each iconic - oh, and yes, these are based on the PC's relationships with their iconics. What about symbiote magical items made from chuul? (Who needs Ankheg armor, anyways?)

Different approaches and philosophies within certain races and odd quirks that are downright inspired can be found in almost every entry - for example, did you know that couatl consider themselves to be the true heroes of the world? Were you aware that ettercaps make excellent info-brokers? What about the myriad creatures that make up the fungal kingdom, including a race potentially suitable to be played? Why should cubes have all the fun - unleash gelatinous dodecahedrons upon your PCs - and roll an appropriate die to see what the creature does instinctively! Whichever lore you prefer regarding ghoul bites, you're covered and inspiration for outbreak-scenarios can be found in the respective entry.

Of course, some creatures receive brand new takes - at the court of the lich king, for example, being a lich may just show that you're another sycophantic poser and manticore bards immediately conjured up scenes of Groteschi the Red, one of the more unique creatures from Catherynne M. Valente's Orphan's Tales. Now note that from the Crusader's Saved (which may be a fate worse than damnation) to the clockwork Zorigami that may constitute the heart of the world and the sentient countdown for the end of the age or even the world, there are quite a few unique creatures in here as well.

Why should you care, even if you're not playing 13th Age? Well, if the huge wealth of exceedingly glorious fluff, hooks and ideas is not enough to sway you, what about sheer design-ingenuity?

Wait.

What? Yes. 13th Age does not lend itself well to making interesting adversaries that have thousands of combos and options at their beck and call. However, in the case of this book, this limitation proved to be a blessing in disguise. From modifications of escalation or relationship dice to truly unique options, some of the abilities herein are, no hyperbole, GENIUS. Take the redcap. Tried and true delightfully evil fey - we all know and love the iron-shodded menaces. Well, herein, they have taboo-words - even if you think them, they get power from it and may teleport et al., gaining potentially a nasty array of additional actions. Now how is this represented? When a PLAYER says the taboo word, the ability kicks in. Yes. This is pretty much brilliant and can provide quite a mind-blowing experience when handled with care. This is just ONE example out of a bunch of them. This book's abilities OOZE creativity and will enrich ANY d20-based game I run for years to come.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant issues. Layout adheres to a nice 2-column full-color standard and the book sports a lot of unique artworks for the critters, which adheres to a uniform style and can be generally considered to be situated in the upper echelon of quality, though not yet at the top. My hardbound copy is sturdy, pretty to look and easy to use, with nice, glossy, thick paper.

Rob Heinsoo, Ryven Cedrylle, Kenneth Hite, Kevin Kulp, Ash Law, Cal Moore, Steve Townshend, Rob Watkins, Rob Wieland - congratulations. You have actually managed to craft the first "Bestiary I" since the days of second edition I liked to read, the first that inspired me. This book manages what neither monster manuals of 3rd or 4th edition or PFRPG's bestiary-line has succeeded in doing - actually inspire me to use creatures, to craft adventures around them, to use them to make the world feel more alive. While a rare few 3pp bestiaries over the years manage this sense of wonder, it usually stems from clever mechanics or uncommon concepts, only rarely from actual narrative potential. Ultimately, this book, in spite of its "1st bestiary"-handicap, did all of that and more and makes me giddy with anticipation and hopeful we'll see more far-out creatures in the level of detail as provided herein.

The 13th Age Bestiary is a superb, inspiring book, which may not be on an artistic or aesthetic level with the big ones, but is infinitely more inspiring - and for me, I'll take content over bling any day. My final verdict will clock in at a well-deserved 5 stars + seal of approval.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
13th Age Bestiary
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13th Age Core Book
by Roger (. L. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/07/2015 08:44:09

teilzeithelden.de

Mit 13th Age wollte Pelgrane Press definitiv klotzen und nicht kleckern. Beim Einstieg in den d20-Markt setzte man auf den Lead Designer von D&D4, Rob Heinsoo, und Rollenspielurgestein Jonathan Tweet. Zumindest erschien es mir so, dass man vor dem Erscheinen von D&D Next (das jetzige D&D5) noch den Fuß in die Tür kriegen wollte und seinen eigenen Claim auf dem d20-Markt abstecken wollte.

Beide, 13th Age und D&D5, haben sich nun auf dem Markt etabliert. 13th Age hat es jedenfalls zu einer Anzahl weiterer Veröffentlichungen gebracht und erscheint nun auch auf Deutsch. Grund genug, dem Regel- und Systemkern einmal auf den Zahn zu fühlen.

Die Spielwelt

Die gesamte Spielwelt wird von den 13 Icons geprägt, Wesen von mythischer Macht. Sie haben ihre eigenen Gefolgsleute und Organisationen, Städte, Machtbasen. Schon allein durch die Präsenz solcher Mächte kann man hier von „High Fantasy“ sprechen, das Spiel kann auf höheren Stufen auch ins Epische übergehen.

Auf 25 Seiten wird die Spielwelt grob abgerissen, wobei wenige Orte mehr als einen Paragraphen abkriegen. Da gibt es für die meisten Geschmäcker etwas, sei es eine Stadt voller Monster, der Crusader erobert Höllenschlünde in Festungen für einen bevorstehenden Krieg, und irgendwo in der Landschaft ist ein enormer Abgrund in die Niederhöllen, den der goldene Oberdrache mit seinem Leib und seiner Macht versiegelt. Ungefähr die Hälfte der Orte leiten sich von den Icons ab, der Rest ist mit stark fantastischen Elementen gewürzt, wie z.B. gigantischen Landkreaturen, die auf festen Routen als eigene Minilandschaften durch das Reich ziehen.

(Wem das nicht schmeckt: Rob Heinsoo werkelt auch an einer durch Kickstarter finanzierten Glorantha-Variante, und auch andere Settings wie Midgard (Kobold Press) und Primeval Thule (Sasquatch Game Studio) wurden bereits offiziell konvertiert.)

Das Gleich in Grün

In den Händen eines fähigen Spielleiters können die Icons gute Hooks sein, um auf die Spieler zugeschnittene Geschichten zu erzählen. Sie bevölkern die Welt bereits mit Gruppen, die um die Macht und das Schicksal der Welt ringen, und das ist generell eine Bereicherung.

Dass dem nicht immer so ist, beweisen das beigefügte Abenteuer und das Abenteuer vom Free RPG Day. Hier werden Varianten dafür geboten, welche Icons auf Seite der Spieler involviert sein könnten, und welchem bösen Icon man diesmal dazwischenfunkt. Für mich wirkt das so, als ob man das Abenteuer einfach nur in einer anderen Farbe anstreicht. Auf die Story und das Ziel hat das nur bedingt und im Detail Einfluss.

Aber wie gesagt: Wenn man seine eigene Kampagne strickt, kann man das natürlich weitaus gezielter und geschickter machen.

Die Regeln

Was mir bei 13th Age früh auffiel, ist, dass die Klassen stark unterschiedlich sind. D&D4 wurde nachgesagt, dass es die Klassenunterschiede zu sehr verwischte. Das ist hier definitiv anders! Das Regelwerk gibt sogar eine Empfehlung ab, wie komplex die einzelnen Klassen sind – die Powers von Kämpfern und Dieben sind eigene, kleine Regelsysteme:

Kämpfer haben Manöver: Ein Kämpfer macht erst seinen Attackewurf und darf dann, basierend auf dem Ergebnis, ein Manöver wählen. Aber erst nach dem Wurf weiß der Kämpe, welches Manöver er überhaupt ausführen kann, und führt die Beschreibung seiner Aktion zuende.

Ein Dieb hat hingegen Powers, die er entweder direkt beim eigenen Angriff oder dem Angriff eines Gegners ansagen muss. Erst dann wird gewürfelt. Außerdem muss der Spieler das „Momentum“ verwalten: Trifft die Spielfigur, gewinnt man einen Punkt Momentum, wird man getroffen, verliert man es wieder. Man hat also entweder gerade Momentum oder nicht, und einige Powers funktionieren nur bei vorhandenem Momentum.

Dies sind sicherlich die Extreme, die großen Unterschiede über alle Klassen hinweg sind aber nicht zu leugnen. Im Vergleich zu d20-Varianten wie D&D5 oder Dungeon Crawl Classics, die auch klare mechanische Unterschiede zwischen den Klassen haben, ist 13th Age am oberen Ende der Skala zusammen mit DCC, nur dass sich dort der Spieler im Zweifel weniger Regeln, Trigger, oder Powers merken muss.

Gerade, ungerade, eskaliert ...

Meiner Einschätzung nach ist der Kampf das zentralste Element von 13th Age, und die Autoren haben sich, weiß Gott, Mühe gegeben, Variantenreichtum in die W20-Würflerei zu prügeln. Viele Powers lassen sich nur in bestimmten Kampfsituationen auslösen, die durch zwei Umstände bestimmt werden: dem eigenen W20-Wurf und dem aktuellen „Escalation Die“.

Bei den eigenen Würfen kommt es hierbei oft darauf an, ob das Würfelergebnis gerade, ungerade und/oder hoch genug war:

Die Fighter-Feat „Deadly Assault“ kann auf einer höheren Stufe bei jedem Wurfergebnis von 17+ (= 17 oder höher) ausgelöst werden.

Das Kampf-Manöver „A Dozen Cuts“ kann einmalig pro Kampf bei einem ungeraden Wurf ausgeführt werden, der auch getroffen hat.

Darüber hinaus wird während eines Kampfes ein Escalation Die mit hochgezählt. Dieser spezielle W6 kommt ab der zweiten Kampfrunde ins Spiel und wird für gewöhnlich von 1 bis 6 pro Runde hochgezählt. SC erhalten dessen Wert als Bonus auf ihren Angriffswurf, sodass sie bei längeren Kämpfen im Vorteil sind – es sei denn, sie kämpfen gegen einen „Escalator“, also ein Monster, dem dieser Vorteil auch zugute kommt. Kämpfe z.B. gegen einen Drachen können sich so sehr schnell dramatisch zuspitzen!

Einerseits kann es so Sinn machen, mit Würfen verbundene Attacken zu verzögern. Andererseits triggern auch sehr viele Spezialfähigkeiten über den Escalation Die:

Barbaren können ein Mal pro Tag in rasende Wut verfallen. Haben sie die dazugehörende Feat, können sie dies außerdem immer, sobald der Escalation Die auf 4+ steht.

Der Barden-Schlachtruf „Victory is ours!“ wird durch eine natürliche 20 ausgelöst. Ist der Escalation Die bei 5+, reichen Würfe von 16+.

In der Tat wird sehr viel in 13th Age über die Würfel abgewickelt. So funktioniert vieles im Spiel über Rettungswürfe der Schwierigkeitsstufen 6+, 11+ und 16+. Fällt man unter 0 Trefferpunkte und versemmelt vier schwere Rettungswürfe (16+) im selben Kampf, stirbt man. Verschiedene Zauber und Fähigkeiten kann man nach einem Kampf regenerieren, wenn man bei einer kurzen Verschnaufpause den zugehörigen Rettungswurf schafft. Auch andauernde Effekte können über einen solchen Rettungswurf beendet werden. Im Gegensatz zu vielen d20-Spielen gibt es auf die meisten dieser Würfe keinen Bonus.

Heilung auf Raten

Heilung gibt es bei 13th Age nicht unbegrenzt, sondern jede Spielfigur hat eine Anzahl Recoveries, die man zur Heilung benutzen kann. Klassische Hit Dice gibt es bei 13th Age eigentlich nicht – die Trefferpunkte pro Stufe werden anhand einer Formel ausgerechnet. Bei Recoveries leben sie aber fort:

Setzt ein Barbar der 1. Stufe mit Con-Modifier +3 eine Recovery ein, heilt er 1W10+3 Schaden.

Beim Barbaren der 5. Stufe mit Con-Modifier +3 sind das bereits 5W10+6.

Derselbe Barbar mit dem Talent „Strongheart“ wirft 5W12+6.

Ein Kleriker der 1. Stufe mit Con-Modifier +3 wirft 1W8+3.

Während des Kampfes muss ein Zauberspruch, ein Talent oder eine Power den Einsatz einer Recovery ermöglichen. Man ist ja schließlich im Eifer des Gefechts. Ein einfacher Heilzauber bewirkt also erst mal nichts anderes, als dass man eine Recovery abstreichen und die entsprechenden Punkte wieder regenerieren darf. Bei einem Short Rest, einem kurzen Luftholen zwischen Kämpfen, darf man beliebig viele Recoveries verballern, kriegt diese aber erst nach einer langen Rast wieder. Manche Zauber und Powers erlauben es auch, so zu heilen, als hätte man eine Recovery verwendet, es wird aber keine verbraucht.

Aufs Austeilen optimiert

Zaubersprüche werden bei 13th Age in Spruch-Slots „geladen“. Spruch-Slots für mächtigere Zauber gibt es auf der dritten, fünften, siebten und neunten Stufe. Ein hochstufiger Zauber kann nicht in einen Slot niedriger Stufe geladen werden, umgekehrt aber schon. Dann steigt auch der Effekt des Zaubers, der über die Stufe des Slots skaliert. Ein Feuerball der 9. Stufe hat doppelt so viele Schadenswürfel wie einer der 5. Stufe, ab der dieser Spruch zur Verfügung steht. Sprüche stehen entweder beliebig („at will“), einmal pro Kampf oder ein Mal am Tag zur Verfügung.

13th Age sieht seine Stärke eindeutig im Kampf, und wenn man jetzt noch irgendeinen Beweis dafür bräuchte, wäre das der Utility Spell. Während die anderen Sprüche für den Kampf ausgelegt sind, ist der Utility Spell der Ausgleich: Anstatt sich allerlei nicht-kampfbezogenen Kleinkram zu merken und dafür Spruch-Slots zu vergeuden, darf man sich diesen Spruch merken. Je nach Stufe des Slots selbst darf man dann eine Reihe von magischen Effekten wirken: Disguise Self, Feather Fall, Hold Portal, Levitate, Message, Speak with Item, Water Breathing und Scrying. Der Spieler muss sich nicht im Voraus entscheiden, welchen dieser Effekte er wirkt.

Da es nur vier verschiedene Stufen für Sprüche gibt, ist das Repertoire aller Magiewirker deutlich kleiner als das ihrer D&D-Pendants, wo neun Spruchstufen warten, die mehr Bandbreite pro Stufe bieten als 13th Age. Etwas wird dies durch Rituale ausgeglichen: Nimmt man sich außerhalb des Kampfs entsprechend Zeit, kann man mit dem SL einen Effekt verhandeln, der sich aus der Wirkung eines memorierten Spruchs ableiten ließe. Das gleicht zwar die mangelnde Bandbreite an Sprüchen nur sehr bedingt aus, belohnt aber immerhin kreative Spieler.

Charaktererschaffung

Die Klassen und Rassen fallen sehr EDO- und D&D-typisch aus, wobei die Wahl der Rasse die der Klasse nicht einschränkt.

Generell verwaltet 13th Age mehr Werte als die meisten d20-Systeme. In manchen Situationen kommt der Attribut-Modifikator zum Einsatz, in anderen zusätzlich der Level. Es gibt drei Basisverteidigungswerte: Armor Class (AC), Physical Defense (PD) und Mental Defense (MD). Die AC wird bei Angriffen mit regulären Waffen herangezogen, die PD bei der Frage, ob überhaupt getroffen wurde, Rüstung oder nicht, und die MD wenn es um geistige Effekt geht. Dump Stats werden hierbei geschickt durch Mittelung über drei Attribute je Verteidigungswert vermieden – sogar Charisma hat hier einen Einfluss.

Man darf und muss etwas am Charakter definieren, das sie oder ihn von allen anderen absetzt – das „one unique thing“. Daraus darf so viel Story wie möglich, aber kein direkter Vorteil im Spiel entstehen, jedenfalls kein mechanischer. „Ich kann fliegen“ oder „Ich bin ein Drachenreiter“ sind also nicht drin, aber „Ich bin entrechteter Drachenreiter“ schon eher. Hier weht ein Hauch von Fate durch d20, er verkommt aber schnell zum hilflosen Schnörkel.

Statt Skills gibt es Hintergründe, die auch wie Aspekte in Fate relativ frei definiert werden können, und halt ein Gesamtpaket abdecken. Ob man nun magischer Archivar oder ein findiger Straßenräuber war, man darf hier einige Punkte zu Beginn verteilen. Blickt man auf die Formel für Skillwürfe, wird aber relativ schnell klar, dass im Laufe des Spiels Attribut-Boni und Stufe mehr Einfluss auf zentrale Würfe nehmen werden als die Hintergründe. Bard, Cleric, Ranger, Rogue und Sorcerer können hier zu Beginn durch die Wahl passender Klassentalente noch was draufpacken.

Generell dürfte das Bauen eines Charakters relativ lange dauern, schließlich muss man das Folgende festlegen:

Attributwerte

Rasse

Klasse

klassenbezogene Talente

initiale Feats

klassenbezogene Powers, Manöver, Kampfschreie, initiale Zaubersprüche etc.

Hintergründe

Icon-Beziehungen

Ausrüstung

Gerade die individuelle Gestaltung der Hintergründe, die den Charakter zeitlebens begleiten, oder die ersten Beziehungen zu den zentralen 13 Icons dürften Einiges an Zeit in Anspruch nehmen.

Spielbarkeit aus Spielleitersicht

Dem SL wird Einiges an Hilfestellung geboten: Mit den 13 Icons gibt es gleich Factions, die man aufeinander hetzen kann, und man kann die Verwicklung der Spieler über die Icon Dice bestimmen. Mit den Adventurer-, Champion- und Epic-Spielstufen kann man auch schnell bestimmen, wie schwierig Würfe zu sein haben. Formeln zum Erzeugen von Begegnungen mit dem gewünschten Schwierigkeitsgrad gibt es auch. Mit dem schrittweisen Stufenanstieg kann man Spielern auch Gelegenheit geben, stetig etwas an den Spielfiguren zu verbessern.

Spielbarkeit aus Spielersicht

Ein Eindruck aus meiner Testrunde vermittelt das am besten: Ein Spieler hätte sich vielleicht den Dieb genommen. Ich hatte alle Zusatzregeln für den Dieb auf einem Bogen zusammengefasst. Der Dieb ging wieder in den Stapel zurück. Und tatsächlich hängt die Komplexität für den Spieler hauptsächlich davon ab, welche Klasse er wählt.

Umgekehrt muss gelten: Der Spieler muss einfach die Sonderregeln seiner Klasse verwalten, sonst geht der SL unter. Kann eine Power nur auf einem bestimmten Wert des Escalation Die eingesetzt werden? Oder nur bei geraden Würfen? Bei Fehlschlägen? Wo steht der Momentum-Tracker des Diebes gerade? 13th Age kann nur funktionieren, wenn jeder Mitspieler aufmerksam und ehrlich die eigenen Möglichkeiten am Spiel teilzunehmen wahrnimmt.

Preis-/Leistungsverhältnis

Beim Verhältnis Inhalt zu Geld schneidet vor allem der Druck hervorragend ab. Das PDF des Grundregelwerks nicht so sehr, aber auch da konnte man schon mehrfach ein Schnäppchen ergattern.

Spielbericht

Ich hatte 13th Age als Oneshot vorbereitet. Daher habe ich mir die Mühe gemacht, auch vorgefertigte Charaktere („Pregens“) dafür zu erzeugen. Ich habe dann einen Kleriker, einen Dieb, einen Barbaren, eine Zauberin und einen Waldläufer auf Stufe 1 erstellt und diese dann noch mal separat auf Stufe 2 gesteigert. Da das Einsteigerabenteuer aus dem Buch einen dicken Brocken zu enthalten schien, habe ich dann die erfahreneren Abenteurer ausgegeben. Schon beim Erstellen fiel mir auf, dass das Spiel nur dann spielbar sein würde, wenn die Spieler ihre Powers verstehen. Darum habe ich sie in Kurzform jeweils irgendwo auf den vorgefertigten Charakterbogen gepackt – in jede Lücke, die ich nur finden konnte. Bei Stufe 2 platzte der Bogen dann schon aus allen Nähten und war voller Abkürzungen.

13th Age lief auch mit Gelegenheitsspielern als Oneshot flüssig. Gerade dass die Spieler die Regeln vor sich hatten, half am meisten.

Beim Spielen selbst fiel mir auf, dass die Kämpfe sehr mechanisch waren. Der Hauptgegner ist ein bereits verwundeter Drache mit 120 Trefferpunkten, und der stellte für die Gruppe schon auf Stufe 2 nicht wirklich ein Problem dar. Wenn der Kampf erstmal läuft, verwaltet man ihn einfach runter – die Spieler schauen, welche Powers ihnen gerade am nützlichsten erscheinen, und teilen sich ihre Ressourcen ein, und das war's. Das war dann tatsächlich der Eindruck, der bei mir hängen blieb: Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf der Mechanik. Auf höheren Stufen mag sich die Bandbreite an Aktionen erhöhen, aber wenn ich meine d20-Erfahrung vor meinem inneren Auge Revue passieren lasse, dann verbleibt der Kampf in 13th Age in meiner Erinnerung als der mechanischste (D&D4 habe ich nie gespielt). Vielleicht relativiert sich das, wenn die Spieler ihre Regeln verinnerlicht haben.

Erscheinungsbild

Das Design des Buchs ist gut, vor allem die Aufbereitung von Information in Form von Tabellen und Listen funktioniert sehr gut. Fast schon Pelgrane-typisch gibt es zu viel Text pro Seite für meinen Geschmack, die Schrift ist auch etwas klein. Dank des angenehmen Layouts und der Grafiken ist das Buch aber keine solche Textwüste wie so mancher Trail of Cthulhu-Band und hinterlässt einen positiven Gesamteindruck.

13th Age gibt es nun auch auf Deutsch aus dem Hause Uhrwerk Verlag.

Bonus/Downloadcontent

Ob Charakterbogen, Lizenz, Pregens, Spielbericht oder andere Spielhilfen. Ihr findet das alles auf der Pelgrane-Homepage.

Fazit

Um es ganz fair zu sagen: 13th Age ist teils eine sehr mechanische d20-Variante, und daher liegt es mir persönlich eher nicht. Das ist aber Geschmackssache. Wenn man sich von den zu verwaltenden Details nicht abschrecken lässt, findet man hier eine solide Regel-Engine. Da das Spiel auf einen Bodenplan verzichtet, ist die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass ich wieder darauf zurückgreife, dann doch nicht so gering.

Gerade durch die stringente Mechanik kann 13th Age bei den Monstern viele kleine Besonderheiten erzeugen. Ob es nun der Escalation Die ist, gerade oder ungerade Würfe, Hit oder Miss, ein Wurf oberhalb einer Schwelle, variantenreiche Powers – alles das kommt auch bei Monstern zum Einsatz, und wer beim Rollenspiel Wert auf mechanisch detailreiche Kämpfe legt, wird hier definitiv bedient! Gerade die beigefügten Monster machen Lust auf mehr, und das 13th Age Bestiary gibt es ja auch noch.

Mit Ressourcen haushalten, Wurfglück und Monsterplätten waren schon immer Kernanteile von D&D. Variantenreiche Builds wurden ab D&D3 wichtig. All das deckt 13th Age sehr gut ab, und es versucht Stärken von D&D3 und D&D4 mit eigenen Ideen zu verbinden, und das gelingt auch. Mir persönlich liegt D&D5 besser, aber das gab es zu jener Zeit noch nicht, und ist auch nicht für jeden ideal. Und auch einer der größten Unterschiede besteht zu D&D5: Alles skaliert irgendwie in 13th Age – der Modifikator, die Schadenswürfel, die Heilwürfel, der Sprucheffekt ... Es dürfte somit eine der d20-Varianten sein, in der ein neuer Level den größten Unterschied macht.

Konzeptuell macht das System eine etwas wirre Gratwanderung. Einerseits gibt es eine Menge zu verwaltender Mechaniken, andererseits nimmt man es im Zweifel nicht so genau. Der Ratschlag an den SL für die Bestimmung der Modifikatoren bei Würfen? „Don't Sweat Modifiers“ – zerbrich dir nicht den Kopf darüber. Dieser Stilbruch – mal elegant und einfach, mal schwergängig und mechanisch – zieht sich durch das ganze Spiel.

Meine abschließende Meinung ist daher: 13th Age ist ein gutes System, aber irgendwie unrund. Es traut sich letzten Endes überhaupt nicht, leichtgewichtig zu sein. Spieler müssen Einiges verwalten, aber ein exaktes, hartes Regelschwergewicht ist es auch nicht. Eine gute Zusammenfassung der eigenen Charakterfähigkeiten ist Gold wert, und dann läuft es auch am Spieltisch gut.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
13th Age Core Book
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13 True Ways
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/23/2015 03:31:29

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Disclaimer: I received the hardcover of this book for the purposes of an unbiased, critical review, which I hereby provide. This review is based on the 256-page hardcover and not on the pdf –hence, I can’t judge electronic qualities etc. The material herein underwent playtsting for the purposes of this review.

13 True Ways, much like the 13th Age Core-rule-book, is a combination of crunch-book and setting material, though this one is focused slightly more on the setting aspect. I have already discussed in length and depth my stance on just about all rules-decisions of 13th Age in my review of the core book, so this review will NOT focus on those; Instead, I will analyze this book for what it brings to the table and assume you are already familiar and have an opinion on whether you like basic decisions of the system or not.

Without further ado, let’s begin! In my review of the core book, I mentioned that both monk and druid would be in this book and indeed, there was much ado about their absence in the base book. The druid especially is a rather interesting class, mainly, because its design-tenets, more so than the base key-attribute switching in e.g. the bard-class, provides deeper customization options than the core-classes. The class differs in that is chooses whether it gains many abilities at initiate-level or less at adept level, changing just about all base assumptions you may have and allowing for wildly diverging focuses. Animal companions for initiates cannot participate in every combat, which provides a nice source of basic, very limited resource-management, for example. Adepts can still have their companion around all the time. Death for companions is ridiculously lenient – one combat -1 level, then back to full strength, no repercussions. Disarm the trap, Fifi! Sarcasm aside, the plus-side here is that the companions get used more and less carefully. Once again, we’re at a matter of opinions whether this is a bug or a feature. The class itself can be pretty much pictured as a druid with a significant array of archetypes rolled into it – elemental casting, wildshape, terrain casting – all here, with the nod towards the vast Koru Behemoths being one of my favorite crunch/fluff-cross-over glimpses into the fascinating world. The most elegant rules-decision here would be the scout form, which allows the druid to assume the shape of a harmless animal, which, while distinctly unearthly, makes scouting via wildshape less broken – and it also provides pretty easy to grasp repercussions that limit the utility without crippling it. All in all, a very nice and modular class.

Now almost every group has this one player that just loves the rod of wonders – and anything like it. For these players, allegedly, the Chaos Mage was made. With the options to wilder in other spell-lists, defensive high weirdness effects and icon-specific tricks, the chaos mage is an unreliable caster, yes. A fun, unreliable caster. But also one that is not that chaotic – with e.g. less than 50 high weirdness effects, the class falls somewhat short of what I’d expect from the concept -but then again, perhaps I’m just spoiled by having read too many takes on the chaos magic concept. It’s not a bad class, mind you – just a tad bit too predictable for the concept. Commanders are very much physical fighters that can help allies via interrupt actions with the flexible resource of command points. I do enjoy that said resource is tied to their own performance in combat, thus requiring active participation in order to enhance their allies. Tactics would be the second resource, and these would be active and non-interrupt based. All in all, the commander is a solid alternative to e.g. the bard’s capabilities. I’ve read a lot of takes on the trope and this definitely is one of the better ones.

Monks in their 13th Age iteration utilize quite a few of my favorite concepts – they know three types of unarmed attacks with different effects, which I really like, as anyone who has read my review of Little Red Goblin Games’ Dragon Tiger Ox knows. Monks attack with so-called forms – they could be likened to styles, but instead of breaking up a style over various feats, each form sports an opening attack, a flow attack and a finishing attack. Some of you may recall my constant gushing for Dreadfox Games’ Swordmaster with its opener/sequitur/finisher mechanics, so it should come as no surprise that I like this choice – especially since you can switch freely between forms you know, only having to adhere to the opener/flow/finisher-sequence, not the sequence of the respective flow. Basic class features à la flurry of blows (here reimagined as one of the basic Seven Deadly Secrets) and talents further complement this pretty modular class well alongside a nice ki-based resource-management – the monk is one of the most fun melee-centric classes herein, though also one that most suffers from 13th Age’s issues with Acrobatics and skill-use.

Now apart from the druid’s summoning, there is another class herein that requires the use of the concise and pretty conservative summoning rules introduced in the very beginning of the book. That second class would be the Necromancer. And the necromancer is a pretty great example of designs I enjoy within 13th Age – the class has a built-in mechanic for being frail, yet incredibly hard to kill, for having weird and skewed alliances and the spells and minions do support that – one of my favorite crunch-pieces herein! The final new class would be THE Occultist. Yes, THE. As in iconic. As in “there is only one” – and generally, this concept is pretty much awesome – a class all of your own, now if that does not say “epic” from the get-go, what does? The Occultist is very much a caster with a focus on destiny, karma and truly odd options – like The Occultist’s shadow jumping forth to absorb the attacks of foes. Mechanically, the interesting component would be a focus, somewhat akin to what one knows as the psionic focus, which usually is expended upon casting the reality-warping spells of The Occultist. It should be noted, though, that the class does sport options that work only while unfocused. The relative ease with which you can deal psychic damage can also be noted here. On the downside, much like other casters, there is not that much to choose from regarding spells…and the class, while sporting some of the most awesome spells I’ve seen in 13th Age, does feel like its mechanics do not necessarily require it to be THE ONE. While easily remedied, this would be an example where the seemingly implied importance of being the one occultist is subsumed under the need for balance…and for once, ladies and gentlemen, mark this on your calendar, I would have loved the class to be less balanced. Yeah, bet you that you never thought I’d say, right?

Now after these new classes, we delve into the multiclassing rules. These essentially treat multiclassing not as advancement in two distinct classes, but rather as an amalgam, at least at 1st level. The general rules do allow for later multiclassing, but if you do use that, the generally pretty streamlined options tend to become a bit messy and work. That being said, a handy table of key ability-modifier interaction and class-by-class multiclassing advice that also sports new feats to help mitigate the implied power-loss. Now I do get why 13th Age utilizes this approach to multiclassing as opposed to the “take a level here, take a level there”-approach – the base system, with its HP-calculations etc. simply would not work with the stacking web of crunch that is the base assumption of 13th Age character advancement. Still, this did feel somewhat like a return to 2nd edition multiclass characters, which may or may not be to your liking. Rest assured, though, that this analogue only extends to the concept and the dreaded efficiency-loss in said classic edition has not found its way into 13th Age – multiclassing does not cripple the character and very much renders the character much more flexible.

This concludes the crunchy bits of the book – and over all, they are more varied and imho, cooler than the options provided in the core book – I know that quite a few of players tended to concur. The crunch herein is more varied and fun and should be considered a must-own supplement for that alone – on the level of e.g. the APG. That is – a must-own book for any 13th Age table.

But that is NOT where this book ends. Instead, we delve into the chapter on cities and courts – from Axis to the Elven Queen’s Court of Stars to the Three’s Drakkenhall and The Archmage’s Horizon or the Priestess’s Santa Cora, the chapter can be considered as an inspired gazetteer for these centers of power – with massive two-page spread artworks/maps, various iconic relationships and 13 rumors for most (though e.g. not for Santa Cora), these provide inspiring glimpses at a world that should have its own, massive, rules-agnostic setting-book, mainly because they manage to evoke beautiful imagery and inspired ideas in my mind.

The book also does sport a massive section of new monsters – which includes dire animals and quite an assortment of deadly adversaries. Among them, there are quite a few that stand out – for example the illithid-inspired soul flensers or the class of flowers of unlife, which managed to really creep me out – so yeah, neat chapter, though once again, only a specific array of creatures receive full-color artworks – those that do receive artworks, though, rock. This chapter also ties in with hands down my favorite chapter in the whole book, one I maintain that can be of extreme use even to games that do not use 13th Age rules – the chapter on a beloved creature type conspicuously absent from the original book – devils.

Now the chapter on devils is not simply a lame assortment of traits, feats etc. – instead, we essentially receive whole hierarchies and original stories for devils – each of which can easily carry a whole campaign…or more. Know what’s even better? Each is thematically tied to one of the iconics – whether the devils are the agents of the cosmic machinery, loathe the elf queen’s beauty, have been freed by the Dwarf King – each take on devils can essentially be considered its own glorious origin myth, an inspiring mini-ecology that breathes the very awesomeness that good fluff can evoke. Reading this chapter made me come up with so many ideas, it is absolutely stunning and once again validates my claim that we need more fluff for this cool world – especially if the fluff can maintain this specific peculiarity while not becoming prescriptive.

After the downright glorious reading experience of the former chapter, we dive into the GM’s chapter, wherein artifacts like the feathered crown or the First Wrought of Blood await – and yes, they increase in potency with tiers. Beyond these, the DM also receives e.g. 13 flying realms, 13 taverns and inns, 13 dungeons and ruins etc. – though all of these tend to come as a pretty short fluff-only blurb, so expect a short inspiring hook here rather than a fully-depicted adventure locale. There also are guidelines for magic item creation by chakra and 3 fluff-only monastic tournaments (just as brief) follow up.

On the completely opposite side, detail-wise, 4 characters are provided in lavish detail with extensive background stories and 13 hooks (!!) EACH as well as guideline for diverging uses of the characters as allies or antagonists. But that is not where the book ends- instead, we get what amounts to two campaign seeds, each with various extremely evocative suggestions that should be considered downright inspiring: One deals with the advent of the underkrakens, burrowing/planar shifting mountain-sized krakens that invade – perhaps as living dungeons or siege weapons, perhaps as the instrument of destruction engineered by the dread soul flensers. The second is no less inspired, focusing on an inverted, flying ziggurat spawning nigh-unkillable undead/mutated flowers of utter corruption. Yeah. Awesome. I wish that one were a mega-adventure with fully detailed maps etc.

Beyond this high note, we also get an index/glossary.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful, easy to read two-column full color standard. The artworks are gorgeous and the book per se comes with high-quality, glossy paper.

Rob Heinsoo, Jonathan Tweet and Robin D. Laws have created what amounts to the absolutely required APG of 13th Age – beyond the inspired classes, which indeed can be considered superior in the playing experience, not in power, to the core classes, it is the second half of the book that just made my day. The fluff, the inspired ideas herein, even beyond the mechanical rules, must be considered absolutely top-notch and inspired – and they constitute the one gripe I have with this book – I wish it were two distinct books, one for crunch and one for fluff.

The NPCs herein show a glimpse of the awesomeness that can be made with this setting and quite frankly, while reading just about any section, I was left wanting more – I wanted the full-blown underkraken campaign; I wanted a fully mapped Drakkenhall, with all details. I wanted Santa Cora in all its details, with hundreds of festivals and taboos. The material herein managed to do what the fluff in the core-book failed to achieve – thoroughly captivate my imagination. While my criticisms still remain, this is exactly what 13th Age needs to prosper – a detailed, awesome, evocative world that is tailor-made to support the high-fantasy, high-impact playstyle suggested by 13th Age’s rules.

So yes, this is an inspired book that provided quite an array of cool ideas I will most definitely use, including using one of the devil myths in my current campaign. For 13th Age-groups, this is a glorious supplement, a must-have purchase and even if you only are remotely interested in the world or the concepts I mentioned, this may very well be worth it for the idea-scavenging alone. I really wished it were two books, with more support for each class and the core classes in one, more fluff/campaign setting info – but that remains my only true gripe with this book. If you like the system, you need to have it – it one-ups the core book with imho more interesting classes and glorious fluff. It won’t convert you if you don’t like the system, but even f you loathe it, you may still draw tons of inspiration from these pages. My final verdict will hence clock in at a full 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
13 True Ways
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13th Age Core Book
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/15/2015 04:23:17

An Endzeitgeist.com review

Disclaimer: I received the hardcover for 13th Age for the purposes of writing an unbiased, critical review. This following review reflects my endeavor to do so. The review is based on the hardcover of the 320 page book – I do not own the Pdf, so I can’t comment on that format. In order to review this book, I have playtested this system, though I did so with the expansion 13 True Ways as well – when appropriate, I will comment on that and yes, said book’s review is coming soon as well.

Without further ado – this is a d20-based system and as such, you will see a lot of familiar AND unfamiliar ground. The basics of a character are the 6 attributes we all know and their modifiers are still calculated by subtracting 10 and then dividing the resulting number by 2. The similarities continue with the action types – standard and move actions, free actions – those retain their nomenclature. Quick actions correspond to swift actions and certain classes can use 1 interrupt action per round, even when it’s not their turn – a better nomenclature and more streamlined take for immediate actions, essentially. Action substitution is more transparent than in comparable systems – standard actions can be downgraded to move/quick actions etc. We basically have free downgrading substitution as a design principle regarding action economy. So far, so similar, right? Well, this is about the time the similarities end.

First of all, levels are grouped in 10s, not 20s (or 30s). The levels have a somewhat unnecessary-seeming tier-nomenclature sticking to them as a 4th edition remnant, with champion-tier occupying levels 5-7, epic tier constituting levels 8 -10 and adventurer-tier spanning the lower levels. Tiers are used essentially as a base-line for the upgrading of e.g. feats, racial powers etc. – in higher tiers, the benefits become more pronounced. I wrote “seeming” here, since the tier essentially acts a prerequisite, but more on that later.

Levels are gained as per the requirements of the story, not as per XP, and as a party – whether this is according to your tastes depends on your group, but personally, I enjoy the move away from XP-values – the CR/etc.-systems never worked well in the first place, anyways, so kudos! On the basic mechanics, we receive fixed HP-values, which are modified by con-mod and then multiplied by a fixed value. The base HP-value etc. is governed by the class you belong to. This has two consequences – One, you do not have unlucky (or lucky!) PCs with fewer (or more!) HP than their companions. Two: You pretty much can guess a level and the average toughness of an adversary, since there is no basic variation in the base HP – whether you like or dislike this pretty much boils down to a matter of taste and preference. On the one hand, it does provide a more mathematically secure base-line for balancing, on the other, it makes things a tad more predictable and potentially, a bit more boring.

Races cover the default races we know and expect from a d20-based game, but also provide unconventional races à la aasimar, tiefling, drow, etc. – each race is characterized by a choice of one of 2 attribute bonuses (or more) of +2 and a racial power, which can be used once per battle. The racial powers themselves are pretty unique and drive home the flair of the races. Here, I go on a little tangent – one design decision that is not per se bad, but which I intensely loathe is the concept of ANY power/ability/spell per battle. Since battles constitute a non-defined time-frame, the system demands to be gamed - “Quick, kill the kobold before reinforcements arrive!” I’ve been vocal and ranty about this in the past and I still stand behind this –for me, this breaks immersion in a nasty way, though the issue in 13th Age is less pronounced than in any comparable game, to the point where I consider it tolerable...NOT good - for me as a person, this is a jarring and constant thorn in my side and makes me cringe, but as a reviewer, it's not that bad. Why? Well, for once, the whole system is streamlined more towards constant performance and away from bleeding resources dry. Abilities tend to be grouped in at-will, once/combat and once/day and thus, resource-management à la 3.X or PFRPG is severely de-emphasized.

This is also reflected in two design-decisions – one, there are healing surges, here called recovery. While based on your level and class (thus ranging from d6 to d10), they are limited. You usually begin with 8 recoveries and can execute a so-called rally as a standard action – this allows the character to rally his/her reserves and receive the recovery/healing. On an 11+, the character can rally again in that combat. Oh yeah, haven’t mentioned that before – quite a few limited abilities can be executed more often per battle if luck is on the player’s side. The save required for tasks like this is an unmodified d20. While this makes battles more dynamic, it also provides an avenue for lady luck that is pretty hefty. The strategic decisions and action gained from this should not be underestimated – each recovery can literally be your last. If you’re like me and belong into the camp of people who do NOT consider hit points a representation of fighting spirit, the book does suggest as an alternative to drop recovery/rallies – and yes, this is theoretically possible, but only theoretically. Why? Because healing potions and numerous other mechanics also tap into recoveries as a resource and influence it. In my games, though, experimenting with stripping rally/recoveries away did provide somewhat of an issue – but I’ll get back to that.

Before I went on the recovery-tangent, I mentioned two factors that make the per-battle-mechanics imho work slightly better – the second one would be “healing up” – separated from the traditional 8 hours of rest, recovery of most class-related tricks is no longer tied to a fixed time-frame, but rather to the DM’s judgment. While the suggested array of combats before leveling and healing up respectively felt pretty paltry to me, no one stops the DM from making the game more difficult. I absolutely applaud this countermeasure against the 4.5-encounter/8-minute adventuring-day, but I wished the book had been a tad bit more precise in the base guidelines of when to allow for healing up for groups with different capabilities, if only to avoid conflicting expectations between the DM and players. Not a bad thing, mind you – just a nitpick.

Now where there’s healing, there are defenses – three, in this case. Beyond AC, we also receive MD and PD – mental and physical defense. Each class has a value for these, modified by one value – the AC-modifier, PD modifier and MD modifier, respectively. To determine these, you take a look at 3 of your attributes (Con, Dex and Wis for AC, for example) and ignore the highest and lowest of the three attribute modifiers – the middle one, you add to the value. The values increase by +1 every level. Initiative is still governed only by Dex and also receives further bonuses with the levels gained. I really like this concise and easy-to-grasp distinction between different defenses. Especially, since the stacking system is pretty much a no-brainer in its simplicity.

What do I mean by that? Well, essentially, only the highest bonus applies. Same goes for negative conditions. Worst one supersedes other penalties. Ongoing damage stacks – you can burn a little or burn much, be poisoned a little or be poisoned like crazy – these components should elicit grins from every DM who had to witness high-level PCs actually creating full-blown buff-suites (with crazy performance-increases) to speed up game-play – my last 3.X-campaign before switching to PFRPG had one particular insane one that required a spread-sheet. Now while my players love this kind of complexity and engine-tinkering, the simplicity and elegance of the mechanics herein deserve accolades and are absolutely something I wholeheartedly endorse, especially for groups that derive no joy from engine-mastery.

A elegant similar simplicity also can be applied to the damage-types, which cover elemental damage types, negative energy, etc. Resistance and vulnerability also work differently – vulnerability renders the target more prone to being crited, whereas resistance equals half damage, unless the natural d20 roll was higher than e.g. 12+ or even 18+. So yeah, elegant simplicity here as well, not much chances to use tricks and scale up elemental nigh invulnerabilities – which is both a blessing for some and a curse for others. This brings me to the notion of damage as such – weapon damage, for example, has no descriptor – the system does not differentiate between the damage caused by a massive hammer or by an arrow. Whether you like that or not, once again, is up to your personal tastes - I get the rationale, but I really dislike it as a person. Damage calculation is pretty simple and one of the reasons martials and casters are pretty balanced in 13th Age. Damage rolls add an ability modifier and usually see a multiplication – the base weapon damage is multiplied at higher levels. A 1st level fighter wielding a longsword may e.g. deal 1d8 + Str-mod. However, a 4th level fighter would instead deal 4d8+ Str-mod damage with the same weapon. The modifiers are also increased – upon reaching champion-tier, the characters add twice the modifier, thrice upon reaching epic tier. It should be noted that the progression of e.g. weapon-damage is very much class-specific and even weapon damage dice and properties lose some importance – you require less capability/rules-oomph from the weapon if most comes from your PC anyway. The awesome result of this would be a de-emphasis on equipment and a diminished Christmas-tree-syndrome - two thumbs up for that!

Another design-tenet that is reflected and deserves accolades in my book is the notion of “failing forward” – while this is mirrored in how quite a few mechanics are run and in the assumptions regarding the reactions of the DM, one can see it particularly well with melee miss damage. Whereas ranged attacks tend to just miss, melee attacks can deal damage in spite of missing – though considerably less. This can be considered a rather interesting way of balancing the two against another – the increased risk of melee is balanced against a more reliable damage output. Where’s damage, there is bound to be death and indeed, death exists in 13th Age, though only in the most subdued of notions – for one, 7th Sea’s rule of death-only-by-named-NPCs is suggested. (And yes, I uttered an “URGH” while reading that…)

You’re down at 0 Hp, you die upon reaching negative HP equal to half maximum HP. When down, you make death saves (16+) to use recoveries – however, upon the 4th failed death save in a single battle, you die. While the playtest did show that this remains a distinct possibility, it also provides quite a few chances to cheat the reaper. Save-or-suck abilities also offer ONE 16+ save to avoid becoming helpless – upon failing that, a character is restricted to making more of these saves and once again, 4 failed saves mean that whatever unfortunate condition befell you, now hits full force – whether that be paralysis, petrification etc. On the one hand, this does mean that save-or-suck is less of an issue, since statistically, you ought to make one of those saves. On the other hand, this makes abilities like that pretty much less frightening, the game less dangerous. Whether one enjoys this or not, ultimately is up to the respective group, though tinkering with this system is pretty easy and less saves etc. for a more lethal game can easily be implemented. A popular low level save-or-suck-trick, fear, is now based on the hp of the target to be frightened – which makes sense to me. Speaking of “making sense to me” – resurrection and death are things NOT to be trifled with. Each character capable of the feat can resurrect exactly 5 times, with progressively worse repercussions for the caster and the target and final death for the caster looming beyond he last cast. This renders death meaningful and makes casters of that particular miracle a much-sought commodity- story-threads and narrative potential abound. I love it!

Over all, the total impression, which proved to be true, is that combat with this system is somewhat more predictable than with similar d20-based systems – which, of course makes balancing easier. Another rule that rigs the game in favor of the PCs would be the escalation die – in the second round of combat, the die is turned to the 1 – and all PCs receive +1 to attack rolls. This increases by +1 every round, up to +6. Monsters usually do not utilize the escalation die and special attacks and circumstances may decrease the die. Other abilities require a minimum number on the escalation die, while certain spells and effects require an even number on it. Why is the escalation die important? Well, because an attack is executed via d20+level+ability bonus+ magic item. And remember, only 10 levels. This means that either magic item bonuses become exceedingly important, or that AC/PD/MD cap at pretty low levels. And indeed – Balors clock in at AC 29, Red Dragons at 28, with the latter also sporting an MD of 23 and a PD of 27. Notice something? You don’t have to be a genius to realize that hitting these guys is not that hard, even sans the escalation die.

What does this mean? Well, much like comparable d20-based systems, we have an emphasis on relatively short, burst-like battles – attack capacity usually outclasses defensive capacity. Before I forget that later, I feel obliged to mention another factoid that DMs might want to be aware of – the way monsters work. Much like in the CR-system, we are provided with a mechanic to judge how to balance encounters, but this time around, the monster type influences how that works. No, I’m not talking about their race, but rather a grouping into e.g. mooks etc. - not a fan of that, but again, a personal preference, nothing I’d fault the game for. The damage monsters deal is not a regular throw of the dice – rather than that, they deal fixed values of damage with attacks and abilities. This cruise-control DMing considerably speeds up gameplay, yes. On the other hand, much like in other current systems, I was missing something as a DM. I enjoy the elation of the dice, the dread of players seeing me lift a hand full of dice to represent a dragon’s breath about to hit them. I’m aware that my insistence on rolling for monsters slows the game, but it is also a significant source of joy (and excitement) for me and to a lesser extent, my players. 13th Age streamlines that away and makes running the encounters faster, and in my opinion, significantly less exciting for the DM and also more predictable. And yeah, some monsters receive additional attacks/tricks based on the number you rolled on hits and misses – don't get me wrong, there is excitement to be had here as well. But personally, running the combats on the DM’s side felt less exciting to me. But also significantly faster. Which you prefer, once again, boils down to a matter of taste.

A remnant of 4th edition I particularly LOATHED was the bloodied condition – which now also exists as the staggered condition. However, like many other components I do not enjoy that much from the design elements of 4th edition, it has been improved - it is now subservient to the needs of the story. We no longer have a fixed, semi-arbitrarily defined value, but rather a general recommendation on when to consider a creature staggered. There is one particular notion I did really enjoy and feel I should emphasize– the “nastier” specials. These can be considered optional tricks for the monsters to unleash upon the PCs; they are additional, more lethal signature abilities. They are great. First, they let you easily set elites apart. Secondly, they help setting creatures further apart from another by providing signature tricks. And third, much like applying mythic rules to your bosses, they can be considered a kind of “hard(er) mode” for the monsters, one you can tackle on the fly. Nice! While not all creatures receive nastier-tricks, the very notion is something near and dear to me.

I’ve often mentioned the words “4th edition” in this review and for a reason. My intense dislike for 4th edition is no secret. I hate just about all of its design-decisions. However, surprisingly, I found myself almost unanimously less (or not at all!) annoyed by 13th Age’s adaptations of these concepts, mainly due to the changed focus towards a roleplaying game, away from the miniature focus. This is particularly well-represented in what may be one of things I love most about this book. Combat, distances etc. are no longer tier to a particular grid, a particular range, but rather handled in an abstract relation from one another, which still provides concise terminology for what amounts to AoOs, engagement etc. – essentially, you do not need a battlemap for this game and it dauntingly, courageously ignores the tendency for miniature-style tactical movement etc. While, in the long run, this does reduce the amount of options and tactics one can employ, it is also a step towards a focus that is more centered on the narrative potential of a storyline. Even if you do not like the overall of 13th Age-rules, this particular section can easily be pilfered for just about any d20-game. I know I’ll be prone to use it when I don’t have the time to draw complex arenas spanning multiple battlemaps… So yeah, triumphant and damn cool, especially if you do not like the complex AoO/melee/(dis-) engagement rules of similar d20-based systems.

The skill-system, on the other hand, is the ONE component where I absolutely and positively LOATHE 13th Age and can’t bring myself to saying anything positive about it– you receive 8 points upon character generation and more can be gained by certain classes. You assign these points towards backgrounds (like “Imperial Assassin”, “Cat Burglar”, etc.) and roll d20+attribute+ranks versus the environmental DC required, while explaining how your training in xyz helped you with that. URGH. First, there is not much growth potential here. Secondly, this smells of FATE’s issues. Don’t get me wrong, I like highly narrative rules that put an emphasis on collective story-telling, where backgrounds and capabilities aren’t carved in stone – I adore Lords of Gossamer and Shadow, for example. However, whenever an RPG-system essentially tells me that a whole, central mechanic is based on BSing the DM in how a particular, phrased (as ambiguous as possible) background/character trait/whatever applies to a given situation, I’m prone to rage-quitting. This already applies in tighter skill systems – this one is BASED on it. And yes, I know the counter-arguments and the samples make it look enticing. In practice, it sooner or later boils down to “Can I BS the DM?” vs. “Should I let the players BS me like this?” – and that is not good game-design in my book. You are, of course, free to have an opposing opinion, but this is pretty much the reason I don't like FATE and I hate its implementation on a smaller scale herein as well. (As a footnote, the further de-emphasis on languages etc., while still represented in the rules, also kind of rubs me the wrong way, but that pales before aforementioned issue.) So yeah, I really, really dislike the skill-"system". To the point where it is the one component of the whole system I just can't get myself to draw any kind of fun from. The one positive thing I can say about the skill system is that its default assumption is that a failure can have negative repercussions, while still yielding results – nowhere near as sophisticated as in the GUMSHOE-system, of course, but still. Here, the design-tenet of forward failure somewhat works.

Feats have also been streamlined in a rather interesting way – you’ll only find a hand full of general feats – the majority is class-specific. Furthermore, there’s a feat every level…and the prerequisites boil down to class + tier and the d’unh-level pereq that you need to have a particular talent/power to modify it with a feat. Champion tier feats require champion level, epic tier feats epic levels. One feat is gained per level. Simple, concise, no dead levels. A handy table lists the feats and class feats can be found in the entry of the class – simple and elegant…though future expansions should be weary of retaining this ordered structure to avoid the feat-look-up-halt. The feats themselves provide a pretty awesome simplicity that is rather elegant – take reach trick. If you wield a weapon with reach, you can make a reach stunt, with a save of 6+. That’s it. Halberd for pole-jumping? Swiping foes off their feat? Impaling foes? One mechanic, easily modified by the DM. Depending on your own preferences, this design may elicit screams of joy or groans, especially if, as a DM, you’re not confident with complex rules-decisions. While this streamlines the rules required, it also places a burden on the DM to remember past judgments regarding stunts for fairness' sake. As much as I hate the skill-system, the feats per se and how they’re gained feels pretty nice and fluid to me – in game, the constant progression ensured that each level felt sufficiently different.

Now speaking of classes – usually, I’d give you a break-down of how each class works. However, in the case of this particular review, that would bloat it even more, so in order to maintain at least a semblance of cohesion, I’ll only be touching upon certain things. First – yes, all the classes you’d expect can be found herein, with the exception of monk and druid, which can be found in the imho required 13 True Ways-expansion. Speaking of which – said expansion also revises/expands the slightly problematic base animal companion rules provided herein, so rangers in particular should definitely check out the druid-entry in said book. I’d encourage DMs to apply the limitations and clarifications introduced therein for the ranger as well. Retraining class components is an option that is generally pretty easy to accomplish via these rules. Base Hp range from 6 – 8, base AC from 10 -16 and base physical and mental defense range from 10 – 12. Recovery dice, as mentioned before, range from d6 –d10 per level. The classes themselves require different levels of player-skill, mainly since they play radically different, but overall, none of them should overexert any veteran of 3.X, PFRPG or similar, complex systems. It should also be noted that classes also entail attribute bonuses and e.g. selecting whether melee is governed by Str or Dex and similar choices all have been streamlined into the classes themselves.

Now where the classes, much like those of 4th edition, succeed admirably, is with the general balancing among themselves – not only do they play differently, they do sport numerous, different mechanics – rogues, for example, require a resource called momentum, which they build up and expend over the course of combat. Said resource rewards movement, tactical, surgical strikes etc. – and just is fun. Alas, there is a downside to this balancing, namely that the classes, on their own, do not sport that many choices – talents and the like are anything but copious and you’ll soon stumble across yet another member of class xyz that has exactly the same tricks up his/her sleeve. I may be spoiled by PFRPG, but that rubs me the wrong way and is another reason I'd wholeheartedly endorse you getting as many expansions as possible. Still, once again, while this is a flaw for me, for you it could be a feature.

There are some class features I’m not a fan of – the sorcerer, for example, can spend actions to gather power for minor buffs, unleashing the full spell slower, but more powerful later. This feels to MMORPG-y to me. The ability acknowledges that, apart from the situations where you need a quick spell, it almost universally means that gathering power (and being bored) for one round is the smarter decision. The book flat out states this, but tries to mitigate it via aforementioned argument – which is not valid in my book. When essentially doing nothing/ damage on a level that can be neglected to staggered foes only constitutes a smart move for a class, the goal of “doing something cool/useful/etc.” is not reached. My players got immensely frustrated with the mechanic. On the other side, the wizard-class has one damn stroke of sheer genius – Vance’s polysyllabic verbalizations. Step 1: Invent unique, verbose names for your spells. Step 2: Slightly prolong casting time and proudly declare your magic’s name. Step 3: The spell happens with a non-defined, circumstantial, unpredictable new effect determined by you and the DM. This is an utterly awesome narrative idea and perhaps the coolest rendition of the concept of Spell Thematics I’ve seen so far (in any system that’s not Ars Magica) – and I’m SO stealing it for my games! The relatively easy to grasp and concise magic item rules that do not succumb to the Christmas tree syndrome and does sport suggestions and rules for magic item-death/destruction should also be considered one of the definite plusses of the system.

That being said, if you expect hundreds of pages of spells and choices upon choices, I’ll have to disappoint you – the classes and spell-lists are just as restrictive as the choices of talents. Personally, I also am not a big fan of magic’s neutering in the name of balance – for short durations and the export of longer powers to the wibbly-wobbly concept of out-of-combat rituals make magic feel NOT like the force of unbridled creativity, but rather like a narrowly codified field – again, much like one can see in MMORPGs - which is odd, considering how stunts and cool martial arts-tricks have been so widely opened.

Which brings me to the example, where the at times slightly schizoid duality of 13th Age’s rules becomes readily apparent. And no, I’m not talking about the opinionated differences between the authors and the constant addressing of the reader via them. On the one hand, 13th Age very much enforces the idea of story-telling, of creativity trumping rules. Of easier and streamlined gameplay. And it succeeds in that regard. At the same time, though, stunts with weapons and acrobatics and the like remain relatively ill-defined and leave you hanging in the air without much clues. Similarly, it neuters magic down to a power-source, which, in the narrative frame, can do just about anything – unless it’s in the hands of any character/actual gameplay, when it suddenly adheres to the restrictive array provided for the respective classes.

In no other component is this duality as pronounced as in the Icons. The Icons represent both a central mechanic and a unique selling point of the implicit setting. Instead of named divinities or movers and shakers like Tar-Baphon, Strahd or Elminster, we have these titles – the icons represent essentially very dualistic demigod-level movers and shakers, which keep the world in a kind of equilibrium. Liked Dancer from the Malazan Book of the Fallen? Well, there’s The Prince of Shadows for you. There is The Lich-King. The Diabolist. The Dwarf-King. The Queen of Elves. The Priestess. You get the idea. These all but archetypical beings govern pretty much the fate of the world and your PCs receive relationship points with them. These points represent a dice each and are rolled at the beginning of a session or its end, influencing what happens in a positive way on a 6 on a d6, in one that has a downside on a 5. This requires some serious improvisation-skills on parts of the DM, but also ties the players to the world and its powerful beings – perhaps via the one unique thing you chose at character creation that sets you apart. (A good idea, imho, though the examples partially had me cringe…)

So what’s my beef with these archetypes (term used in the traditional, non-3.X/PFRPG-way)? Generally, I love their concepts – the Archmage that tries to domesticate the nature of the WORLD with magic and his weather-control-towers, arcano-science par excellence, versus e.g. the High Druid's rise of the wild and savage - that can make for great narrative twists. The way in which they influence the setting can also be considered genius: How cool is the notion of an entire OCEAN being mad at anything remotely resembling civilization? What about the rather nasty Crusader, who seeks to close hellholes and erect strongholds there – everyone is glad he battles the demonic incursions and prays he doesn’t turn his ambition elsewhere. These icons are firmly tied in with the world – which makes transporting them to another setting problematic. Furthermore, they at once want to facilitate story-telling by being opaque, while also having pretty clear agendas – and I get why. But, even when taking the setting-information( with its partially downright inspired world-building) into account, they, as characters, remain bland cardboard cutouts. They are tropes. The empire, whose health reflects the emperor? Warhammer 40K minus grit, anyone?

As much as I loved the small tidbits interspersed through the setting-information, the icons left me terribly bored. They don’t know whether they want to be story-facilitators or actual characters. No names, no history, no tradition. This, to my knowledge, ought to be the rule-book with a short gazetteer on the implied word, but the interconnections between the fluff and crunch here can provide a significant detriment towards the storytelling should choose to not utilize the default setting. What if I wanted to use 13th Age-rules with Dark Sun? Ravenloft? Midgard? Golarion? I’d have to find substitutes, refurbish them and, bafflingly, there is no advice for that here.

The setting, the world, does sport several glorious tidbits – like dwarven coins being stackable and quadratic and similar absolutely awesome ideas that had me grin from ear to ear. At the same time, box upon box tells me that xyz (for example, issues with language interaction) is not fun or can be neglected. And quite often, at least in the fluff-department, I caught myself thinking “NO, that is NOT something that can be neglected!”. You may not mind, I did. This does not make the book bad, but it also points towards one thing I’ll further elaborate in the conclusion.

The book does feature an excellent glossary and index and a starter module – and said module is by far, no matter where you stand on each individual rules-decision, the weakest part of the book.

SPOILERS

PCs arrive at Archmage’s control tower (not mapped), interact with people (no read-aloud boxes), go forth, kill a bunch of goblins, find a massacre, realize there’s a traitor in the tower, get back and KILL A WOUNDED DRAGON. At level 1. Urgh. I’m aware that this is a personal gripe, but I hate, hate, hate level 1-dragonkilling. Even if the dragon is wounded. It just feels terribly wrong to me and takes away what should be a climactic moment and waters it down. "Oh yeah, dragon killing? Pf, did that at first level..." Traitor may or may not escape. That’s it. Nigh no meaningful choices to be made, no cool twist, interesting combat-influences or fluxes and it contributes to the disposable dragon syndrome. Boring and bland – apart from the backdrop of the tower, nothing good here. My players were terribly bored with this as well.

/SPOILERS

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the book comes on nice, glossy paper with great artworks. Alas, the monsters in the monster-section do not receive fluff or proper visual representations apart from some glyph-like representations and a couple of mugshots for demons. The organization of the rules is pretty concise and the cartography is glorious.

Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet are both talented designers that have created a highly functional game here. 13th Age is imho the game 4th edition tried to be and superior to it. However, at least in my opinion, it is not the end-all super-system it’s hyped up to be. Beyond personal preferences, the system as such suffers from the issues with its adaptability and versatility, at least in direct comparison. In 3.X or PFRPG I can easily rip bits and pieces out of context, scavenge parts. In 13th Age, this is significantly harder and while it generates the impression that it is as customizable, it’s not. The book behaves as if taking away recoveries were a valid choice, when playtest pretty much showed that this is not the case – these is too much highly likely/unavoidable damage to take the component out and the numerous connections make scavenging hard – which becomes problematic with the icons. Yes, they can be extracted, changed, etc., but if you take their impact on the world away, you have to change their agendas and the same goes for the establishment of new icons. And this reflects the rules-aesthetic of a lot of rules herein. Change one part, change a lot.

The icons also have another impact – they, along the shorter level-progression, point you towards a particular playstyle. One with significant consequences from the get-go. While I’m not saying that this is bad, I can’t really picture the rules of 13th Age properly supporting more subdued gameplay, darker and grittier narratives or truly long campaigns or ones that take the PCs from sucker to super-hero. The quicker escalation of character development via relationship rules, fast level-up suggestions etc. all point towards the system being geared primarily for short, intense and distinctly high-magic campaigns. That’s not bad, mind you – the system does its own style of campaign very well. But in other contexts, it is not that smooth.

What do I mean by this? I’m going to say something that contradicts just about every review of 13th Age I’ve read: I think this system is simple.

It is not an “advanced” system – it is very easy to grasp and, had the rule-book included a tighter introduction for new players, more basic explanations for concepts, I’d praise this as a great beginner’s d20-RPG. It is really a pretty simple game, as far as anything d20-based is concerned.

The rules are easy, the math simple, there is not much to be overwhelmed by. The danger the PCs face is subdued as well – I’ve scarcely seen a d20-game with some many failsafes that ensure a precious PC doesn’t bite the dust, in spite of the limit on resurrection. This is a very player-friendly RPG – if CoC is Dark Souls, 13th Age is more like WoW. This is NOT meant as a barb, but rather as an observation. If impending doom, omnipresent threats, old-school level gameplay, harsh, unrelenting difficulty and overcoming the odds is what you’re looking for, then 13th Age may not be for you – this game is pretty much rigged in favor of your PCs. If you want a vast plethora of selections at your disposal, significant variety within each class and rewards for optimization, then there are better systems out there - though that changes with the addition of more supplements.

13th Age excels in its chosen field, though – for short-burst, combat-centric high-fantasy campaigns in the very much captivating setting with its neat ideas, it provided more fun in my playtests than 4th edition ever accomplished. Research et al. is something better left to GUMSHOE, as are most skill-based interactions, so yes, the central issue of the rules is and remains the implied playstyle the book enforces. The step towards a narrative focus is great, but it is kept from reaching its full realization by aforementioned choices of, paradoxically, not emphasizing the rules required for complex non-combat scenarios.

Now, I feel obliged to mention one more bit – this book is interspersed with designer’s comments and suggestions. More often than not, they oscillate between extremes and I do like the option for every DM to choose from a design philosophy/opinion and adhere to it. However, at least partially, I considered these segments (said, often casual, voice(s) also can be found in the rules-text where they do not belong) belittling and sometimes, grating. Most of the time, I didn’t mind, but one of my players was extremely annoyed by this tendency to the point where he (usually one of my rules-savvy guys who truly enjoys reading the rules) told the table to give him the quick run-down, since it annoyed him to the extent where he didn’t want to read on. One man’s bug is another man’s feature, I guess. Personally, I would have enjoyed less opinion, more options here - and especially, less judging. What one person may not consider fun, another does and I honestly was annoyed at some boxes stating that some fixtures in my tables were "not fun."

In the end, 13th Age is a very player-friendly roleplaying game with some hints of greatness and cool ideas, but also one that is bound to polarize. Would I exchange PFRPG’s complexity and class-power-asymmetry for 13th Age’s quick and streamlined cruise-control DMing and balance? No. Because I like a lot of the things this book changes and dismisses as “not fun”– I like fragile first level PCs and casters. I like extremely complex high-level encounters. I like rolling monster-dice. I prefer my movers and shakers named and well-defined, my skills set in stone. I love optimization-tricks, a nigh-infinite array of options for each character. The bugs this book eliminates, in one sentence, are, alas, often my features, the things I look for in a roleplaying game. Now, before you loyal 13th Age fans out there get the pitchforks ready – I still consider this a good and more importantly, FUN, game and one that does A LOT right -from the quick engagement rules to the balancing of martials and ranged vs. melee, this has a plethora of cool food for thought for any DM of a d20-based system, whether one elects to use 13th Age as a system or not. While, as a person, it hits many of the notes of game-design I do NOT necessarily look for (I love e.g. Dark Souls, dislike just about every “easy” RPG, including MMORPGs), as a reviewer and aesthete, I really could appreciate the streamlined elegance of a lot of the choices that went into this system and for certain types of games, I will use this.

Furthermore, let me make that very explicit, there are quiet a bunch of rules I love and will scavenge and retool for my own games and as a system; for what it tries to do, 13th Age tends to succeed at. Had this been 4th edition, I probably wouldn’t have looked for PFRPG in the first place. Its elegance, streamlined and fast gameplay, the very undemanding, easy, low-preparation DMing, the concise rules – all that are signs of a good game and you may very well consider that fixed HP-values, less fluctuations in power and no-damage-rolling on the DM’s side glorious and I get why. This game system is a good system. It just isn’t as versatile as I prefer it to be and not 100% made for the playstyle I prefer.

Still, I will, once in a while, crank out this system and use it. But I can’t consider this book, as a stand-alone publication, more than good, can’t bring myself to consider it great. There are too many things I can’t do with the basic rules, there is not enough variety within the base classes and magic to keep my interest long-term without significant expansion. Note that all of this pertains to the Core-book as an isolated entity - I do not compare this to an established system with x books, but only to the variety it offers as a stand-alone book when compared to similar systems.

One more thing some reviewers have observed, would be a so-called HP-bloat. This is bogus. Since the damage PCs inflict scales up quite massively (and more reliably than in 3.X and PFRPG), my own playtest experience was that most combats did not pass the 3rd or 4th round. I only reached the 6th round once in the playtests I ran (with a rigged encounter specifically designed to last long) and my math supports this impression. So in that regard, 13th Age is absolved in my book. Indeed, in my experience, monsters tended to fall pretty swiftly to the PC’s onslaught.

How to rate this, then? As mentioned above, grognards and fans of brutally hard roleplaying and hardcore rules-fetishists and complexity-advocates may want to steer clear; conversely, newcomers with a veteran who can help explain the rules, people fed up with extreme optimization, groups that loathe frequent PC-death, people hoping for a streamlined D&D 4.75, people looking for symmetrical class balancing and 4th edition fans who wish for a return to a more character-story-driven gameplay should definitely consider picking up 13th Age. For you all, this game was made and I think, you will not rue getting it and draw a lot of joy from these pages.

Hence, my final verdict will clock in at 4 stars – a good roleplaying system for what it tries to do and its target demographic.

P.s.: And yes, the PFRPG Core-rules wouldn’t score higher – invert most of my criticisms of 13th Age and you have what I’d have to say about that book as an isolated entity. ;)

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
13th Age Core Book
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The Book of Unremitting Horror (GUMSHOE version)
by eric t. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/14/2015 22:45:38

An excellent source of new monsters, all uniquely suited for the games set in the modern era. The authors did a good job in providing far more than just statistics for the creatures, with detailed and interesting histories, motivations and ways to integrate them into your games.



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[5 of 5 Stars!]
The Book of Unremitting Horror (GUMSHOE version)
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13th Age Soundtrack
by Joshua V. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/05/2015 12:15:21

Really, really good. Using it for my campaign. I really like the icon specific ones. Lets me create a custom session soundtrack on the fly based on how icon relations are rolled.



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[5 of 5 Stars!]
13th Age Soundtrack
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GUMSHOE Zoom: Martial Arts
by ian s. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/30/2015 11:43:03

A very interesting product, though I don't think I will be using these rules it is a very well produced piece of work and to the high standard I expect from this publisher.



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[3 of 5 Stars!]
GUMSHOE Zoom: Martial Arts
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Dragon Riding
by Jefferson D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 04/17/2015 12:45:26

Waht a great way to have regular article on an excellent RPG. I love the size of the articles & the content so far.



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[5 of 5 Stars!]
Dragon Riding
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