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[PbP] 13th Age: Darskye-fall: Into the Wild Wood
Erin The Red
The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
The Name's Erin! Woman, Podcaster, Dungeon Master, IT nerd, Parent, Trans. AMABaton Rouge, LARegistered User regular
13th Age:
13th Age is the latest twist on a long series of heroic fantasy games, an indie game equal parts D&D and storygame. If you are familiar with D&D, you'll find that 13th Age is a game where you are given ample opportunities to influence the path the story is taking, on both a micro and macro level, with mechanics that model how you, with your character's ties to the world as a proxy, are on equal storytelling footing as the GM. If you are familiar with storygames, you'll find that 13th Age marries collaborative storytelling with the combat crunch of modern D&D, allowing for heroic action without getting bogged down with a huge set of rules.
Its brand of d20 will be most familiar to fans of 4e, with doses of inspiration from 3e. It comes from lead designers of those editions, on that note.
If you have the 13th Age book(s), you can create a 1st level character using the races and classes in the core book. Also available are the other classes published on the Pelgrane Press webpage (linked below). The only limit is that there can only be one of each 'optional' race. Otherwise, though, do whatever you feel like doing. There's a PDF character sheet below, or you can just render your character in text. Follow the process from the core book, and ping the thread if you need pointers or have questions or whatever. You can roll abilities or use point buy --- but if you roll you're stuck with your "interesting" results unless they're horrible. Just do point buy unless you want to live on the edge.
As a reminder:
The one unique thing describes something rad and interesting about your character
You have 3 icon relationship points to spend on 1-3 icons; each point is a d6 to roll for relationships, you're hoping for 6s and can (probably) live with 5s
You get 8 background points, each point is a +1 to a roll when you make an ability check where the background is relevant --- these describe what your character does and did, and should inform us of his/her history alongside implying his/her skillset
Linkage
13 Facts about 13th Age (describes the one unique thing, icon relationships, and backgrounds, among others): http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8583
13th Age Resources (player game aid, 13th Age character sheets): http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8764
Summary of the icons: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=7790
Some Generally helpful word docs: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13316
STALWART Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13622
VANGUARD Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13618
ELEMENTALIST Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13118
ELDRITCH KNIGHT Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=11922
Style and Guidelines and Whatever
As a collaborative storytelling game, you the players are encouraged to fill in the details or nudge the plot in a certain direction. This can happen directly through icon relationship rolls, either if I ask for them or if you have banked story-guide results, but I'll often leave things a bit open-ended as a prompt to elaborate or embellish as you see fit. Maybe the town you're at the border of has a thing against half-elves, or a couple years back you ran the mayor out of town. Make the story our own!
Mission Start
Here's the basic setup for you to work with in creating your characters. Have at it!
Adventurers of all stripes, ages, specialties, and loyalties have been called to Haven, an abandoned city between Axis and Horizon. The Emperor, Priestess, Archmage, and Great Gold Wyrm have called any able-bodied individuals to lend aid against the rising threat of evil, and the icons they claim to represent. All are welcome, though some will of course be more welcome than others.
The day is gray and rainy. The adventurers are gathered outside the city waiting for a speech from a representative of the empire. The only sounds around are the wet sloshing sounds of boots in damp mud and the low murmur of adventurers talking amongst themselves.
Let's get a list of people who are interested (5-6 max), and then we can go forward with character creation. Feel free to ping people you think may be interested! Reserves are welcome also.
(OP shamelessly stolen from @bss .) I have a high enough CHA to pull it off. Plus I have no background points in shame. So there.
Players
*BSS - Barthas the Everlight -> Tiefling Cleric
*Jdarksun - Clank -> Dwarf-Forged Eldritch Knight
*Oats - Franzibald "Proof" Densetoe -> Dwarf Sorcerer
*Grunt's Ghosts - Farkas Nimblefoot -> Halfling Rogue
*Auralynx - Yancey Rumbleroar -> Halfling Elementalist
*Phyphor - Arastor ->Wood Elf Ranger
Reserves
* am0n
Some posting things that would be helpful!
Post stage directions in regular text
"Post quotes in bold"
Any abilities you use, please color them for easier location in text walls
Any time you want to use a banked relationship die, please tell me which one, what number it was, and your relationship with the icon in orange
Any battles will have initiative blocks. If two or more PCs are adjacent in the initiative order, they may move in any order they wish. Same goes for baddies!
Banked rolls:
13th Age is the latest twist on a long series of heroic fantasy games, an indie game equal parts D&D and storygame. If you are familiar with D&D, you'll find that 13th Age is a game where you are given ample opportunities to influence the path the story is taking, on both a micro and macro level, with mechanics that model how you, with your character's ties to the world as a proxy, are on equal storytelling footing as the GM. If you are familiar with storygames, you'll find that 13th Age marries collaborative storytelling with the combat crunch of modern D&D, allowing for heroic action without getting bogged down with a huge set of rules.
Its brand of d20 will be most familiar to fans of 4e, with doses of inspiration from 3e. It comes from lead designers of those editions, on that note.
If you have the 13th Age book(s), you can create a 1st level character using the races and classes in the core book. Also available are the other classes published on the Pelgrane Press webpage (linked below). The only limit is that there can only be one of each 'optional' race. Otherwise, though, do whatever you feel like doing. There's a PDF character sheet below, or you can just render your character in text. Follow the process from the core book, and ping the thread if you need pointers or have questions or whatever. You can roll abilities or use point buy --- but if you roll you're stuck with your "interesting" results unless they're horrible. Just do point buy unless you want to live on the edge.
As a reminder:
The one unique thing describes something rad and interesting about your character
You have 3 icon relationship points to spend on 1-3 icons; each point is a d6 to roll for relationships, you're hoping for 6s and can (probably) live with 5s
You get 8 background points, each point is a +1 to a roll when you make an ability check where the background is relevant --- these describe what your character does and did, and should inform us of his/her history alongside implying his/her skillset
Linkage
13 Facts about 13th Age (describes the one unique thing, icon relationships, and backgrounds, among others): http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8583
13th Age Resources (player game aid, 13th Age character sheets): http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=8764
Summary of the icons: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=7790
Some Generally helpful word docs: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13316
STALWART Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13622
VANGUARD Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13618
ELEMENTALIST Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=13118
ELDRITCH KNIGHT Class: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?p=11922
Style and Guidelines and Whatever
As a collaborative storytelling game, you the players are encouraged to fill in the details or nudge the plot in a certain direction. This can happen directly through icon relationship rolls, either if I ask for them or if you have banked story-guide results, but I'll often leave things a bit open-ended as a prompt to elaborate or embellish as you see fit. Maybe the town you're at the border of has a thing against half-elves, or a couple years back you ran the mayor out of town. Make the story our own!
Mission Start
Here's the basic setup for you to work with in creating your characters. Have at it!
Adventurers of all stripes, ages, specialties, and loyalties have been called to Haven, an abandoned city between Axis and Horizon. The Emperor, Priestess, Archmage, and Great Gold Wyrm have called any able-bodied individuals to lend aid against the rising threat of evil, and the icons they claim to represent. All are welcome, though some will of course be more welcome than others.
The day is gray and rainy. The adventurers are gathered outside the city waiting for a speech from a representative of the empire. The only sounds around are the wet sloshing sounds of boots in damp mud and the low murmur of adventurers talking amongst themselves.
Let's get a list of people who are interested (5-6 max), and then we can go forward with character creation. Feel free to ping people you think may be interested! Reserves are welcome also.
(OP shamelessly stolen from @bss .) I have a high enough CHA to pull it off. Plus I have no background points in shame. So there.
Players
*BSS - Barthas the Everlight -> Tiefling Cleric
*Jdarksun - Clank -> Dwarf-Forged Eldritch Knight
*Oats - Franzibald "Proof" Densetoe -> Dwarf Sorcerer
*Grunt's Ghosts - Farkas Nimblefoot -> Halfling Rogue
*Auralynx - Yancey Rumbleroar -> Halfling Elementalist
*Phyphor - Arastor ->Wood Elf Ranger
Reserves
* am0n
Some posting things that would be helpful!
Post stage directions in regular text
"Post quotes in bold"
Any abilities you use, please color them for easier location in text walls
Any time you want to use a banked relationship die, please tell me which one, what number it was, and your relationship with the icon in orange
Any battles will have initiative blocks. If two or more PCs are adjacent in the initiative order, they may move in any order they wish. Same goes for baddies!
Banked rolls:
Erin The Red on
+6
Posts
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Beyond the core book, what other published sources are there for 13th Age? Or do you mean anything published by Pelgrane Press?
They have some extra classes if you preordered expansions, but I don't have those. so actually let's keep it vanilla for now
You can get the monk and commander playtest docs if you preorder the Bestiary, but otherwise, yeah, I don't think you can preorder 13 True Ways (the expansion) yet.
I can and will play whatever. I'm probably leaning some kind of caster, but at this point it's really a question of deciding which of a dozen concepts to choose, so yeah.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
He is a dwarf drunken-master sorcerer.
My only thing is that while I can play a Cha class, I prefer not to be a "face"
Steam | Twitter
-Bing bong-
You are free to move about the thread and discuss your character creation. All rolls will be done in thread. Feel free to roll or point buy. Let's get that knocked out and go from there?
Speak thine choice and if you are rolling, roll 6#4d6 and just remove the lowest value from each set.
May the icons have mercy on your respective souls.
Proof earned his nickname fighting for money, honour, and free drinks at the local pub. What he lacked in reflexes he more than made up for in stubborn determination and alcohol-deadened nerves. Never being one to shy away from a fight, Proof has at least two recorded knock-outs from headbutting his opponent into submission. As a proper dwarf, magic was never something that Proof liked to rely upon. His final bout made him reconsider.
He was not doing well, a bloody pulp barely able to stand and losing his buzz in a hurry. Regaining his feet one final time, Proof threw a punch. Not unlike our dwarfy hero, it was slow and wide. He was too determined not to lose that he poured everything into that punch, and out came power he had never seen before.
Blessedly no one was killed by the paroxysm of magic, but several dwarfs were gravely wounded and thirteen pints of mead were spilled.
Proof gave up his pit-fighting days, resolving to better control his power. He wandered for years, until he found a school for sorcerers. As initiates of the Three. their glee in destruction quickly wore out Proof's patience. Knowing he could not change them, and not wanting to become more like them, Proof decided to leave in the dead of night.
Hunted, Proof gave up searching for a reasonably sane instructor. He sought shelter from the minions of the Three anywhere that would take him in. Churches, holy orders, inns and pubs, Proof travelled and drank in the world, one day at a time.
As the weeks and months passed, Proof found he was staying in chapterhouses of a certain order more and more. The Golden Dragon insignia was all he needed to see to know he was among men and women he counted as friends. He had stayed at a chapterhouse outside the Dire Wood for three days before he approached the commander, seeking to be recruited. Initiation was hard, but the sacramental wine was sweet and seemed bottomless, the battalion welcomed him warmly, and for the first time in his life Proof knew peace.
The peace of the Golden Dragon. He sees the Golden Wyrm in his dreams now. It is that Golden face that smiles when he smites a demon.
Proof has even managed to headbutt an imp or three. Just to make sure they know who they're dealing with.
Portrait (SCALE MODEL):
Maths Stuff:
Geth, roll 6#4d6k3 for Stats!
CharSheet here.
Wowzah those are bad. All in the spirit of sorcery!
I don't mind being hilariously incompetent for the first while, and I'm sure we can work out some form of story justification.
EDIT: I only have two below 10. It's just that nothing is great.
EDIT x 2: He's really hungover.
The most hungover dwarf
I assume if we roll we are not allowed to then say, "nah I'll use point buy instead" yes?
Correct.
CHOOSE YOUR FATE
uhh...cake please...
Tox: Buy
Jdarksun: Rolled
Grunt's Ghosts:Rolled
Bss: Rolled
Kilroy:Buy
I want to see what other people are looking at playing before I decide for sure.
Geth roll 6#4d6k3 for Ability scores
Edit: Love you, Geth.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Steam | Twitter
I'm trying to find a portrait to use. Ideally a slayer from Warhammer with one one-handed axe.
I like the idea of this initiate in a holy order wearing a kilt, giant red mohawk, and covered in tattoos and gore.
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
Roll a Fighter, use two weapons, and beg TRV for the ability to use the Ranger's Double Melee Attack Talent.
If/Then attack flowcharts = More Fun
PM me and we can talk about it
Before I forget, thank you for offering to run this. GMing should be reward enough in theory, but is often thankless work, and I can't even bring a pizza when we play.
So at the very least: Cheers mate!
But I'm not sure about that one.
I could do it, just not sure if I want to.
You see because I'm going to roll really well now and all your superstitions are going to get triggered and you're going to insist I rolled all the good numbers and now they're none left for you.
*clears throat*
Geth roll 6#4d6k3 for Ability scores
e: Yep, knew it.
If you guys need a reserve at some point, bear me in mind. Don't own 13th Age but it seems like something I could get into on world-building terms.
Optional are allowed, but only one of each max. bss called dibs on tiefling, so the others (dwarf-forged, dragon spawn, holy one) are open. you are rare and will be treated differently (likely poorly) in towns and such. beware!
Tabletop:13th Age (mm-mmm), D&D 4e
Occasional words about games: my site
...@Kilroy any ideas?