13th age ideas

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

Not sure what the times will be at the new venue.  At the hotel (in 2014) the RPGs ran the whole con day and several long into the night, after the official close of the day. 

[Talae]

Honestly the Icons for me so far have been an exercise in fleshing out my NPC factions. I am currently running the game already (and have been for like four-five months), but loved the idea pf forcing me to flesh things out.

 

If you want some direction in what feedback would be most helpful, the group is headed to Regalport next session (which is the home base of Prince Rygar, the High Prince, and the home base of House Thuranni.). Also, on PC seems interested in swapping to a new PC - likely a storm sorcerer half elf played as a marked member of House Lyrandar.

 

So far the basic plot of my game is:

-PCs are prisoners in Dreadhold that escape when some others are broken out.

-PCs and a couple NPCs all have birthmarks or tattoos that are different, but showing up in groups of images in a variety of places - started with realizing the were tattooed all over another prisoner.

-PCs tag along with a group of pirates that leads the to a temple and the PCs uncover a room with lots of said symbols mixed with what seem like odd dragonmarks.

-PCs open a half-dragon mummy tomb and fight it...thenthe entire party (including the Warforged) manifests aberrant dragonmarks or existing marks morph a little.

-the group is now headed to Regalport to find a map to a tomb of an explorer that is rumored to have developed a similar mark.

 

Some of this plotline is from the Eye of the Lich Queen adventure, some is my own. There are more details and subtleties, but I will likely wait to post those until the someone asks.

[Talae]

I really need to get back to fleshing things out further.

 

My PCs have now attained the map in Regalport and set off after the tomb. They are on the island (just barely - on the coast) and I have the next few sessions worth of travel and adventure. This will give me some more time to come up with what all NPCs are doing in the meantime.

 

I have some pretty big ideas for it, but would love to hear other thoughts in the meantime.

[Reaperbryan]

I've been out of it on this one also.

 

After a convo with my group, we're ditching Eberron and doing straight up Core-book setting. They feel there's enough new things without trying to wrap their head around the book not actually being accurate, fluff-wise.

 

And I've created a YouTube video (MY first EVER) explaining the key points of 13th Age for new players, since the book can be daunting. So far the 2 that have seen it both said it makes them far more excited to play.

 

I'm going to let you guys be the first people outside of my group to see this. 

 

 

Yes, it's not perfect, but I'm still learning, and I learned SO MUCH from making these two that now I'm sadly a little embarrassed, but I figure if they can help, they can still help and perfect is not a requirement for "acceptable". I'm going to be working on how to improve audio quality for future installments (I already have 2 scripts sent to a player for editing, and 2 more started) and I've learned some tricks for jazzing up my animation (which is appalling, I know).

 

 

 

First Video - 9 minutes, introduces the basic concepts of the game

13th Age Introduction - 13 Secrets

 

Second video - 4 minutes, explores the most important combat rules so that during Character Gen you're not generating scores and buying things without understanding what they mean.

Basic Rules of 13th Age - 13 Secrets

[morari]

Thanks for the overview videos, Bryan! Really good stuff there.

We've been toying with adding the Escalation Die to our 4e game. A lot of the concepts from 13th Age sound fantastic, though. The character background and personality being so heavily integrated into the rules themselves would certainly help par down the mandatory character questionnaire that seems to kick off every campaign we run. I've really been tempted to switch everything over, but really have a hard time letting my 4e books go to waste, especially when we've seemingly used so little of them so far.

[Reaperbryan]

Thanks for the overview videos, Bryan! Really good stuff there.

We've been toying with adding the Escalation Die to our 4e game. A lot of the concepts from 13th Age sound fantastic, though. The character background and personality being so heavily integrated into the rules themselves would certainly help par down the mandatory character questionnaire that seems to kick off every campaign we run. I've really been tempted to switch everything over, but really have a hard time letting my 4e books go to waste, especially when we've seemingly used so little of them so far.

I've not compared apples to apples, but I feel that with only minor work, 4e monsters and encounter design could port to 13a very well. You'd lose some of the monster interaction with the Escalation die, unless you came up with some rule like - "Uses Encounter power on E3 & E5, Uses Daily Power on E6, or on E4 if Staggered/Bloodied"

[morari]

It seems like "use power if bloodied" would be the most straight forward application, and probably wouldn't hurt balance much. I imagine you could tie power recharges to the Escalation Die as well, which might be an easier way of handling them than default 4e anyway. Certainly you'd also want to look at upping the defenses on monsters to account for the early encounter pacing of the Escalation Die.

[Reaperbryan]

Might be interesting to compare a 4e stat block to the same monster's 13a stat block and figure out a quick way to convert to 13a.

 

As it happens I mostly don't need to, although i don't have the 13a book of Beasts, so this might get me some more monster options.  I'll check it out as a thought experiment.

 

Although I did find this handy reference by the 13th Age guy whose job was converting a 4e book to 13a. It seems pretty straightforward

 

http://pelgranepress.com/index.php/how-to-convert-4e-monsters-to-13th-age-by-ash-law/

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

Damn it Bryan; now I want to play!

[Talae]

Those videos are awesome!

 

What did you use to make them?

 

Also, I now realize that I need to put some work in on fleshing out my NPC interactions (what my Icons think about PC decisions), and also a mechanic that I can put in place for Icons in my 5e game that fits. I haven't made the time to figure out how those mechanics work in 13th Age, yet. (Maybe a simple die roll with possible advantage/disadvantage that has a chance to influence the Icons thoughts on a particularly event? Basically rolling for negative, neutral, positive reaction...maybe even taking it one step further and adding extremely negative and extremely positive?). 

 

What I really need is a means to just sit down and talk out my campaign ideas with people not in my group and to pick their brains...anyone want to start reading through what I have?

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

I'll be your huckleberry.

 

Don't know anything about 13th Age other than what Bryan has revealed in his videos and this thread, but I'm getting the gist.  I'm more than happy to be a spring board for your campaign development.

[Reaperbryan]

Damn it Bryan; now I want to play!

Mission: Accomplished!

 

As it happens I have two more scripts completed and am beginning the storyboarding process for those two, and two more scripts started but not ready for storyboarding yet. (Turns out that while I love my family, 4 days with just them and no leaving the house (because: reasons) I get bored and pulling out a pad of paper and jotting down notes can be down without seeming to be rude). So there are more to come.

 

Those videos are awesome!

 

What did you use to make them?

 

Also, I now realize that I need to put some work in on fleshing out my NPC interactions (what my Icons think about PC decisions), and also a mechanic that I can put in place for Icons in my 5e game that fits. I haven't made the time to figure out how those mechanics work in 13th Age, yet. (Maybe a simple die roll with possible advantage/disadvantage that has a chance to influence the Icons thoughts on a particularly event? Basically rolling for negative, neutral, positive reaction...maybe even taking it one step further and adding extremely negative and extremely positive?). 

 

What I really need is a means to just sit down and talk out my campaign ideas with people not in my group and to pick their brains...anyone want to start reading through what I have?

I made the individual frames of Animation with Adobe Illustrator, and animated them and did the narration work in Windows Movie Maker. To be honest any vector graphics program (including many that are available for free) would have worked.

 

The learning curve on WMM is fairly low, like, I made most of it in just a few minutes, and minor tweaks are really easy. There's a few things I wish I had done differently, some of which I have figured out since how to do and others I haven't yet.  I've also got an animation software I found that I haven't tried yet, but I'm hoping to be able to incorporate in more movement in the future using this new tool instead of simply changing the image.

 

I'd be happy to look over your ideas. Frankly, GM sharing of ideas is who we all learn as GMs - I might have tips that help you and you might have ideas that I can steal learn from.

[Talae]

I need some help with the Shadow Network of House Thuranni.

 

What is their opinion of the fact that the Dreadhold-escaped PCs just developed aberrant dragonmarks (and those with marks already had them grow in aberrant ways)? I know what the Emerald Claw cares about. I know what many of the others care about. I even know that Thuranni is going to not want Vol to get her hands on the new marks. There is a PC that is a House member of Thuranni and I have recently played it as "get it taken care of, at any cost....or we will." That seems to fit, but what I need help with is what are they actually planning if the PCs can't rid themselves of the new marks? (I had originally planned for them to retain their abilities, as suggested in the 3.5 Eberron module "Eye of the Dragon Queen").

 

Feel free to help me fill in more of this, as well: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dEVcL7w28yTq3E8KYtrPpXNDCNendVowDQHx7hCEMb8/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

*Note - I am willing to expand on any campaign element that you want me to. I just didn't want to overwhelm with six months of sessions. While, I have made changes, the PCs are basically 3/4 of the way through the module mentioned above with the twist of being escaped from Dreadhold.

[Reaperbryan]

My initial thought is that Thuranni is going to have at least two factions after the aberrant marked PCs. One will want to eliminate them. The second will want to utilize them. Both factions will want to keep Vol's mitts off of them. 

 

With this, Thuranni agents might be able to help the PCs from time to time.

 

For those trying to eliminate the marks, I'd imagine that if the PCs cannot scrub the marks, they plan to try some sort of magical punishment that is never discussed outside of the houses - Dragonmarked heirs who betray the house are rarely actually killed - they're more frequently "Scrubbed" - a magical ritual which will destroy the marks, and, unfortunately, also damage the traitor's soul. Scrubbing side effects are often associated with the uniqueness of the mark itself - a mark that grants strength, when scrubbed, may leave the traitor with a strength penalty. A mark that enhances magical talent may leave the traitor unable to perform magic at all. In this manner, it is not just death the PCs need fear, but a complete loss of their class identity, manifesting as loss of individual class powers, feats, and talents over numerous sessions as the Scrubbed Mark begins to fade and the soul tears. 

 

This gives the PCs time to reverse the damage if caught, and gives you interesting options for punishments

[Talae]

My initial thought is that Thuranni is going to have at least two factions after the aberrant marked PCs. One will want to eliminate them. The second will want to utilize them. Both factions will want to keep Vol's mitts off of them. 

 

With this, Thuranni agents might be able to help the PCs from time to time.

 

For those trying to eliminate the marks, I'd imagine that if the PCs cannot scrub the marks, they plan to try some sort of magical punishment that is never discussed outside of the houses - Dragonmarked heirs who betray the house are rarely actually killed - they're more frequently "Scrubbed" - a magical ritual which will destroy the marks, and, unfortunately, also damage the traitor's soul. Scrubbing side effects are often associated with the uniqueness of the mark itself - a mark that grants strength, when scrubbed, may leave the traitor with a strength penalty. A mark that enhances magical talent may leave the traitor unable to perform magic at all. In this manner, it is not just death the PCs need fear, but a complete loss of their class identity, manifesting as loss of individual class powers, feats, and talents over numerous sessions as the Scrubbed Mark begins to fade and the soul tears. 

 

This gives the PCs time to reverse the damage if caught, and gives you interesting options for punishments

That is a great idea!

 

I will likely bring this in to use on an NPC that manifested a mark as well...and has basically been shoehorned into every combat since, because of this. She has gone unconscious a half dozen times or so, but the party keeps saving her. This is a better solution...and one that could happen rather covertly (and I might also sap a PC with it, depending on the situation).

 

Any other tidbits that interest others in my link above that I could expand on first? Might be cool to do it while getting feedback...