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It can be hard to really understand how many items to give people; it doesn't help that years of D&D have ingrained the idea that you have to have magic doodads, no matter how many inherent abilities you have.
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Jan 29, 2015 22:20
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Magic items are fun and should be distributed liberally while taking into account a player's goals for their character
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Jan 29, 2015 22:34
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Honestly I'm starting to shower my group with magic items. Most are kinda weird or situational rather then plain power upgrades. I'm even considering taking out the Quirks system.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:06
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ProfessorCirno posted:Honestly I'm starting to shower my group with magic items. Most are kinda weird or situational rather then plain power upgrades. I'm even considering taking out the Quirks system. Quirks are the absolute worst idea for balancing or limiting item use. Some players will get them and be like 'gently caress, man, I want more of these improv challenges! And they come with statistical benefits?' while others will outright refuse to use magic items at all to keep their character concept. So either you get people who see them as a bonus, people who hate them enough to avoid engaging with part of the game, or people who just go 'Sure, fine, my guy has an extra pint because of dwarves, can we get back to the game?' Drop Quirks all the time.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:20
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Night10194 posted:Quirks are the absolute worst idea for balancing or limiting item use. Some players will get them and be like 'gently caress, man, I want more of these improv challenges! And they come with statistical benefits?' while others will outright refuse to use magic items at all to keep their character concept. So either you get people who see them as a bonus, people who hate them enough to avoid engaging with part of the game, or people who just go 'Sure, fine, my guy has an extra pint because of dwarves, can we get back to the game?' Drop Quirks all the time. I actually think that tempting players to refuse magic items because they don't want them to affect their character's personality is exactly the intent. Even in-character, it makes perfect sense for a person to hesitate to accept an item, no matter how powerful, if they know it will change things about who they are. That said, it doesn't make sense for how magic works in my current campaign's setting (for most cases), so I'm not using it, and I think it makes perfect sense to use it or not entirely based on what's appropriate for the setting and the specific campaign. I might still use it for specific items, where "the item affects your personality" is an integral part of how that particular item works or the most appropriate interesting drawback for me to give it, but I definitely won't use it often.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:28
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What I'm thinking of doing is just giving the BIG magical items a specific intelligence built for that item; bigger then the quirks, but far more rare. The rogue's magic hat that always reappears on their head in a jaunty angle whenever they think about it (no matter where they or the hat may be) won't have a quirk, but the dagger the Prince of Shadows made from stars they stole will, and it'll do more then something like "makes you look at lamps a lot"
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Jan 29, 2015 23:31
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Yeah, that's what I'm planning on doing. I like the idea of magic items that are almost Faustian bargains: yeah, sure, they're very powerful, but they might just cost you your very identity in the process. It's the kind of thing that presents an interesting choice both in- and out-of-character and should only be used very rarely.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:36
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I straight up ripped off a terrible manga about sword ghosts and have all magic weapons not only intelligent, but they talk to the players and can be actively belligerent. The magic sword that the guys got at boltstrike pillar straight up tried to eat the Fighter's soul.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:46
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Harrow posted:Yeah, that's what I'm planning on doing. I like the idea of magic items that are almost Faustian bargains: yeah, sure, they're very powerful, but they might just cost you your very identity in the process. It's the kind of thing that presents an interesting choice both in- and out-of-character and should only be used very rarely. I stick with this and limit quirks to cursed items; the great tradeoff for that is that you can make the personality shift really extreme. Realizing you weren't fighting the wandering blackguard so much as you were fighting his sword is a cool plot thing to use sometimes.
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Jan 29, 2015 23:51
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I guess I'm lucky that my group loves playing the quirks, then. v v
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Jan 30, 2015 00:54
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Quirks are funny.
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Jan 30, 2015 01:27
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Stolze has started to quote his novel on twitter, or at least one quote from the book. I kind of like that concept even if it was probably a joke in universe.
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Jan 30, 2015 01:28
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I like item quirks, but our games are very light hearted. My DM is pretty liberal with the treasure so shortly before out 3-4 level up most of us were one item over our controllable limit, so we were all magical messes, bickering and arguing with each other over the smallest things. The necromancer had an item that always made him think it was too hot, the wizard had one that made them think it was too cold. They used rituals to fight over the metaphorical thermostat.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:57
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Prison Warden posted:I straight up ripped off a terrible manga about sword ghosts and have all magic weapons not only intelligent, but they talk to the players and can be actively belligerent. The magic sword that the guys got at boltstrike pillar straight up tried to eat the Fighter's soul. You can just say you ripped off Bleach and their idea of Zanpakuto.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:57
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Evil Mastermind posted:I guess I'm lucky that my group loves playing the quirks, then. v I think I mentioned earlier, but the reason I hate them is basically PTSD from 3.PF, where my players eventually revolted against the idea that they were playing collections of magic items instead of themselves. Having the items also forcibly overwrite your personality just feels like it amplifies that thing I and my regular group hate most about magic items.
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Jan 30, 2015 03:59
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I like the quirks because they give the item a little personality to go along with the effect, but I also let my players ignore them, which they frequently do.
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Jan 30, 2015 04:18
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We didn't explicitly set out to ignore quirks, it's just that nobody cared (except for the two times the Chaos Mage got that weirdness that causes all the items to start talking).
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Jan 30, 2015 04:20
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Night10194 posted:I think I mentioned earlier, but the reason I hate them is basically PTSD from 3.PF, where my players eventually revolted against the idea that they were playing collections of magic items instead of themselves. Having the items also forcibly overwrite your personality just feels like it amplifies that thing I and my regular group hate most about magic items. I feel like your group must treat them as more of a hard-and-fast rule than the people I've played with. As the book says, "You are not required to roleplay quirks when you’re under the item limit. It’s purely optional." I've found they largely just provide either punchlines, or some guidance/ a start point if I, the player am unsure how my character would react to a certain situation.
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Jan 30, 2015 06:37
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The best marriage of quirk and magic item is that cloak from the book of loot that lets you teleport whenever no one's looking at you, which gives you the quirk of ending conversations by waiting until someone looks away and then vanishing. Because if you've got a cloak like that why wouldn't you just constantly Batman people?
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Jan 30, 2015 09:05
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Ryuujin posted:Hmm I may have been going off the Escalation Powers fade at the end of a round when the new round begins thing, and not cumulative, to be about only one active at a time. I thought I had seen something else about it too. But I may have misread/misunderstood. If multiple could be active at the same time that would be nice, it would also help with the feeling that AC might be a bit low for a non Blurred Nemesis build. Having multiple Escalation Powers up at the same time does mean I am going to want more of them. If only one could be active at a time then I wouldn't feel the need to have much more than one or two, possibly Augmented, ones. I expanded on and clarified (I hope) the section on Escalation Powers not stacking with themselves, thanks. I also made it clear that Escalation Powers stack with each other, which is designed to not overpower the class. For instance, the standard versions of Escalating Lethality. Might, and Vitality don't actually do anything until the escalation die reaches 2. For the AC issue, I didn't want a nemesis with Augmented Escalating Resilience to have a "base" AC that topped off above a paladin with a shield and Bastion-- meaning 18 (with Augmented Escalating Resilience and a rare 6 on the escalation die). Also, a nemesis is probably investing in Con and/or Wis (and Dex with Blurred Nemesis) so that may give you a couple more points of AC to start with. I am very curious about how the nemesis will play out at other tables. If anyone ends up playing one (or seeing one played), please feel free to post an impression or PM me with detailed feedback.
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Jan 30, 2015 09:05
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If you backed 13 true ways, Pelgrane is sending out the Dragon Riding issue of 13th Age Monthly for free.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:09
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I like that a large part of dragon riding is getting your dragon mount to tolerate you.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:44
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Where can you buy that monthly subscription? I can't find it.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:49
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Covok posted:Where can you buy that monthly subscription? I can't find it. I don't think it's live yet. They say it will go up in the Pelgrane store in February.
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Jan 30, 2015 18:52
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They also announced the price will be $25 for a year, or $3 for individual issues if you don't want to subscribe.
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Jan 30, 2015 19:03
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Oh hey the subscription page is up.
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Jan 30, 2015 20:14
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Speak of the devil and he shall appear, I suppose.
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Jan 30, 2015 20:16
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They also released a 13th Age soundtrack.quote:The 13th Age Age Soundtrack by James Semple and an array of talented musicians and composers includes:
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Jan 30, 2015 21:04
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I'm confused, is $25 for a year, a month, or what
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Jan 30, 2015 21:43
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Myrmidongs posted:I'm confused, is $25 for a year, a month, or what
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Jan 30, 2015 21:48
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Were backers getting this free?
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Jan 30, 2015 21:50
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Just the one with the rules for dragon riding, since that was promised in the book but had to be left out.
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Jan 30, 2015 21:51
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In case people are wondering, it's eight pages counting the cover and credits page, is full-color with art, and is done in the same overall style as the main books. Pretty impressive for what's technically a side project.
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Jan 30, 2015 21:58
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By the way, does anyone have any ideas on how to handle a character riding a horse? Or just ignore it and have them move similarly to anyone else because movement is so abstract anyway?
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Jan 30, 2015 22:13
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The rules seem sensible enough and the production values are nice. I wish, though, they put more thought into how to change encounters to deal with the additional firepower instead of telling GMs to go with what feels right, essentially. I suppose, as they say, it is hard to give exact numbers since they couldn't playtest these rules as thoroughly as they would like. Also, am I insane or does the dragon on page four have only one arm? Edit: Night10194 posted:By the way, does anyone have any ideas on how to handle a character riding a horse? Or just ignore it and have them move similarly to anyone else because movement is so abstract anyway? They hint in the book of working on mount rules for smaller animals. It seems it's basically the same, but non-dragons are going to get things that make them better when mounted.
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Jan 30, 2015 22:13
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Hey folks. My co-workers have been talking about running a DnD night, and I'm considering giving them 13th Age to try. I have some experience GMing various systems already, so I'm going to offer to GM for them. What should I know for first-time players? Should I give them sheets with mechanical stuff decided and leave unique things/relationships/etc open? What kind of composition could I have to have a decent mix of spellcasting and fighting like the "popular" conception of DnD? I have a few ideas for encounters and undead-smashing fun, but I want to solve these issues first before I get into any story planning.
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Jan 30, 2015 22:30
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The Deleter posted:Hey folks. My co-workers have been talking about running a DnD night, and I'm considering giving them 13th Age to try. I have some experience GMing various systems already, so I'm going to offer to GM for them. What should I know for first-time players? Should I give them sheets with mechanical stuff decided and leave unique things/relationships/etc open? quote:What kind of composition could I have to have a decent mix of spellcasting and fighting like the "popular" conception of DnD? I have a few ideas for encounters and undead-smashing fun, but I want to solve these issues first before I get into any story planning.
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Jan 30, 2015 22:37
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Been thinking of running a Spelljammer game using 13th Age rules, since while there is a PF fan-conversion of spelljammer, running it using that or 2e D&D rules seems like it would end up more like Space Accountancy than Space Pulp adventures. The main problem I've had so far is converting the Icon rules for use in the Spelljammer setting. Would I be losing much by dropping them altogether, or should I convert the major powers to Icons - the Orkish Armada, the Elven Imperial Navy, etc.? How much do they add to the game?
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Jan 31, 2015 07:02
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So in my experience here's what Icons actually do: 1) The Icons the players put points into serve as a character descriptors. Someone who has a big negative relationship with the Lich King has a story for it and it says something about their characters goals. Someone who is Negative 3 Lich King and someone who is Positive 3 Priestess would probably both be 'Lawful Good' in ye olde system but their Icon relationships highlight the different ways they might go about a mission like "save this village from the sewer ghouls". Characters with relationships with the same Icon have instant common ground or instant friction to build a relationship off of. 2) The Icons the players put points into serve as setting guideposts. The reason the Lich King was the end boss of my campaign was because one PC's One Unique Thing and Icon relationships were all about that. I made the Diabolist a conflicted figure because of the different Icon relationships some PCs had with her. The Icons nobody put points receded into the background. 3) The Icon dice acted sort of as "break the rules" hero points that I let people spin a good yarn to get stuff out of. Them being specific to the Icons gave a starting point to build the story out of and guided how the help manifested, like when a Diabolist 6 let the PC summon up the Demon Princess of Magic (she owed them, it's a long story) to set right a room full of hideously alive decapitated wizards so the party could get back to their adventuring thing. Handing out magic items based off of Icon dice also gives you the Icons flavor for the item and ties the item to the character/world. 4) The Icons themselves as big stock characters and their machinations are handy shortcuts for building plots. Edit: And I don't think there's any in core/bestiary but I sometimes give monsters powers that trigger off of what Icon relationships the target has, like I had a ghost that would force the target to roll all their Lich King dice and would curse you if any ones came up. PublicOpinion fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jan 31, 2015 |
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Jan 31, 2015 07:22
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PublicOpinion posted:Edit: And I don't think there's any in core/bestiary but I sometimes give monsters powers that trigger off of what Icon relationships the target has, like I had a ghost that would force the target to roll all their Lich King dice and would curse you if any ones came up. A good post in general, but this is really awesome.
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Jan 31, 2015 09:38
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