13th Age - It's D&D with Modern Mechanics, True Ways and Moar Owlbears

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A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

PublicOpinion posted:

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.

All of these are good ideas and have always worked for me in freeform.

# ? Jan 31, 2015 09:44

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 12:05

Earthorn: Jul 18, 2012

Okay, here's another class for you guys to look at.

The Gladiator - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UOEa3nn8PQqNO6GW66AtOSxPNjCa0o5ddQ_CPd1n4_U/edit?usp=sharing

As before, please don't copy and paste all over the internet, yadda yadda

Of course, please do feel free to use the class at your table, to give your impressions here, and to PM me with any detailed feedback.

Thanks!

# ? Jan 31, 2015 09:50

Doublehex: Jan 29, 2009; Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

PublicOpinion posted:

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.

This is fantastic. I'm keeping this as a .txt.

# ? Jan 31, 2015 16:33

PublicOpinion: Oct 21, 2010; Her style is new but the face is the same as it was so long ago...

I think my game may have gone all ten levels and never even met a goblin, but I didn't let that stop me from putting together a few for Goblin Week:

Goblin Glaivemaster, Wizened Elder, Sea Witch, and Murder Cultist

Goblin Gamblomancer

# ? Feb 1, 2015 00:30

Roach Warehouse: Nov 1, 2010

Goblin Gamblomancer also seems like a great concept for a Chaos Mage.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 05:38

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

Wife did a pic of my Saiyan Stalwart for her upcoming (heavily inspired by Dragon Quest) campaign that uses the genderswapped icons.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 05:47

A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

-Fish- posted:

Wife did a pic of my Saiyan Stalwart for her upcoming (heavily inspired by Dragon Quest) campaign that uses the genderswapped icons.

Where's the tail?

# ? Feb 1, 2015 08:26

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

She does the whole "wrapped around the waist" thing when she has a dress on. Her pants are tailored for the tail though.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 08:33

A FESTIVE SKELETON: Oct 2, 2011; TIS THE SEASON BITCH

-Fish- posted:

She does the whole "wrapped around the waist" thing when she has a dress on. Her pants are tailored for the tail though.

Hah, good to see your wife considered that.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 08:38

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

Rayjenkins posted:

Hah, good to see your wife considered that.

I actually wrote a short story about the character to kill time til campaign starts, she got that detail from the story.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 14:43

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Tonight, my players are going after the wood elf version of the Krampus, who has been stealing naughty elven children and dragging them to Drakkenhall to feed to the Blue, who is instead very surprised and confused about this and, along with the wood elf royalty, asked the party to figure out what the haps be before Drakenhall's orphanages overflow (She's very specific about not eating people, outside of her Bard habit)

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to make a fight with an rear end in a top hat holiday spirit interesting? I'm wracking my brains, but aside from it having a noticeable Fear effect and a host of wicked forest spirits backing it up, I'm having a hard time coming up with actual monster abilities for it. The party is level 2, 5 people. Necromancer, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, and Cleric.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 17:43

Jackard: Oct 28, 2007; We Have A Bow And We Wish To Use It

-Fish- posted:

Wife did a pic of my Saiyan Stalwart for her upcoming (heavily inspired by Dragon Quest) campaign that uses the genderswapped icons.

Ahh, I miss playing a Stalwart.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 18:03

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

Jackard posted:

Ahh, I miss playing a Stalwart.

I'm pretty stoked about it, I've never played one but I've always really wanted to. It's looking like it'll be a fairly lighthearted campaign, the entire party consists of teenagers from the same small town.

Saiyan Stalwart (OUT: Sent as a baby to wipe out life on this planet, but the kind people who adopted me turned me around)
Hetacon read: Thri Kreen Lurker (OUT: Followed by the demon I accidentally loosed from a harmonica I got in a pawn shop)
Human Theurge (OUT: Secretly the son of the town's priest)
There may end up being a fourth member of the party, but all in all it looks like it's gonna shape up to be a REALLY fun game.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 18:27

PublicOpinion: Oct 21, 2010; Her style is new but the face is the same as it was so long ago...

Got my Elementalist filled out a bit more: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJWaE9sNJFlkzX7TsHHDo0y2Elp1FykqVmD7gDHE6T8/edit?usp=sharing
Enough to take it for a test drive, at least. Damage expressions on some of the spells are slightly weird which won't bother me because I'll be on roll20 and people playing in real life probably already have a system going for when they need to roll 9d10+15+4d12+9d20+3d10. I was pretty confident it was balanced before I started working on the talents, but they may have added too much power.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 22:01

Earthorn: Jul 18, 2012

PublicOpinion posted:

Got my Elementalist filled out a bit more: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lJWaE9sNJFlkzX7TsHHDo0y2Elp1FykqVmD7gDHE6T8/edit?usp=sharing
Enough to take it for a test drive, at least. Damage expressions on some of the spells are slightly weird which won't bother me because I'll be on roll20 and people playing in real life probably already have a system going for when they need to roll 9d10+15+4d12+9d20+3d10. I was pretty confident it was balanced before I started working on the talents, but they may have added too much power.

This is a nice "simple" caster (meaning using talents rather than a power/spell progression)! Your sense of balance seems good. I'm still a little fuzzy about the reserve pool vs. the power pool, but I had a late night. Will read through again.

PS I like that there is an option to "choose" your element, though it is at a cost.

# ? Feb 1, 2015 22:14

Flame112: Apr 21, 2011

I'm not really understanding how the Druid Terrain Caster talent works. Can you use the At-Wills for whatever terrain you are in, and then buying the feat for a certain terrain just makes that At-Will always available? Or do you just only have access to the At-Wills from feats you took, and only Dailies are dependent on the terrain?

# ? Feb 3, 2015 00:17

01011001: Dec 26, 2012

Flame112 posted:

I'm not really understanding how the Druid Terrain Caster talent works. Can you use the At-Wills for whatever terrain you are in, and then buying the feat for a certain terrain just makes that At-Will always available? Or do you just only have access to the At-Wills from feats you took, and only Dailies are dependent on the terrain?

The latter.

# ? Feb 3, 2015 00:37

Flame112: Apr 21, 2011

Man, that's lame. If I drop two talents on Terrain Casting you'd think they could toss in some free at-wills.

# ? Feb 3, 2015 00:39

Chevy Slyme: May 2, 2004; We're Gonna Run.

We're Gonna Crawl.

Kick Down Every Wall.

First Glorantha playtest is out.

Laughing so hard at the Trickster right now.

E: Without going into mechanics, the names of some class features and talents:

Clumsy, Dithering, Unfocused, Disordered
Abject Failure
Scapegoat
Dumb Dumb
Bad Luck Magnet
Dance of Blood and Slapstick
Fuster Cluck

Chevy Slyme fucked around with this message at 07:48 on Feb 4, 2015

# ? Feb 4, 2015 07:41

Ryuujin: Sep 26, 2007; Dragon God

Well got an email saying the same thing, but when I go to download the file it says I still just get the old single page placeholder.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 08:04

PublicOpinion: Oct 21, 2010; Her style is new but the face is the same as it was so long ago...

God I can't wait to be a stupid rear end in a top hat jester.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 08:13

Ryuujin: Sep 26, 2007; Dragon God

Okay this time the file is correct. Also one of the first things I notice is the sample Berserker has 11 AC. Base AC 9 +1 level +1 mods. That seems weird/wrong to me. Also apparently the Berserker does not use the Escalation Die, using their own Berserker Die instead. Looking at the Full Berserk talent the sample Berserker has, I am not seeing a positive point to Full Berserk. Anyone else see one?

# ? Feb 4, 2015 08:59

PublicOpinion: Oct 21, 2010; Her style is new but the face is the same as it was so long ago...

Ryuujin posted:

Okay this time the file is correct. Also one of the first things I notice is the sample Berserker has 11 AC. Base AC 9 +1 level +1 mods. That seems weird/wrong to me. Also apparently the Berserker does not use the Escalation Die, using their own Berserker Die instead. Looking at the Full Berserk talent the sample Berserker has, I am not seeing a positive point to Full Berserk. Anyone else see one?

Full Berserk is the nasty side effect to the other half of the talent, the part where you're hard to kill. Low AC is probably intended to be offset by all the recoveries, transient defense bonuses, and other things that make you hard to kill.

e: I don't want to go into detail as per the playtest packet's request, but I'm liking the Sword of Humakt. Swords dude with encounter, recharge, and daily powers and the playtest daily is cutting out a guy's soul? Yes, hell yes.

PublicOpinion fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Feb 4, 2015

# ? Feb 4, 2015 09:13

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

This is making me really, really wish I hadn't forgotten to back the Glorantha Kickstarter. More so than I previously wished that anyway.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 17:40

palecur: Nov 3, 2002; not too simple and not too kind; Fallen Rib

CaptainPsyko posted:

First Glorantha playtest is out.

Laughing so hard at the Trickster right now.

E: Without going into mechanics, the names of some class features and talents:

Clumsy, Dithering, Unfocused, Disordered
Abject Failure
Scapegoat
Dumb Dumb
Bad Luck Magnet
Dance of Blood and Slapstick
Fuster Cluck

My impression on reading it is that it's going to play kind of like a 4E Warlord, only your potentiation of the party is explicitly driven by your Mr. Magoo-like incompetence. It looks fun as hell to play, but also like something you're going to steer anyone with fishmalk tendencies away from.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 17:51

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

Caught a typo that's fixed in the print version, but not in the pdf version: the Druid's shield is supposed to give you a +1 AC bonus.

Judging by how it is in the pdf version, it looks like you originally only got the shield bonus if you were a warrior druid who took the bonus that allows you to use shields w/o a penalty, but, later on, was changed and wasn't fully updated. In other words, they removed the line about getting a +1 bonus from shields in the warrior druid section, but forgot to update the stat block in the gear section. I say this because, in the PDF version, the +0 has an asterisk mark linked to a line saying the Warrior Druid talent changes it's value. Looks like it was caught in print where it is listed in the Gear section as giving a +1 AC bonus, but was missed in the PDF version. I guess they must have changed it because having one Class treat shields differently must have seemed off.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 18:57

Tsilkani: Jul 28, 2013

palecur posted:

My impression on reading it is that it's going to play kind of like a 4E Warlord, only your potentiation of the party is explicitly driven by your Mr. Magoo-like incompetence. It looks fun as hell to play, but also like something you're going to steer anyone with fishmalk tendencies away from.

Are you kidding? Let the fishmalk have it, it's the one class where their stupid helps out the party. And if they say something stupid during diplomacy, the mechanics encourage you to beat them! :allears:

# ? Feb 4, 2015 19:01

Myrmidongs: Oct 26, 2010

Would you guys want to get together and run through the playtest pack this weekend or next? Because I know I would like to, but my local group sorta fell apart a while ago

# ? Feb 4, 2015 19:59

Shoombo: Jan 1, 2013

I've got one or two groups I can probably run it for already, but I'd be into doing it from the player side, if having someone who's read through the adventure wouldn't hurt too much.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 20:28

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

I don't have the playtest pack but I'd be all for playing it myself, and I can get 1-3 other people in on it too if needed.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 22:01

Captain Walker: Apr 7, 2009; Mother knows best
Listen to your mother
It's a scary world out there

I, too, would be down.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 22:24

Covok: May 27, 2013; Yet where is that woman now? Tell me, in what heave does she reside? None of them. Because no God bothered to listen or care. If that is what you think it means to be a God, then you and all your teachings are welcome to do as that poor women did. And vanish from these realms forever.

I don't have a packet, but I'd be down to game.

# ? Feb 4, 2015 22:26

mdct: Sep 2, 2011; Tingle tingle kooloo limpah.
These are my magic words.
Don't steal them.

If you wanted The Most Rad Guy with The Best Backgrounds, I, Too, would be down

# ? Feb 4, 2015 22:29

Myrmidongs: Oct 26, 2010

I'm hoping one of you guys knows how to DM over Roll20 or similar, because I haven't done online tabletop gaming :shobon:

# ? Feb 4, 2015 23:06

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

Myrmidongs posted:

I'm hoping one of you guys knows how to DM over Roll20 or similar, because I haven't done online tabletop gaming

I can run on Roll20 if someone can get me the playtest packet.

# ? Feb 5, 2015 00:38

MelvinBison: Nov 17, 2012; "Is this the ideal world that you envisioned?"
"I guess you could say that."; Pillbug

Don't have the playtest stuff, but I'd love to see it in action.

# ? Feb 5, 2015 01:46

Jolyne Cujoh: Dec 7, 2012; It's not like I've got no worries...
But I'll be fine.

Unrelated to 13G, and I know it's totally unintended but the text for Fey Queen's Enchantments' adventurer feat:

quote:

Adventurer Feat: You can choose which ability score you want to use as the attack ability for sorcerer spells you can cast.

Really makes me want to make a spellfist ranger/sorcerer that has their spells run entirely off of con. Just be a wall of beef punching people in the face with spells while having great overall defenses (20 AC, 15 PD, 13 MD at level 1 with 31 HP).

I mean, I could still do this but I'd lose my precious +4 attack modifier!!!

Jolyne Cujoh fucked around with this message at 07:37 on Feb 5, 2015

# ? Feb 5, 2015 06:20

Night10194: Feb 13, 2012; We'll start,
like many good things,
with a bear.

Bonus points if Beefpunch Spellslinger is an elf.

# ? Feb 5, 2015 07:02

-Fish-: Oct 10, 2005; Glub glub.
Glub glub.

So yeah, I've reviewed the playtest document and I can run on Friday if anyone wants to. I can run for 4 people on Roll20 as long as everyone has a functioning mic.

# ? Feb 5, 2015 14:44

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# ? Jun 6, 2024 12:05

Myrmidongs: Oct 26, 2010

-Fish- posted:

So yeah, I've reviewed the playtest document and I can run on Friday if anyone wants to. I can run for 4 people on Roll20 as long as everyone has a functioning mic.

I am so down. Email me back at aafriedley at gmail dot com with time (and timezone)

# ? Feb 5, 2015 20:07

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