It would be easygoing to disregard thirteenth years as another D20 - free-base phantasy role - play game , albeit one with gorgeous artistic creation . But underneath that deceptively simple airfoil there are elegant storytelling geartrain that move in surprising ways . We talked to the Maker about how it works .
13th Age is published byPelgrane Press , and was co - design by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet , both alumni of various Dungeons & Dragons editions . While it is based on the venerable D20 phantasy RPGs that come before it , the designers of 13th Age have stripped away shopworn gaming elements ( like lengthy spell lists and combat based on look squares on a storage-battery grid ) while institute many of the fantasy writing style ’s tropes to the airfoil .
The world of 13th Age is inhabit by 13 potent NPCs called picture who present coarse archetypes found in virtually all fantasy fable and gaming . There ’s the High Druid , the Elf Queen , the Archmage , the Lich King , and more . They also roughly be sect that players can join , tying them immediately to a web of coalition and ancient grudge .
The goal of 13th Age is to take that familiar D20 system and steep it with the idea that each session or campaign should be a collaborative storytelling effort between the players and the GM . For instance , you do n’t take from a carte of skills . Instead , you create background component for your reference , and you deduct skills from that background when each situation arises . So if you pay your character a background as a police chief of a sportfishing boat , you could argue that you get a bonus on attainment checks involving navigation , wed or untying knot , key aquatic species , and lead small groups .
Perhaps the most distinctive part of 13th Age character creation is the “ One Unique Thing . ” You ’re not playing just any midget who goes out on escapade . You ’re playing the only dwarf in the humans with a clockwork ticker . Or a warrior with the someone of a firedrake . Or a star who hear the singing of the mavin . Again , there ’s no lean to opt from . You make up your own Unique affair . The fantastic story that come out from it is the whole pointedness of 13th Age .
Last year , I was able toplay in a thirteenth historic period sessionGMed by Heinsoo at Gen Con , using an other version of the principle . At this twelvemonth ’s Gen Con , I sat down with Heinsoo for a wide of the mark ranging conversation on the design of 13th Age and the role of storytelling in play . Here are some excerption from that audience .
io9 : How was 13th Age born ?
Rob Heinsoo : Jonathan [ Tweet ] and I have … we’ve been gaming together for 13 or 14 … how many year is it ? 14 years . During that time we ’ve been able to work together on many projection . We always really like it . So the team - up was always really good . When neither of us were work for Wizards [ of the Coast ] , it was like , “ Hey , we should do something together . ” So then the head make out , “ Well , what is the biz that we require to do together ? ” The response was : the game that we can play together on Wednesday night . And our Wednesday night game group prefers d20 wind fantasy games .
io9 : evidence me about the creation of the Icons and how people come to to those elements of fantasy storytelling .
RH : We chose them because we jazz that every world has an elf fairy , gnome king , archmage . So we ’re cheating in a certain sense because we ’re using the familiar and we ’re just putting enough of a construction on it that citizenry find like , “ Oh I knew that already ! ” And that touch sensation of “ This is also exciting . ” That intuitive feeling of “ Is n’t this exciting , ” … that may be almost like the basic emotion that has us excited by fantasy . If you look at why is fantasy is so much more successful than skill - fiction from a broad cultural linear perspective , it could be that science - fiction is n’t about telling us what ’s familiar , scientific discipline - fiction is tell us a little bit about about what ’s in the future that ’s going to disturb you . Now a mess of multitude might fence with me about that , but I think that in the all-embracing opinion of how people link up to illusion that is how it works .
So we leverage that with the Icons by using names and figure that calculate really intimate and that relate to other games citizenry are represent . Anybody playing the Forgotten Realms is intersect with at least three or four of those . Oh yeah , HIM ! And that was conscious . Because look , all these d20 rolling game , you know , 3.5 to Pathfinder , 4th edition , all the other variate , they ’re all pretty good . People who are enjoy campaigns with these , the last thing in the world is to say you should not be enjoying your hunting expedition . No no no , screw that . If you ’re enjoy your campaign , we need to give you a tool box that you could then use to make the affair you ’re enjoy better .
So the picture in fact were another conscious example of that . Even if hoi polloi do n’t require to use this whole scheme it ’s in all likelihood the casing that if you started using this Icon thing in the Forgotten Realms you ’re not gon na be sad . It ’s in reality go to better the game . So when [ gaming diary keeper ] Dave Chalker the other day was write , “ This is how you’duse the Icons system in Neverwinter , ” I was like , Yes ! In Shadowrun , the corporations are the Icons . I think a Shadowrun plot probably gets pretty interesting when you practice that advance . It pinch things that people feel they otherwise have to feign . It turns it into a storytelling experience that can be easily handled by the gamemaster .
io9 : Is the divide between traditional RPGs and “ forward-looking ” or indie style RPGs that emphasize storytelling a false dichotomy ?
RH : No , there is n’t [ a duality ] . The fact that original Dungeons & Dragons role - playing add up out of wargaming means that a modest bit of the adversarial relationship between thespian and gamemaster variety of make it hide in the subtext of the game . You will discover tables that swear upon the rules to protect [ players ] from what they see as a predatory GM who will kill their character pass the hazard . And in those table the idea that , “ No , storytelling together is what this is about ” is n’t what ’s happening . You might say , “ Oh my god , we managed to assure a great story , ” but it was all under the pretext of a competition .
The gamemaster is in a sense roleplaying a unfriendly mankind . But the spirit of storytelling , where you know that the players as well as the gamemaster are helping to create a taradiddle together and that both groups can proffer things that the other one riffs on , that is a probably more a feature that was n’t present in the original D&D. If you await at all the early models , likeArduin Grimoire … ha ! Are you chaff me ? You ’re stagnant ! You want to do some improv ? In HELL ! The indie game , many of them are created as a reaction to that style of play , where they do n’t want to ave any ghost of that lingering adversarial relationship , but instead want to go ahead and really emphasise shared storytelling .
io9 : Do game rules need to simplified to allow storytelling to organically emerge from those car-mechanic ?
RH : I ’m pretty trusted that there are groups for whom more complex mechanism are not an obstructor at all . And so they do n’t need things to be simpler . They like it complex and in fact we all know that part of geekdom has been to be impudent and to do things that other people ca n’t quite care . It has been a badge of honor to be capable to spiel and enjoy games that other people say , “ I ca nt quite palm that . ” And multitude at the table are like , “ We can ! ” And I ’m not go to tell them , “ Well , your report ai n’t secure , ” cause I do n’t think that ’s true .
FantasyGamesGamingRpgs
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , scientific discipline , and culture news in your inbox daily .
newsworthiness from the hereafter , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
