 | |
| Designers | |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Pelgrane Press |
| Publication | 3 August 2013 |
| Genres | Fantasy |
| Systems | Archmage Engine (d20 System) |
| Website | 13th Age |
| ISBN | 9781908983404 |
13th Age is a d20 fantasy role-playing game designed by Rob Heinsoo (lead designer of Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition) [1] and Jonathan Tweet (lead designer of D&D 3rd Edition), [2] and published by Pelgrane Press. 13th Age has been well supported with over 25 supplements published since its 2013 release, the most recent in 2020. [3]
13th Age was released on August 3, 2013, [4] and the pre-release version was a nominee for the RPG Geek RPG of the Year 2013. [5]
The setting of 13th Age is intended to be fleshed out in the course of play. Although there are default places, 13 default Icons that are archetypes of powerful gods and NPCs in standard fantasy settings, [6] and a default bestiary, a lot of the setting is dependent on character creation. This is done by means of having freeform backgrounds rather than predefined skills, and by each character having One Unique Thing that can be anything which has no direct mechanics; examples in the rulebook include I am the only halfling knight of the Dragon Emperor and I have a clockwork heart made by the dwarves, both of which affect both character and the entire setting. [7] In 2018, Rob Heinsoo Games and Chaosium published an alternate setting supplement for Greg Stafford's Glorantha. 13th Age Glorantha was Kickstarter funded, along with a companion volume further detailing the world, The Gloranthan Sourcebook". [8]
13th Age was designed to be familiar in terms of setting concepts to D&D players, so it is a class-based game with the main rulebook containing standard D&D classes. It is also level-based, with ten levels grouped into three tiers. 13th Age was designed from the ground up to not use miniatures or a grid, and instead uses abstract distances and positioning. In order to speed up combat the Player Characters gain an escalating bonus to hit equal to the number of rounds that have passed starting to count from the second round, known as the "escalation die" (it's a six-sided die, so maximum bonus is +6).
The skills systems often associated with recent versions of Dungeons & Dragons have been replaced with "backgrounds" in 13th Age. Players are encouraged to create backstories for their characters that give them bonuses to actions in the game, often asking them to refer to a time in their fictional past when they have dealt with a similar obstacle and how they overcame it or what they learned from the experience.
Other differences from standard d20 games include the backgrounds taking the place of most utility magic, weapon damage dice being determined by class, spells that are only expended on bad rolls, and recoveries that resemble D&D 4e healing surges.
Like many d20-variant games, The Archmage Engine – 13th Age SRD was released under the Open Game License, so that its open game content can be copied or modified. [9]
After they had both left Wizards of the Coast, long-time friends and gaming partners Heinsoo and Tweet decided to create a game together. [6] [10] By GenCon 2012 the game was ready for playtesting, and they used the hype created at GenCon to Kickstart a supplement called 13 True Ways even before 13th Age was released. [11] The game was officially launched a week before GenCon 2013.
In August 2022, Pelgrame Press announced a second “Escalation Edition" of 13th Age, to be funded via Kickstarter in early 2023. [12] [13]
In December 2022, the 13th Age SRD was updated to version 3.0 to add classes, monsters and multi-classing rules from the 13 True Ways and Bestiary supplemental books. [9]
13th Age won the 2014 Silver Ennie Award for "Best Rules". [14]
Call of Cthulhu is a horror fiction role-playing game based on H. P. Lovecraft's story of the same name and the associated Cthulhu Mythos. The game, often abbreviated as CoC, is published by Chaosium; it was first released in 1981 and is in its seventh edition, with licensed foreign language editions available as well. Its game system is based on Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing (BRP) with additions for the horror genre. These include special rules for sanity and luck.
Chaosium Inc. is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include Call of Cthulhu, based on the horror fiction stories of H. P. Lovecraft, RuneQuest Glorantha, Pendragon, based on Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and 7th Sea, "swashbuckling and sorcery" set in a fantasy 17th century Europe.
Jonathan Tweet is an American game designer who has been involved in the development of the role-playing games Ars Magica, Everway, Over the Edge, Talislanta, the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons and 13th Age, and the collectible miniatures game Dreamblade. In 2015 Tweet released Grandmother Fish, a full-color, full-sized book about evolution aimed at preschoolers. In 2018 Tweet released Clades and Clades Prehistoric, two card games for children and adults which demonstrate the concept of a clade.
The Monster Manual is the primary bestiary sourcebook for monsters in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, first published in 1977 by TSR. The Monster Manual was the first hardcover D&D book and includes monsters derived from mythology and folklore, as well as creatures created specifically for D&D. Creature descriptions include game-specific statistics, a brief description of its habits and habitats, and typically an image of the creature. Along with the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, the Monster Manual is one of the three "core rulebooks" in most editions of the D&D game. As such, new editions of the Monster Manual have been released for each edition of D&D. Due to the level of detail and illustration included in the 1977 release, the book was cited as a pivotal example of a new style of wargame books. Future editions would draw on various sources and act as a compendium of published monsters.
The Dungeon Master's Guide is a book of rules for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. The Dungeon Master's Guide contains rules concerning the arbitration and administration of a game, and is intended for use by the game's Dungeon Master.
Keith Baker is a game designer and fantasy novel author. In addition to working with Wizards of the Coast on the creation of Eberron, he has also contributed material for Goodman Games, Paizo Publishing and Green Ronin Publishing. In 2014, Baker and Jennifer Ellis co-founded the indie tabletop game company Twogether Studios.
An owlbear is a fictional creature originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. An owlbear is depicted as a cross between a bear and an owl, which "hugs" like a bear and attacks with its beak. Inspired by a plastic toy made in Hong Kong, Gary Gygax created the owlbear and introduced the creature to the game in the 1975 Greyhawk supplement; the creature has since appeared in every subsequent edition of the game. Owlbears, or similar beasts, also appear in several other fantasy role-playing games, video games and other media.
Atlantis is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) originally published by Bard Games, set in the ancient world before Atlantis sank. It first consisted of three books: The Arcanum, The Lexicon, and The Bestiary, and for this reason was originally called The Atlantean Trilogy or The Atlantis Trilogy.
Robin D. Laws is a Canadian writer and game designer who lives in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of a number of novels and role-playing games as well as an anthologist.
Green Ronin Publishing is an American company based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2000 by Chris Pramas and Nicole Lindroos, they have published several role-playing game–related products. They won several awards for their games including multiple Origins, ENnie, Pen & Paper, and Inquest Fan Awards.
Atlas Games is a company which publishes role-playing games, board games and card games. Its founder and current president is John Nephew.
Rob Heinsoo is an American tabletop game designer. He has been designing and contributing to professional role-playing games, card games, and board games since 1994. Heinsoo was the lead designer on the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons (2008), and is co-designer of the 13th Age roleplaying game along with Jonathan Tweet. He has also designed and contributed to role playing, miniatures and card games, and a computer game.
The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a fantasy role-playing game (RPG) that was published in 2009 by Paizo Publishing. The first edition extends and modifies the System Reference Document (SRD) based on the revised 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) published by Wizards of the Coast under the Open Game License (OGL) and is intended to be backward-compatible with that edition.
Robert J. Schwalb is a writer in the role-playing game industry, and has worked as a game designer and developer for such games as Dungeons & Dragons, A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and many other RPG supplements.
Brian R. James is a game designer and software engineer. As a writer, Brian is best known for his online and print works for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game published by Wizards of the Coast. In game design circles, Brian is highly regarded for his deep knowledge of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting and its extensive history. In 2012 Brian won a Silver ENnie Award for Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale and he has been nominated for other ENnie Awards and Origins Awards.
Free RPG Day is an annual promotional event by the Tabletop role-playing game industry. The event rules are fairly simple: participating publishers provide special free copies of games to participating game stores; the game store agrees to provide one free game to any person who requests a free game on Free RPG Day.
Dungeon World is a tabletop fantasy roleplaying game created by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel. The game uses the Powered by the Apocalypse engine originally designed for Apocalypse World and used in Monsterhearts and other games. The game is advertised as having old school style with modern rules. The text of the game was released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) is a tabletop role playing game design framework developed by Meguey Baker and Vincent Baker for the 2010 game Apocalypse World and later used for Dungeon World, Monsterhearts and numerous other RPGs.
Cam Banks is a game designer known for his work on the Cortex System line of roleplaying games as lead designer for Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and the Big Damn Heroes Handbook supplement to the Serenity Role Playing Game, among other titles. He is the Cortex Creative Director for Fandom Tabletop, the publishers of Cortex Prime.
The Arcanum, published by Bard Games in 1984, is the first book in the fantasy role-playing game Atlantean Trilogy, later known simply as Atlantis.
Role-playing game system originally published by Wizards of the Coast | ||
| Main authors |  | |
| Games | ||
| Licensing | ||
| Derived games | ||