CONFIDENTIAL//SI-NBA//ORCON
We have learned that last year’s operation in Morristown, New Jersey failed to end the vampire threat. Kenneth Hite and John Adamus urgently request assistance at DEXCON 16 from 10:00AM – 6:00PM, Saturday, July 6, 2013 to counter yet another assault by the undead…
…or to participate in it.
The Operation: The 2013 World Night’s Black Agents Championship will be run in two rounds by Night’s Black Agents designer Kenneth Hite, assisted by John Adamus. Players can come for either, or both sessions:
- The first round is a LIVE ACTION session in which players portray agents, vampires, and the holders of the clues to a terrifying conspiracy.
- Surviving agents follow those clues to an explosive final tabletop round.
Prizes: Up to five winners (determined by survival and excellence) will receive FREE 2014 combo memberships to METATOPIA 2013, DREAMATION 2014 and DEXCON 17.
Get more details, and order Night’s Black Agents from the Pelgrane Shop.
Night’s Black Agents brings the GUMSHOE engine to the spy thriller genre, combining the propulsive paranoia of movies like Ronin and The Bourne Identity with supernatural horror straight out of Bram Stoker. Investigation is crucial, but it never slows down the action, which explodes with expanded options for bone-crunching combat, high-tech tradecraft, and adrenaline-fueled chases.
Jon Spengler of Dorkadia volunteered to run 13th Age at Norwescon in Seattle, and posted about the experience on his blog. He’s kindly given us permission to share his article here.
If you’re interested in running 13th Age at a con or at your local game store, we’d love to know! Contact me at wade.rockett@fireopalmedia.com
I was introduced to 13th Age through a demo run at PAX Prime 2012. The demo was so unique and so fun that I preordered the game immediately after PAX. It was the hands-on experience that made me fall in love with the game. When I was asked by Wade Rockett to run a few demo games at Norwescon 36 this past weekend I jumped at the opportunity!
The Material
The convention material for 13th Age is perfectly crafted to show off the strengths of the system. (And it’s publicly available.) It’s a simple two hour structure: in the first hour the players at the table pick from a selection of pregenerated characters and brainstorm their one unique thing, icon relationships, and backgrounds. The second hour is an improv adventure born from those unique things that features a single combat encounter.
The demo is truly bare bones, little more than guidelines for adventure improv and a few sets of monsters to throw at the heroes. But because the meat of the demo is character creation, the players start the game engaged, leaning forward, and invested. In fact, the demo consists almost solely of what makes 13th Age so different from other “d20 rolling games”: the mechanics that give narrative voice to the players. Players of more traditional games start out wary of such mechanics, but by the end everyone is pitching ideas on why exactly “thick headed” is just about the best damn background for a barbarian ever. (It bashes down doors AND helps in social situations!) The improv, player-centric nature of the demo material is brilliant.
I also created PC and monster tokens for the demo using 1-1/2 inch rubber grippies made to protect hardwood floors from furniture. I’m going to make a post about these before long, they were easy to make and really work well for GMs like me that have to pack everything they need in a bag before they head out to game.
The Experience
The demo I ran was a hoot. All five of my players were engaging with the mechanics, laughing, and buying into the narrative mechanics. I did forget to have the players roll their icon relationships (which I’m kicking myself for) but ultimately it didn’t get in the way. One of the players was a friend of mine that had only tangentially been introduced to roleplaying games. I’m happy to say that she enjoyed herself.
The one unique things were exactly the sort of gonzo flavor that 13th Age revels in that other games would shy from. We had a bard that could sing the dead awake, a paladin that received visions, a half-elf half-dwarf, a barbarian cursed with eternal rage, and a sorcerer that punched the god of honor and lightning, receiving some of its power. That was a fun one to workshop out! There was very little story game experience in the group but it only took the gentlest of nudges to get every single person exploiting the hell out of the creative power they were given. It was really great to see the trepidation melt away as the players took the reigns and ran with the system.
The combat was fast and furious, most of the players immediately grasped their class powers in a matter of a single round of combat. The cleric buffed, the barbarian smashed, paladin smote with impunity. Huge success.
Jonathan Tweet and Ash Law, head of 13th Age Organized Play
The Conclusion
I had a great time running the demo and hanging out with the 13th Age crew. I know that all five of the players at my table enjoyed the freedom of the character creation and enjoyed the combat. I had more than one person walk away with their character sheet in their pocket, which is exactly what I did when I left my demo at PAX 2012 and preordered the game. The demo was a success; my only true regret is not being able to run a second game due to time constraints!
In case you haven’t gotten the message yet, you should all really check out 13th Age. (It should be on store shelves in a month or so.)
I have to add a special shout out to Ash Law. He was so busy coordinating the demos and gathering players that it seems like I only got to speak with him for a few minutes. But in the small amount of time I watched him run his demo I realized he was one of the most charismatic, energetic, and creative GMs I’ve ever seen in action. Just reading his comments on the 13th Age G+ community shows his passion for the hobby and his complete understanding of the dynamics of roleplaying. I’m going to try to take some of that magic I saw and apply it at my table.
13th Age is scheduled to be published June 2013 by Pelgrane Press. Pre-order 13th Age at the Pelgrane Shop, and download the v.6 draft of the rules to start playing now!
Our Seattle-area 13th Age GMs will run demos at Emerald City ComicCon this weekend. We haven’t heard exactly where yet, but here’s the gaming area map — you’ll find us somewhere in there. Or just wander around yelling, “I DECLARE FOR THE LICH KING!” and we’ll yell back.
Come by and join a game of 13th Age:
- Friday, March 1 4pm – 8pm
- Saturday, March 2 10am – 7pm
- Sunday, March 3 10am – 5pm
Also, head over to Artist’s Alley to meet artist Aaron McConnell, see art from the upcoming game, and commission a sketch of your character or one of the icons.
My own shift is on Sunday. I hope to see you there!
Emerald City Comic Con is coming up the end of this month, and the 13th Age crew will be there — Rob Heinsoo and our volunteer GMs will run demos, and I’ll be in the Artist Alley.
I’ve had to turn commission requests down within the past year due to my work schedule, but I’m making the time in the weeks leading up to the convention to do some!
If you’re interested in getting an original drawing of your favorite 13th Age Icon or character, please email me at aranmcconnell(at)hotmail(dot)com with “COMMISSION” in the subject line, to pre-order yours now.
Here’s what I’m offering:
- A black and white single character sketch, full figure or head (like the icons below), 9″x12″ for $50.
Anything beyond that, such as a character along with an icon, is going to cost at least $75 and will depend on the complexity of the image. I think we’ll both be happiest with a straightforward concept that is boiled down to the elegant essence at the core of a character. The sketches at the bottom of the post were done with that sentiment in mind.
So, if you’re planning to be at ECCC please consider signing up for a demo of 13th Age and pre-ordering a sketch! Pre-ordering is the best way to ensure that you’ll be able to get a sketch.
The last time I attended a convention was PAX in Seattle last year and it was a good time. At one point, Lee Moyer and I were both at the table drawing collaborative sketches based on suggestions from fans of 13th Age. The two examples shown at the top of this post are The Leviathan, described to have a “lobster-esque body with the torso and head of a woman, braided beard and eyes without pupils,” and an “11 year old sorcerer boy with ties to the Elf King.”
We were able to work on suggestions like these at PAX because the “commission craze” hasn’t really caught on there like it has at ECCC. At the Comic Con word is out that artists are willing to do sketches for money…surprise, surprise. The pre-order concept has been a popular solution for the artists who want to do more commissions than they can accomplish in a single weekend.
Thank you, and I hope to see you in Seattle!
aamcconnell.com
Rob Heinsoo wasn’t the only GM representing 13th Age at ZOEcon in Seattle. Ash Law (The Reliquary) gives his convention report:
The Dwarf King’s Double’s Second Beard
Our session started with me standing outside the room at ZOECon giving away books. That’s right, I had a load of old game books and was just giving them away! We inherited a ton and while the wife and I picked out the cool or rare stuff (original box set D&D!) we were left with a random assortment of games and supplements that we had no space for. However, plenty of gamers felt differently and classic games found new homes. It was like Christmas, only with less elves and more geeks.
Talking of elves and geeks, I rounded up five players for 13th Age. We ended up with three elves: an elf wizard, an wood elf ranger, and a dark elf sorcerer. Added to the party were a stalwart dwarven fighter and a halfling thief.
At the start of the game I had a good long think about why the group was together. Everyone had a positive icon relationship to the Dwarf King … except the halfling. The halfling had as his One Unique Thing (a neat 13th Age mechanic that lets you shape the world) that he could perfectly imitate a dwarf, and as a background had put 5 points into “I braved untold dangers to steal the Dwarf King’s favorite magical drinking tankard”. Wow – with a cool background like that, adventures just write themselves! So there they started, with the ‘heroes’ being bought in to find the Dwarf King’s missing tankard, and the halfling being bought in to the grand hall in chains.
The dwarf fighter Bristlebeard (as played by Stan!) had as his One Unique Thing that he was the Dwarf King’s body double. Not only did he turn up at official functions when it was too troublesome for the Dwarf King to attend, but he was the second dwarfiest dwarf alive. Naturally Bristlebeard was appointed party leader, with the elf wizard acting as ‘parole officer’ for the halfling.
The group set out to find the mysterious strangers to whom the halfling had sold the sacred tankard, and discovered (thanks to the wood elf ranger who had as a background “Famed Far And Wide As A Tracker [4 points]”) a trail leading northwards to the most northerly of dwarven forts. Worse, the tracks were of a small orc army.
Hitching a ride with the ladies of a dwarven ‘comfort wagon’ due to visit the fort (“Who can resist Bristlebeard’s charms? No dwarf woman – that’s for sure! [3 points]”) the party made quick time towards the fort, as the drow rode ahead on his beast (One Unique Thing: “I have a loyal giant battle tick”). The drow’s keen eyes spotted orcs in the fort, and worse the orcs had spotted them. The drow sorcerer rode back and the party came up with a plan … Bristlebeard and the drow would distract the orcs, while the wizard, ranger, and halfling rogue slip round the back of the fort.
I had the sneaking characters make some Icon Relationship rolls. Both the ranger and the wizard succeeded on rolls for their positive relationships with the Prince of Shadows. We decided that they had attempted to rob this fort in the past as a one-off job for the Prince of Shadows, each of them disguised and unaware of the other’s identity as part of an elaborate heist that didn’t quite work. Not only did they know the layout of the fort but they knew the best place to climb over the back wall.
Meanwhile Bristlebeard convinced the orcs that he was in fact the Dwarf King, and proceeded to moon them with his ‘second beard’. With the orcs distracted and terrified the sneak attack squad climbed in the back, and the halfling got to try out another neat part of 13th Age – “Fail Forward”. The halfling failed his climb roll so I gave him the option – succeed on climbing up but fall off the top of the wall into the courtyard, or climb up but get his coat stuck on a nail and have to free himself. He chose to fall face-first into the courtyard and down he went!
The orcs spun around to see the sneak attack squad getting into position, but before they could react the drow sorcerer charged forward on his riding tick. He hit two orcs with a blast of firey magic, and I pointed out to the player that he might want to use his racial special ability – drow are renowned for their cruelty. Laughing, the player added extra damage to his successful attack and sent orcs screaming off the palisade wall into the courtyard below. Then his tick climbed the fort’s defenses with the sorcerer on his back!
A ten-round fight followed, and I would spare you dear reader from the boring bits, except there weren’t any. In the next half hour the heroes made derring-do, buckled their swash, roared battle cries, and at one point the wood elf jumped sideways off the fort while firing his bow four times, John Woo style. 13th Age really has cool classes. Really cool.
The wood elf ranger was firing arrows, followed by more arrows, and then heck, some more arrows. The halfling was rolling around the place, stabbing and firing his bow. The dwarf stomped around the place, kicking crotches and falling into defensive stances. (He missed a lot, but hey, even when a dwarf fighter misses he can still kick real hard and drop back behind his shield). The elf wizard teleported around the place and put orcs to sleep. The sorcerer … he ‘sorcled’ the heck out of everything with fire and ice and lightning (from the back of a giant bug).
After the battle the party entered the still smoldering ruin of the fort’s forge to discover the Dwarf King’s magic tankard and a magic sword, around which the bodies of the slain dwarves of the fort were arranged in the pattern of a rune. With the sorcerer and the wizard blasting ice magic to make everything safe, Bristlebeard the dwarf rushed in to disrupt the ritual.
Alas, it didn’t work. A demon-thing erupted from the ground and the orcs arose as zombies. While all this was occurring, the drow sorcerer had fabulous magic powers revealed to him as he held aloft the magic sword and loudly proclaimed “I have the power”. There was lightning, a ghostly castle appeared, and the drow’s giant riding tick gained armor.
Another furious battle followed, the dwarf holding the demon-thing at bay while the others fought the evil orc zombies and the sorcerer ‘bravely’ had his tick drag him out of combat and help him run away. It turned out that the whole thing was secretly a ploy by the drow to seize control of the sword that the dwarves had kept hidden in their obscure northern fort, a sword that he knew about because of his connections to the Prince of Shadows – and with that another playing piece was promoted in the great game between the Icons.
With grins around the table we called it a day. Drow are sneaky, halflings and dwarves rock, and elves channel the spirit of John Woo.
If all this sounds like a fantastically good time to you, pre-order 13th Age today.
This post originally appeared on Rob’s blog.
I ran a two hour demo session of 13th Age at ZOEcon last week for five players. I was deadline -rushed working on 13th Age so I didn’t otherwise partake of the convention, but I did catch up with a couple friends I hadn’t talked to in years.
The player who’d traveled the furthest was visiting from Peru on business. Perhaps not coincidentally, he played a character with a bit of business in her background: Arian was a halfling heiress, the exiled heir to the largest halfling corporation in the world. It had an assimilation-style name, something to fit in among the taller barons of Glitterhaegen, so I can’t remember what the corp was called. Arian was a rogue who was inordinately fond of all-things-elven but she took her main cues from the Prince of Shadows.
Unlike most sessions, where I actively try to find connections between all the PCs, this session ended up feeling a lot more like a game of Fiasco. Somewhat at a loss for a unifying plotline, I fell back on the notion that the High Druid’s resurgence had reactivated ancient dwarven mines and that some mines were now sending out powerful metals that had been lost for centuries.
The player of the elf wizard had been reading a lot of Tolkien. He glibly dubbed our miracle metal quindilar. Quindalar flowed and shimmied and did its best impression of the stuff in the briefcase at the end of Pulp Fiction. All the PCs ended up wanting quindilar, or having an interest in its future, and after off-screen travail and the deaths of their other traveling companions, they faced off at the entrance of a former dwarven copper mine, now pulsing with quindilar veins.
Talian the elf wizard and Court historian was friends with the halfling heiress. The elf wizard had been exceptionally good friends with the Elf Queen, since he was the father of her upcoming child. It was expedient for him to leave the Court while still breathing and he hoped that quindilar might offer him an avenue to a life where he could have more to do with his family.
The dwarf cleric, Ollen, had been blessed with the Great Gold Wyrm with the ability to eat most anything, a survival blessing that had allowed Ollen and other heroes to survive a fearsome siege. Ollen preferred minerals. That’s probably where I started conceiving the quindilar plan.
Raven the half-orc barbarian was a foundling and a champion of the forest, devoted to the High Druid at a level that went beyond words.
Trixie…. Well, Trixie was a mess unless she was fighting. A two-weapon fighter and a one-woman hybrid of a Great Gold Wyrm champion and a camp follower. The details are now buried.
I can’t claim there was a great deal I added to the session. I started the action with an orc-fake. As the PCs faced each other at the mine entrance, swords drawn and wands ready, an orc arrow hissed out of the darkness of the mine and clattered off the fighter’s armor. A fight with minions of the Orc Lord made the most sense given the PCs’ enemies. I reached into my minis bags for the orcs. Undead, gnolls, goblins, lizard men. No orcs. Whoops.
Aided by the players, I came up with the following: “The gnolls have been fighting their way here too. They ran out of arrows. They’re down to using orc arrows. That’s why that attack missed so badly [natural 1].”
So the orc fight turned into a gnoll’n’demon fight. The PCs got over their initial mistrust and didn’t start interfering with each other until the moment that the gnolls had given up (Trixie’s sword, blessed by the GGW in preparation for combat with demon-lovers, was putting the fear into them, literally) and the Diabolist’s messenger imp that was trying to escape with a glowing golden tube was tumbling from the sky suffering from acid arrow damage that was going to kill it. Trixie made a play for the tube before Ariana (the halfling heiress) put her swashbuckle talent to perfect use and somersaulted away with the goods.
At that point the action could really have gone all-Fiasco, but Ollen the dwarf and Raven the barbarian calmed people down. We ended with a round-the-table tell-me-the-end-of-your-character’s story, that went something like this…
- Ariana used quindilar to build a company that competed with her father’s organization while embracing halfling culture instead of pretending to be Big Folk.
- Talian wisely kept away from the Court of Stars but used quindilar to further his researches and to create beautiful gifts for his lover the Queen and toys for the child.
- Ollen discovered that quindilar was just about the tastiest thing he’d ever experienced. I didn’t give him much of a chance to expand on his character beyond this broadly mimed discovery.
- Raven made all the other characters’ plans possible by NOT working with the High Druid and the powers of nature to shut the mine down. “As long as they use quindilar in moderation and do not harm the earth,” he said.
- Trixie died alone of an unmentionable disease.
Photo credit: Ash Law
The 13th Age crew will be out in force at PAX Prime! If you’re attending, we invite you to…
Stop by our table: We’ll be on 3rd floor of the Washington State Convention Center, right in front of rooms 305 and 306. We’ll be easy to find: look for the big Archmage and Diabolist banners.The table will be open 10 AM – 10 PM Friday & Saturday / 10 AM – 5 PM on Sunday.
You can see a preview of the book’s layout and get a first look the 13th Age: Forge of Heroes Facebook game.
Play 13th Age: GMs including Rob Heinsoo and developer Rob Watkins will be running two-hour 13th Age demo games at Indie RPGs on Demand (WSCC rooms 305 and 306)
- Friday & Saturday 10 AM- midnight
- Sunday 10 AM – 4 PM
Get a 13th Age art print signed by artists Lee Moyer and Aaron McConnell, and maybe a quick sketch. Prints are for sale at the Gamma Ray Games booth. Here’s when Aaron and Lee will be at the table:
- Aaron: Friday 2-4
- Lee and Aaron: Saturday 2-4
Lee: Sunday 10-11 Unfortunately, Lee had to leave PAX early and won’t be signing today
Their illustrations for 13th Age are in display in The Art of Roleplaying Games exhibition at Krab Jab studios. RSVP at the link for the Artist Mixer on August 30th.
Attend our panels at the at the Red Lion Hotel Tabletop Theater (San Juan Room):
- “13th Age, Dungeon World and More: Old School RPGs With Modern Design.”
Friday 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Rob Heinsoo, Logan Bonner, Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel will talk about how dungeon crawling RPGs can benefit from advances in rules and storytelling tech. That’s a lot of awesome designers in one room. You probably don’t want to miss it.
- “I am Startup and So Can You, America: Designing and Publishing on a Ramen Budget”
Sunday 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Game pros Luke Crane (Mouse Guard, Burning Wheel), Wolfgang Baur (Kobold Quarterly, Midgard Campaign Setting), Chad Dylan Long (13th Age for Facebook) and Jay Schneider (Fire Opal Media) will hose their audience down with numbers, facts and funny anecdotes about self-publishing that will ensure you never want to make or publish anything ever.
You can pre-order 13th Age today and download a fully playable copy of the game-in-progress. Also, check out 13 True Ways, the Kickstarter for its first expansion book.
CONFIDENTIAL//SI-NBA//ORCON
We have intercepted communications indicating a high probability of a vampire presence at DEXCON 15 in Morristown, New Jersey from 2:00PM – 8:00PM, Saturday, July 7, 2012.
Register to join one of six strike teams under the direction of Kenneth Hite and neutralize the threat by any means necessary. The winning team — even if represented by just one surviving operative — will receive $1,000 in cash.
24 16 14 spots are left. Get more details, and pre-order Night’s Black Agents: [REDACTED] Edition.
Night’s Black Agents brings the GUMSHOE engine to the spy thriller genre, combining the propulsive paranoia of movies like Ronin and The Bourne Identity with supernatural horror straight out of Bram Stoker. Investigation is crucial, but it never slows down the action, which explodes with expanded options for bone-crunching combat, high-tech tradecraft, and adrenaline-fueled chases.
This unique event will be run by the game’s designer, Kenneth Hite, assisted by John Adamus. Each of the teams will represent a different clandestine organization and will play in a preliminary round in which any of their members could die at any time. Survivors will represent their team in the explosive final round in which the the answers to the riddles of the game will earn points.
Jonathan Tweet, co-designer of 13th Age, will be at Norwescon in Seattle, WA this weekend — and he might reveal a thing or two about the game.
(Okay, he will definitely reveal a thing or two about the game. He’s been dying to talk about it for weeks.)
He’ll also have a limited number of 13th Age postcards to give away at the con. Here’s where you can find him:
Saturday Noon Cascade 8
Ask the Gamemasters
Has your current campaign taken reached a dead end? Not sure how to keep your players happy? Have a problem player that you need to deal with? Want to add some house rules to your game, but unsure how to make them work? Come to this panel with questions about your RPG campaign.
Erik Mona (M), Jonathan Tweet, Scott Gable, Jason Bulmahn
Saturday 3 pm Evergreen 3&4
Building a Better Campaign Setting
What makes a good campaign setting? What elements in the world or universe of the campaign make it stand out above all others? What does it take to make a Forgottten Realms, or a Planescape, or a Golarion? Join our gaming panelists in discussing how to design a truly engaging and memorable game setting.
Wolfgang Baur (M), Logan Bonner, Bruce R Cordell, Jonathan Tweet
Saturday 8 pm Cascade 8
Crunch vs. Fluff: FIGHT!
Gaming, especially role-playing games, has essentially two elements. The “crunch” is the rules that define the game system, and dictate how to simulate real-world actions. The “fluff” is the fiction that gives the game its setting, and aids in the players role-playing within that setting. Not surprisingly, gamers are often divided as to which element is most important…and those divisions can be strong! Our gaming panelists engage in a civil discussion on realism vs. role-playing, rules-heavy war games vs. rules-light/theatre-based games.
Robert J. Schwalb (M), Dustin J Gross, Wolfgang Baur, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook
