I had enormous fun running games
and freeform demos of 13th Age at GenCon. On the
way I met…
… a halfling with a clockwork heart
made by the dwarves who revealed his extra gear when it came time to snatch the
treasure
…an elven ranger who’d lost his
eyes to faulty justice and received two opals from the Elf Queen in recompense
so that he is now known as the Queen’s Eyes
…the five favorite sons of the Imperial
party circuit in Axis (as close to the Brat Pack as I can imagine running in my
serious-adventure versions of 13th Age!)
...another group of PCs who sorted themselves more or less into bandits and pursuers, so that I could start the action with a Spaghetti Western style face-off with icon relationship rolls complicating the backstory until the real bandits attacked
…a pyromaniac wood elf who turned
out to mainly be burning out temples and cultists of the Diabolist thanks to
the guidance of the Crusader, but was too tight-lipped to bother explaining
that to horrified onlookers
…a halfling acrobat who’d managed
to perform his way out of the Diabolist’s Circus of Hell (I hadn’t known there
was a Circus of Hell!)
…another halfling rogue who was a
dealthless pirate whose soul is trapped by the Blue in Drakkenhall
…an impolitic lady-in-waiting of
the Imperial Court more suited to smiting monsters and rival courtiers with
her awesome Golden Monastery skills
…and a dwarf cleric/explorer who found it in his heart to overcome a life spent subjugating nature to open himself to the power of the High Druid just in time to get the boost he needed to be flung from the ground by earth elementals and put the hammer-smack onto the imp escaping with the Emperor’s Earrings (…that were about to returned to the Dwarf King, since the rest of the party didn’t have a bead on the treasure!)
The One Unique Thing element of
character creation, along with the backgrounds and the icon relationship roll mechanics,
mean that every game of 13th Age gets to surprise the GM as much as
it surprises the players. I left the convention inspired and happy instead of
tired the way I sometimes am after running demos that are variations on the
same theme.
Of course there were other
wonderful One Unique Things and backgrounds generated by players, but I hesitate
to write them all out now. The happiness of people creating their character’s
unique story isn’t aided by me saying, “Oh yeah, I’ve run another game where
someone did something similar.” I know that in the long, or even the short run,
people will be sharing loads of stories about their characters, just for this
moment I’m content not to record full lists.
We will be running more two hour
demos at PAX next weekend. I’ll be there on Friday and Sunday as part of our demo team that
will be running all weekend. We use pre-generated characters that leave all the
fun story stuff to the players to create in the first hour of the demo:
UniqueThing, backgrounds, icon relationships. I’m gonna see if we can work with
the same sort of freeform experience that works with what the players bring to
the table. It may be tough for GMs who aren’t as fluid with the game or it may
work out perfectly, we’ll see.
I refuse to say I am salivating at the thought of 13th Age, because that would imply unsightly drool on my keyboard, when indoor rain is a clearly more plausible explanation. I have ordered my copy from Rainy Day Games, and am really looking forward to starting a campaign this fall.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the updates.
Greg, I hope I make the chance to play with you someday.
DeleteHere's a question, Rob.
ReplyDeleteHow do you *encourage* players to get creative with the One Unique Thing?
That's such a good leading question that I'll use a post to answer it in detail next week, after PAX.
Delete