13th Age: Dark Empire (Revised setting ideas)

Started by eternaldarkness, June 18, 2015, 03:19:23 AM

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eternaldarkness

I have an idea for a 13th Age game, but I'd like to skip the usual slow story intro phase and throw the characters right into the action right away. To that end, I would have the players start off in the thick of an adventure.

The characters would know eachother and have preestablished reasons to cooperate and work together, and the PC's would be drawing directly on the archetypal power of the icons to accomplish great deeds.

Icon rolls would be treated as plot points that allow a player to edit scenes in a manner befitting the icon they got the icon success from - a '5' lets you edit the scene, but the GM gets to add a complication with it. 6's are all goodness.

Icon roll successes would also function as free rerolls - 5's let you reroll and take the best of two rolls (minimum of 11 if both rolls are below that) and 6's make the roll a natural 20 for all intents and purposes. You can also use your icon rolls to help or hinder others in the same way - edit a scene to give them an edge or a hindrance, or make them roll twice and take the worst of the two (maximum of 10 if both rolls exceed 10) and with a 6 make them auto-fail a roll. Players can also spend an icon die to increase the escalation die by 1, with 5's also giving the die to enemies for a round and 6's just increasing it with no strings attached.

The 13th Age SRD is here: www.13thagesrd.com

Material from 13 True Ways is usable as well as races and classes from www.13thage.org pending my approval.

Basically we would start in an adventure and work out the details as we go.

So....any takers?

eternaldarkness

Still looking for a few good adventurers! I'm open to any kind of fantasy setting, especially a fantasy/sci-fi setting.

FragarachZ

I'm interested. Been looking at 13th age for some time now but I haven't really got a chance to try it before. I'd be up for both a group or solo adventure if someone were to run this system :)
O&O

eternaldarkness

If I don't see any more interest soon we'll go ahead solo. I'm thinking of a fun scenario that starts with the end of the world and works backwards from there.

ShadowFox89

 I'm going to have to bring back my elf rogue, aren't I?
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eternaldarkness

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on July 09, 2015, 11:14:32 PM
I'm going to have to bring back my elf rogue, aren't I?

If you so desire :D I only need two to start. In fact, I prefer smaller.

schnookums

This seems like it might be a lot of fun, if my presence wouldn't make the group too large...

eternaldarkness

Quote from: schnookums on July 10, 2015, 12:08:52 AM
This seems like it might be a lot of fun, if my presence wouldn't make the group too large...

Nope, four is my limit. Start throwing out character ideas, and I'll post setting info soon.

FragarachZ

O&O

FragarachZ

I suppose if I make a Midgardian elf and someone else makes an anime character from the Jade Empire there will be some reason why we don't kill each other.

As for icons, do we need to roll for them on character creation, or do we just assign the 3 dice among them and you tell us when to roll?

Also what to expect in terms of sexy stuff, (since this is E) and the opening post didn't mention it? Will there be any, are monsters going to come after us with more carnal than lethal approaches, is it be a thing of relevance in the game (like solving problems by sleeping with political leaders, bribing with sexual favors, etc)?
O&O

eternaldarkness

#10
Combat - to keep combat simple, the battlefield is divided into zones based on the size of the place where the fight happens. If you get into a brawl in a small tea house in the slums of the imperial city, it might only be one zone so everyone in that zone is nearby to everyone else. It takes one move to reach an adjacent zone, two to reach a zone that is Far Away (two or more zones from your location) and you need to have a way of getting there - either a movement mode like Lightfoot (which all imperial PC's get) or a clever stunt accompanied by an appropriate roll, or just icon help. Battlefields are always fluid - if someone gets tossed out of a window in the teahouse brawl above, the fight just expanded in size. If they then Lightfoot up onto the roof, it expands again.

Edit: Notice how I bolded distance/location. Do that in combat - say Jane the human and Bob the Fighter are fighting a band of orc raiders in a sword to sword melee - you would say something like 'Jane is engaged with the raiders, and Bob the fighter is nearby'

FragarachZ

Okay, so what do non-imperial characters get then? Btw I have no interest in wuxia or anime roleplaying so I'm on board as long as it doesn't completely take over.
O&O

eternaldarkness


FragarachZ

I think I'll stick with the material on the srd. I don't know enough of the game yet to feel ready for homebrew. I'll stick to ranger, seems to work for me most of the time.
O&O

ShadowFox89

 I'll go with a Lurker. Blame it on playing a lot of Dishonored recently :P
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eternaldarkness

Perfectly fine in both cases. That's two heavily damage-focused classes, so based on what gets chosen by anyone else who joins you guys may be heavy hitters. That's good because combats go fast with lots of damage-dealers, but bad if you get outnumbered or surprised. A I'll throw you guys an NPC to round out the party regardless though.

schnookums

My apologies, I've just been swamped but will try and come up with and post ideas for a character this weekend

ShadowFox89

I have work and a 40k game on Saturday,  but shall be ableto work on a character Sunday.
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ShadowFox89

 You should hop on AIM so I can bounce character ideas off of you :P
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1SAZ

Still have room for one more? I have a few character ideas that I can throw in to round out the group if it's lacking a particular archetype.

eternaldarkness

Quote from: 1SAZ on July 12, 2015, 01:45:59 PM
Still have room for one more? I have a few character ideas that I can throw in to round out the group if it's lacking a particular archetype.

If you are for sure joining, post up a basic character concept: brief background, race/class, and the characters One Unique Thing.

schnookums

Am a bit stuck with ideas, trying to narrow it down between ideas. Are Kitsune allowed as a race from the fan stuff, or is it just the stuff from the books? Was thinking of a monk or a druid (I liked the idea of Chaos Mage but was afraid it might be a bit too much)

eternaldarkness

Quote from: schnookums on July 12, 2015, 11:48:29 PM
Am a bit stuck with ideas, trying to narrow it down between ideas. Are Kitsune allowed as a race from the fan stuff, or is it just the stuff from the books? Was thinking of a monk or a druid (I liked the idea of Chaos Mage but was afraid it might be a bit too much)

A Kitsune Chaos Mage? I love it. Make it so.

schnookums

I shall do so, will need to seriously read over the rules and might need a tiny bit of help with chargen but this seems like a fun idea to play :)

ShadowFox89

 Think I'm gonna revive Kat for this, make her a tiefling avenger from the Jade Empire.
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