I’ve played 7 sessions in a 13th Age campaign, and I love it so far. It has all the core familiar d20 mechanics, but throws away D&D’s skill system in favor of explicit mechanics that incorporate PC backstory directly into success and failure in the game.
In 13th Age instead of skills, PCs have “Backgrounds”. Backgrounds are rolled like skills, but instead of picking from a list, PCs make up their own.
For example, if your PC’s backstory involves being abandoned as a child and growing up on the mean city streets, you might have the background: “Resourceful Urchin”. During the session, if your party is tracking down a bad guy in the slums, you could ask your DM: “could I use my Resourceful Urchin background to tap into my contacts and find out if anyone has seen the bad guy recently?” Your DM says “give me a roll” and if you succeed, you advance in your pursuit without negative consequence.
13th Age takes a bit more good faith from both the players and the GM to be fun, but its so great for making the PCs feel special and important in the world in a way D&D doesn’t support.
The lead designers of 3E and 4E collaborated on 13th Age. I would expect it to take the best of both systems and combine them together into a great RPG setting.
I’ve played 7 sessions in a 13th Age campaign, and I love it so far. It has all the core familiar d20 mechanics, but throws away D&D’s skill system in favor of explicit mechanics that incorporate PC backstory directly into success and failure in the game.
In 13th Age instead of skills, PCs have “Backgrounds”. Backgrounds are rolled like skills, but instead of picking from a list, PCs make up their own.
For example, if your PC’s backstory involves being abandoned as a child and growing up on the mean city streets, you might have the background: “Resourceful Urchin”. During the session, if your party is tracking down a bad guy in the slums, you could ask your DM: “could I use my Resourceful Urchin background to tap into my contacts and find out if anyone has seen the bad guy recently?” Your DM says “give me a roll” and if you succeed, you advance in your pursuit without negative consequence.
13th Age takes a bit more good faith from both the players and the GM to be fun, but its so great for making the PCs feel special and important in the world in a way D&D doesn’t support.
The lead designers of 3E and 4E collaborated on 13th Age. I would expect it to take the best of both systems and combine them together into a great RPG setting.