04 February 2015

Early Draft of 13th Age in Glorantha

This is an epochal moment! As a backer, I have just received the very first draft of 13th Age in Glorantha (13G) by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet. Since RuneQuest Adventures in Glorantha for RQ6 is still in the works, at the moment this is the only other in-print official role-playing game set in Glorantha (the other being obviously HeroQuest).

The draft document, titled Playtest Packet, is 42 pages long. It is text-only, without any illustrations, but with a bit of layout.

From the latest Kickstarter update (trying not to reveal any secrets because we were asked not to):
The file begins with short playtest instructions and continues with six pre-generated 1st level characters, runes, rules, and the introductory adventure. 

The playtest instructions are really just a few paragraphs.

The pre-generated characters take up fifteen (15!) pages. This is quite comprehensive, because each character description actually also contains the rules pertaining to the relevant character class.

The first three pre-generated characters are:
1) a Storm Bull
2) a Humakti
3) a follower of Orlanth Rex
These three characters are all variations on the original 13th Age fighter or barbarian character classes. Let us say that they're quite 'expected'.

The following pre-gens are:
4) a follower of Orlanth Adventurous; this is possibly the most versatile of all the playtest characters
5) a Storm Speaker (this would correspond to a Wind Voice in RQ2 parlance)
6) a Trickster. This is really a class onto its own, with lots of fun and cool and disrupting effects. It was by far the funniest character profile to read.

Runes are supposed to replace the 13th Age Icons, although I think a relationship with a Non-Player Character like the Emperor or the Diabolist is quite different to a relationship with an abstract concept like Stasis or Luck. I wish I had time to playtest the adventure and see how the interaction between the runes and the world works out (if we're lucky maybe Rob Heinsoo et al. will succeed where Mongoose had miserably failed).

Edit: here is a link to stuff that it is apparently OK to reveal.

No comments:

Post a Comment