Hi there!

So as you’ve noticed, it’s been awhile since expansion chat. Mostly I just hadn’t been touching it since the v0.3 update - it was content-complete, but it needed testing - also I was releasing 36th Way and launching my site which took up a lot of my time and brainpower. And it turned out that a little distance from it did it some good. So let’s talk about it.

Hi there!

Last time, I wrapped up the original 13th Age core classes. Now I’ll be talking about my Commander and Monk refreshes. Both of them had seeds of the Power dynamic I took to other classes, but both were changed drastically!

The Original Commander

The original Commander is interesting. It’s very clearly 13th Age’s answer to Warlord, which is cool because Warlord was cool and it’s an idea worth exploring. It has command points, which operates similarly to the standard Power that I gave everything in the sense that it powers Commands. You can gain Command through Fight from the Front (attack, if it hits gain) or Weigh the Odds (no-roll gain). It shares that Commands list with Tactics, though, which are (mostly quick/interrupt action) Daily/Recharge abilities. So most of the Commanders I ever saw were actually multiclasses with classes that rarely used their quick action, like offense Paladins. Oops.

Hi there! Here to talk about two more classes, Sorcerer and Bard. This’ll round out the original 13th Age core classes (I think).

The Original Sorcerer

13th Age Sorcerer has a few interesting things going on. Breath Weapon/Chain are types of spells, and class feature-wise the main thing that isn’t just a type of spell is Gather Power, which lets you waste an action this turn to double damage the next turn (which lets you stretch out dailies). Most of its talents tie back to the heritage idea. Ultimately, though, it’s a fairly standard casting class.

Hi there! Based on my feedback from 0.3.0 I released a balance, metagame, and accessiblity update.

Integral Traits

A few Integral Traits received minor tweaks:

• Hairpin Controls (L1-RECON) now only works on the first 4 rolled in a turn.
  • It was a little too consistent with high-dice attacks.
• CQC Plating (L3-GLADIATOR) is now Riot Shielding and does the opposite - it grants +1 Armor vs Near/Far attacks.
  • This is a more useful bonus overall and makes more sense given L3’s Big Shield characteristic.
• Long-Range Optics (M2-ARCHER) now allows them to extend their Far range to 3 hexes with a die/Harm penalty when no enemies are in Close/Near.
  • This makes their Trait more distinct from the Scoped add-on and lets them have something no other Frame has.

Integral and Modular Systems

I made a few changes to Systems based on two observations: longer-range Systems are more powerful/useful than shorter-range Systems and Near/Far range area-attack Systems are very powerful.

Hi there!

In addition to the PDFs, I added a separate character sheet and card sheet. The former is self-explanatory, the latter provides a template for condition cards and ability cards. (They’re both already in the core book, this is mostly for convenience/having them as a separate smaller file).

Enjoy!

It’s out! Go get it!

At long last, after just under two years of development, 36th Way is live! You can either get it here on itch for PDF/ePub or you can read the entire SRD online at my new site.

Next steps

I’m going to be taking feedback as to minor changes - probably typos/term update errors at this point but who knows - while making APOCALYPSE FRAME updates/the expansion release.

Hi there!  I'm going to talk about some of the simplest classes in the original 13th Age - Barbarian, Ranger, and Paladin - and how they changed.

The Original Barbarian

Barbarian was one of the most dirt-simple classes possible in the original. You had Rage, which was a Recharge 16+ ability, and aside from that you mostly just did basic attacks. The unique thing it had was tiered talents, which was just that some unlocked at high tiers. It was kind of effective when it popped off, but boring most of the time. So my goal was to make it more interesting on average.

Hi there! Today, I'm talking Rogue and Wizard. I'm going to stop promising any of these will be short, but Rogue was, so I just kept going to round out the initial 4.

The Original Rogue

Rogue has always had a weird vibe. It's one of the few 13th Age classes to have a "spell list" as a non-spellcaster. (And you'll note that they don't do the weird spell slot thing. Almost like it could have been that way all along...) It's got Momentum, which is a fun idea - it's an on/off switch where if you hit an enemy you get it and if you get hit you lose it, but while you have it you can use powers that key off of it. One problem I ran into with this was that if your rogue never hits, you don't gain it. Also there's only so much they can do with low defenses to keep it, even with their various powers. So my initial step was to reorient how Momentum works.

Hi there! I'm going to be talking about the Cleric redesign. It's not as much as the Fighter changes so this should be shorter.

The Original

First, the original Cleric. I love the general setup it has: all Talents represent Domains and it has Spells. Simple, but effective. What's not to love? Well, it was a little too good, mostly. Each Talent gave you a daily ability, and on top of that you got a bunch of very effective spells, and you could easily have similar offensive capability to Fighter/Paladin. It wasn't quite the classic 3.X CoDZilla or anything but it was definitely in that conversation.

Hi there! Today I'm going to talk about classes. Specifically the one that started it all: Fighter. I've always said you can judge One Of These by how good their Fighter is and I think mine's pretty good.

The Original

So 13th Age Fighter is one of my favorite classes in it! I was always happy to meet it halfway and figure out how to best make one when I was originally playing one. But I'm fully willing to admit that it misses the mark. I loved the concept - Talents as encounter powers/passives, Maneuvers as actives feels good. It's why I kept coming back when I played even when it didn't always pan out the way I wanted it to. I wanted to replicate that "feels-good" quality while picking up where it left off.