Blog Posts

Commander and Monk

November 15, 2021

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. ...

Sorcerer and Bard

November 5, 2021

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). ...

v0.3.1 release!

November 5, 2021

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. ...

Separate charsheet/card sheet!

November 3, 2021

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! 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. ...

v1.0 is live!

November 2, 2021

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. ...

Barbarian, Ranger, and Paladin

October 30, 2021

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. ...

The Rogue and The Wizard

October 23, 2021

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. ...

The Cleric

October 19, 2021

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. ...

The Fighter

October 16, 2021

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. ...

Character Creation

October 12, 2021

Hi there! Last time, I covered the basic stuff that goes into each character. Now, we're going to go over what you need to make a character. There's really not much to it (which is the point!) so this one should be short. In general there are five steps. All but one of them (Class, which we'll dive into last) barely involve mechanics in the Crunchy Game sense - rather they're about defining how you interact with the world. ...