Pelgrane Press Announces 13th Age Roleplaying Game Second Edition Kickstarter in May 2024
Pelgrane Press has announced that on May 7 it will launch the crowdfunding campaign for 13th Age Second Edition
London— April 21, 2024 — Pelgrane Press has announced that on May 7 it will launch the crowdfunding campaign for 13th Age Second Edition, the D20-rolling heroic fantasy roleplaying game by designers Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet with art by Lee Moyer and Aaron McConnell. Published in 2013, 13th Age won the 2014 Silver ENnie award for Best Rules and was a nominee for Best Game and Product of the Year.
13th Age Second Edition will see the game split into two books, accompanied by a new four-panel Gamemaster’s screen illustrated by Moyer.
The 13th Age Second Edition Player’s Handbook is expected to be approximately 240 pages, and will include character creation, kin, classes, backgrounds, and combat rules.
The 13th Age Second Edition Gamemaster’s Guide will include more than 160 pages of campaign advice, rules for running the game, monsters, setting material for the Dragon Empire, treasure and magic items, and a new introductory adventure.
The Kickstarter will offer the two books together in a slipcover. Backers will receive a fully playable work-in-progress draft of the game.
About 13th Age
Tabletop roleplaying games foster imagination and creativity like nothing else, and 13th Age leans into this unique strength. Gamemasters get a familiar-feeling world designed to be customized for each campaign. Players get special rules providing them with narrative authority, including free-form backgrounds and a One Unique Thing that sets their hero apart. Icon connections let heroes use their connections to godlike archetypal figures such as the Emperor, the Lich King, and the Elf Queen in creative ways to influence the story.
TTRPGs also have a tactical element, and 13th Age presents players with battles where they have clear decisions to make and dice rolls really matter. Rules for distance, movement, and positioning are simplified. The escalation die mechanic, unique to 13th Age, ensures that battles don’t get bogged down or drag on long after the outcome is clear.
“13th Age has always occupied a special place in the tabletop roleplaying hobby,” says Pelgrane Press co-owner and Managing Director Cat Tobin. “Is it a story game with tactical combat, or a trad game with a great system for telling stories? The answer is that it’s both.”
What to Expect from 13th Age 2E
“This might sound obvious, but when you create a new game it’s not just brand new to the rest of the world: it’s brand new to you, the designer,” says 13th Age co-creator and line producer Rob Heinsoo. “13th Age Second Edition benefits from a decade’s worth of play, and insights from designers who’ve created adventures and resource books for the system, to make both the crunchy aspects and the storytelling aspects of the game even better.”
Revisiting the classes: The original nine classes from the core book are better balanced than before, and have more options. Unpopular powers and spells have been replaced with versions that players will find as worthwhile as the options that have always been strong.
Revisiting the kin: Dwarves, gnomes, humans, and other sorts of characters are now referred to as kin and have multiple powers to choose from that allow each kin to support a wider variety of character types. Also, every character gets to distribute their ability scores as they please, so any of the kin can thrive in any class.
Improved icon connections: Rules for icon connections have been significantly revamped to be entirely player-facing and much easier to understand and use. The book provides copious examples, many from players and GMs who shared their favorite icon connection experiences with the designers. Each icon gets a fuller treatment, including ideas for organizations that might support or oppose each of them, and interesting twists that preserve the player’s intent while making the story more interesting.
More monster abilities and advice: Monster special attacks and abilities are amped up so that different creatures provide entertainingly diverse combat challenges. GM advice for creating your own monsters offers more examples and better guidelines for how to make troops, casters, blockers, and wreckers different from each other. With the new section on NPCs, GMs can more easily populate their cults, outlaw bands, and villain strongholds.
Better battles: Exciting combat is a hallmark of 13th Age, and new guidelines make it easier for the GM to customize challenging encounters of different difficulty levels. Examples of battleground hazards provide memorable features that change the experience of combat.
Improved magic items: Non-weapon magic items have been improved to be as exciting a find in treasure hoards as magic weapons, and magic item powers related to damage or hit points now scale up along with a character’s tier instead of staying static.
Backward compatibility: Adventures and sourcebooks like Eyes of the Stone Thief and Book of the Underworld, and third-party products, will be perfectly playable with 2E. A 13th Age Second Edition FAQ will help GMs adapt 1E adventures and sourcebooks to a 2E campaign, but the majority of changes have to do with the math for building battles.
Kickstarter Dates and Notifications
13th Age Second Edition is planned to launch on May 7 and last through June 6. You can get updates on the campaign by entering your email address in the form provided at https://pelgranepress.com/13th-age-second-edition/
About Pelgrane Press
Pelgrane Press is a UK-based tabletop roleplaying game company, publishing character-focused, story-driven RPGs for more than twenty years.
