02/03/22: Out of the Darkness
I recently started a 13th Age game on Sundays with some vaccinated folks. For those unfamiliar, 13th Age is off-brand D&D. There are a lot of off-brand Ds&Ds but I've been meaning to try this one for a while.Here's the setting pitch I sent to the players:
-
Years ago, a great darkness swept out from the Shadowfell wreaking havoc and threatening the great empires of the world. When the call came to send aid, the Queen Under the Mountain sent her finest soldiers and closed her borders to protect those who remained. Those sent were never heard from again.
Now, the lands under the mountain have sought the sunlit world once more and it is much changed. The cities of the nearby peoples have fallen to ruin, strange and monstrous creatures stalk the land, and patches of weird darkness dot the landscape in defiance of the brightest sunlight.
-
Originally, I was going to use 4th edition D&D for the game (because I really like that edition) but then I remembered that I wanted to try out 13th Age.
The players had decided during the "what game are we going to play?" stage that they wanted / were willing to play D&D and that they wanted an all dwarf group. Eventually, this turned into dwarf and dwarf-adjacent as one player has ended up playing a Dwarf-forged.
This game has been scratching some neglected setting design urges, so that's been interesting. I've also come to some conclusions about mechanics, specifically Armor Class, Hit Points, and Monster design, which I think will lead to some further musing here.
As always, let me know if you have any questions or just want to chat about this kind of thing.
best,
--Jason