13th Age Fillable Character Sheets

Just a quicky, i'm not sure if there are any fillable character sheet pdf's already available - but just encase you there aren't or you haven't found them - I present to you some rather lovely sheets courtesy of +Ade Sant (i've been using them for my weekend Roll20 game, so I can testify they work a treat!)

You can grab the colour version here, and a printer friendly version here.

Have fun!

D20 Icons - Purple Worm

Each week I'll be taking a crack at converting some of the most iconic d20 monsters that, for one reason or another didn't appear in the awesome 13th Age Core rulebook. This week - Purple Worms

Purple Worm
Level 7 (Huge Beast)
Init: +10
HP: 324  AC: 23  PD: 20  MD: 16

Swallowing Bite : +12 vs PD (3 nearby enemies) 84 damage Natural even hit or miss: the target is swallowed and is stuck and hampered (save ends both), every time a save is failed the creature takes 52 acid damage.

Writhing burrowing : A purple worm travels by burrowing, when it fails a roll to get under ground it may re-roll and choose the second result.

Thrashing Tail : (When a melee attacks hits the Purple Worm) +12 vs AC, 36 damage and the target pops free.

: If you like this monster check out the other Iconic classic D&D monsters I've converted here :

Roll20 Paizo Pawn Style Tokens

I've been playing on Roll20 recently with the awesome +Ade Sant and company, so naturaly my brain got thinking how I could create cool looking stuff for it. A bit of 3d Software and some Photoshopping plus an hour or two I came up with these:

I've made it so its a template setup, all you need to do is a quick google image search for the creature/npc you're looking for and insert it into a layer and boom, you're done. As always if there's interest i'll share the Photoshop file, but wont be able to share the art shown above - but a quick google search will do that for you.

Here they are 'in action' on Roll20 :

Im aware i've only got medium sized creatures here, i'll knock up a large variant tomorrow if I get time.

The only issue is when moving tokens infront/behind each other you might sometimes needs to send them to the front or back through a quick right click, but they do look good in play so I guess its down to you if you're willing to put up with it.

Anyways Happy gaming all.

13th Age Hazard/Trap Table Aid

In my previous posts (here and here) where I gave some options for the creation of traps and hazards on the fly, I mentioned putting it in a pdf if there was interest - so I have. I've also put together a printer friendly version too. Grab them here

Let me know if you have any ideas on how to improve it or how you got on with it - until next time.

An awesome alternative to the initiative order.

Thought this was worth talking about, albeit briefly.

This is an awesome alternative to the standard initiative order I suggest you read it all, didn't? (you should) but basically everyone rolls initiative and then it is passed around between the players. Its very descriptive and story driven but is heavily waited towards the players, which is fine but i'd like to add more of a chance that a monster can interrupt  the flow for dramatic purposes.

Easiest way in my mind to do that is have everyone roll a D6 when they declare who the initiative will be going to next, if they roll 5-6 the initiative is passed to the GM to assign to a monster,  they then must roll a D6 in public before declaring who goes next and on a 5-6 the GM may choose another monster, anything else it goes to a Player.

Elements for Generating Traps on the Fly.

So 13th Age is an improvisation heavy game, or at least thats how the authors suggest it be played and how the main text suggests you play. Which is fine, but I know a lot of players prefer running pre scripted encounters and scenes, or at the very least like to have some concrete information to draw upon. And whilst the suggested numbers work fine, they lack a mechanical uniqueness that some players and GM's will miss. Thats half the reason i'm making my NPC Kit, to give me a set of tools to generate stuff at the table without having to pause or trip over myself if i'm drawing a blank.

I wrote a couple of posts about tactical gameplay and creating traps and hazards, and thought I would expand on that by providing some options to help generate traps with solid mechanics. I've presented them below a series of steps to creating a trap/hazard with some random tables too.

Step 1

Assign a Level and Name, make a note of all the baseline stats (you might need them later)

Step 2 

Choose a Trigger 

1. When a creature moves nearby the trap make an attack against it.
2. When a creature moves so it is now behind the trap make an attack against it.
3. When a creature moves through an area the trap makes an attack against it.
4. When a creature spends an action (choose Quick/Standard) on a trigger, such as a switch or lever the trap makes attacks against creatures nearby it. 
5. When a creature spends an action (choose Quick/Standard) on a trigger, such as a switch or lever the trap makes an attack against a creature of your choice
6. The trap rolls initiative and makes an attack against creatures nearby it.

Step 3

Create an attack 

A. Choose a Defence for the traps attack to target, in the examples below AB represents the Attack Bonus from the baseline stats you copied down earlier.

1. AB vs. PD 
2. AB vs. AC  
3. AB vs. MD

B. Choose a triggered effect for the attack, the percentages represent a percentage of the Strike Damage value from the baseline stats.

1. 100% damage and 50% ongoing damage. Miss: 50% ongoing damage.
2. 125% damage, Natural even hit or Miss: The creatures pops free from all engaged creatures and is knocked down.
3. The creature is stuck (save ends); Every time the target fails a saving throw they take 50% damage.
4. 75% damage and the creature is affected by a condition (save ends)
5. 100% damage, Natural 16+: Target loses 1 recovery.
6. 75% damage, Natural even hit or miss: Make an additional attack against a different creature.
7. A nearby creature is affected by a condition until the end of its next turn.
8. A nearby creature is affected by a condition (save ends) the first time they fail a save they are affected by an additional condition.
9. Nearby creatures are affected by a condition until the end of their next turn.
10. Nearby creatures are affected by a condition (save ends) the first time they fail a save they are affected by an additional condition.

C. If during Step 1 you selected an option where the attack is against creatures decide how many, either a fixed number (2, 3, 4 etc) or a randomly generated one (d4, d6, d8 etc)

D. If during step B the target(s) of an attack is affected by a condition, choose from the following:

1. Confused
2. Dazed
3. Hampered
4. Stuck
5. Stunned
6. Vulnerable
7. Weakened
8. Fear
9. Helpless
10. Must make Last Gasp saves as they turn to stone/goo/another equally gruesome fate.

E. You're done, but repeat A-C if you want more attacks.

Step 4

Determine the difficulty required for any skill checks made to disable and spot it, if you want specific methods to be harder or easier record those too. 

Step 5

Fill in the blanks, if you want the trap to be destroyable give it AC, HP and PD - reserve MD for things like sentient traps and hazards. If you don't want it to be destroyed or immune just leave that stat blank. Also establish its initiative as per guidelines in the book, if it doesn't have initiative decide on the time it takes to reset

Finished! You should have enough information to run a trap in a scene/combat encounter as long as you paste a cool and creative skin on the mechanics or vice versa, spend some time thinking you're own up or roll on the lists above for on the fly situations.

Remember these charts are only really giving you a mechanical framework for the trap, make sure you add on cool elements of flavour, and thematic elements to tie it into your adventure. Also as a word of warning I would urge caution when using various conditions, its quite possible to cripple an entire party and possible get a TPK with a badly timed effect. 

Given enough interest I might put this info onto a nicely designed .pdf for use at the table, so let me know if you want it.

Background checks should be situational and cool

A couple of threads on G+ recently talking about using backgrounds skill checks, i'm not going to go on at length about them i just wanted to share my thoughts on some good use guidelines for people to mull over.

Players should be able to attempt to shoehorn almost any check into one of their backgrounds as long as it doesn't contradict existing 'game fiction'. It s up to the GM to decide whether you can use it, if i'm running a session the more creative and developed reason a players gives me the more inclined i will be to go run with it.

Likewise as a GM if your going to say no to a particular bonus you better had be as equally or more-so creative/developed in your reason why it cannot be used.

All of these things get easier with time as more and more game fictions is created, fleshed out and explored. And of course a player wont need to continually create new reasons for familiar situations, although I think it would be great to start reference past events for characters to achieve the same bonuses.

Another thing I like to do is to directly inform my players how hard a task is, I don't give them the DC but I'll inform them of of a rough difficulty range (Easy, Challenging, Hard, Impossible etc) Then I can change this between players based on the background bonus they give me, allowing more background checks to apply, but also making harder/easier based on its suitability.

How do you work your Background skill checks?