Interest Check: Kingmaker via 13th Age


Recruitment


This is an interest check for a game I wanted to run with my IRL group but fell apart due to our regular fourth being unable to play. Since we have so many games going on at the moment, there isn't really the chance to start up a new one either.

I've modified the first three books of Kingmaker to use the 13th Age system. This would be a fairly heavily modified Kingmaker using many of the ideas in the Kingmaker campaign forum including several added on adventures within the core books. I'm looking to test the waters with the first book and then use the others if it looks like the game will work out.

What is 13th Age?
13th Age is a d20 system recently published by Pelegrane Press. It was developed by the lead designers of third edition (Jonathon Tweet) and fourth edition (Rob Heinsoo). It's a little rules-lighter than Pathfinder/4e but mixes many of the things I love about both systems. More information can be found Here

How many Players are you looking for?
Between 4 and 5

What will we be playing?
The first book of Kingmaker set in Golarion with a few modifications (Namely having a larger impact from nations outside of the one you form including Mivon, Galt, the various Brevic noble houses, Pitax and some of the other River Nations)

All characters will start out in the city of New Stetven with a common background--you've all been trained by Darien Avraham. Sir Darien is a low-level noble who's a far flung cousin to the Surtovas. He's taken to picking up "strays" and getting them set up in the premier university in New Stetven which is usually reserved only for the rich and/or nobility. Generally, I'm expecting most of, if not all, characters to be bastard sons and daughters of the nobility in Brevoy. You will have been recent graduates (flexibility here, could have graduated years ago, days ago or even still in the university) jointly referred to as Darien's Bastards (Obviously not an Adventuring Party name that should stick). This is, of course, not a rule as..see below.

How the heck does being the noble child of a human noble work with non-human races?
We can play up that you are an adopted child OR a half-human half-whatever child simply using the base race's statistics (for example, a half-human dwarf who for all apparent purposes seems like a dwarf). Darien isn't too picky though. Feel free to explain how a slightly disgraced, kindly old noble picked your [blank] to join the premier (usually human only!) university and fostered your admittance.

What's the gaming medium?
Play by post on this forum using Epic Words for additional information such as containing NPC background information and locale information. I find a compilation of this sort of thing helps both with character creation and keeping track of "who's who" when a game includes many NPCs.

What method is used for character creation?
28 standard point buy. For more information, see the old Epic Words site I created for the last go of this game here

I'm looking for characters built within the Golarion world who have interesting backstories. Since many people don't likely have the books, I'm willing to work with players to help create their characters. For more information on Backgrounds (skills in 13th age) look here and for how Icons will be used in Golarion see here

House Rules
Being as its a new system that I haven't played much yet, I'm holding back from house ruling anything.

Posting Frequency
So far the only play-by-post that I've participated in that hasn't perished is a 9-month (and ongoing) game that has frequent and regular posting. I'm not expecting anything like that game (it sees 4+ posts a day on a slow day, 10+ on faster ones) but am hoping to see an average of .75 posts per person a day. This means I'm hoping for at least one post every 1-2 days. I will generally check the thread twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night although this may change to once a day (nights) in the future.

What to Expect from the game (Combat/Roleplay/Etc)
I'll be using a fair number of story modifications that others have suggested for Kingmaker. As a result there will be a fair amount of roleplaying and NPC interaction. The Brevic nobility will play a more important role. NPCs from later in the books will show up earlier. Even if you've played Kingmaker before, I promise that this will bring quite a few new things to the table.

Combat Maps
One chief reason I want to use 13th age is the way combat works--it is very easy to run it without maps. This makes the DM backend (posting a new image every combat turn or multiple images per turn) lower speeding up both my ability to post (not spending 10-15m modifying/uploading/posting a map in combat) and the players (not waiting to see who is where or forgetting if you get that flanking bonus now or next turn).

..Okay so that's a bit of a post for just an interest check but there you go. Who would be interested in playing Kingmaker via 13th Age?


I would be interested in playing Kingmaker via 13th Age, but I'm unfamiliar with the system. I'm sure I can learn it quickly enough, but it's still something that I need to do....assuming the game information can be found out on the internet and stuff.

It's an interesting and well-thought-out concept, but I have a couple questions as well.

Is the university just a mundane university or is it conceivable that each of the character classes could have gotten their class education from the university?
It's still Golarion, right? With the same countries, history, dieties, etc.?


You know, I'm sure you'd get a lot more interest if you simply offered to run a Kingmaker campaign with the PFRPG.

The Exchange

I have only heard of 13th Age as references, no specifics until now, but with a glance at some of the stuff, I will say that I am interested. Just as a heads-up, I have run the first two books and most of the third book of Kingmaker. But you said that you're planning on modifying it significantly, so I'm sure that won't be an issue!

Grand Lodge

I am absolutely interested. I've been wanting to get into 13th Age for some time now. I'll start working on character ideas tonight.


What are the allowed races? I think an interesting twist on the "bastard human noble colonist" idea could be a Dhampir Cleric (or Inquisitor) of Norgorber. He keeps his worship secret, but essentially he doesn't want to rule anything, but rather control the throne from behind the ruler's back.

Are you okay with a Negative Energy cleric?

Grand Lodge

Im interested, never tried Kingmaker before but the idea always sounded awesome to me.


My old Kingmaker group fell apart do to people moving (military group) but we had sooo much fun making up our own style of Kingmaker including a much heavier presence of fae in the nearby forest (the ranger in the group ended up becoming king so connection with local fae was a Big Deal.) I will check on this 13th age system when I get home (at work) but it sounds like alot of fun. Color me interested.

The Exchange

leinathan wrote:

What are the allowed races? I think an interesting twist on the "bastard human noble colonist" idea could be a Dhampir Cleric (or Inquisitor) of Norgorber. He keeps his worship secret, but essentially he doesn't want to rule anything, but rather control the throne from behind the ruler's back.

Are you okay with a Negative Energy cleric?

Okay, right after I read this, I just had an excellent complimentary idea: a young, naive (probably) Sorcerer who has one of those personalities that just everybody ends up liking and who acts as a bit of a foil to the (possibly stereotypical) Dhampir. Cheery instead of serious, friendly instead of manipulative, a shoe-in for a leadership role as opposed to the scheming vizier, etc...


AlanM wrote:
leinathan wrote:

What are the allowed races? I think an interesting twist on the "bastard human noble colonist" idea could be a Dhampir Cleric (or Inquisitor) of Norgorber. He keeps his worship secret, but essentially he doesn't want to rule anything, but rather control the throne from behind the ruler's back.

Are you okay with a Negative Energy cleric?

Okay, right after I read this, I just had an excellent complimentary idea: a young, naive (probably) Sorcerer who has one of those personalities that just everybody ends up liking and who acts as a bit of a foil to the (possibly stereotypical) Dhampir. Cheery instead of serious, friendly instead of manipulative, a shoe-in for a leadership role as opposed to the scheming vizier, etc...

I love it. We could have so many shenanigans with me trying to manipulate you and you doing something to avoid it.


Hello, popping in! Glad to see that there is some interest. I got a fair amount of interest on the Giants in the Playground forums. While I have traditionally stuck to Paizo's I may be running the game on those forums instead. I have posted the recruitment thread up here

Note: While the recruitment thread is in the GITP forums, if I have enough people wanting to and preferring to have the game run here, it will be run here instead. When applying, feel free to state your preference. I don't really have a forum-preference, simply want to run a game!

@leinathan: The university is actually Skywatch re-flavoured as a school. It can easily fit in anything you want it to have! It is still set in Golarion. The reason I chose to run the game in 13th age is simply how much easier it is to DM. Creating your own monsters and setting encounter difficulty seem much easier with 13th age as opposed to Pathfinder. This let me focus my limited time on story rather than the hour-long process of designing entertaining and challenging bosses (for some reason with PF I end up spending a few hours designing a boss since I <3 character creation too much).

@ Shady Motives: The increased use of fae is something recommended by a lot of people. All of the modifications I've made were as a result of what other DM's have done and reported about on the Kingmaker forum.

Grand Lodge

My preference would be here. :)

The Exchange

As would mine; now to read the recruitment thread!

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