A 5e Player’s Guide to 13th Age

13th Age has seen a recent surge of interest from the RPG community. Most, if not all of those checking out 13th Age have played Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. While the games share a basic DNA of d20s, dragons and magic, the details are quite different – and can trip up newcomers used to 5e and other systems.

I’m here to help. Here is an introduction to 13th Age for newcomers from 5e.

The Fiction Comes First

13th Age puts a lot of emphasis on the story rather than nitpicky mechanics. Here’s an example that’s a bit deep in the weeds, but it’s something you’ll come across anyway so we might as well jump in: weapon damage.

In 5e, each weapon has its own properties – how much damage it deals, how heavy it is, whether you can use Dexterity or Strength to swing it. In 13th Age, a weapon’s damage depends on the class of the character wielding it. A knife in the hands of a rogue does d8 damage, just like a paladin wielding a longsword. A ranger can choose to use Strength or Dexterity for melee attacks (though Strength is always used for damage.)

This philosophy extends to backgrounds, which take the place of skill proficiencies. It makes sense in the fiction that your fighter can use “former Imperial legionnaire” on a Charisma check to talk your way past some guards. It also makes sense that they can use it to crawl through some deep mud in a swamp; they probably did basic training, right?

Worldbuilding is a collaborative exercise between the GM and the players. You’ll have more fun if you do your part. Which brings us to …

Icon Rolls Are Easier Than You Think

If you’ve seen one complaint about 13th Age, it’s likely people tripping over how to use Icon Dice. But it doesn’t have to be hard.

Here’s how it works: When you create your character, you assign Icon relationship points that are positive, negative or conflicted. The Icons are the major NPCs in the world and the points represent your relationship with them. At first level you almost certainly have never met an Icon in person, but you’d have interacted with their underlings and associated factions.

At the start of each session, roll a d6 for each relationship point you have. If you roll a 6, that’s an Icon advantage you can use that session. A 5 is also an advantage, but it comes with a complication, which you and the GM can improvise when it happens.

The rule book does not give specific examples of how you can use Icon advantages, other than that they shouldn’t be used to replicate combat powers. So a lot of people struggle to think of ways to use them. But here’s a tip from my experience: they’re perfect for helping you bypass skill checks.

Our former Imperial legionnaire from earlier? Maybe instead of talking his way past the guards, he uses his 6 to convince them to step aside. Or he could use a 5 to the same effect – but the guards are suspicious.

Icon dice also let you say things that are true about the world. Remember how I said worldbuilding is a collaborative exercise? In our current campaign, we were fighting in a cave with scalding water pouring in and damaging us. I used my connection with the High Druid to say that some rocks collapsed, blocking the flow of water.

I later used a connection with the Elf Queen to say that I happened to know an elf in a group of prisoners we encountered, and was able to tip him off that we were about to start a jailbreak.

The message: don’t think too hard about it. The second you think of something cool and useful, declare you want to use your Icon die. Then you and the GM can determine how it plays out.

Feats Aren’t Critical To Your Build

5e has a holy trinity – quinternity? – of feats that dominate character builds: Great Weapon Master, Polearm Master, Sentinel, Crossbow Expert and Sharpshooter. They’re more powerful than many abilities in the classes themselves. So I often see people in the 13th Age Discord putting outsized importance on their feat selection.

But feats in 13th Age are different. First, you get a lot more of them: one per level. And they’re generally minor upgrades rather than critical powers. A typical example: the adventurer tier feat for the paladin’s Smite Evil gives you a +4 attack bonus. That’s great! Super useful. But it’s not going to define your build. So while some feats are going to be better than others, the range is narrow and you can pick the ones that seem cool and you’ll be fine.

On that note, the classes are well-balanced. The weakest core class is probably the barbarian, just because their rage is a bit unreliable, but having GM’d for one I can report they can absolutely wreck house, and they’re far from a weak class. (If you want to play a druid, found in the 13 True Ways supplement, you could be in for a rough time – they’re kind of a jack-of-all-trades with a lot of different build options. So don’t be shy about haggling your GM for an extra magic item or two if you’re falling behind the rest of the party.)

No Rest For the Wicked

Every 5e party has asked their GM if they can take a short or long rest to restore their powers and hit points. And every GM has had to figure out a way to adjust the fiction of the world to allow for the appropriate amount of encounters per rest. It’s … not fun.

In 13th Age, you don’t have to ask. After each battle, you automatically get a quick rest to spend some recoveries and make recharge rolls for your powers. After every four normal-strength battles (fewer if they’re tougher), you get a full heal-up: all your powers and health come back in an instant, even if in game time you’re lurching from fight to fight with barely time to catch your breath. 

Another convention: a “day” is the time between full heal-ups. So if those four battles take an hour of in-game time? That’s a “day.” If they’re spread out over a month? That’s also a “day.” 

Is this all a bit video-gamey? Yes. Are these effective mechanics to ensure game balance and fun? Also yes. 

I should also mention that unlike 5e, the encounter building guidelines work. The monster budgets provided to GMs reliably produce fun, balanced battles, and it’s easy to adjust to provide a bigger challenge if the party is up for it.

I’m more than a thousand words in now, so while I could keep going, hopefully you have an idea of what to expect. 13th Age is all killer, no filler. It aims to remove as many barriers as possible between you and kick-ass battles with interesting and fun characters. Have fun!