13th Age

Work has continued to consume my life, but it's long since time to reassert some better work-home balance. Life must hold its share of joy and mirth. To that end, I'm resuming work on Oaths and Fates. The continuing history of Wizards of the Coast will resume a little later; several of us are discussing teaming up on the project, which can only help enrich the history. For now, let's return to some simple gaming fun.

What's happened in my gaming world since 2011?

My 2010 plans to run my regular party - Beverly Saling, Kathy Ice, and Eileen Gormly - through Michael Curtis's Stonehell Dungeon using Jonathan Tweet's Everway game system was sidelined by work and illness, so I shifted to playing instead of running games. We were joined by Brendan Barr to play Danger Quest and D&D 4th Edition in 2010 through 2012. Late 2012 and early 2013, I played an early draft of D&D Next with Peter Adkison DMing and filming for his project The First Paladin, which gave me some quality time with our dear friend CJ before his unexpected and untimely passing. I also did some prep with a third gaming group to play Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, which has not yet come to fruition, though someday it may yet.

All of these entertaining distractions helped postpone my plans for Everway, but it was Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet's 13th Age project that put an end to them, because 13th Age is a fascinating creation and the focus for my playing and DMing these days.

We've been playing 13th Age - intermittently, as illness and my work schedule allow - for the past two years and enjoy it greatly. I've even started DMing again - I ran sessions in May, June, and December of last year, and resumed again this month.

Some day I'll pick back up my Stonehell Dungeon project with 13th Age instead of Everway, but for now I've shifted my DMing focus to the classic D&D and AD&D modules we grew up with. Beverly never got to play in those modules, and she'd like to experience them, so we're recreating the classic modules of D&D using 13th Age rules set in the mythic Englandia of 1000 AD. I'll be sharing background and play sessions of the party's complete run through these adventures, starting with the module that launched so many of us, B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr.

I hope you find our weird mix of historical fantasy, classic role-playing structures, and modern role-playing rules entertaining and enlightening.