Running the Game
13th Age, p.179
This section has instructions for the GM on running a game.
Making Skill Checks
When you roll a skill check to find out if you succeed at a task or trick, the GM tells you which ability score is being tested. Then you choose the background you think is relevant to gain the points you have in that background as a bonus to the skill check.
Most skill checks require you to equal or beat a Difficulty Class (DC), set by the environment you are operating in, to succeed.
To make a skill check, use this formula:
d20 + relevant ability modifier + level + relevant background points
Vs.
DC set by the environment
You can’t apply multiple backgrounds to the same check; the background with the highest (or tied for highest) bonus applies.
Choose the Relevant Ability Score
For players, the point of this background/skill system is to encourage roleplaying and creative solutions to problems. Not every problem can be solved by your dominant abilities. For the GM, it’s the chance to make all of the ability scores matter at one time or another.
Natural 20s and Fumbles with Skill Checks
When a PC rolls a natural 20 with a skill check, the GM should feel free to give that character much more success than the player expected.
When a PC rolls a 1 with a skill check, the skill check fumbles and fails, perhaps in a particularly bad way. But a failure isn’t always entirely terrible.
Fail Forward!
Outside of battle, when failure would tend to slow action down rather than move the action along, instead interpret it as a near-success or event that happens to carry unwanted consequences or side effects. The character probably still fails to achieve the desired goal, but that’s because something happens on the way to the goal rather than because nothing happens. In any case, the story and action still keep moving.
Environments
Any place in the game world that a player might want to make a skill check is an environment, of which there are three tiers: adventurer, champion, and epic.
- Adventurer environments are for level 1-3 characters: city streets, wilderness areas, shallow dungeons, regular old ruins, and that sort of thing.
- Champion environments are for level 4-6 characters: deeper dungeons, danker swamps, guarded gates of the big cities, and those sorts of places.
- Epic environments are for level 7+ characters. They are typically related to icons, unique villains, deep underworld locations, the most forbidding peaks, the upper reaches of the world, and so on.
The GM determines the environs where the adventure takes place.
Environment Chart by Level
| Level | Type of Environment |
|---|---|
| 1–3 | Always adventurer |
| 4 | Mostly adventurer, some champion |
| 5 | Half adventurer, half champion |
| 6 | Mostly champion, some adventurer |
| 7 | Mostly champion, some epic |
| 8 | Half champion, half epic |
| 9 | Mostly epic, some champion |
| 10 | Always epic |
Environment DCs for Skill Checks
The environment the PCs are in determines the DC of skill checks and other challenges they may face.
| Task | Adventurer TierDC | Champion TierDC | Epic TierDC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal task | 15 | 20 | 25 |
| Hard task | 20 | 25 | 30 |
| Ridiculously hard task | 25 | 30 | 35 |
Impromptu Damage
When you need to determine how much damage some effect deals, use the chart below, basing the damage on two things: the environment, and whether the damage affects one character or many.
Traps & Obstacles
As shown in the chart below, attack rolls for traps and other features of the environment follow the same mathematical model as DCs for skill checks.
Use the skill check DC on the table to give you a general guideline for PCs attempting to disarm a trap (once they notice that there is a trap). Failure means the trap will trigger.
Skill Check DCs, Trap/Obstacle Attacks & Impromptu Damage by Environment
| Tier | Degree of Challenge | Skill Check DC | Trap or Obstacle Attack Roll vs. AC/PD/MD | Impromptu Damage (Single Target) | Impromptu Damage (Multiple Targets) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adventurer | Normal | 15 | +5 | 2d6 or 3d6 | 1d10 or 1d12 |
| Adventurer | Hard | 20 | +10 | 3d6 | 1d12 |
| Adventurer | Ridiculously hard | 25 | +15 | 3d6 or 4d6 | 1d12 or 2d8 |
| Champion | Normal | 20 | +10 | 4d6 or 4d8 | 2d10 or 2d12 |
| Champion | Hard | 25 | +15 | 4d8 | 2d12 |
| Champion | Ridiculously hard | 30 | +20 | 4d8 or 2d20 | 2d12 or 3d10 |
| Epic | Normal | 25 | +15 | 2d20 or 3d20 | 3d12 or 4d10 |
| Epic | Hard | 30 | +20 | 3d20 | 4d10 |
| Epic | Ridiculously hard | 35 | +25 | 3d20 or 4d20 | 4d10 or 4d12 |
Building Battles
For adventure tier, levels 1-4, start with one enemy creature of the party’s level per PC. At champion tier, levels 5-7, start with one enemy creature per PC, with each creature being one level higher than the PCs. At epic tier, levels 8–10, the monsters should weigh in at two levels above the PCs if they appear in equal numbers.
Lower-level monsters count as fractions of an adventurer-level monster, and higher-level monsters count as multiples. See the monster equivalents chart below.
Monster Equivalents
| Monster Level vs. Party Level (Adventurer) | Monster Level vs. Party Level (Champion) | Monster Level vs. Party Level (Epic) | Normal counts as | Mook counts as | Large counts as | Huge counts as |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 levels lower | 1 level lower | SAME LEVEL | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1 | 1.5 |
| 1 levels lower | SAME LEVEL | 1 level higher | 0.7 | 0.15 | 1.5 | 2 |
| SAME LEVEL | 1 level higher | 2 level higher | 1 | 0.2 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 level higher | 2 level higher | 3 level higher | 1.5 | 0.3 | 3 | 4 |
| 2 level higher | 3 level higher | 4 level higher | 2 | 0.4 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 level higher | 4 level higher | 5 level higher | 3 | 0.6 | 6 | 8 |
| 4 level higher | 5 level higher | 6 level higher | 4 | 0.8 | 8 | 12 |
Mooks
At champion and epic tier, it takes 5 mooks to equal one standard creature. At first and second level, use 3 mooks as a standard creature if the mooks are the same level, an equivalent of .33. At third and fourth level, use up to four mooks per monster, or .25.
Large Monsters
A large (or double-strength) monster counts as 2 standard monsters.
Huge Monsters
A huge (or triple-strength) monster counts as 3 standard monsters.
Monster Special Abilities
When you use monsters with especially nasty special abilities, be aware of the increased threat that they represent and take that into account.
Unfair Encounters
To make the battle more difficult, consider outfitting the monsters in the battle with these features:
- Potent powers
- Nastier specials
- Weight of numbers
- Reinforcements
- Advantageous terrain
Loot: Treasure Rewards
Use the guidelines that follow to decide how many gold pieces and magic items to reward to successful adventurers.
The majority of treasure reaches the PCs one of two ways (a) as loot from climactic battles, or (b) as rewards after or before an adventure from a PC’s icon connections.
Gold Piece Rewards
The table below lists the highest amount of gold pieces you should consider awarding to each character in the course of an adventuring day. Rewarding less gold is fine.
GP per Full Heal-Up
| PC Level | GP per Character |
|---|---|
| 1 | 100 |
| 2 | 125 |
| 3 | 175 |
| 4 | 210 |
| 5 | 250 |
| 6 | 325 |
| 7 | 425 |
| 8 | 500 |
| 9 | 650 |
| 10 | 850 |
Optional No Math System
Each player rolls a d20 and checks the table below. Results are not cumulative; what you roll is what you get.
Loot per Heal-Up
| Roll | Loot |
|---|---|
| 1–2 | Useless stuff, fake potions, costume jewelry, nothing gained. |
| 3–4 | One healing potion, lower tier. |
| 5–10 | One healing potion from PC’s tier. |
| 11–15 | Two potions/oils/runes of PC’s choice from PC’s tier. |
| 16–20 | Three potions/oils/runes of PC’s choice from PC’s tier. |
Rituals
Rituals are spells cast outside of combat for various free-form magical effects. Clerics and wizards learn ritual magic by default; other spellcasters can learn it by taking the Ritual Casting feat.
Casting a Ritual
To cast a spell as a ritual:
- Choose the spell that will be used and expended by the ritual.
- Tell the GM what you are trying to accomplish and gather necessary ingredients for the ritual.
- Spend 1d4 minutes/quarter-hours/hours (as determined by the GM) preparing and casting the ritual. You can’t cast other spells during this period. A PC taking damage won’t necessarily end the ritual, but it will be ruined if a character falls unconscious or launches an attack of their own.
- Make a skill check using one of your magical backgrounds and the ability score the GM deems appropriate. Use the standard DC targets (or a special DC set by the GM), depending on your tier and the results you’re hoping for. The higher the level of the spell consumed by the ritual, the greater the effect.
No matter the outcome, the spell is expended until your next full heal-up.
Determining Results
Choose outcomes that are outgrowths of the spell’s normal effects. The effects don’t have to play within the usual constraints of the magic system, and they don’t have to be taken as a precedent for future rituals.
Failure should fail forward.
The High Arcana talent of the wizard allows you to cast a ritual in a matter of rounds instead of minutes, but it still needs the required components.