13th Age: Character Creation and Initial Thoughts

I am GMing again, and yesterday evening was character creation for 13th Age. I'm excited about the potential, and I'm thrilled that my players, as they look at the system and the world are getting excited as well.

It is going to be an interesting game - variety of skill and "intensity" levels at the table, but I billed it as a "beer and pretzels" level of gaming for a reason - I just want to sit down, have some fun, and roll some dice and engage in hijinks. Not to say that I'm not going to interject drama and the occasional hard decision - but I'm trying something different than my usual style. 

It was fun watching one of the players go through the book, laughing at the personal moments in the book, "At the GM’s option, the drama requirement can be waived if the table joins in a group hug," or, much as I did realizing, "I believe you've picked a perfect game for the way you run, and this group."

My wife is working through the setting material and loved the bit about the Koru Behemeth migration pattern and how it trails across the entire map and then some.

Right now the character list stands at the following:

• Aurora, a half-elf born of human parents (it can happen on occasion), who is a Sorceress without any heritage that anyone can determine.
• Mairenne, a High Elf cleric, who bears a tear of her goddess around her neck as her symbol to fight against the injustices of the world.
• Mercillina, a Trueblooded Human (cause why should Elves be the only one to get fancy bloodlines) Bard, who has stood and looked across the demon-wracked Red Wastes and warded humanity against the inhabitants.
• A Dragonspawned fighter who can speak to the animals as if they were people and has learned in her years that the animals are far kinder and more reasonable than people.
• A Wood Elf Paladin/Courtier/Scholar who fights the good fight.

As a GM, I am loving how easy the system is to adapt and change. I've created a new talent for the Sorceress as she was struggling to find ones that worked for how she envisioned the character. I created races that give some different flavor to the past age.

Heck, I'm tempted to write up a psionic class, just to see if I can as I was inspired responding to something on Google+ about how psionics is different than sorcery, wizardry, or divine magic.

I am using Obsidian Portal again to host the game information, and the world is slowly being fleshed out.