#13th age

I'm a first time DM, so learning the game together helps the learning process on both sides.

As we all gain more experience with the game and the group, our big moments will seem even bigger!

First game is 13th Age, similar to D&D in a lot of respects, but simplified and more Feat-based level system. If you think D&D is too played out, seems intimidating, or you want to try TTRPGs with something that doesn't benefit Wizards of the Coast - this is your spot!

LGBTQIA+ game! TTRPGs can help be a safe space to experiment with queerness and identity! If you want a space to try something new, consider it!

EN World’s annual vote on the most anticipated titles of the coming year, and yes, some games have appeared on this list in previous years.

10) Starfinder 2E (Paizo Publishing) The Starfinder Playtest Rulebook brings Starfinder into a new age of compatibility, as Starfinder switches to using the same rules engine that powers the popular Second Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Inside this playtest for the new edition, you’ll find six new classes, 10 ancestries, new skills, new feats, futuristic equipment including augmentations and upgrades, new science-fantasy spells, and more!

9) Alien - Evolved Edition (Free League) Expanded and updated core rules and a new cinematic scenario for the award-winning RPG from Free League and 20th Century Studios. Based upon feedback from thousands of players over five years of adventures, the Evolved Edition of the Core Rulebook delivers an updated and streamlined version of the ALIEN RPG fans know and love, along with additional new artwork, new content, and a variety of new tools for players and Game Mothers alike, all fully compatible with previous releases and game material.

8) 13th Age 2nd Edition (Pelgrane Press) A New Edition of the Award-Winning Heroic Fantasy Game! The coolest and most fun parts of traditional d20-rolling fantasy gaming plus story-focused rules, now with updated class and kin powers, fearsome new abilities for your favorite monsters, and revamped icon connection mechanics!

13th Age 2E has been in this chart three years running! In both 2023 and 2024 it came 3rd in the poll!

7) Coriolis: The Great Dark (Free League) Free League's original sci-fi RPG returns. Join expeditions to faraway stars and delve deep into ancient ruins.

6) Dolmenwood (Necrotic Gnome) Dolmenwood is a fantasy adventure game set in a lavishly detailed world inspired by the fairy tales and eerie folklore of the British Isles. Like traditional fairy tales, Dolmenwood blends the dark and whimsical, the wondrous and weird.

This is Dolmenwood's second appearance in this chart, coming in at #5 last year!

5) Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Adventures in Ankh-Morpork (Modiphius) Adventures in Ankh-Morpork, the Discworld tabletop roleplaying game, catapults you onto the streets of the Big Wahoonie, and once you've dusted yourself off you can adventure to your heart's content. With imagination and some shiny math rocks at your fingertips, your story on the Disc awaits. Based on the popular Discworld fantasy series by Sir Terry Pratchett, Adventures in Ankh-Morpork is an officially licensed tabletop roleplaying game set in its most recognisable city, complete with Sir Terry's iconic wit, humour, and humanistic satire.

4) Draw Steel (MCDM) A Fantasy RPG where your character starts, at level 1, already a hero. Maybe even locally famous! You might meet in a tavern, or start in the middle of the action! Whether you’re a group of local heroes sent to investigate mysterious goings-on in the nearby haunted wood, or famous mercenaries plotting and scheming in the big city, the MCDM RPG makes building adventures and fighting monsters fun. Basically, any adventure or story you’re running in your current Fantasy RPG, you can do that in this game. Just, in a more straightforward and fun way, unburdened by sacred cows from the 1970s.

3) Daggerheart (Darrington Press) Daggerheart is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game of brave heroics and vibrant worlds that are built together with your gaming group. Create a shared story with your adventuring party, and shape your world through rich, long-term campaign play.

2) Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere (Brotherwise Games) The Cosmere® RPG is a "living" RPG that will grow as Brandon Sanderson writes new novels and expands his universe. This original system is designed to tell standalone stories in the Stormlight™ or Mistborn® Settings -- or sweeping Worldhopper™ campaigns that move between different worlds and realms!

By Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet

Epic fantasy D&D-style shenanigans with cinematic combat and a free-form skill system. Includes a deliberately half-finished setting, hands you the key NPCs, and invites you to do whatever you want.

Eyes of the Stone Thief (2014) takes the idea of high concept megadungeons and launches it into the stratosphere. Most dungeons are hostile environments, but passive ones. Really, their dangers threaten player characters because of the forward movement of those players characters, their own initiative and desire to explore. Players trip traps, encounter inhabitants, and ultimately have themselves to blame for any injuries and deaths they suffer. Stone Thief isn’t content to react to players. Instead, the book wonders what a dungeons would be like if it was actively hostile.

In the game 13th Age, the dungeon is made more plausible by presenting them as living things — they can move around, they can eat, they have intelligence. The Stone Thief is the oldest, cleverest and most malevolent of its kind. It offers what perhaps the epitome of the various answers to the question, “What is a dungeon?” Answer: A thing that eats adventurers.

And many other things as well! The illogic of the dungeon space, that so often combines disparate environments in close, baffling proximity, is here explained by how the Stone Thief feeds: namely, by consuming buildings, landmarks and other structures, which it then incorporates in some manner into its interior space. This goes for creatures and people, too. When it surfaces, the Stone Thief unfolds, creating a new arrangements of places and monsters each time. When it dives, it contracts, flattening spaces, putting residents in stasis and destroying intruders.

She even improvised actions mid combat and came up with incredibly creative uses of her skills and powers, which is super hard to do in your very first session.

“Oh, they’re so creative!”

“They’re an amazing actor!”

“We get along great!”

No. You don’t get it.

I have not stopped thinking about this NPC he cooked up on the fly for me to interact with over 6 years ago. I want to plan 5 different heists with them, but actually I want it to all be the same heist & for us to do it as 10 different characters because I want to see all the different ways their ideas bounce off mine. She’s completely willing to play along with any & all bits, even if she herself thinks it’s really stupid or boring, if it’s what her character would do. Every single time they introduce a new character, I am on the edge of my seat, vibrating with excitement to see what they’ve come up with. Every time we meet a new NPC, I hold my breath, praying that they become a recurring character.

In a far off world, dread Cthulhu lies dead but dreaming far below the ocean in the lost city of R'lyeh. Cthulhu will some day awaken and devour this entire world, but until then its spawn spread through the universe to bring word of it to all, and destroy those who would oppose it. Large, ocropoid creatures with clawed hands, powerful and distended brains, and wings and spines lining their backs, they can fly through the emptiness of space at immense speeds, crossing galaxies in weeks or months. This allows them to find worlds that have not yet accepted Cthulhu as their master above all, and force them to provide sacrifices of life and treasure in Cthulhu's name to ensure that once their progenitor returns the stars are in position.

Inspired by the Tome of Beasts 1. This post came out a week ago on my Patreon. If you want to get access to all my monster conversions early, as well as access to my premade adventures and other material I’m working on, consider backing me there!

Pathfinder 2e

Star-Spawn oppose mi-go in all cases, and seek to turn worlds to Cthulhu. Individually they are destructive, though one alone couldn't conquer Golarion, and so they must act in caution and find those who they can turn into slaves to Cthulhu to progress their plans.

Star-Spawn of Cthulhu Creature 15 Rare Large Aberration Perception +29; greater darkvision Languages Aklo, Common Skills Arcana +30, Athletics +28, Intimidation +27, Occultism +30 Str +7, Dex +2, Con +7, Int +9, Wis +4, Cha +6 AC 37; Fort +29, Ref +24, Will +26; +2 status to all saves vs. mental HP 265; Immunities cold No Breath The star-spawn of Cthulhu doesn't breathe and is immune to effects that require breathing (such as an inhaled poison). Psychic Tower (occult) When the star-spawn critically succeeds on a Will save against a mental effect, it reflects this effect back onto the creature that originated the effect. When reflected, the effect affects only the original creature, even if it's an area effect or would affect more than one creature. The original creature can attempt a save and use other defenses against the reflected effect as normal. Speed 30 feet, swim 30 feet, fly 50 feet Melee claw +30 (agile, magical, reach 10 feet), Damage 3d6+15 slashing Melee foot +30 (magical), Damage 3d10+15 bludgeoning Dimensional Stomp [2 actions] (occult, teleportation) The star-spawn makes a foot Strike. If it hits, the target must attempt a DC 37 Reflex save or be teleported to a location of the star-spawn's choice within 120 feet. Disintegrating Gaze [1 action] (occult, visual) The star-spawn gazes upon a creature within 60 feet, tearing at their body, dealing 7d12 damage (no type). The creature must attempt a DC 37 Fortitude save. The star-spawn can't use Disintegrating Gaze again for 1d4 rounds. Critical Success The target is unaffected. Success The target takes half damage. Failure The target takes full damage. If the creature is reduced to 0 HP, they are reduced to a fine powder as the disintegrate spell. Critical Failure The target takes double damage and their body is dissipated into vapor as if affected by the vapor form spell, except the target can't dismiss the spell. Instead, at the end of each of their turns, the target can attempt a new save at the end of each of their turns to end the effect. If the creature is reduced to 0 HP they are reduced to a fine power as the disintegrate spell. Interdimensional Movement [1 action] (move, occult, teleportation); Frequency Once per round; Effect The star-spawn teleports up to 25 feet to a location it can see.

13th Age

Do other worlds exist beyond the Overworld? Ones that can only be reached through far travel through empty voids that few creatures can cross even with great magic? For that is where the star-spawn of Cthulhu arrive from, descending from the sky to demand fealty for their progenitor and forcing those too weak to fight them into submission.