13th Agecombines the best parts of crunchy d20-rolling fantasy gaming with story-focused rules that help the gamemaster and players collaborate to create unique campaigns.
The 350 pages of the13thAge Second Edition Heroes Handbookinclude character creation, a chapter on the kin, classes, backgrounds, the combat rules, icon connection rules, and writeups of each of the icons to help players use their connections in fun ways that shape the story. To help people get into the game, the book opens with a 17-page example of play covering campaign planning, character creation, and the first four battles fought by a party of heroes exploring a cemetery overrun by Lich King cultists.
Players will want13th Age Second Edition Gamemasters Guidefor treasure and information on the default setting of the Dragon Empire. Gamemasters need the GM books 250 pages of rules for running the game, campaign advice, rules for quickly creating exciting and balanced battles, hundreds of monsters, guidelines and tools for designing new monsters, and an introductory adventure in a living dungeon!
The side of the three-section screen facing the players shows shows the twelve icons. The side facing the GM has all the tables needed to design monsters and battles on the fly, reminders for conditions and actions during battle, and the guidelines for both environmental threats. Its not all bad for the heroesthe screen also has guidelines for suggested treasure rewards.
All the adventures, settings, monsters, magic items, kin, and classes already published for13thAgeare compatible with this new edition.
In 2013, our game 13thAge showed fantasy roleplayers a way to combine vibrant storytelling with high-energy combat. Earlier, we had been the lead designers of 3rdEdition and 4thEdition of the worlds oldest roleplaying game, and in 13thAge we wrote for gamers like us, not for corporate shareholders. Our new second edition makes the game better, thanks to years of listening to fans and of testing ideas at our gaming table. The character classes have better options, the monsters are scarier, the magic items offer more choices, and the narrative rules are better defined. We hope you love it.
Rob Heinsoo & Jonathan Tweet, August 2025
Rob Heinsoo has created dozens of role-playing games, card games, miniatures games and board games. He led the design of the fourth edition of Dungeons & Dragons and wrote or led the design of many 4e sourcebooks as well as overseeing the13thAgeline and co-designing13thAge Gloranthawith Jonathan. Other notable designs include the various incarnations ofThree-Dragon Ante, the first two sets ofEpic Spell Wars,Wrestlenomicon, the upcomingArmello: The Board Game, and the upcomingLegendary: Game of Thrones.
Jonathan Tweet is the perfect collaborator for Rob on 13thAge. Jonathan was the lead designer of 3rd Ed D&D, and his other game designs changed the way people design and play roleplaying games (seeArs Magica,Over the Edge, andEverway). Hes also worked in card games, miniatures, Facebook games, and fiction. His games have won three Origins Awards, and he is in the Origins Award Hall of Fame. Finally, hes the author ofGrandmother Fish(Macmillan 2016), the first book to teach evolution to preschoolers.