13th Age

Cast your Vote, then Place your Bets

| Aaron McConnell

Remember that I excitedly announced that 13th Age was up for a 2014 ENnie Award or 3?  Well, evidently the winners are selected by popular vote.  If you are so inclined, please follow this LINK  to the ballot and vote for 13th Age in categories Best Game, Best Rules, and Product of the Year. (Then go ahead and place your bets secure in the knowledge that you rocked the vote.) Voting ends tomorrow, so don’t hesitate.

PCOptions_croppedDetail from an illustration in the core book, page 73 seen here: 13th_Age_pg-73And here’s the original sketch.  Hey! The numbers keep changing, don’t they?!  That bookie can’t be trusted!OptionRaces4_Thumb_A

Boltstrike Pillar

| Aaron McConnell

Boltstrike Pillar is a massive stone column that twists and
turns seven stories into the air. The tower has been a node of
supernatural forces for ages. It may have started as a moreor-
less natural formation, but over the centuries it has been
partially hollowed out and carved into living spaces and magical
workshops. Around the tower is a walled area with a few stone
and timber dwellings and storage structures, a well, etc. Other
features of the living space outside the wall depend on which
icon holds power.    -p. 301, 13th Age Core Book

BoltstrikePillar_Pencil_ABoltstrike Pillar appears in Chapter 10, the “Blood and Lightning” adventure in the 13th Age core book.  Below is the rough draft and a bonus sketch for a different adventure that Rob was toying with at the time.BoltstrikePillar_Thumb_A UpTheStairway_Thumb_A

13th Age Nominated!

| Aaron McConnell
ENnies_Logo
2014 ENnie Awards Nominees

I have a couple years to go before I can say I’ve been a freelance illustrator for over a decade, but I have been doing it long enough to know that receiving any kind of accolade for a project is an extremely rare occasion.  So it was much to my delight to discover that 13th Age has been nominated in three different categories including Best Game in the ENnies, The Gen Con EN World RPG Awards.  Cause for celebration IMHO, and especially humbled to be considered among the other nominees.

I couldn’t help waxing nostalgic about how I got involved in this project back in 2012.  I had no idea how many hours and how much enthusiasm I would foster for the project between then and now.  My very first illustration for 13th Age was a pencil drawing of the Archmage, if I remember correctly.  You can see this Announcement Post about that piece back then.  I was trying to remember which interior piece I worked on first and I don’t know if it was the absolute first, but the Clerics were definitely one of the earliest.  These are the clerics as seen on page 188 of the core book: 13th_Age_page-188 I hadn’t seen what Lee Moyer did to finish this piece until I saw it printed in the book, 2013.  You can image what a treat that was for me.  My memory of the piece was the pencil version that I handed over to Lee the previous year as seen here: Clerics_Pencils_A Below is the rough sketch that I submitted to Rob Heinsoo.   I hadn’t figured out how I was going to depict those spirits emanating from the male cleric’s magic item, and apparently it was compromised by the Diabolist because demonic spirits seem to be escaping rather than angelic ones!Clerics_Sketch_A The clerics in this sketch were a bit light on armor for Rob’s taste, so I think he sent me some snapshots of tabletop miniatures for reference, but I can’t find them!  It was all the way back in 2012 after all.  Seems like Ages ago…