Let's Play 13th Age is a Tabletop Game Let's Play by many of the people from Something Awful: Dungeons & Dragons playing the 13th Age role-playing game.
It follows Bella Canto (AWoodenPalisade), Rip Smoulderboulder (Ambisagrus), "Monster" Manuél (Wolfshirt), Margaret Stone (PoorWeather), Mint Gelato (medibot), Nav (Plaz/Ikks), and Scarlett de Flor (Drakkel), the group known as Rogue Elements, through their adventures to save the world from both unspeakable evil and themselves.
Side characters who have appeared include Claude Luminor and Slamby Gastronotte, Rip's Gnomish nephew by adoption (Ambisagrus), Tran and Bocca Chiusa (AWoodenPalisade), Gerald of the Mountain Apardu (Medibot), Cactus Arriba and Priene Mandorle (Plaz/Ikks), Algernon and Beowulf de Flor, Scarlett's brothers (Drakkel), Violetta Spellreguard (Wolfshirt), Debentiel (Poor Weather), and Wanda Hiltpick (General Ironicus).
The Dungeon Master is General Ironicus of Chip and Ironicus fame.
Their tumblr can be found here
Let's Play 13th Age provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: The Rogue Elements are made up of Bella, Margaret, Scarlet, Manuel, Mint, Nav, Rip, and Mercury
- Battle of the Bands: One of the major conflicts of the Forge arc- Wylde Nyghtmäre, one of Grand Handsome's rival bands, instigates one of these as a cover to free some POW's.
- Boomerang Bigot: Margaret. It's very pronounced, to the point that she refuses to use a free enchanted bow because it was made by elves and not "honest Imperial craftsmen." This despite being an elf herself.
- Butt-Monkey: Scarlett tends to be the target of most of the team's snide remarks.
- Cool Car: Cool van, actually. Using a loose definition of the word van. It moves like a locomotive that lays down tracks in front of itself, if flies, it's got magical laser cannons on it, there's a giant crane arm for all sorts of utility in and out of battle, and the entire cargo level can be ejected in case of demon infestation.
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Crazy Is Cool: Most of their more impressive feats are accomplished through the DM's love for cool things rather than a rational application of physics. Highlights include jury-rigging a ballista out of a ship's mast and ropes, driving a rift in the fabric of the universe into an ocean, and pulling off a botched heist by teleporting the entire vault onto the escape vehicle. - Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Nav, whose real name is Navarwndes yl Vyntovkae Draegynovkas. It's easier just to call him Nav.
- Evil Nephew: While Slamby is a "grody fucker" rather than evil, Rip completely loathes him.
- Extreme Omnivore: Slamby has the "Iron Gut" background, which allows him to eat things that he probably shouldn't.
- Deal with the Devil: Groat was part of a short-sighted one- he gained immense power and was able to fool his former Druid friends by appearing as a Satyr and gaining immense power, but the power literally hurts him half the time he attacks.
- Freudian Excuse: Margaret's hatred of her elven kindred stems from being abandoned by her birth parents at the age of four.
- Happily Adopted: Seems to be the case with Slamby Gastronotte, a gnome adopted by Rip's brother Jet (but raised by Mom and Pop Smoulderboulder). For that matter, Margaret herself is adopted (by a family of human farmers), and her fervent love of human culture is a way to repay her adoptive parents.
- Magic Music: Bella is able to physically manifest her music due to a curse placed on her in her childhood by Groat Underbelly.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The entire plot. Each Macguffin is something of either actual (skin of a behemoth), historical (tusk of the first Orc lord), or political (scales of The Three) value. The heroes gradually come to realize that the gathering of said items could risk cataclysmically destabilizing the world despite saving it from the evil they're working against. Not that any of those pesky consequences slow them down, mind.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Lorette stone, to Margaret. Though it goes a bit beyond 'obnoxious' at times.
- The Power of Rock: Rip and Bella's main way of operating. Their band, Grand Handsome, is described as a blend of "grace and power."
- Punny Name: "Monster" Manuél, who knows everything about monsters. It's a pun on the Monster Manual.
- Shout-Out:
- A bunch to the Wu-Tang Clan. The god of secrets visited in Cathedral is named Wutang, and a handful of characters are pursued by an Arch-Mage organization called "C.R.E.A.M" (Council for Reclaiming Emergent Alchemy and Magic).
- The names the party takes on as 'wrestlers' include Rawk Hawk and Devilbat Schilt.
- Smug Snake: Shifthand the Gnome Rogue. He self-aggrandizes and doesn't take the Imperial Military seriously. He gets killed in under three rounds when his brash behavior and belief that his men can take on the military leads him to mostly ignore his enemies and go straight for the loot they're after, putting him in direct line of fire from Scarlett and Bella, who make short work of him. It's so pathetic he can't even open one lock until right before he dies. And this was all largely his fault because he decided to openly mock the military and give away his position rather than Sneak like a regular Rogue. Furthermore, Shifthand made the dumb choice to antagonize the two people who were on the fence about joining either the Imperials or the Rogues, firmly cementing the party's choice to side with the Imperials.
- Tempting Fate: Margaret has the choice between taking 6D6 damage or being confused, her response? "Do your worst 6D6". She successfully rolls Yahtzee (21 damage).
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: A somewhat skilled and organized team of Robin Hood-esque Rogues lay an ambush for the Imperial Military. Both sides know each other are nearby, and the Imperial Military has employed powerful mages and legendary soldiers. The Rogues get butchered, and only one makes it out alive. The fact Rogues get most of their mileage out of surprising their victims instead of getting into straight fights plays the largest factor, as Shifthand made the dumb move of announcing his presence right before the actual attack. Additionally, most of the Imperial Military are well-trained soldiers who deal with this stuff on a daily basis. As a result, very few of the Military got killed, and those that did were mostly because of the two semi-competent Rogue leaders doing it themselves; among the rank-and-file, the Soldiers got more kills than the Rogues.
