Once upon a 13th age....

These are the adventures of a pen and paper noob who went on the quest of becoming a GM.


But first, let me introduce myself: My name is Max, and I am an illustration/animation student from Cologne, Germany. I grew up in a rather rural part of Belgium (I am, in fact, part Belgian) close to the german border. My heritage resulted in two things:
1. My hobbies include Belgian Abbey Beer and Pommes Frittes.
2. There are not too many pen and paper groups in close range (mainly because cows cant hold pens and would only eat the paper) so I didnt come in contact with all too much actual pen and paper, apart from other media that draw from those rpgs.


In fact I only recently became fascinated of D&D and the likes during my final semester when I built my whole workflow around coffee and podcasts (including the infamous Acquistions Incorporated) whilst struggling with my deadlines and working 24/7. I may or may not have suspected my laptop for a Mimic at some point (investigations are still running while I´m typing this from my PC), but overall I consider those podcasts one of the main reasons why I was able to finish my projects in time.


After finishing my studies at the academy in Cologne (I will relocate to London for my Bachelors Degree) I recently returned to my home town with a severe coffee addiction and the determined intention of starting a pen and paper group. Maybe I was even a little too enthusiastic, because when the group had its first session we were already eight players, all of them green as a goblin in terms of D&D experience.


After a short hook-up with the german D&D retro-clone Dungeonslayers (a setting with really simplistic and easy to understand rules,using only the d20 die) we gave the D20 game "13th Age" a Go, mostly due to the (compared with DnD) lightweight rules and the only roughly outlined lore, which allowed for a lot of improvisation. Because I was both the only one owning the rulebook and actually capable of understanding english to the necessary degree I was instantly elected GM of the Noobs and assigned to help my noob player friends build their characters.

Thought of the day: The early bird gets eaten by the Shai-Hulud