13th Age-Style Icons in the Sandbox, Part 6: Inversion

I now have a set of 13 icons: the 12 major icons, and the 13th, the High One.

Under normal circumstances where I have no particular plan, I might roll a few dice to see which icons are involved, or at least interested, in the current event. I might use a mix of d12s and d20s: d12 because it will always match to one of the icons on the table below but not the High One (there are special rules there), d20 because it does include all the icons and a reasonable chance (per die) of no icon at all.

Roll Icon Interests
1 Giant’s Daughter Giant, Death/Spirit, Prophecy, Nature, Forest
2 Mountain King Giant, Curse, Prophecy, Mountain, King
3 Nature’s Heart Giant, Church, Animal, Mountain, Forest
4 Queen Underhill Prophecy, Art/Music, Fey, King, Nature
5 Storm Crone Death/Spirit, Raid, Church, Ocean, Forest
6 First Bard Death/Spirit, Storm, Art/Music, Ocean, Nature
7 Hound Civilization, Curse, Animal, Mountain, Quest
8 Unthroned King Craft/Artifice, Curse, Fey, King, Quest
9 Exemplar Civilization, Raid, Church, Animal, Glory
10 Windmistress Craft/Artifice, Storm, Art/Music, Fey, Sun/Moon
11 Lord Seacrest Raid, Storm, Glory, Ocean, Sun/Moon
12 Radiant Lady Craft/Artifice, Civilization, Glory, Quest, Sun/Moon
13 High One ?
14+ no icon N/A

For the High One, that icon is involved any time a 13 is rolled. The High One is also involved any time doubles are rolled (doubles could mean “that icon is very interested, possibly personally”, but I think I’ll reserve that for triples).

Under that model, any pairing of icons is possible, and the more dice are rolled, the greater the chance the High One is interested.

There is another way to do this, though, in a single roll. I used the polyhedral process to assign the initial themes, which means each pairing of themes is present in two icons… and I’d used the d12 as the polyhedron. The d20 is the dual of the d12, and I wondered what would happen if I inverted the structure to get a d20 table of ‘interested parties’.

Well, let’s see…

Roll Icons Interest
1 Giant’s Daughter, Mountain King, Nature’s Heart Giant
2 Unthroned King, Windmistress, Radiant Lady Craft/Artifice
3 Giant’s Daughter, Storm Crone, First Bard Death/Spirit
4 Hound, Exemplar, Radiant Lady Civilization
5 Mountain King, Hound, Unthroned King Curse
6 Storm Crone, Exemplar, Lord Seacrest Raid
7 Giant’s Daughter, Mountain King, Queen Underhill Prophecy
8 First Bard, Windmistress, Lord Seacrest Storm
9 Nature’s Heart, Storm Crone, Exemplar Church
10 Queen Underhill, First Bard, Windmistress Art/Music
11 Nature’s Heart, Hound, Exemplar Animal
12 Queen Underhill, Unthroned King, Windmistress Fey
13 Mountain King, Nature’s Heart, Hound Mountain
14 Exemplar, Lord Seacrest, Radiant Lady Glory
15 Mountain King, Queen Underhill, Unthroned King King
16 Storm Crone, First Bard, Lord Seacrest Ocean
17 Giant’s Daughter, Queen Underhill, First Bard Nature
18 Hound, Unthroned King, Radiant Lady Quest
19 Giant’s Daughter, Nature’s Heart, Storm Crone Forest
20 Windmistress, Lord Seacrest, Radiant Lady Sun/Moon

This has possibility. Any situation involving Queen Underhill, the Unthroned King, and the Windmistress is likely to heavily involve the fey (12 on d20), while some combination of the Hound, the Unthroned King, and the Radiant Lady might mean a quest is in the offing.

Just as each of the pairs of themes are present in two icons, in each trio of icons each pair of icons shares two themes. Queen Underhill and the Unthroned King share ‘fey’ and ‘king’ themes, Queen Underhill and the Windmistress share ‘fey’ and ‘art/music’, and the Windmistress and the Unthroned King share ‘fey’ and ‘craft/artifice’. I can easily see rolling d20 to pick a trio, the selecting a pair as being primarily interested, with the third being involved because the other two are (that is, less interested in their actual purpose, and more interested in meddling with them).

Closing Comments

This was really just a brief exercise to see what happens if I turn things around. The icons themselves are interesting, but inverting the table gives me a single roll to choose icons inclined to share interests, and identifies what that shared interest is.

While all three icons share a single interest, each pair of them has a different pair of shared interests. This gives me a bit more texture, the ability to decide better how they approach their primary shared interest. That is, while Queen Underhill, the Unthroned King, and the Windmistress are all associated with the fey, the interactions (shared interests) between each pair can guide me in how they will likely approach a situation. This is later expanded on by their unassociated interests — while the three share a single interest, and each pair shares two themes, each also has two themes not shared with either of their closest colleagues.

Yes… I think this will suit me.

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