What is Earthdawn?

[The Dark Wizard]

So I liked @Cthulhu_Wakes' interest check from before. However trying to do any research into Earthdawn essentially brings up the fact that there was a successful kickstarter and that is all everyone ist alking about, so Google search seems useless at the moment.


I've also noticed that it gets compared to Exalted a lot? But they don't even seem related in terms of concepts.


@Cthulhu_Wakes, can you tell us about Earthdawn since you are running it on the site.


Of course anyone else who knows about the system/setting can pitch in as well.

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

Earthdawn is basically a love letter to D&D. It takes all of D&D's tropes and fully justifies them. Every PC is an Adept, who uses the magic of the world to enhance their abilities, be it rowing a boat, swinging a sword, or casting spells.


It's billed as the prehistory of the Shadowrun setting, but it stands alone by itself very well, and it's delicious and fluffy.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

@Panda


Panda here is one of the writers for said new edition and has been a fan far longer than even I have. Earthdawn, as mentioned before, had some connection to Shadowrun back in the day, but that is no longer a thing because the licenses rest with different companies now. So, just put that out of mind for now. It's so much more than that.


As Wayfarer notes, the game is a response to old school AD&D as a method of justifying its tropes, putting a lot of those tropes in a cohesive world where these things need to actually make sense. Honestly, I'm not sure why at all it's compared to Exalted beyond they're both post-apocalyptic fiction. You could honestly find far more accurate comparisons to Fallout or Wasteland than Exalted with Earthdawn.


As we all know, Earthdawn (and Shadowrun, once) were about cycles of magic. Earthdawn is the Fourth World in the cycle of magic that dominates the world. Magic rises, magic falls, etc., etc. Concomitant to the cresting magical fields comes a blending of this world with the netherworlds, strange alien realms from whence come Horrors (and sometimes other things and spirits), eldritch abominations who are appetite personified. They find our world appealing for the terror to be wrought and hungers to be sated upon the masses.


You read about the kaers and such in my pitch. The Scourge was the arrival of the Horrors in this world foretold by the Martyr Scholar hundreds of years ago. The reemerging nations after the Scourge find a world changed and desolated by the Horrors. Into this come the Adepts, people who have taken up certain Disciplines found throughout the world. A word on this: magic is ubiquitous in Barsaive and the world in this setting. Magic is war, magic is Naming, magic is spells, magic is life itself. It's something intrinsic to every creature. Disciplines are simply an outgrowth of that.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

@Panda[/URL]
Panda here is one of the writers for said new edition and has been a fan far longer than even I have. Earthdawn, as mentioned before, had some connection to Shadowrun back in the day, but that is no longer a thing because the licenses rest with different companies now. So, just put that out of mind for now. It's so much more than that.


As Wayfarer notes, the game is a response to old school AD&D as a method of justifying its tropes, putting a lot of those tropes in a cohesive world where these things need to actually make sense. Honestly, I'm not sure why at all it's compared to Exalted beyond they're both post-apocalyptic fiction. You could honestly find far more accurate comparisons to Fallout or Wasteland than Exalted with Earthdawn.


As we all know, Earthdawn (and Shadowrun, once) were about cycles of magic. Earthdawn is the Fourth World in the cycle of magic that dominates the world. Magic rises, magic falls, etc., etc. Concomitant to the cresting magical fields comes a blending of this world with the netherworlds, strange alien realms from whence come Horrors (and sometimes other things and spirits), eldritch abominations who are appetite personified. They find our world appealing for the terror to be wrought and hungers to be sated upon the masses.


You read about the kaers and such in my pitch. The Scourge was the arrival of the Horrors in this world foretold by the Martyr Scholar hundreds of years ago. The reemerging nations after the Scourge find a world changed and desolated by the Horrors. Into this come the Adepts, people who have taken up certain Disciplines found throughout the world. A word on this: magic is ubiquitous in Barsaive and the world in this setting. Magic is war, magic is Naming, magic is spells, magic is life itself. It's something intrinsic to every creature. Disciplines are simply an outgrowth of that.

Thanks !


Also did not know @Panda was one of the writers, welcome aboard!


Is the system similar to Shadowrun 4th or 5th edition? Also I think I'm looking forward to Earthdawn 4th.

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

As Wayfarer notes, the game is a response to old school AD&D as a method of justifying its tropes, putting a lot of those tropes in a cohesive world where these things need to actually make sense. Honestly, I'm not sure why at all it's compared to Exalted beyond they're both post-apocalyptic fiction. You could honestly find far more accurate comparisons to Fallout or Wasteland than Exalted with Earthdawn.

I think it's the part about augmenting action with magic. Much like in Exalted, the PCs command the fundamental forces of the world and use them to perform better than normal.

Is the system similar to Shadowrun 4th or 5th edition? Also I think I'm looking forward to Earthdawn 4th.

Ahahahano. Earthdawn has a very... unique (some would call it wonky) system that rolls varying amount of different dice as you become more competent. Your ability is rated in terms of numbered Steps. This number roughly corresponds the average result of a certain amount of certain dice. For example, Step 5 has you roll 1d8 (average of 1d10 = 4.5, round up to 5) while Step 9 has you roll 1d8+1d6 (5.5+3.5).


Most rolls are based on (Talent/Skill Step) + (Attribute Step), so for instance, having Melee Weapons at Step 4 (d6) and Dexterity at Step 7 (d12) means you make attack rolls at Step 11 (d10+d8). There's no direct adding.


The intended effect is that while your mean performance goes up, so does the variance on your upper and lower limits. It's not like d20 where your static modifiers basically shift the range of your d20 variance up and down on the RNG, or dicepool systems where it gets exponentially harder to succeed vs higher target numbers (in Exalted, for instance, having 10 dice is supposed to give you 5 hits, or a 50% success rate vs difficulty 5. But against difficulty 6 you would need 6 hits, which is roughly a 25% probability, and it goes down very fast from there)

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

While I'll grant you that, I'd argue that Exalted still hasn't hit home on that promise (despite what the devs promise for The Book That Shall Be) since First Edition. And I loved First Edition waaaaay more than Second.

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

I only have 3rd, now for someone to run it for me.


Dis gai rite here has done an excellent summary/review of Earthdawn 3e.

 

[Panda1]

Greetings,


If there are any specific Earthdawn related questions, I will do what I can to address them.


I will note the average results from a roll aren't rounded up to an integer, but actually are the integer due to "exploding": if you roll the maximum result on any die, you re-roll and add to the total. The odds of an exploding die combined with average result from the roll bring up the average result to almost exactly the whole number (just slightly over, actually).


Clearly the ritual of three invocations is working.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Greetings,
If there are any specific Earthdawn related questions, I will do what I can to address them.


I will note the average results from a roll aren't rounded up to an integer, but actually are the integer due to "exploding": if you roll the maximum result on any die, you re-roll and add to the total. The odds of an exploding die combined with average result from the roll bring up the average result to almost exactly the whole number (just slightly over, actually).


Clearly the ritual of three invocations is working.

Thanks


All in all I'm liking Earthdawn revised edition, I really like this Fallout vibe I get from it.


I'm eagerly awaiting to the new edition before I dig moreinto what appears to be an awesome game.

[QUOTE="Cthulhu_Wakes]The Book That Shall Be

[/QUOTE]
God. . . due to all of the drama behind said book, most of our exalted games have died, most people my self included are just waiting for it to come out. We used to have 40+ games of that system a lone at all times.


Though I suspect that the numbers will easily double once the book comes out. But that is another discussion for a different thread :3.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Greetings,
If there are any specific Earthdawn related questions, I will do what I can to address them.


I will note the average results from a roll aren't rounded up to an integer, but actually are the integer due to "exploding": if you roll the maximum result on any die, you re-roll and add to the total. The odds of an exploding die combined with average result from the roll bring up the average result to almost exactly the whole number (just slightly over, actually).


Clearly the ritual of three invocations is working.

Will the book be available on drivethrurpg when it comes out?

 

[Panda1]

I'm glad you like what you have read so far and I hope you will enjoy it even more once 4E is released. While I strongly suspect it will be available on Drivethrustuff, given all of the other Earthdawn books are available there, I cannot confirm the question. My involvement ends at developing the player-facing mechanics (Player's Guide and thread items from the Gamemaster's Guide) and does not extend into the business aspects.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I'm glad you like what you have read so far and I hope you will enjoy it even more once 4E is released. While I strongly suspect it will be available on Drivethrustuff, given all of the other Earthdawn books are available there, I cannot confirm the question. My involvement ends at developing the player-facing mechanics (Player's Guide and thread items from the Gamemaster's Guide) and does not extend into the business aspects.

Thanks for answering all of my questions. I'm sure I'll have more once I get into Earthdawn more !

 

[Panda1]

[QUOTE="The Dark Wizard]Thanks for answering all of my questions. I'm sure I'll have more once I get into Earthdawn more !

[/QUOTE]
I will be happy to answer to the best of my ability. As noted previously, that ability wanes when it is about areas I am not working on - I can offer some insight as a knowledgeable fan, but nothing like the actual author of those parts - and as they may collide with my NDA.


The good news is most questions deal with my development projects; if someone is unhappy about something, it is probably my fault.


If you are interested, there are number of previews for the new edition and I am doing a series of example characters. At least two different races for each discipline to show off different directions for the discipline. The link above should take you to the organized-ish list of my Earthdawn blog posts.