Earthdawn 2nd Edition
Earthdawn 2nd Edition by Living Room Games
- I have been playing in an Earthdawn campaign for some time now. I have learned quite a lot about the system and the game itself. I still remember sitting through an introductory demo at Origins the year FASA released it, but that was long ago.
FASA is no longer making games, just licensing out the games they used to publish. One of the two licensees of Earthdawn is Living Room Games (LRGames). It is the LRGames' Earthdawn Second Edition that we use. Our game master (GM) uses whatever source material he wants, but it is mostly old FASA stuff and LRGames. The rest comes from him. I don't know where the boundaries lie, so I will try not to include too much of that here.
So what is Earthdawn?
Earthdawn is a post apocalyptic fantasy and horror role playing game. The world is a dark nasty generally evil place that is recovering as several societies compete and interact to shape the new way of things to be. There are some great and powerful city-states with very little in between. The countryside has been swept clean by the truly evil beings called the horrors. Only pockets of civilization have survived. The horrors are still out there (or at least some of them). The people are reclaiming the land. The magic that permeates the world divides all life into several interesting categories. It is the interaction with this magic that the characters are able to change the course of events. This feature of the game world is what draws me to Earthdawn, and it is what makes it a unique game. The setting and source material is mostly written from a first person perspective in the form of stories and edited interviews. There are scattered notes and comments within the text from the person creating or cataloging the record. This makes all of the source material suspect and open for interpretation and modification by the GM.
The Magic
Earthdawn divides the world into categories based on how they interact with the magic. The most common category is the mundane. These mundane objects and creatures exist within the world but can not interact with the magic in any significant way. The next most common category is the Name Givers. Name Givers can shape and control the magic in significant ways through the use of beliefs and stories. The player characters (PCs) will come from this pool. It is a significant group and would include all the humans, elves, dwarves, orks, trolls, obsidimen, t'skrang and windlings. These peoples attach significance to places and objects and themselves by giving names, and then using them. How often are people known by a nickname that seems more significant than their real 'given' name? This process is enhanced by the magic in Earthdawn and infuses the named with magic and the ability to influence the world. The two smaller groups are the Name Makers, which are the Dragons, and the Name Takers, which are the Horrors. The dragons claim to be different from the Name Givers as they believe they have the ability create not just shape. The Horrors on the other hand are the opposite. They destroy and corrupt and consume the life and magic or the world.
The naming of a thing changes the "magical DNA" of the thing. This "magical DNA" is referred to as the thing's "pattern". This is the thing's magical structure. The more powerful the item is the denser and more complex the pattern is. This pattern is essential for the well being and identity of the item. Everything has a pattern from a simple dagger or shield to the greatest of all the horrors. When an item or creature is given a name its pattern changes and it begins to interact with the magic. As the name becomes more significant the magic becomes stronger. For name givers this process is fairly automatic, as other name givers tell stories the magic grows. I'm sure every reader knows that one relative that tells stories about the rest of the family (and the rest of the family tells stories about them). Also how many times have you heard or told a story that went something like "So yesterday, I met this guy that...". As these stories are told, fame and magic follows. This process also can enhance items and places. When an item gets a complex enough pattern it gains magically enhanced abilities that a name giver can use.
A subset of the name givers are known as adepts and each one has an especially complex pattern and can use magic in fantastic ways. Each adept has an outlook on life that is further categorized into Disciplines. These Disciplines are a path to tap the magical power. Each Discipline has a unique set of abilities (called Talents). Each talent can grow in ability by advancing in "Circle". Each Circle opens up new Talents for the adept and at certain levels grants special abilities. The Disciplines can be grouped into those that fight, travel, and manipulate magic. Do not think that the Disciplines in the group are just variations of the same theme. The underlying world view is very different. For example, just compare the Archer, Swordmaster and Warrior. While they are all very combat oriented, the Archer fights at a distance, the Swordmaster fights with style and flash, and the Warrior is no nonsense and brutal. The four spellcasters are just as varied. This outlook on life really does drive the character and fuels the the characters approach to all the challenges.
The Mechanics
The core mechanic of the game is the rank/step dice and tables. Each step has a corresponding set of dice to roll. Any die that comes up as its maximum value is rolled again and the new roll is added to the total. Once the total is known, it is used to compare against the difficulty of the task. This will give a relative level of success or failure. These steps are calculated by taking the and the underlying statistic that is relevant, like strength for damage and charisma for bribery, finding the appropriate step and then adding the characters rank (combination of practice and training), and applying any situational modifiers to get the final step number to be rolled. The open ended feature of the dice rolls allows characters to perform extraordinary feats through some magic and luck in addition to the character's skills and Talents.
The Discipline/Circle/Talent system is similar to a typical class/level system, but has elements of a classless skill based system added in. A third circle character may actually be more powerful than a fifth circle character of the same Discipline. It is not likely, but it can be possible. Once a character gets to the upper range of the middle circles, they are very powerful and a small group can complete some epic tasks. Add in the non-magical skills and the system moves to a clear middle ground between the two main schools of RPG.
Spell casters (Elementalists, Illisionists, Nethermancers, and Wizards) all have the further complications of having the magic of the world still corrupted and the casting leaves one very vulnerable to the remaining horrors. This is expressed in the rules by making the spell caster take Talents to hold spells in what are known as a Spell Matrix. Each matrix only holds one spell, but can be used over and over until re-attuned for a new spell. These characters have to make the judgement as to which spells to have ready for immediate use and the freedom from tracking spell use. More complex spells require the caster to add magic to the matrix for the casting of the spell in the form of magical threads that are woven to the spell. This weaving of the threads uses the actions of the caster and slows down the casting of some of the more powerful spells. Of course if the caster is desperate they can throw these cautions to the wind and cast anyway using either the spell book as the matrix or casting without the protection a matrix gives by using raw magic.
The Product
The rule set that LRGames publishes is contained within the Earthdawn Second Edition rule book and the Earthdawn Companion. They have produced two of three rules supplements in the Makers of Legend series, the third has yet to be published. These three are titled "The Way of War" and "The Wanderers Way", while "The Way of Will" is still unpublished. The main rulebook and the companion will give the entire core rule set. The Makers of Legend books are expansions to the Disciplines and adds a new one in each book. I don't know how long I should continue to wait for the final book. I can't really recommend using the first two without the final one as it may throw off the balance of the game.
My Recommendations
If you are looking to be a player in a good RPG first find a good GM and then try to convince him or her to run Earthdawn. A good GM will be able to make just about any game fun.
If you are a GM give Earthdawn a good long look. There is a good set of game mechanics underpinning a great setting. The source material is well thought out and of course easy enough to change without being too obvious. High fantasy players can be sent off hacking and slashing, social players can get involved in the politics of the various powers, horror players can be sent to unravel and thwart the plans of the horrors and their minions. The only ones who may not fit in so comfortably are the science fiction and cyberpunk players. They should go play Shadowrun and then hook them into Earthdawn as they exist in the same world, just at different times.
Our current campaign
We are playing in a campaign that is hosted by All Things Fun. You can read all about our discussions over at the web site's forum section. A good place to start is the "Earthdawn" thread. Then you can read about our "Best" mistakes and the Most Heroic Events. Of course the real meat of the campaign is the Map Disc and the deciphering of the clues.