Avoraciopoctules wrote:1. How easy would it be to use Earthdawn for more generic games? Let's say I want to tell the story of a posse of adventurers who brave the perils of the Fane of Dicko the Genie in order to free him and make wishes for asymmetric power, then destabilize the political situation in the land of the NotArabs when they start using their new powers.
2. Is there anything impeding me from running a game where people make their way through a dungeon full of ridiculous traps and monsters, having capricious genies that could give you a bunch of fancy powers and/or set you on fire when you convince them to give you a wish, and then somehow modeling the interactions between whatever organizations the PCs create once they can call water from the sand and explode things with their laser eyebeams?
@1. Very. Especially if you want to play the 'The Great Theran Not-Empire (we have no emperors, you see...) fights against Terrorist Barbarians from Creana to liberate the opressed orichal... erm, Namegivers'.
@2. Nope. Especially if in the end they can find out that was just a cruel mindf**ck created by one of the more fun-oriented Horrors, and they just provided him with a decent snack.
Fuchs wrote:Windlings: female to male ratio 1-10 or so. Mating for life. And they usually have only one kid per marriage.
Yeah, whoever wrote that shit had no clue about mathematics. There would have been no windlings after a few generations, even without any horrors to contend with.
Polygamy/clan marriage. They still mate for life, and the wife has one kid with each husband.
There, fixed it. :P
Aryxbez wrote:
Pardon, could you clarify what you're talking about the part in the parenthesis, you saying it's rude in the setting to call an NPC's circle a "level" or what?
No. It's rude to call a Master Wizard a 10-th Circle Wizard.
Aryxbez wrote:So alright, Earthdawn is sounding pretty cool, but, being told how it's company by "hardcore fans", and people talking about how awesome it is, sounding rather suspicious (like Fans of White Wolf). As it is with most fans, tend to make something "sound" good, but how truly super awesome is it in actuality can be under question here. Especially that in such cases, the game isn't anywhere as good as fans/developers "think" it is. Since they're supposed to be like levels, what does Master and Grandmaster, look in scope to, compared to 3rd edition levels?
It's a small company. Nothing crappy like White Wolf's line-killing. The fact that almost all their products receive pretty good ratings in reviews - especially those not made by fans - speaks for itself. But to be honest the game has aged nicely, but still aged. There was a Cathay sourcebook released recently, but besides that they just made a new edition and 'upgraded' the old books (and they're not done with that yet).
Epic enough. For example: spells above level eight are considered legendary. Master level Adepts usually have their own cohort, influence in several cities, and social position on 'aristocracy' level. Sky Raiders/Sky Sailors/Boatmen usually have their own ship at this level. Possibly several. Multi-attacks and truly spectacular Talents are also starting to pop at Master circles, including magic (not castrated like in dnd) for non-spellcaster disciplines, and other epic powers.
To be honest, I can't really speculate accurately, because I never played DnD much. But in ED reaching Master circles makes you one of those characters that you usually find in campaign settings as 'the most powerfull x in this land'.
Besides, in Earthdawn you're legendary from the start, and even 1-st circle greenhorns can easily become well known pretty much everywhere. It mostly depends on how their story will be passed on (read: if the Troubadur who does it is high-circle, or not).
Aryxbez wrote:What kind of high level warrior like stunts can be pulled here, any sorts of super strength (like wielding a tree, 30ft-long Giant sword/BFS or throwing dragons), self-replicating jump based Fight (like the Hulk, Samurai Jack, Inuyasha, etc), hell wrestle a Tornado.
1-st circle Warrior can improve his initiative via Air Dance. It makes him hover a few inches above the ground while he 'dances' in combat. And it pretty much goes downhill from that. For example, we had a player whose character was a captain of a riverboat. During an enemy boarding action her character managed to cut a bloody path to the enemy captain through his whole ship, not even staining her clothes, then beat and kill the opponent, humiliating him along the way. In style, as Swordsmasters do. All that without a scratch, and against decent NPC's, with average dice rolls, and good tactical planning. And maybe a little help from her friends... We were at third circle then. The same Circle had my Wizard, when he managed to cut a troll in half (i still have that cut NPC sheet) with a single spell (that was a few circles beyond his own, though).
As for the specifics, if you want super-strength, play a troll or obsidiman. Then you can pull it off. Others? Too, but buffed, or using blood magic. No dragon throwing though. They don't like that. Jump-fights are also possible. Great Leap+Wind Walk+Wind Catcher. If you play a troll or obsidiman, wrestling tornadoes is doable. Especially if you're an Elementalist.
Aryxbez wrote:Also, believe said the game focuses on the first eight circles, how fairly well written (or imbalanced) are the other circle/levels beyond that here?
Not any more. AFAIR they're very balanced. Haven't seen any issues with that discussed anywhere. But I might be wrong. By my calculations Master and Grandmaster circles are appropriately 'epic'.
Earthdawn usually manages with providing exploding dice when the moment is sufficiently heroic, and the fate of at least the part lies in balance...
@JongWK: Show him the 'almost-like-skin-shift' spell. :P
@Frank: The best (time- and damage-efficient) offensive spells are at lower levels. And the choice is a lot better then. A lot of legendary spells are designed with a specific task in mind, or just to show how powerful their creator was. Hell, they're usually self-propelling stories. :)
FrankTrollman wrote:
However, my biggest beef with Earthdawn is that it was supposed to be a prequel to Shadowrun, and then they went off on this fucking tirade about globe scouring space monsters that forced everyone to live in underground magic fortresses in 4000 BCE. That is one of the very few plotlines they possibly could have pursued that was completely incompatible with Shadowrun. Whatever the fuck the 4th world was like, it had to have been something that the vast majority of life on Earth could live through because it is simple observable reality that the Earth by and large was not essentially destroyed several times in the incredibly recent geologic past.
Should have been more Conan, less post-apocalypse. Because Shadowrun takes place in the near future, and the world wasn't destroyed at any point.
No. Because the Horrors weren't an equivalent of a mutual atomic destruction. They came
to feed like a swarm of locusts. Yes, they destroyed and corrupted a lot of things, but it is noted that the land is healing at an amazing rate - forests growing, creatures returning to their old habitats, and such. Besides, the most powerful Horrors were interested in Namegivers, not the land or nature itself. Because every Namegiver capable of suffering was a meal they were deprived of in their 'native' corners of the metaplanes that spawned them.
If you look at the monsters in Earthdawn, you'll notice that a lot of them are just magically changed versions of animals. Made vicious by the Scourge (only the toughest creatures survived), and developing magical powers by courtesy of a high mana level.
So, no, the world wasn't destroyed (that happened during another Scourge, but that's the story of Equinox, a space-fantasy sequel to Shadowrun), but most civilizations were. The Theran Empire survived, because it thrived on magic. And even they weren't unscathed, if you look how much they depend on death magic.
The Scourge has almost wiped the 'metahumanity' out, not life on Earth itself, because metahumans aren't needed to fuel the magic field, that the Horrors need to cross into our plane. I don't think those powerfull Horrors would allow it. Wouldn't you shoot any moron who comes to your orchard with a chainsaw, because they really want some apples?
Oh, and according to the legends, that was the
second Scourge.