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Earthdawn Fourth Edition: Player's Guide
The Age of Legend An age of magic once existed in our world. Lost to history, this time is remembered in the echoes of myth and legend. Humans lived alongside the other Namegiver races dwarf and elf, troll and ork, windling, t skrang and obsidiman. The wild places of the world were home to griffins, shadowmants, and other fantastic beasts. The land was once besieged by the Horrors, foul creatures from the depths of astral space that sought to feed upon and destroy all that was living and good. Their time the time of the Scourge has passed, and the people have returned to the surface, reclaiming the lands that were once their home. Brave heroes band together to explore the land of Barsaive, fighting the Horrors that remain, and protecting their homes and families from those that would enslave them. The Player s Guide provides you with the rules for playing characters from First to Eighth Circle, with all the talents, spells, and other tools needed to forge your own legends in the Earthdawn Roleplaying Game!
512 pages, Perfect Paperback
Published September 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 8, 2018
Many years ago, when Earthdawn first came out, some friends of mine and I gave this system a try. We couldn't have tried very hard though, because the campaign didn't run for long. What Earthdawn became for us is a pre-history of the Shadowrun universe, and a place to go for some Things (Metahu-)Man(s) Was (Were) Not Meant to Know. I don't remember now why we quit, because I've always remembered the system as being a lot of fun - a great example of rules matching the setting.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the company that made Earthdawn, FASA, launched a Kickstarter campaign for 4th Edition. (I have no idea what happened to editions 2 and 3 - I must not have been paying attention.) I decided to back it and sometime later downloadable PDFs came my way, and a short time after that, hardcover books.
Earthdawn is still everything I remember it being - a fun system (Lots of shapes of dice to roll!), an amazing background (on the back side an end to the world, one of many), fun races and classes and a well-designed magic system. Lots of things that I like in a game.
The baseline rule system is easy to understand, but there is enough depth and variety to keep a group's interest. And the possibility for heroic stories is endless. Characters in Earthdawn are all magical - beings known as Adepts. The magic abilities you know, Talents, sit alongside (but actually mostly replace) Skills to determine what your character can do. Characters can gain all sorts of nifty combat abilities. Or they can cast spells and summon things through a slightly complex but fun system built around that. Or they can slink about in the shadows. Or they can do a combination of all of these things. Win - win - win - win.
Recommended.
Fast forward a couple of decades and the company that made Earthdawn, FASA, launched a Kickstarter campaign for 4th Edition. (I have no idea what happened to editions 2 and 3 - I must not have been paying attention.) I decided to back it and sometime later downloadable PDFs came my way, and a short time after that, hardcover books.
Earthdawn is still everything I remember it being - a fun system (Lots of shapes of dice to roll!), an amazing background (on the back side an end to the world, one of many), fun races and classes and a well-designed magic system. Lots of things that I like in a game.
The baseline rule system is easy to understand, but there is enough depth and variety to keep a group's interest. And the possibility for heroic stories is endless. Characters in Earthdawn are all magical - beings known as Adepts. The magic abilities you know, Talents, sit alongside (but actually mostly replace) Skills to determine what your character can do. Characters can gain all sorts of nifty combat abilities. Or they can cast spells and summon things through a slightly complex but fun system built around that. Or they can slink about in the shadows. Or they can do a combination of all of these things. Win - win - win - win.
Recommended.
Displaying 1 of 1 review