Earthdawn Survival Guide

* Cavalryman

* Least played Discipline?

* Primary issue with Cavalryman: Their mount.

* Size and logistics when kaer diving.

* Remember though, kaers can be big.

* The Cavalryman is great world building.

* Josh’s campaign wish list: Cavalry focused game.

* Bond between rider and mount.

* Pop culture references: Sparhawk and Faran, Phoebus and Achilles, Sleipnir

* Karma Ritual

* Important Attributes

* Half Magic

* Starting mount choices

* Novice Discipline Talents

* Charge Talent

* Trick Riding

* More Pop Culture References: Brisco County and Comet, Xena and Argo, Lone Ranger and Trigger

* Mount enhancing talents.

* Morgan has some alternate animal companion material on his blog: http://pandagaminggrove.blogspot.com/2020/04/earthdawn-4e-rules-variant-09-animal.html

* Novice Talent Options

* Where you define the rider’s style.

* Blood Share

* Journeyman Discipline Talents

* Wheeling Attack

* Wheeling Defense

* A brief aside about Defense bonuses

* Lots of mounted versions of other talents

* Journeyman Talent Options

* Mounted archery

* Spirit Mount

* Cool Discipline, it’s a shame the obstacles hinder them appearing more as PCs

* Strength of the windling cavalryman

* Mounted combat primer page 397 of Player’s Guide

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Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

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* Parlainth

* Important in what it represents

* Review of Parlainth’s History

* Haven: An adventuring boom town

* Original boxed set available in PDF

* A full campaign setting on its own

* Lots of room for GMs to place their stuff

* Not fully mapped out on purpose

* The Map Wall

* Immersive in-character inserts and bits

* Laneways and Screaming Fountain

* 8-episode In depth podcast series from Live From Barsaive

* https://lavamonkeygames.com/livefrombarsaive/

* Geographic Overview of the City.

* Legends of Barsaive adventure series

* Classic Adventures

* Not just a high-Circle area, but be careful about danger level.

* Dan describes his group’s arrival at Parlainth.

* Use personalities and factions in Haven to drive adventures.

* Old-school dungeon crawl mega-setting… with an Earthdawn twist.

* Research and investigation are important. Lack of caution gets you killed.

* Strong reinforcement of Earthdawn’s theme of forgotten past.

* New Topic: Weapons and Armor

* “Living” Armors

* Magic weapon and armor discussion will be a later episode

* Armor doesn’t change your Defense Rating, it reduces damage dealt.

* Armor Defeating Hits and why they changed.

* Shields increase Defense Rating not Armor Rating.

* Earthdawn doesn’t have hit locations by default.

* We talk about hit locations a bit anyway.

* Third Edition’s Parry versus Avoid Blow.

* Josh is a fan of narrative differences rather than redundant mechanics.

* Shattering a shield.

* Weapons: No notable changes to basic stats

* Josh admits he didn’t look at them clearly.

* Quarterstaff discussion.

* The illusion of weapon variety and granularity.

* Weird armors and more variety.

* Not getting into bows and crossbows again.

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

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Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Email from Brian: PDF tools - Nitro PDF Reader

* https://www.gonitro.com/pdf-reader

* Email from Rob: Renaming the Weaponsmith?

* Putting best practices and advice for online play in the guides?

* Recording an actual-play session to complement the books?

* Coming soon: An Earthdawn one-shot with the folks from The Critshow

* How do new Disciplines come to be?

* Email from Aaron: What sourcebooks are must haves?

* Tips for keeping players focused on the game?

* How to find players online?

* The Horrors!

* Lovecraftian… but not really.

* A chance to bring in weirdness - outside typical ecologies

* Physically threatening and possible to wipe PCs.

* Should also be emotionally and mentally threatening.

* It can be difficult to have some Horrors affect a player character directly.

* It’s okay to run some Horrors as bizarre, physically powerful enemies.

* Resources and advice on managing mood and horror-genre conceits in RPGs

* FATE Horror Toolkit

* Nightmares of Mine

* Unknown Armies

* Delta Green

* World/Chronicles of Darkness (especially Changeling: The Lost)

* Danse Macabre by Stephen King

* Horrors Sourcebook

* Call of Cthulhu

* H.P. Lovecraft

* Edgar Allen Poe

* Clive Barker

* Effects of the Horrors on the world and setting.

* Gauging difficulty of an encounter in the ED4 GM Guide

* Horror Karma as a spice, not a main ingredient.

* Story arc and campaign-level adversaries.

* Horrors in published adventures

* Favorite Horrors

* Movie Recs: Event Horizon, In the Mouth of Madness, Hellraiser

* Kickstarter for Iopos: Lair of Deceit

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

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Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Episode Twenty-One!

* The Warrior Discipline

* Soldier, mercenary, “the fighting’ guy”

* Important Attributes Dexterity Strength and Toughness

* Can fight unarmed but not their strongest role

* Karma Ritual

* Elements of wuxia, martial artist flavor

* Remember the mystical and philosophical resonance required to be an adept

* Winning the battle doesn’t always mean killing the enemy

* Half-magic

* High Durability means lots of health

* Novice Discipline Talents

* Tiger Spring on its own does not allow Karma on Initiative

* Waterfall Slam increases ability to knock down an opponent

* Novice Talent Options

* Opportunity to define your character’s fighting style

* Shield Bash is a damage test

* Missile Weapons and Unarmed Combat as options

* Journeyman ability Battle Rites

* Journeyman Discipline Talents

* Journeyman Talent Options

* Make your Warrior stand out by taking options in line with their personality and style

* Warriors can offer tactical choices that can offer a surprising complexity

* The flash of a Warrior is not performative

* Lots of room to define style and character

* Watch out for strain and manage your resources

* Pop Culture: Gladiator, Conan, Xena, Thirteenth Warrior, Vikings

* There’s almost always room for a Warrior

* Don’t forget the Iopos: Lair of Deceit Kickstarter!

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

FASA Games Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/uuVwS9u

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Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Iopos: Lair of Deceit Kickstarter is live!

* Email from Brandon (and his character): More scenarios?

* Legends of Barsaive production schedule

* PDFs and e-products?

* The first adventure.

* How long should a first adventure be?

* Newer players might need a strong goal or focus to avoid floundering.

* Highlight or incorporate Earthdawn’s different and distinctive aspects.

* Places to get inspiration for low prep adventure seeds.

* How long should a campaign be? As long as it needs to.

* The advantages of long-term play in Earthdawn.

* Humans!

* Earthdawn is one of the earliest games that gave something to humans - Versatility.

* Versatility can pose balance problems in dedicated hands.

* Humans don’t have a dominant culture like dwarfs or t’skrang.

* Discussion of various human sub-groups.

* Good examples of how to make humans distinct and interesting.

* Flexible and adaptable.

* A mechanical drawback of Versatility

* The Journeyman adept and Morphism

* Average attributes, slight karma advantage

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

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Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

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Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Beastmasters in Depth

* Josh often uses them as pre-mades in his demo games!

* A “pet class” that can revolve around animal companions.

* Potential for added complexity and breaking the action economy.

* Inspired at least in part by the eponymous Beastmaster, Dar from film and TV.

* Animal companions are independent characters. While the player may roll dice and generally guide their actions, the GM should have veto authority.

* Object lesson in animal companion problems: Josh’s wife got a dyre!

* Karma Ritual and Important Attributes

* Both urban and wilderness, but still trend “feral”.

* Half-Magic

* No free talent, higher Durability.

* Novice Discipline talents.

* Unarmed Combat and Claw Shape is their combat style.

* Reason for the +3 bonus to Claw Shape.

* The awkward status of Dominate Beast.

* A character’s Discipline should inform the Narrative expression of their talents.

* Novice talent options.

* The weaknesses of animal companions in earlier editions.

* There is lots of conceptual space for the Beastmaster.

* Pet talents are options to avoid forcing people to take pets if they don’t want.

* Lots of unique and flavorful options, possible to swap Discipline talents for options.

* Enhance Animal Companion as a way of addressing previously mentioned weaknesses.

* Sidebar: Not everything is about animal companion combat prowess!

* Journeyman special ability: Cat’s Grace

* Journeyman Discipline Talents

* Animal Talk is a Journeyman talent?

* Claw Frenzy buzzsaw of death.

* Journeyman talent options.

* More pet talents as options.

* Beastmasters have higher Charisma, but aren’t really a social Discipline; they lack talents to support it.

* Animals don’t deal with artifice, white lies, and social lubrication.

* Beastmasters often take after animals and are blunt and forthright.

* Special and iconic in the world of Earthdawn.

* Decent fighters, but lack as many combat support talents as Warriors or Swordmaster.

* GM advice: Beastmasters often don’t need magic weapons, but armor and defensive items are valued.

* GM advice: Think of ways to leverage animals and the information that can provide to put the spotlight on the Beastmaster.

* GM advice: Reskin the stat block for one animal to make others.

* Cave crabs are NOT suitable animal companions.

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

FASA Games Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/uuVwS9u

Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Email from Ste: What else might have been lost because of the Scourge?

* A brief word about canon “Inspiration, not dictation.”

* Differences in the racial population distribution of Barsaive before the Scourge?

* What culture lost the most and has the most to regain?

* Steel Thought use against blindside or surprise attacks?

* Email from Sebastian: Did the dwarfs of Throal intentionally create a world where everybody is good at something?

* Email from Ted: Does the Disarm Trap talent work against magical traps?

* Places Primer: The Kingdom of Throal

* The massive, mile-across Gates

* The Grand Bazaar: Barsaive’s mega-mall.

* Halls of Throal: Moria, not a mine

* Twisting, difficult to navigate, cross-passages between major halls.

* Three different neighborhoods: Dahnat, Wedshel, Estates.

* Inner Chambers: Heart of the Kingdom

* Inner Cities: Conflict between the old and new.

* Crysttal Greenhouses and Mines

* Bright colors, decoration to liven up plain stone.

* One word: Pungent!

* Trade guilds. Mucker’s Guild.

* Coinage

* Almost any game in Barsaive will involve Throal in some capacity.

* For more detail, check out the phenomenal Throal sourcebook!

* Coming soon: Patterns — send your questions!

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

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Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* An apology and some useful context.

* Email from Matthew: Pronunciation of Floranuus

* What’s up with the dwarfs of Scytha?

* Anything from LRG’s Barsaive in Chaos that was left?

* Discussion of Vivane’s fate in Second versus Fourth Edition

* News about the Iopos book?

* Email from Arran: Why the change to multi-Discipline cost from first edition?

* Josh goes on quite a bit about that one.

* Magic Theory: Threads and patterns.

* Thread as “basic unit” of energy that can be used to add magical power to something.

* Patterns made up of threads and reflect the astral or magical nature of things.

* Unique people, places, and things have a True Pattern.

* With appropriate knowledge, you can tap into the power of a True Pattern.

* Group True Patterns.

* Other pattern magic and pattern items.

* Pattern items as story maguffin rather than a long-term source of power.

* You cannot weave threads to your own pattern items for power.

* There is room for weirdness with patterns and threads.

* If you have questions, please send questions!

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

FASA Games Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/uuVwS9u

Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Weaponsmiths!

* We will avoid the weeds of Forge Weapon

* Dan’s first character was a Weaponsmith.

* Fills the narrative niche of craftsman or smith, and makes it a playable role.

* Crafting systems can be a thing.

* Downtime and a brief aside on Josh’s campaign calendar.

* Karma Ritual

* Half-Magic Ability

* Free Talent: Craftsman

* Novice Tier Discipline Talents

* A historical retrospective on Weapon History

* Social character, community leader or respected individual.

* Novice Talent Options

* Support and defense are important concepts.

* Solid, dependable, resilient.

* Journeyman Abilities and Discipline Talents

* Forge Armor as a counter to Forge Weapon

* Spot Armor Flaw (and Josh gets it wrong at first)

* Journeyman Talent Options

* Continuing the themes of defense, support, and social ability.

* Weaponsmiths are likely to be one of the most common adepts normal folk will interact with.

* The way a Weaponsmith’s social ability manifests would be different from a Troubadour or other social character.

* Perception, Charisma and Willpower are important. Dexterity for more combat angled Weaponsmiths.

* Depending on group make-up, can be good front man or party face, or a second to the group leader.

* GMs, if there is a Weaponsmith player character, make sure you allow for downtime!

* Once again: Defense and support.

* Subtle and long-term power, not flashy.

* A sidebar about role overlap and how optional talents allow play areas to be covered.

* And we didn’t even get into enchanting!

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

FASA Games Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/uuVwS9u

Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW

* Email question from Ste: Immortal elves?

* Email questions from Joel: Resizing of magic items?

* Bluff talent? (With an extensive sidebar about social mechanics)

* Crushing Blow versus Down Strike?

* How to help other Disciplines be more than window dressing in combat?

* What tests do modifiers apply to?

* Super Secret Project?

* What thing not yet updated do you want to bring back? What don’t you want back?

* More Paths? Adept’s Journey as a series?

* Named Horrors?

* T’skrang!

* They’re awesome, enough said!

* …

* …okay, let’s say some more.

* Iconic, exotic race that stands out and is definitively Earthdawn.

* Communal, semi-aquatic matriarchal society.

* Outgoing, gregarious swashbucklers.

* Oviparous, males perform nursing duties of hatchlings.

* Born without an obvious biological gender.

* Incredibly varied appearance.

* Tails!

* K’stuulami or flying squirrel t’skrang.

* Surviving the Scourge through hibernation.

* Incredibly rich and well-considered race.

* A few words of praise for the Serpent River sourcebook.

* Numbers-wise, well suited to nearly anything.

* To repeat, t’skrang are awesome.

Find and Follow:

Email: [email protected]

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeoifzUuBjez9V6wnvzom3g

Twitter: @EDSGPodcast

Josh on Twitter: @LoreMerchant

Dan on Twitter: @boice_voice

Get product information, developer blogs, and more at www.fasagames.com

FASA Games on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fasagamesinc

FASA Games Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/uuVwS9u

Earthdawn Guild Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/earthdawnguild

Earthdawn West Marches: https://discord.gg/hhHDtXW