• Good article about Earthdawn vs. D&D 4th Edition
• The One Page Dungeon Codex 2009 Deluxe is a free, system neutral dungeon source for every gamemaster @ RPGNow, Drivethru
• A project by “A Terrible Idea”-team is called “60 Terrible Character Portraits for Creative Commons release”. Sounds interesting, or not? The project is raising money to publish 60! character portraits for free use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which means the portraits will be free to use in stories, RPGs, NPC write-ups, adventures, collages or larger works. Go, have a look!
• Gallery on the homepage of Les Edwards is worth a look
• Need to raise your GM-fu? The free “GM-fu Session Preparation” ebook was made at a workshop at GENCON 2008. @ RPGNow, Drivethru
• Painted paper puppets plus D&D? It must be the DUNGEON GUYS!!!

The German Tanelorn forum has also an Earthdawn section and sometimes I have a look at the topics and discussions there. Recently a guy called Kaspi called for help to update his online Earthdawn Character Generator to the RedBrick 3rd Edition. I had never heard of his generator and so I had a look at it.

Kaspi wrote the generator for his group and added an option to save and load generated characters. Right now the character generator is based on a mix of Earthdawn versions ED 1, 2 and ideas of the 3rd edition (for example it is using the ADM of the third edition).

Kaspi is currently working on an update to a clean 3rd edition generator without spells or multi-discipline characters. I recently contacted Kaspi and he told me that the he will adjust the current generator to work with the ED 3rd Edition, but didn’t have time to work on it now nor can he provide any release date. He also stated that the Javascript and the PHP scripts are free and may be changed or developed by anyone who can see through the clutter.

I already used the generator to create some characters and have to admit that its potential is huge and it could become the successor of the old Second Step Character Generator. Go test it, tell me what you think.

Link: Earthdawn Character Generator

I already wrote about the two (1,2) previous issues of the Earthdawn fanwork Tableau Infractus. The one man production Tableau Infractus is accomplished by Drucifer, the guy who also gave us the Earthdawn Miniatures Gallery. After my “short” time of refusing to publish on the Earthdawn Blog, I recognized that Drucifer was still active with his Tableau Infractus fanzine. Issue number three is available since June and he has already published a teaser of the cover of issue number 4. Below an overview of the issues published so far plus the cover of the issue #4, upcoming soon the recently released issue #4. Enjoy. Go Druhu, go Druhu!!

Yesterday RedBrick LLC announced a discount coupon code that you can use when checking out at lulu.com. The coupon code only works for the novel Scars (Hardcover) and is worth 10$. Use the code BEACHREAD305 at your checkout and you’ll receive the 15% discount. It only works once per account and you can’t combine it with other discount codes. The coupon is valid until August 15th 2010.

Well that’s the news of RedBrick LLC so far, but what is the novel of Caroline Spector about? The short book summary reads as follows:

Outcast, immortal, and alone, Aina must return to Blood Wood to gather the threads of her past which can set her free. She will use anything—and anyone—to escape her ancient pact with the Horror and his terrible gift.

If the Horror will let her...

Read the full description at Lulu.com.

I can only recommend the novel, the story about the protagonist Aina and her connection to the Horror is a must read for every Earthdawn fan. But I have to admit that I won’t buy the RedBrick version because the book was already published in German back in 1995 and is already in my possession.

On the other hand I should grab the opportunity of getting a discount (as you should too), because my Earthdawn collection needs to be complete. Hard to decide…

Well, I almost missed to mention the “Earthdawn Adventure Resource Contest” of RedBrick LLC. The short description below shall give you an overview and explain some basic questions about the contest. If you’re planning to participate or already got something in mind to write about, have a look at the details and the “submission, formatting and what-are-we-looking-for guide” at the RedBrick homepage.

What is the contest about?

The intention is to build up a free online resource for Earthdawn gamemasters where they can find inspiration and ideas for small to medium sized plots. Your writings shall be frameworks that describe some basic events, but let enough space for every gamemaster to outline the details individually.

When is the deadline?

December 31st 2010

Can I win anything?

Yep, you can win fame and some small prizes will be awarded:

PRIZES

• The best adventure framework wins one of each of our four Earthdawn Dicesets produced by Q-Workshop, including the limited Astral Dice (currently available only in this competition!).
• Places 2 and 3 win a limited Astral Dice set plus one regular dice set of their choice.
• Places 4-10 receive a regular dice set of their choice.

 

Beside the prizes and all the fame you will get, there is one thing that makes this contest somewhat more interesting:

It should be no secret that this competition, as well as our Open Calls, serve as a means to find new writers. If you are interested in joining us, this is the best way to get started!

Again if you want to find out more about the contest, for example how the formatting shall look like, which parts should be included in the framework and how many words your framework should at least consist of, visit the page of RedBrick LLC’s “Earthdawn Adventure Resource Contest” submission call.

An Obsidimen discovery in Witten, Germany!!! OK not a complete Obsidimen. It looks like the citizens of Witten hunted him down and exposed his head in the middle of the town to frighten orc scorchers and other bandits. The last picture tells us that his name was Tinnitus of Anatol born 1931, apprentice of Josef Beuys.

The head was discovered by Dominik author of the German Rollenspiel-Alamanach, thanks again for the permission to use those great pictures. I recommend his page to all my German readers.

via:

Today I started the redesign of the Earthdawn Blog by uploading a new template (duffy) and so I  finally got a new more fantasy-like looking blog. It may be that some sections or links of the blog won’t work properly until I checked and fixed them. I gonna check them all during the next weeks, if you discover any problems or broken links or anything else that doesn’t work properly I’d appreciate your support.
I am very sorry that I had to take off some widgets from the sidebar, for example the followers have to “re-follow” the Earthdawn Blog again (Followers will have some small advantages in auctions etc.).
I also got a small banner now and if you link to my blog on your page please the use THIS small banner. 

I hope you like the new look of the blog, new Earthdawn Blog action will come soon. BTW, for all those wondering why the blog wasn’t updated for almost two month now, I just ignored it, but in the background I was still working on some articles which will be published soon. I am from time to time, especially in summer time, not that motivated to work on the blog, but I vow improvement.