Rethinking the “2011 Expectation Poll”

The new year brought changes and gifts for Earthdawn fans, but I want to take a look back at the start of 2011. I opened up the 2011 New Year Poll at the start of 2011 to find out what Earthdawn fans hope for and what would be their highlight for the upcoming year. The results of the poll were already discussed over here, but now that 2011 is over, we can look back at which expectations were fulfilled and which hopes seem to be still far far away from realization.
The three “most wanted” requests of the poll were:
1. Almost 20% of the total 127 votes selected “An official free Third Edition character generator provided by RedBrick would be my highlight” as the most wanted release/announcement for 2011. Well, to make it short: There was and still is no clue that RedBrick is even working on that, but maybe this is on RedBricks schedule and they are working on it behind the scenes. You never know. In the meantime we have to look for alternatives and in my opinion is the best choice so far, the fan project of Lortas and his crew. They are still developing the Earthdawn Character Editor. The latest 0.36 version released on 20th Dec. 2011 can be downloaded HERE. Remember that it is an alpha version, for bugs, critics and opinions have a look at the RedBrick forum.
2. 15% and with that, the second most votes received “The announcement that a "Travar" City book is being made”. I dug through several sources and announcements for upcoming products but it looks like that other city sourcebooks have a higher priority, which I’ll talk about later. So 2011 brought no announcement that a Travar book is in the making. Sorry folks.
3. Close behind followed, with 14% of the votes, “An epic campaign for Barsaive will/would be my highlight”. Hooray!! Finally we got an expectation, mentioned in the poll, which seems to become true. I cite here from an interview, held between Dammi, Drucifer and me, which you can read in full length over here:

Taken together, all these books contain the main building blocks needed to publish an epic campaign called Chronicles of War, which aimed to finally push the brewing conflict between Throal and Thera over the edge.
Remember that this epic campaign can be made after several other book releases, which means no release date or schedule is foreseeable atm.

Well these were the three most expected and hoped for entries of the poll. That’s why I tried to write about them a little bit more. The rest of the entries and their actual state, with reference to the clues and announcements, are in short collected in the following table:
2011 Expectation
Actual state
The announcement that an "Iopos" City book is being made
Find clues over here. So yes it’s coming.
Release of Nations of Barsaive III: Cara Fahd will be my highlight
The book was released in March 2011 and can be bought over here and over here (PDF)
The release of the two Cathay books will reign over any following release this year
Yep, they are great! Released in 2011! Get them here
The opening of the Earthdawn Adventure Resource with the results of the contest will be my highlight
The top 3 Adventure Resource Contest entries were released in Signs & Portents issue #92, the rest will hopefully be provided soon again at RedBrick
An epic campaign for Cathay will/would be my highlight
No comments were made on that so far
New novels is what I am waiting for
New novels are coming. Have a look at the Tableau Infractus Issue #11 p. 14 or again at the forum discussion
New free wallpapers, character sheets or new detailed maps would be my highlight
Nothing yet, keep an eye on #Earthdawn DeviantArt for fan art
New art of Jeff Laubenstein, Peter Tikos, Kathy Schad and all the other artist is what I am waiting for
The release of the adventure book "Lost Dynasty" taking place in Landis will be my highlight
The release was not accomplished in 2011, but a release in 2012 seems to be achievable
Astral dice for public would be my highlight
No public release in 2011 nor in future


The poll offered the option “Other”, which let you enter your own expectations. The following four “other responses” were entered:
The release of an English version of the Little Treasures novel
See entry “New novels” above
Plot advancement
The “Chronicles of War” announcement will fully please that wish
A Blood Wood Nations Book
On schedule. Mentioned here
Earthdawn 3rd Ed Virtual Tabletop Framework for 'MapTool'
The exact realization can be found over here. It is the project of Telarus, who does a great job to build a ED3 MapTool framework

When looking back I would say that 2011 was a good year, in Earthdawn matters, even ending it like this. Nevertheless, thank you for voting, hoping and especially RedBrick for producing. Smile

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