Well you might know about the background and the setting of Earthdawn, like “yeah it’s a post apocalyptic setting, everything is destroyed and we the heroes have to conquer back Barsaive and free it from horros. But in the end it’s pretty much like Shadowrun, just without guns.” Uhhhhhh, not quite right!

For those who never had a chance to play Earthdawn and therefor didn’t get in touch with many special features, mechanics and options of Earthdawn, I totally recommend to read and follow the blog series of Morgan Weeks @ Panda Gaming Grove.

Morgan writes a series about Earthdawn to explain the Earthdawn setting and mechanics, grouped by the following topics:

• The Introduction article informs about the publication history and the different Earthdawn versions that exist out there. One of many beautiful sentences in Morgans articles: “Earthdawn is best described as a love letter to D&D”
• The second article offers an overview about the Disciplines of Earthdawn. Note, that in the Namegiver books, additional races-related disciplines were published that are not (yet) on Morgans list.
• The third part: Namegivers and Names, explains the importance of names in Earthdawn and the various races of Earthdawn with their special abilities are described. Ever wondered what a True Patter is? What do I need Karma for? And why are Windlings so good in spotting magic items?
• Skills and Talents, how are they used and what’s the difference? Read it in part 4 of Morgans series.
• The most recent article describes one of the most important topics in Earthdawn: Thread Magic!! Yeah! Magic is the heart of the Earthdawn setting, it’s one of the best parts Morgan published so far. Magic related articles will follow and cover for example blood magic and spellcasting.

So if you follow Morgans writing, you’ll get a very good insight on how the Earthdawn system works and what makes it so special. I am looking forward to read the next Earthdawn articles @ Morgans blog.