The great polish blogger Kosmit, some of you might know him from the Earthdawn forum, created some Earthdawn status cards which caught my attention. So after contacting Kosmit I am allowed to provide his english Earthdawn status cards over here on the Earthdawn blog.

• 4th edition Earthdawn status card (png) mirror
• 3rd edition Earthdawn status card (pdf) mirror

There is also a polish version of the status cards available which you can download over here.

Beside to the Earthdawn status cards Kosmit offers also an interesting statistic document on his page.

Kosmit writes:

Preparing a game session is a difficult task. I've prepared something to ease up preparing game stats for NPCs and monsters. You will find English version on second tab in excel sheet.

You can download the statistic formular over here

“Orcs aren’t known for their great cuisine”

The following gallery shows food- and trail-rations of various RPG characters and races that were used during RPG sessions of wats6831. I absolutely love the detailed composition of the food to represent the preferations of various roleplaying races. Especially the Drow and the Lizardfolk rations are absolutely great:

via KFMW

The German Earthdawn publisher Ulisses-Spiele mentioned in a news article on march that they put the english Earthdawn Promo flyers online that were released in 1993 when Earthdawn was first published.

Those three flyers were published by FASA in 1993 to promote the start of the new Earthdawn game line. They contain information about the setting, intro rules and the adventure Kaer Tardim.

You can download the three flyers over here.

As I was searching the net for recent Earthdawn news I stumbled up a lot of Earthdawn artwork galleries that I want to share with you:

Earthdawn gallery  @ Earthdawn.hu Sade

This is the site of Sade from hungary. The huge collection of Earthdawn artwork contains illustrations from present and former Earthdawn artists like Laubenstein, Janet Aulisio, Kent Burles or Kathy Schad. Beside the collection of artist illustrations you can find a category about maps from all over Barsaive.

Earthdawn gallery @FondationDraco.fr

An Earthdawn gallery about the japanese Earthdawn edition can be found at the french Earthdawn page FondationDraco.fr

The Fondationdraco.fr provides a huge collection of the japanese Earthdawn artwork that is quite different from every other artwork you could find out there:

With the new Earthdawn 4th edition came a lot of new artwork into several books. This artwork was done by new artists that, I think, need to be mentioned too:

The Lost Treasures of the Codex Vol. II

Yes I am still here blogging about Earthdawn!!

Some time ago the first part of the series “The Lost Treasures of the Codex” was released concerning a place called ‘The Spire of Thaumaturgy’. There you’ll also find an explanation what the ‘Lost Treasures of the Codex’-Series is about. Please keep in mind that the series is based on Earthdawn 3rd Edition rules! And again: you'll find a PDF-file at the bottom of the article.

Well then, the second part of the series presents you a magical item called ‘Sirrien’s Bow of Precision’. The item description comes from Joeri Winkeler and the color images were kindly created and provided by Johannes Bech.

Sirrien's Bow of Precision

Maximum Threads: 2

Spell Defence: 14

Item description

Made primarily out of the same three wood combinations normal Elven Warbows are made from, the pieces of wood themselves create the symbols for True Air and True Fire in Sperethiel. Also in Sperethiel are the runes for Sirrien’s and Sarlindel’s names, inlaid with turquoise near the top.

News from the French Earthdawn community!

Marzhin created an interactive map of Barsaive that is based on the Atlas of Barsaive by Telarus KSC.

Various locations and point of interest are marked on the map. The register on the left includes all the Cities, Villages, Landmarks and so on of the map and can be searched. GREAT WORK!

You really should have a look at the Earthdawn section of fondationdraco.fr too.

If you're a gamemaster who wants to add atmosphere to the game by using music, be it background music or effects, you might be searching your media library or the web without finding the 'right one'.

This topic came up already several times on the blog, be it the Free nature sounds or the article about the music of 'Erdenstern'.

The problem with this kind of music is that it often doesn't fit the situation or the selection is simply too short to enrich your game. So the more resources you take into account, the higher is the chance that you got a fitting song or effect in your repertoire.

So recently I stumbled up two links that seem very promising if you're looking for RPG background music:

Tabletop Audio

The page Tabletop Audio offers a very good selection of atmospheric and ambience music especially designed for RPGs. The various categories make it easy to make a good selection for your next session if you for example plan to play in a 'River Town' or play on a 'Volcano' scene.

There are of course major categories to distinguish between Fantasy-, Sci-Fi- or Horror-themed music.

Spotify playlist

The next link, that you should have a look at, is the Dungeons and Dragons Tabletop Spotify playlist that was set up by kingslayer133. The selection features about 500 songs that sound a little bit more medieval and as the title of the playlist says, seems to be a good fit for D&D gamemasters.

via lifehacker

Short notice:

The Working Class GM offers a little creature on his blog that he made for his Earthdawn campaign. He was so kind to give me permission to share the Manra's Dismal Beetle PDF over here on the blog too.

What are the 'Lost Treasures of the Codex'?

The 'Lost Treasures of the Codex' is a series of articles on the Earthdawn Blog which will present you source material for Earthdawn 3rd Edition.

The series is called the 'Lost Treasures of the Codex' because the source material was originally part of a submission for the 'Earthdawn Codex' Open Call from RedBrick back in 2007. But it is a shame that this material was never published as the Earthdawn Codex project wasn't realized. That's also a reason why the original author Joeri decided to provide the material to publish it step by step on the Earthdawn Blog.

The series will cover various descriptions of interesting places, new magical weapons, creatures, Earthdawn legends, disciplines and much more, to use in your game.

There will be several volumes of the Lost Treasures. I am revising the original files and texts to create articles and PDFs for Earthdawn fans to use it in their game. The original author Joeri 'Cpt. Cutlass' Winkeler and I thought this would be much better than having the files "rotting on his HDD".

Please keep in mind that the documents are based on Earthdawn 3rd Edition rules! You'll find the PDF-file at the bottom of the article. The PDF will of course be added to the 'Downloads Section' too.

So where to start? Ah of course:

Lost Treasure of the Codex Vol. I

This location is created for adventurers visiting Haven, the corner of Parlainth held and protected by Namegivers. Although it is meant for Havenites, you, as a GM may wish to use them elsewhere. Places like this should be available all over Barsaive where civilization is found. Some simple adjustment in Names and Gamemaster Characters will do the trick.

The Spire of Thaumaturgy

This relative newly erected building lies just outside of Haven bordering the dark, lush jungles surrounding Parlainth. The Spire was build due to popular demand several years after the founding of Haven. The building is a large, squat dome with a broad, spiraling tower in the middle. The tower extends some 12 feet in the air and is topped off with several smaller spires laid out in a haphazardly fashion. Surrounding the building is a 2 feet thick, 5 feet tall wall, completely covered with runes and protective wards. Inside the wall several small herbal gardens seem to flourish unchecked and present and array of exotic flowers and smells.

The various comments following this request by 'Analogkonsole' on G+ made up a nice selection of links for Character Sheets for Earthdawn: The Age of Legends by Vagrant workshop. I simply think that these links should be listed on the blog over here too, so:

Official Earthdawn: AoL sheet by Vagrant Workshop

1 page Character sheet made by casubon - published on RPG.net forum

2 page version of casubons sheet

Excel character sheet by Spiele im Kopf

Extra

Earthdawn: Age of Legend overview of the book by Nathan @ freeformuniversal.com

Earthdawn 4th Edition timeline

Compared to Earthdawn 3rd Edition the timeline of Earthdawn 4th Edition continued and the Fall of Vivane is for example not the only event that offers new possibilities for adventures.

Overview of recent events

The following overviews (EN/GE) about the recent events of Earthdawn 4th edition, were created by the restless Elidis from the german Earthdawn community. I am as always proud to provide these over here for you:

Spoiler warning for Earthdawn 1st Edition players

The events from the campaigns "Prelude to War" and "Barsaive at War" are already part of the timeline because in Earthdawn 4th edition all these are in the past.

English

German

Earthdawn Spielleiter Handbuch

​Drüben bei den Teilzeithelden hat sich Klaus das neu erschienene Earthdawn Spielleiter Handbuch für Earthdawn 4E von Ulisses Spiele  vorgenommen. Seine ausführliche Rezension beschränkt sich dabei natürlich nicht nur auf das Erscheinungsbild des Spielleiterhandbuch, sondern betrachtet auch verschiedenste inhaltliche Themenbereiche und analysiert die überschaubaren Änderungen zwischen Earthdawn 4E und Earthdawn 3E.

Unter anderem wird allen, die erst kürzlich auf Earthdawn aufmerksam geworden sind, die Welt und ihre Geschichte näher gebracht. Ausserdem wird die Spielleitung im Zeitalter der Legenden in einem extra Abschnitt erkärt und die deutsche Rezension greift neben dem Thema Magische Schätze auch Widersacher und Verbündete auf.

Sehr hilfreich:

In seiner deutschen Rezension des Earthdawn Spielleiter Handbuchs hat Klaus eine stichpunktartige Zusammenfassung der Änderungen von Earthdawn 4E mit aufgenommen.

Natürlich wird auch das Preis/Leistungsverhältnis des Earthdawn Spielleiter Handbuch betrachet und im Fazit wird für alle, die nur die Quintessenz betrachten wollen, alles zum Buch noch einmal flott zusammengefasst.

Also sofern jemand Informationen zum jüngsten Buch der deutschen Earthdawn 4th Edition Reihe von Ulisses Spiele sucht, wird hier fündig.

Vagrant Workshop, the German publisher of Earthdawn: The Age of Legend, recently released a free PDF preview of the upcoming book on their page. The 12 page PDF contains the 'Getting Started' chapter and of course the book's cover, which is a great displays of Kathy Schad and David M. Wright art skills.

For all of you who didn't read the news about the release of Earthdawn: The Age of Legend or the interview with Carsten Damm and therefore ask themselves, why another publisher is releasing an alternative ruleset for Earthdawn, I can only quote from the preview PDF, to explain the case:

The Age of Legend was designed for those who want a simple and story-oriented game system.

That's why Earthdawn: The Age of Legend is based on FU: The Freeform, Universal RPG game engine by Nathan Russel, to simplify the sometime complicate original Earthdawn Step System.

Earthdawn Soundtrack

Update 20th March 2016:

The Earthdawn Soundtrack Album is now available at:

• iTunes
• Amazon music
• Google play

The recent rumors that an official Earthdawn Soundtrack is in the making are actually no rumors!

The composer duo Konstantine Kazantzis and Jan Haak from X-Score created a professionally produced, official Earthdawn Soundtrack in cooperation with Ulisses Spiele (German Earthdawn publisher)! The duo can look back on a lot of experience in RPG-music as they already created the soundtrack for example for Contact, Space:1889 or Dark Age Wars.

I really have to say that my experiences with music in RPGs, from a Gamemaster perspective, were, how can I say it, 'disappointing'. The only roleplaying music I actually used during my games was from Erdenstern, but the music wasn't a fit for Earthdawn at all. On the other hand I sometimes used Free Nature Sounds to build a little bit of atmosphere. But there was no real fit for Earthdawn when it came to music so far.

In my opinion the official Earthdawn Soundtrack is about to change that.

The 17 tracks on the upcoming official Earthdawn Soundtrack have a total playing time of 72 minutes and they are actually a real fit for Earthdawn.

The songs cover a lot of moods and really transport specific atmospheres for Earthdawn. I realized that, as I heard thru the snippets that are available at Soundcloud. My absolute favorites so far are of course the songs 'Steel and Blood' and 'Onwards to Battle'.

Track list:

• 1. The Might of Thera - 04:01
• 2. Lament of Thorns - 04:14
• 3. Fire and Rage - 03:58
• 4. Ashes and Smoke - 04:23
• 5. Steel and Blood - 03:46
• 6.  Wisdom of the River People - 04:37
• 7. Jugglers and Thieves - 04:08
• 8. Haven - 05:20
• 9. Pulling a Valvidius - 04:12
• 10. Rooftop Chase - 03:25
• 11. Ale and Good Company - 02:19
• 12. Under the Mountain - 03:36
• 13. King of Stones - 03:36
• 14. In the Ruins - 03:32
• 15. Onwards to Battle - 03:41
• 16. The King Fares North - 05:13
• 17. Earthdawn Suite - 07:24

Official release date

The album will be released on 18th of March 2016 on iTunes, Amazon Music and Google Play as download and of course there will be a physical CD available containing beautiful artwork. I can only recommend to have a look at it when the Soundtrack will be released.

Links:

• X-Score on Facebook
• X-Score homepage
• Earthdawn Soundtrack snippets on Soundcloud

Just to remember you shortly again. The Earthdawn Kickstarter project by FASA, which was launched on January 14th 2014, reached these stretch goals:

• GM Screen
• Travar: City of Merchants
• ED 4E Companion
• Elven Nations
• Questors

After release of the Player's and the Gamemaster's Guide in 2015 it was in early January 2016 when information about next sourcebook Travar: The Merchant City was revealed.

It was Allen Farr who wrote an article on G+ to inform about the work, the story and background to develop the the book.

Travar: The Merchant City
Now that Travar is in the development pipeline at FASA Games I thought it was only fair to let you all know about it. Hopefully when it is closer to publication there will be a few previews that can be unleashed. Until then…
The Cover:
The Cover layout isn’t finalised yet, but there should be enough there to give you a good idea of what it will look like when it’s finished……..

Read the full article HERE

The following info should be taken with care:

Several rumours can be found on the net about the release date of the book, like this one here from the FASA Earthdawn forum:

If you didn't fund the Kickstarter project to get a copy of the book, you already could pre-order the book at frpgames.com. There they speak of an estimate February, 2016 release……

Carsten Damm, author of Earthdawn: The Age of Legend answered several questions in a recent interview with Obskures.de about the upcoming alternative ruleset version for Earthdawn.

Short excerpt:

How does your new Earthdawn: The Age of Legend system support these features?
The main focus in the design phase was to capture that specific “Earthdawn feeling” that made us play this game all those years—but without the crunch and all those excessive ruling baggage the original game has accumulated over the years. The game is light and easy to play……

Read the full interview @ Obskures.de

Last article for 2015!

The German version of this Earthdawn character sheet for Earthdawn 4th Edition was made by Elidis. The sheet is a good mix of stylish design and usability. It took me some time to create an English version but finally at the end of the year, I found some time to translate it.

A pre-Christmas news was released yesterday by vagrantworkshop.com, simply saying "The Age of Legend is coming!"

Age of Legend?

Well, Earthdawn: The Age of Legend is an alternative ruleset for the existing Earthdawn material. Vagrant Workshop acquired a license from FASA to publish an alternative rules-light version of Earthdawn which is based on FU (Freeform/Universal RPG) created by Nathan Russel at Peril Planet.

At the 'Answers' section you'll find enough info what Earthdawn: The Age of Legend is about and how you can use the rules for your existing Earthdawn material. Be it 1st, 2nd, Classic, 3rd or 4th Edition of Earthdawn.

When will Earthdawn: Age of Legends be published?

If everything works out, in early 2016. We will be utilizing DriveThroughRPG, offering the game in PDF format and in several print-on-demand-options.

Behind Vagrant Workshop stand Carsten Damm and his fellows who are still playing and working on Earthdawn. For all those who don't know him, Carsten was the Earthdawn Line Developer back in the days of Red Brick when the Earthdawn Classic and the Earthdawn Third Edition were published.

Preview?

At the 'Resource' section is a small preview available. And as it looks like one fellow of Carsten is Kathy Schad which created, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful Earthdawn art that there is (except the art of Jeff Laubenstein of course).

What do you think about this news and the alternate ligh weight rule system? Will you use the Earthdawn: The Age of Legend ruleset to play Earthdawn?

Just a quick info about the Creatures Challenge Circle Table made by Razan. It provides an overview about the creatures that should challenge the players in specific circles.

Have a look:

The document was first published on the FASA Earthdawn forum.

Dimension of roleplaying TV steht wie immer parat, wenn die deutschen 'Großconventions', RPC oder eben die Spiel in Essen stattfinden, um uns mit Earthdawn news zu versorgen. Diesmal geht es um das kommende deutsche Spielleiter Handbuch, in knapp einer Minute ist alles aktuelle gesagt. Naja fast. Ein in geplantes VÖ-Datum ist aus Scorpios Mund zu hören: