The following article comes from Raalou and is part of my open call for Guest Bloggers

We first started playing Earthdawn without figurines. It never occurred to us to use 'actual' minis. We did use counters and white board squiggles and maps. After years of playing, our GM was given a box of Warhammer Orcs for his birthday and he found a love for painting miniatures. He then bought the Descent series of Dungeon Crawl board games and set to painting the minis from them. With all the work that went in, we started using the minis as our tokens for our Earthdawn Campaign.

We upgraded our table to include a hex map and accepted the challenge of finding Earthdawn miniatures so that we had better representations of our characters, particularly because of the size differences between trolls down to humans down to Windlings.

Our GMs wife, with a black belt in Google-Fu, was asked to search the WWW and find representations of our characters.

After days of searching, we came across figures that would be great representations for the races of Barsaive:

• T'Skrang – The Trogolodytes at http://www.otherworld.me.uk/ would make cool T'skrang
• Windlings - The 10mm figures at http://goo.gl/a2GNQ would be great for Windlings.

The only race we have had trouble finding miniatures for entirely is Obsidimen, although Trolls are not the easiest to find either. If anyone has any suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated.

Then a new challenge was presented as RedBrick produced the Cathay Series in Earthdawn. After having played with our Barsaivian minis for about a year, we knew we HAD to get some Cathay Minis BEFORE we started their Campaign. Still not decided on races and disciplines we were all going to play, we did a general search for all Cathay related characters.

Here is a list of sites and some specific miniatures that we have found so far:

• http://www.reapermini.com/
• http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/clan-war
• http://www.rattleheadgames.com/
• http://www.fantization.com/

Here is a great figure for a Po Na (monkey man) Monk/Sword Dancer: http://goo.gl/NFVMa 

We are going to remove the bladed weapons and he will become our Pugilist. Will post a pic once we are done.

AND for a female Samurai: http://goo.gl/z12Cp

For the armies, chariots and soldiers we have looked at:

• http://www.blackhat.co.uk/online_shop/
• http://curteysminiatures.co.uk/
• http://www.agisn.de/html/asian_miniatures.html who have a few links to sites where they got their minis from.

So from doing our research, manipulating some minis and purchasing separate weapons and accessories, here are the minis that we are using now:

This Human Swordmaster (Axe-Master) is from here and axes from here.

This Human Cavalryman (Amazonian Woman type) is from here.

This Troll Skyraider is made up of this mini (perfect size for ED Troll). I shaved off the skull in the front of the armor. Added some Warhammer Black Orc horns that came in this set.

This Human Nethermancer is from here. The wings are Manticores wings sewn onto a cloak. Wings from here and the tails are made with Green Stuff found here.

This Windling Elementalist is found here.

This Human Beastmaster is a combination of 2 mini's found here and for the arms here. CLAW SHAPE BABY!!

This Elven Archer (with crossbow) is found here.

  This Dwarf Troubadour is a compilation (pun not intended) of this mini and his instrument comes from here.

GROUP SHOT

We are a dedicated group of Earthdawnians who call ourselves Lords of the Dice.

To see more of us and what we do, check out our site: http://lordsofthedice.mmoguildsites.com/

This was the last entry of my Open Call for Guest Bloggers, I hope you enjoyed the articles as I did. I thank all participants, who did a great job writing those articles.

The following article comes from Flagg and is part of my open call for Guest Bloggers

I think we can all agree that Earthdawn is a great game!

Unfortunately it doesn't have a big online presence. Fifteen years ago, when I first started playing Earthdawn and the internet was a much more desolate and primitive place, there were several flourishing sites, and dozens of fan-made Disciplines to be found. Today, a Google search for 3rd Edition resources will yield this site, the official RedBrick site, and a few that haven't been updated since the early 2000s. Custom Disciplines, Talents, Spells, etc. are almost nowhere to be found. Perhaps part of the problem is that there isn't an active site where people can easily promote their stuff. If such a place existed, perhaps it would motivate people to share what they have?

Enter the Earthdawn Compendium. A few weeks ago I set about the task of custom-building a submissions database from the ground up. After a lot of hard work, it's now at the point where I feel ready to release it to the public. The site allows users to browse an easy-to-navigate database of Disciplines, Talents, Knacks, Spells, Thread Items, and Creature/Dragon/Horror/Spirit Powers, submit their own, rate what other people have posted, and discuss it all on the forums.

As the site is brand new, there isn't a lot of content yet, but that's where you come in! So stop by, check things out, create and account, and start participating! I love feedback on the site, so please tell me what you think.

The following post comes from Fletcher and is part of my open call for Guest Bloggers.

Earthdawn is a game that holds a special place in my heart. I honestly haven’t played it a great deal (I need to break the group from the d20 habit), but from the moment I heard about it I was fascinated. The concept of a post-apocalyptic fantasy game was something I fell in love with. I have been gaming since I was twelve, playing AD&D with a friend of mine. We hardly had a clue how to play, but that didn’t matter to us. We got to fight monsters, explore dungeons, and get treasure. Eventually I grew and what I wanted changed. I joined a group that played a great deal of Shadowrun and one night the GM explained Earthdawn to me. I soon bought the books and picked up the novels. The world was one that held onto me and would not let go.

The reason I am writing this is to share an app for Android I wrote called “Earthdawn Dice Roller” (pretty catchy right?). The birth of this app is two parts of my life accidentally coming together. I decided to teach myself how to program after not having to write any code for quite a few years after college. A friend of mine suggested I code for Android because I had used Java in the past and the learning curve would be lower. The idea for actually making the app came when we were playing our Earthdawn game. We had played a World of Darkness game previously and used a great dice rolling app on our phones. We tried to find the same for Earthdawn and nothing really did the trick. There are tons of apps for picking which dice to roll and rolling them, but the step mechanics of Earthdawn made those apps cumbersome. That started my programming project.

On to the app finally. It is a free download in the Android Marketplace and is pretty simple. The main screen has three things. It has a check box to use a karma die, a text box to enter your step in, and a button to roll the dice. Those are the basics. I want to keep it simple and easy to use so you don’t have to fumble around when trying to roll your dice during a game. I did include some options to make it more useful (Most features came from user requests).

You can use both Classic and Third Edition dice tables. The Classic mode lets you select what karma die to use also. By default it does not show the value of the die you rolled next to the result, but there is an option to show the value. The app automatically handles extra dice for max rolls.

As I mentioned earlier this is a personal learning experience for me, and as a result some things are not perfect. The rolling mechanics are solid, but some layout and display things are being reworked as I go. As I learn more the app gets better and better. I really appreciate comments and suggestions. They help me see what works and what doesn’t and what features would be most used. Right now I am working on appearance and layout updates and possibly adding a roll log.

If you want to pick up the app in the AndroidMarket or for more information, to leave comments, or check out the change log check out myblog. There is also a thread on the Earthdawn forums that I check up on. You can get to it from my blog. Thanks for checking out the app!

This is the third try to start this article. Every previous attempt started with “I am looking for Guest Bloggers!” and I think this would have also been a good start so:

I am looking for Guest Bloggers!

Do you have a project you want to introduce to the Earthdawn community? You want to tell us about your gaming group? Tell a tale of Barsaive you wrote? Talk about an adventure you created or your group played? Want to inform about your webpage or any other Earthdawn related stuff you got in one of your old, dusty drawers since several years now?

Here’s your chance. Contact me, write an article and send it to me. Sounds easy? Almost.

The critical workers of the Great Library of Throal don’t pick every adventurers journal, but every well written or interesting tale will be accepted. So be creative and brave and take part at the guest blogging.

You have time to write your article until May 15th, after that I will start publishing the guest entries.

Lately I was considering to offer you, my readers, the opportunity again to write guest entries for the Earthdawn Blog. I guess the time for guest blogging will come in summer again. I didn’t want to wait that long until I publish the post about Patternspider’s project. He contacted me to introduce his project to the Earthdawn community and I guess you all gonna understand why I simply couldn’t wait until summer to publish the following article. Patternspider was so kind to write a small article wherein he tells us the story of his project about “Making a 3D Map of Barsaive”! I pass the word to Spidy:

 

I first started playing Earthdawn around 1997, and it quickly became my favorite RPG. I ran a game with a continuous group of characters that lasted for about 3 years. Then, in 2001 Exalted came out, and it became my new game of choice for the next decade. I finally burned out on Exalted last year, and I was looking for a new game to play. A friend mentioned to me that Earthdawn was being re-published in its 3rd Edition, so I quickly checked it out, and my current gaming group made the switch last summer. Overall, I'm really pleased with the changes from 1st Edition, and I'm enjoying getting back into the game.

One of the things that's always been central to FRPGs is maps, and I've always enjoyed creating them, usually on paper or digitally. A few years ago, when we were playing Exalted, one of my players and I painted a map of Creation on a large piece of canvas. When we switched to Earthdawn, we started another for Barsaive, but we were unable to finish it. I got the idea that it would be cool to make a 3 dimensional map. Barsaive is full of huge mountain ranges, so I thought it would work well. This isn't something I'd done before, so I pretty much had to invent my techniques as I went along.

I started with a 32"x20" piece of laminated particle board, which was a left-over cut -out from my kitchen counter top. I used a projector to trace the rivers and major features of the map from the books on the un-laminated side with a marker. I then sculpted the mountain ranges out of modeling clay. I made sure the Throal mountains were the tallest, tried to make the Twilight peaks somewhat sharp and craggy, etc. I didn't want the areas in between the mountains to be completely flat, though, so I next put down more modeling clay in very thin layers to give the terrain some variance. Keeping in mind that the Serpent river follows a pretty unlikely course, I tried to vary the height of the land so that the river would flow through the low areas, and never uphill.

After everything dried out for a few days, I filled in any cracks in the clay with glue, then coated the entire thing in acrylic spray primer. This still looked too "smooth" for my liking, so at someone's suggestion, I sprayed on some glue and sprinkled a layer of fine sand over most of the land areas, again making an effort to keep the rivers' paths clear of sand, so they wouldn't be bumpy (because I used a sharpie initially to trace everything out, the lines were still faintly visible through the primer, making this task easier). This gave the map a more textured look, and smoothed out some of the edges where the clay met the board. I covered this with primer as well. I then hand-painted everything with acrylic paints, using several different brushes. The great thing about this was that I could experiment with different brushes and techniques, and if I didn't like the results, I'd just paint over it. I put down many layers of colors while the paints were still wet, which made the different greens, reds, and blues blend together nicely.

I took some liberties with the Death's Sea area. On the official map, it's brightest at the edges and grows darker toward the center. This seemed backward to me, as I would think the shores of the sea would be cooler than the center, so I reversed the color scheme. I tried to make the shoreline and the surrounding mountainsides look burned and ash covered, which isn't represented on the official map. I also added some snow caps to the tops of the higher mountain peaks, because it seemed appropriate. Finally, I didn't really know what should be behind the legend in the upper right corner, so I decided to make this a large open plain, given that the rest of the map is pretty geographically dense.

The last touch was adding the forests and jungles. I had already painted darker green areas for them on the map, which I then covered in artificial foliage made for model train sets. This gave those areas a nice 3D look and texture. The only thing I've yet to do is spray on a clear matte finish to protect everything. I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can do that outside.

 

 

I did make a few errors along the way, such as missing a couple of minor rivers, and putting a mountain in the middle of Cara Fahd (oops!), but on the whole, I'm really happy with it, and so is my group. I keep it on an easel next to the gaming table so it's in full view. I think it helps the world come alive in our imaginations more than a flat printed map does. I took a nice hi-res overhead picture of it and uploaded it to our group's wiki page. As they travel to new places, I've been adding labels and markers to it, to show where they have been.

Now that the Cathay setting has been released, I'm very tempted to do this again :)

 

So we all hope that the 3D Cathay Map is not far away  and you can be sure that a lot of Earthdawn fans appreciate your work, but will remain envious of your map.  Oh btw, here are the pictures of the working progress. For your thoughts, critics and praises use the comments and if you want to get in touch with Patternspider, contact him.

Well as a late Easter Egg I want to introduce you to the works of Joel May. He lives in Oregon, USA and is 37 years old. He has build two fully rigged models of Earthdawn Airships at 28mm scale. To give you a small background on Joel I cite his words about his beginnings in RPG’s:

“I have been gaming since I was 14. I started with Battletech moved onto Gammaworld. Then I discovered Shadowrun and later Earthdawn. (I own every Shadowrun book first edition through third edition and I own every Earthdawn book first and Second edition.) I was a huge Exalted fan for quite a while and ran several groups at the local game store. Later I played some D&D and got into D20 Modern/Future as well as BESM/Mecha D20. The last major gaming activity I was involved in was running tournaments for click based table top games a few years ago.
I have been building models since I was old enough to snap parts together. I spend most of my hobby time now building Maschinen Krieger/Ma.K zbv3000 model kits from Wave and Hasagawa and when I can get them the original Nitto kits. I also build Tamiya cars and planes pretty regularly.”

This hobby brings us back to his work. Joel was so kind to write a complete article about the process of building an airship and takes us on an excursion to learn how to build a model of anything you can imagine. But I have to admit that I am very happy that Joel chose to build Earthdawn Airships and is willing to share his thoughts and experiences of the working progress with us in the following guest entry. I pass the words to Joel May, enjoy:

 

The very first thing that attracted me to Earthdawn was the Airships. I was in my local game store and next to the Shadowrun stand was a newish game called Earthdawn. I picked it up and thumbed through it looking at the art and reading the basic system. Then across from page 112 was a picture of Mayan style ruins and in the sky three flying ships. I was hooked, right then and there. I have always loved the idea of flying ships. I started my first Earthdawn group about a month later.
Module after module I loved the story and art, but I always kept my eyes open for the airships. My group kept asking me when they would get to set sail in the skies and when ‘Terror in the Skies’ came out I knew it was time. Thus began the Merchant Drakkar I call ‘The Griffins Claw’.
If you are lucky enough to have a copy on this book, #6302, you will see on page 61 the basic layout for the Drakkar. It is a pretty simple design but very fluid and elegant as well.
It took me about two and a half months actual work time, and before I began I picked up a few model building books. These proved invaluable in my planning of the builds. They are:

Ship Modeling Simplified by Frank Mastini ISBN 0-07-155867-5 McGraw Hill
Modern Boat Building by Edwin Monk       SBN  684-13020-3 Scribners

 

The first step is to draw out what you are building in as much detail as possible. You then use this to make a working drawing. This is a scale drawing of your airship or whatever you are building. Draw a profile, a top down, a front and back view, and a detail of anything you feel you need. I dug through about 15 years of role playing papers and scanned some design drawings which Mordom uploaded HERE (Mirror), please read the txt file.

I built the merchant Drakkar in the Plank on Bulkhead style. In this technique you draw out an outline of the ships hull and then every ¾ inch/2 cm or so you make a flat cross section of the hull. You then use spars, long straight pieces, to hold them together so they form a rough hull shape. The first spar in always the keel, it can be very challenging to layout the keel properly. In this case I laid sticks of bass wood over my working drawing so it covered the keel completely. I then glued those pieces together and cut off everything that was not part of the keel. It worked pretty well. This is a very fast and easy method for making complex shapes.

 

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Next I cut lengths of thin balsa wood stripping to an appropriate width for the scale I was working in. I then simply glue the planking to the bulkheads starting at the bow of the ship and moving backwards. This allowed me to make complex curves quickly and easily. Then I covered the hull section with a thin layer of wood putty and sanded it to a smooth finish. I then sealed it with sanding sealer.
Now comes the part that takes skill. Look closely at the deck of the Drakkar. All of that in hand cut and carved. The bow is a single piece of balsa wood cut and shaped buy hand and by Dremel tool. The Ramming points are hand carved bass wood. The oar rails are cut and carved as is the area around the captains’ chair in the stern.

 

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Setting the masts is simple, cut a hole, inset glue, insert mast, and slide on hardware, easy. The yardarms/sails are another matter. They are a sandwich of the center lifting body and the arms. The arms are made of 3/32 inch / 2 mm bass wood sheets cut with the wood grain for strength. The center section is carved bass wood in two sections glued around the arms. This makes the whole assembly very strong and resilient.

All of the fittings and hardware are for model ships and to the proper scale. The rigging was an aesthetic choice but also guided by my experience on my Uncle Philips’ boat when I was a kid. All of the rigging is correctly hand tied and adjustable. I did it with tweezers and some homemade tools.
The rowing deck in simple cut blocks and planking painted and glued. It is very simple but looks good.

Then I did a general assembly of the parts. This was an area of concern for me as it took a lot of cutting and reshaping to get everything together. However, it does not need to be a perfect fit in this build style! This is because I covered the outside of the joints with a thin coat of wood putty. This fills gaps, gives a clean finish and once you sand and seal; it is a great surface to paint.
The interior is lined with the same type of material I used to plank the hull. That gave me a clean wooden surface on the inside and made the model look finished. Once it was lined I started putting in all the various items in the crew areas that you would find in a ship.

Now comes the fun part, finishing. Paint jobs will depend entirely on your skill level, but I have a few tips to help you out. I took the pattern from the cover of “Creatures of Barsaive”. It’s loosely base on the griffins back on the cover. That is also where I came up with the name for the airship.
My airship is completely hand painted with acrylic and has a fair level of detail. That detail is actually drawn on with art pens. All the actual detail is there, but the art pens bring it out so you can see it. It is the same concept as using a paint wash on a model or miniature. All of the detail on the mast head, ramming prows, and wing tips is hand drawn over the purple paint to give the look of feathers. This is a great way to get good detail quickly. It also made getting detail out of the ‘claws’ on the ramming prows possible. You can also use Filters and Washes to bring out detail. Also helpful, to get your acrylic paints to flow better mix one ½ once of water an one or two drops of dish soap together and wet your brush in it before you pick up your paint. This significantly helps with paint flow problems.

 

On this model the last thing I made was the rudder. I took a flat piece of bass wood and simply sanded it to shape. The canards were done the same way. The tiller is hand carved and the whole thing is articulated. It is attached with a simple rounded block on wood. Then I put together a simple stand, which I later improved.
All that was left was the rigging and that was just a matter of learning the proper technique from ‘Ship Modeling Simplified’ and practicing until it looked right.
That was the birth of my first airship. It was an immediate hit with my group and it wasn’t long before they wanted more.

 

It took me about a month to finish the working drawings for the Stoneclaw Troll Moot Drakkar. The reason for this was I decided to build it as if it were a real ship, complete with cargo areas and internal living space. I also wanted it to be armed. This meant having to draw out things like all the ribs and internal supports. My design allowed for the removal of the main decks to provide access to the inner areas for playing.
I decided to use the airship pictured above the Trolls’ head in the first edition rule book from the racial description that follow page 64. I really liked it from the first time I saw it and my group like it too.

 

I began in the same place a real ship begins, the keel. I cut and laid out the keel on the working drawing and then cut and shaped all the ribs. I glued these up and let them sit for three days to ensure curing. While that was setting up I laid out and glued up all the basic deck elements as well as the internal elements, i.e. storage area, sleeping hammocks etc.
After three days of finishing the basic inside detail and interior paint, I began to assemble these basic pieces starting with the internal elements and then capping the ribs with the deck frame.  Now with the frame complete I could begin to plank the hull.
I started planking the hull at this point because I could lay it flat on the deck without trouble. The process begins with about 10 sheets of 5 inch by 36 inch/ 12.5 cm by 93 cm balsa wood about 1/32 inch / 1 mm thick. I have a tool called a Balsa Stripper made by X-ACTO tm. It allows you to cut uniform strips from sheets of wood quickly. I cut all ten sheets into ¼ inch / 7 mm strips and then began decking.
Decking is putting the strips on the frame. This is not as simple as it sounds. Each strip is laid out one at a time and pinned, with two pins, at each rib. You do this with the entire ship hull one side at a time. Then you glue the planks in place from the inside of the hull. This allows you to glue the planks to both sides of the ribs. It is one of the finest exercises in patience I have ever come across.
Now this being a combat vessel I was not content to have a single layer of balsa between Theran fire cannons and my Troll’s. I felt it would insult their katorr, kat’ral, and katera to say the least. So I did two more hull layer…that right its triple hulled. I accidently dropped the ship once and it bounced. Not a mark on it.
Once the decking was finished I sealed the wood and moved on to the ‘figurehead’. The curled tail is carved from a single piece of wood in the same fashion as the head of a violin would be carved. I saw a “making of” video on public television once and copied the technique. I then attached it to the hull with dowels and glue.

 

 
With the shape done and ready for paint I moved on the decks. The interior deck is very simple. I did it in much the same way an 18th century merchant ship would be done but rougher to reflect the Trolls that dwell there. Now I was ready to tackle the main deck and oars.
Each oar is made for its specific position and is fully articulated. They can also be removed. Each oar is made from 7 individual pieces and then wrapped in two layers of heavy twist nylon kite string. I choose this string because it looked the best with the paint filter I used. The benches are simple bass wood blocks with a bass wood top.
The floor of the main deck is four pieces of 3/16 inch / 3mm bass wood sheeting cut to fit. I would have decked it like the hull but the soft wood kept getting damaged by the miniature bases. The foredeck is decked similarly to the hull because it looks better that way and most of the surface is covered by the weapons.

 

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The gold railing that runs the length of the airship is simple wood dowel glued in place except at the bow where it is cut into smaller pieces and filled to give it the right curvature. The upper foredeck railing is made from a single strip of bass wood steamed and bent to shape. The spoke railing is made from store bought ship detail parts as is the crows nest on the mast head. All the other details, stairs, capstans, etc. are made from bass wood.

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The mast, sails and rigging were a bit of a challenge. The basics are included in the book illustration but seemed a little flimsy. I solved this in my head by making the entire rigging spider silk from the Liaj jungle. Not really necessary but I’m kind of a purist. The sails are held in pace with hand made brass rings and all three yardarms are rigged to move up and down. The rigging lines terminate in the stern of the airship with belaying pins after going through turning points. I will improve these turning points one day as they are rather plain looking.
I went through several materials for the sails before I found one that would hold its shape and the gold leaf paint I used to make the Stoneclaw Troll Moot symbol. I settled upon a high end fabric used to make horizontal binds. It came in a 9 foot / 3m strip and I cut it to fit. This unfortunately meant that I would not be able to raise and lower the sails like I had planned. That is why one of the capstans sits empty. I drew out the Troll Moot symbol on graph paper and cut it out. I then placed it on the sail material and outlined it with gold paint, then removed the pattern and filled in the gaps.

 

As for finishing I had all the hard work done. I simply used the book illustration as my guide. The four arbalests and the single catapult are all Warhammer TM miniatures. I built simple frames for them and set them in place with dowels so they moved. One of these days I will repaint them as the current paint job is quite plain and does not do the over all build justice. I used art pens to bring out some of the details but people who look carefully at the illustration in the book will see I’m not finished yet.

This brings up an interesting point. If I took the time to build a detailed interior where is it? Why aren’t there photos? Well one of my player who shall remain brainless, I mean nameless was messing around with the airship and thought he broke two of the arbalests, one fore and one aft. So rather then tell me about it and get kicked out of the group, he was on thin ice as it was. He took it upon himself to fix them. He took my thin set fast dry glue and glued them in place, slopping glue everywhere. He glued both removable deck sections in place. I have tried several times to free them but can’t do it without doing serious damage to the airship.
Such is life. It did mean I didn’t have to ask him to leave the group as he was almost physically ejected by my players who were livid. It all worked out in the end.
The minis are from various places. Two Trolls on deck for flavor and two Throalic dwarves in the crows nest complete with spyglass and sextant. I have a small collection of Earthdawn miniatures but none that fit the over all theme of the airship.
I hope you have enjoyed seeing and reading about my airships as much as I enjoyed building them and writing this article. If you have any questions please fell free to contact me at son_of_upandal[at]yahoo.com.

Other projects?

I have done the working drawing for a Theran Vedette.  It is a hybrid Military/Mining ship for RPG purposes. I started building it about five years ago. When I abandoned the project it stood chest high to me with the bow on the floor. I still had about 10 inches of hull to build. It had four decks including the main deck, gun deck, slave deck and hold. It also has a stern castle and fore castle (two more decks); mounts ten lead pewter dragon mouthed flame cannons and could hold about seventy-five miniatures.
I stopped working on it because by the time I neared hull competition there were so many things I wanted to do over I knew I was never going to be happy with it.
I still have all the cannon as well as the drawings and I will come back to it at some point in the future. As for anything bigger than that airship wise…probably not. It would be just too big. A Kila at 28mm scale would be about the size of a large dinner table for a small one and a Behemoth about the size of a van.
I have always wanted to build a T’skrang river boat and I have the Serpent River source book so who knows. A year from now you could be looking at photos of a river pirate boat.

(Look here for info on filters and washes http://www.maschinenkrueger.com)

 

Well I hope most of you made it until here…… Joel has written an informative article. What do you think? Please show Joel your respect or share your thoughts in the comments.

I say: “Me want, me want that Theran Vedette”. :-)

I thank Joel for sharing his experience and give us an insight in his projects. Please visit his Flickr photostream to see more of his projects.

Earthdawn.pl’s 10th anniversary is being celebrated as you know. Their competition is over now and the winners will be published in regular posts one by one on their page. The following text is part of the 10th anniversary and it was one of the first texts on EARTHDAWN.PL and it is at least as old as the site.

This text gives a great insight into the history of Barsaive, the working of magic and the parties that shape Barsaive until today. It is especially a great work because of the narrative style, it let’s us see the world through the eyes of the long living Obsidimen.

 

Age of Legends

Translation of the words of Omasu, obsidiman Merchant from Travar addressed to obsidiman Otolk from Ayodhya during his first journey after the Awakening.
- Merrox, Master of the Hall of Records, 1508 TH

 

The origins of the story you are about to hear go back to thousands of years ago, but let us not dispute about those distant moments, for we will have a lot of time for that in the future. Allow me now to tell you about the events of most importance that had the decisive influence on what the Barsaive and we, its dwellers are now. So listen carefully, because this lesson you should memorize for the rest of your life.

The level of magic in our world has always cycled with time passing by, preventing almost any use of magic, when it was low and allowing mages to create flying castles just by the lift of a finger during its peak. We have known about this for ages, what we did not realize however, was that the increase in the level of magic caused by the astral and physical planes drawing towards one another would also bring something else...

As you know, in the south west Barsaive lies the city of Vivane, ruled by the mighty Theran Empire. This nation was founded by the students of an elven scholar, Elianar Messias, who for his greatest finding paid the ultimate price - he gave away his own life, so that we could have a chance to live. For you should know that their knowledge and power Therans have built on the books found by Elianar, books which he himself named the „Books of Harrow" and although him they led to insanity and death, us gave hope for survival of the most difficult time in our history!

Therans, after they had made their discoveries, came to our province spreading the dreadful word of the impending Scourge - a terrible time of terror, suffering and fear in which the entities living in the astral plane, called the Horrors, would come to our world running wreak and havoc among the Namegivers. At first, nobody believed Therans. However mysteriously missing, overcome by madness or simply brutally murdered in an unknown way people were a clear evidence for the existence of evil, which began to manifest itself in Barsaive with unprecedented strength. To those who would submit to their authority, Therans promised to reveal methods of protection against the approaching Horrors. And although Barsavians were definitely unwilling to put their fate in Theran hands, having no other choice, they began building shelters according to the plans provided by the Empire, in which they were going to wait the coming Scourge through...

You are surely curious what kind of shelters were they? Well... Namegivers were forced to separate themselves from the outside world, hide in built underground kaers or behind thick, covered with runes, walls of citadels. There existed no other way, for the fight against so powerful beings such as Horrors was doomed to failure from the start - nobody, not even the greatest of heroes, was able to withstand a confrontation with these monsters during the Scourge. Therefore mankind was condemned to a more than four hundred years of separation from the sunlight and gusts of wind that you can even feel on your skin at this very moment, forced into isolation and existence in closed societies, forced by a necessity, forced to practice a parody of life in order be able to live in the future...

You probably thought to yourself that the burden of such an existence is impossible to bear, that life conducted this way would only end in a collective madness and bloody carnage, which would occur no matter whether Horrors were involved in it or not. There is much reason in this, however the kaer dwellers had two things that allowed them, at least to some extent, to survive. These two things were hope to see the sunlight, the stars, the vast green leas and the forests of Barsaive and a book called "The Book of Tomorrow", prepared by the dwarfs from Throal, the largest kingdom in our province. What they contained was our history and culture - the heritage of all denizens of Barsaive. Do not be surprised therefore, that in most places in our province you will be able to communicate with strangers in the dwarven language - "The Book of Tomorrow" is an obligatory book for all of us even today.

Residents of Barsaive managed to survive – although many shelters were indeed destroyed and their inhabitants killed or, even worse, transformed into horrible monsters, inspiring fear among the living no lesser than Horrors themselves, nevertheless a large number of Namegivers was saved. However, the survival of the Scourge did not mean the end of all troubles - the world denizens of Barsaive found after leaving their shelters is completely different from the one they remembered from the stories of their ancestors. Once lively forests are full of yet unknown monsters resembling decaying corpses, fertile lands are covered with dust, which makes breathing impossible, not to mention letting the sun rays reach the earth so it could yield fruit! Fortunately, not all places have been corrupted by the Horrors - a large part of the land is in a condition good enough to live on it and cultivate it, or at least, with Passion's blessing, adapt it to the latter. Still, even these areas hold threats, as not all of the Horrors are gone from our world! The level of magic ceased to fall about a hundred years ago, the causes of which could not be determined even by the most prominent scholars, and what powerful Horrors were able to take advantage of and keep searching for the souls of people susceptible to corruption, break their will and inflict as much evil as it is possible!

There are also other enemies which the residents of Barsaive have to cope with - the Theran Empire wanting to regain authority over the province, frightening cultist organizations in the service of Horrors or Mad Passions and last but not least there are Namegivers themselves, whose lust for power pushes them to acts so vile that even the worst Horrors would not be suspected of such behavior!

In this difficult situation you are to live and experience our, nevertheless, beautiful land. Only you can decide which path you will follow, and what you will achieve, however you must know that, as perhaps never before, right now Barsaive needs brave heroes who could lead us in the right direction, towards freedom and happiness. Yes, my dear Otolk, Barsaive has many legends and many heroes - but today, our world is awakening - today is the Age of Legends - legends carved with the greatness of our own hearts!

Author: Andrzej Swędrzyński

Translation: Wojciech "Sethariel" Żółtański

“It took me a long time……. too long to present you the first result of my open call to become a guest blogger on earthdawn.blogspot.com. But finally the silly season is almost over and the first guest entry is finished. I am very honored and pleased to pass the word to SaDe.”

Hugs to everyone. Most of you might know me from the previous interview I made with Mordom.

We have a little game series on Earthdawn.co.hu and I decided to make an english page, where similar contests will be running. Maybe some of you enter the contests, not for the prizes, but for the fun. The current august challenge is about “potion”. Like the title says, you have to write a potion, the effect and other info (price, common, rare, components, etc.)

There are also some small prizes available for the winning entry. If you are interested in my new website and want to take part at the monthly challenge have a look at: http://throal.earthdawn.co.hu/news.php

In this guest post I want to introduce some of our previous game entries and winners. The first challenge was “write a before-scourge spell”.

This was the game winning spell. This translation was corrected by Quorlox

Cool Waft
Circle: 4
Frequency: Very rare
Threads: the number of targets
Weaving difficulty: 6/13
Range: 10 meters/yards
Duration: Rank hours
Effect: Willforce+thread number
Spellcast difficulty: Highest Spell Defense among the targets

Designed by Flameheart Timur, a Questor of Floranuus, who was an Elemental Miner/Elementalist. He was inspired as he was mining near the Scarlet Sea on the Blazewalker before the Scourge.

The spell summons a small air elemental who moves air around the characters, creating a cool breeze that protects against heat and neutralizes heat-induced fatigue (ED1 Survival Guide, p. 98). This spell adds 3 Steps to the fatigue test, and significantly increases the character's comfort level.
Designer's note: it's not looks like strong spell, but the you can enchant it into item, or it can be very comfort to the adventurers (not by necessity near the Death's Sea).

Another topic was to write about “grimoires” and Greg was so kind (and hyperactive ) to translate his winning entry:

Grimoire of a Hundred Drinks
The Grimoire of a Hundred Drinks may look like a leather cylinder, with a bronze cap at both ends. After removing the top and bottom cap the leather can be unwound and spread out. It is a square shaped piece of lush brown cowhide, with a timeworn, scratch marked and sun faded outer surface, but a remarkably unscathed, mint condition inside. Both faces of the leather are rimmed with a gilded pattern of interleaving wildflowers. On the outside the pattern has lost the golden plating on most places, but on the inside you can even feel the embossing.

A bottle made out of clay, and covered with red glaze can be found inside the case, without a cork. The bottle looks similar to the ones found in each and every tavern inside Throal used for serving beverages with the only distinction that this bottle also has a vignette. The contents of the grimoire are listed on the vignette in or'zet writing.

The Grimoire of a Hundred Drinks was in the possession of Mellaus of Tirtage an ork Elementalist, until his death due to the continued consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol. Mellaus was the regular guest and patron of numerous taverns and barrooms in Tirtaga in which his grimoire has continued to make the rounds of his late owner. It has found itself in the hands of some of the local Elementalists, who made a tradition of passing the grimoire to someone who is thirsting for the spells described in the grimoire and who will pass it on again after emptying it. Now it looks like someone has forgot to forward it or lost the grimoire in a drunken stupor in the Halls of Throal.

For each of the spells contained in the grimoire there is a drink, but the vignette only lists the names of the spells, not the drinks belonging to the spell. The spellcaster has to fill the bottle to the brim with a drink and than spill out all of the bottle onto the leather pad. The leather soaks up the drink without any residue and the Pattern of a spell and the necessary directions and explanations to use the spell became visible. The text is written in or'zet language.
If someone is to spill a drink on the leather that has no spells associated or uses anything other than the bottle to pour the drink, the drink will run down the leather.
Contrary to the name of the grimoire, it doesn't really contain hundred spells but only a selection of twelve: Heat Food (ED p.159.), Purify Earth (AM p.6.), Purify Water (ED p.159.), Air Mattress (AM p.6.), Boil Water (ED p.159.), Path Home (ED p.160.), Sterilize Object (ED p. 160.), Stick Together (ED p.160.), Plant Feast (ED p.161.), Porter (ED p.161.), Repair (ED p.161.), Throne of Air (ED p. 161.).

Greg also translated his entry of another challenge. The topic was “write a monster/legend/etc. to this image”:

http://earthdawn.co.hu/uploads/kepek/ja.jpg

Raggok Avatar
Before the Scourge the Passions have done a lot to safeguard the survival of the Namegiver races.
But some may ask, if the dragons are also Namegivers, did the Passions also support them and did the dragons act up on helping the other races as they have helped each other?

Not long before the Scourge Mountainshadow and some other dragons were willing to share their knowledge of kaer making and magic to the other Namegiver. The Theran fearing their profits and plans started a campaign against the dragons, killing a Great Dragon among many others. The answer of the dragons was bloody as well. Finally both sides agreed on leaving the other in peace, as long the dragons are not giving out the secrets of protection from the Scourge.
The Passion Rashomon was than the Passion for rulership and civic values and he was obliged by the feelings, spoken and unspoken wishes of the Namegiver to take matters in it's own hand.

The Passion took physical form in an Avatar and the Namegiver asked Rashomon to plead to the Great Dragons, so the dragons take in the other Namegiver into their well-defended lairs or teach them how to protect themselves from the oncoming Scourge. In the eyes of the Namegiver the Passions usually take on the form of an idealized member of the viewers race and in crowds sometimes everyone sees the Passion in a different form.

This avatar, tasked by the prayer of the disappointed and dreading people has chosen to take on the form of a Great Dragon.
We don't quite know if the Passion was successful or not, but fact is that some dragons have allowed the Namegiver to take shelter in their lairs and the t'skrang received guidance from a dragon.

The Passion Rashomon however suffered a terrible fate, as the rampaging Horror or the fact that he was the patron Passion of the island of Thera made him go mad. The avatar travelling Barsaive also went through this sudden, horrible and sweeping change that deformed it's very essence. When a Namegiver encounters the avatar, he or she will see a creature that is made up of parts of a dragon - the body, wings, the tail and the crest on the head - and parts of his or her own race - legs, arms, the head and distinctive features like horns, fangs, eyes and skin color. Altogether it looks like a thing stuck halfway between transforming from a dragon into another race.

The avatars behavior also shows this duality, the intelligence and superiority of a dragon combined with the characteristics of the Namegiver it just met. When it encounters a dwarf it will be stubborn and sophistic, with an orc it will be impulsive and foulmouthed. It will represent the worst stereotypes of any races manners because it is the avatar of a Mad Passion.

Unless the characters do anything against Raggok or the avatar, it will not physically harm them, but it will ruthlessly pursue and take vengeance on anyone who opposes or displeases Raggok. It will scheme and manipulate with the cunning and patience of a dragon. However it's goals and methods are undeclared and invisible like that of a dragon.

If the avatar gets into combat, it's dual nature will prohibit it to move through the thoughts of Namegivers like other avatars of Raggok. But it's movement speed is still untraceably fast and it's powers are still beyond that of a Namegiver.
However if the players would have the distinctive unluck to kill the avatar, they could be sure to attract the special attention of Raggok himself that follows them everywhere to deal vengeance at the most unpleasent moment.
(Statistics for the avatar are the same as Crarites's, found on page 109 of Throal - the dwarven kingdom)

Adventure hooks:
- A small village was raided by an orc scorcher band. The villages listened to some really bad advice and summoned the Mad Passion. The characters should help them talk things out with the avatar, or deal with the scorchers before the avatar.
- The avatar is contemplating one of it's long-term plans and asks for some advice and thoughts from the players. A moral dilemma: Do you give advice to a Mad Passion? If it's plans endanger your beloved ones?
- The party got itself into one of those long-term plans of Raggok. Besides the characters it means pain and suffering to a lot of people. The characters must find the avatar to get themselves out of the plot and to suggest a new course of action to the Passion.
- The bored avatar is cruelly torturing itself when the players meet it. If they pass on without any emotion or remark the avatar will task them with part of it's plans.
- The avatar can serve as an archvillain for high circle players. One of the Great Dragons (e.g. Icewing) is annoyed by the emotions and memories he has towards the avatar and wants it gone. The characters start out as just pawns in the power struggle between a dragon and a creature thinking like a dragon, but their further role is up to the players

I thank Mordom for the opportunity to make a guest post on his blog and I hope you all have a look at http://throal.earthdawn.co.hu/news.php

Hugs SaDe

I am reading various blogs on the net and several did a so called "Guest Blogging". Readers, Visitors, Authors, Scientists, Fans and many others are invited to write a post or article for the blog. So I decided to make a similar open call for my readers to invite them to write a guest article or do a "Guest Blogging".

What's going on and how can you become a guest blogger?

It's very simple. If you got an idea for a post, an article, a topic for a discussion, a private project, an interview or anything else that should be spread to the Earthdawn community, here's your chance. Write down a short excerpt of your idea and contact me.
Please use as subject for your contact-email: "Guest Blogging" to guarantee a better overview. All the other emails without that subject will be ignored, so make sure you do it right!

Content of the email should be:
- your name
- a short description of your idea
- your blog URL or website URL if available

I can't tell right now how many guests will be approved, this depends on the amount of incoming topics and how they differ from others. I also can't tell whose idea will be approved and why and why others don't. This is the first time I make such a open call for guest bloggers and therefor I want a maximum of 3 or 4 guest bloggers. But be sure that this won't be the last time I make this open call and if you don't make it, please try again next time or I will contact you again when I make an Open Call again.

Please consider also the general rules for your article:
- your article, topic or whatever must be related to Earthdawn. If you don't know what Earthdawn is, first look at "What is Earthdawn?"

- your article has to be written in English, I'll support you in translating it if you think your English isn't good enough.

- one article per head.

- you're not allowed to use any pictures or material you don't own the rights for or at least got the permission to use them.

- all your pictures and texts remain under your copyright and you got the right to tell me to remove them at any time.


So what do you get from all of this "Guest Blogging"? Sorry, but I can't pay you, :-)! The only thing I can provide are back links to your site including a short description, the appreciation of other Earthdawn fans and the immortality of your post.

The Open Call will be closed on 4th July, after that I will contact the chosen and start talking about their idea and the execution of the "Guest Blogging".

I hope the idea of Guest Blogging on the Earthdawn Blog will be a successful story and I hope you'll like the articles.