Earthdawn Companion?

Discussion on the Earthdawn game line, errata, and feedback not related to playing or GMing.
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etherial
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by etherial » Sun Apr 29, 2018 5:44 pm

Jaracove wrote:
Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:15 am
I could put up with having to buy 2 books just so I could get my character to 15th Circle (I hope this trend ends and they have one book to 15th Circle and perhaps a separate book with the setting info if it can't be crammed in). But now it looks like I have to buy 3 separate books if I want my spellcaster to get to 15th Circle and have access to all spells available to him?
I haven't had occasion to commune with my collection for a while, so I sat down and counted. Not including Adventures, which may have adventure-specific spells:

ED1 has spells in 7 books, including ED1, ED1C, the Earthdawn Survival Guide, Secret Societies of Barsaive, The Ork Nation of Cara Fahd, and not one but two books entirely devoted to expanding Spellcasting and Magician-oriented adventuring.

ED2 came closest to your demand with spells in only 2 books (ED2 and ED2C) but had 2 books allegedly under development that were devoted to Magicians.

ED3 had 3 books with Spells in them (ED3PG, ED3PC, and Cathay Players' Guide) and also a free pdf with the spells from ESG reprinted.

This is of course not including the books with additional rules for Questors, Talent Knacks, Discipline Variations, Thread Items, new Disciplines, new Races, new Racial Variants, new Equipment, etc.
Earthdawn is my favourite rpg bar none - but this just killed it for me. I can't justify buying 3 books just so I can have full access to my character (let alone the expense). As far as I'm concerned, that information could and should all be in the core rulebook.
I really don't think it's fair to ask FASA to correctly guess everything you'll want to do with your character for the next 10 years and put it in a several-thousand page book now. And even if they did, are you really sure you wouldn't rather spread the cost of paying for that book out over 10 years? I've been playing Earthdawn for almost 20 years and have never had occasion to cast a 9th or 10th Circle Spell, so the fact that these were pushed back from ED4C doesn't bother me, especially with how ED4 has expanded the utility of low-Circle spells with Extra Threads and the Cantrip Thread Knacks.

Maybe you just mean "core spells and abilities" should be printed in those two books, but...Many of the core Elementalist and Nethermancer spells came from Arcane Mysteries. Silent Stampede is now a core Illusionist Spell and it came from Cara Fahd. And where would Wizards be without Bedazzling Display of Logical Analysis? It is the fate of a crunch-heavy RPG to continually expand the game world by printing more books.

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Mataxes
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Mataxes » Sun Apr 29, 2018 6:10 pm

Jaracove, I hear you, and I sympathize.

I wish I had an easy answer for you. It wasn't a decision laid out by me on day one for this to be the case, but it's the way things ended up as a result of decisions made early in the process and the (mostly self-made) mess that subsequent development turned out to be.

I could go into more detail about the reasons I made the decisions I did back when this whole saga started, but I started doing that on the first draft of this post. I got nearly 700 words into it before realizing it was becoming self-indulgent. So... I'm saving that stuff for another time.

But, again, I understand what you're saying. I know there are some aspects of this whole saga that some people aren't happy with (and that includes me). There are a lot of competing interests, and those run into the realities of production. I think ED4 is really good, but there are things that could have been handled better, and as we move forward we're trying to make that happen.
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Slimcreeper
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Slimcreeper » Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:51 am

You mean change the book size away from 6x9”?

I kid I kid! I never met a dead horse I couldn’t resist kicking one more time …

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Kosmit
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Kosmit » Mon Apr 30, 2018 7:34 am

Some Earthdawn Anniversary edition without comic graphics? ;)

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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Geekabilly » Fri May 04, 2018 9:08 pm

utsukushi wrote:
Thu Apr 19, 2018 4:44 am
Geekabilly wrote:
Tue Mar 06, 2018 1:08 pm
Not when there's mythical Yamatai, the Yamato kingdom, Kami myths, the Uji clan structure etc not to mention all that good stuff you could pull out of the Kojiki & Nihongi. Add a big helping of Great Dragons and you've got a good start on an Earthdawn take on Japan. Beats samurai and feuding daimyo in my opinion.
I just wanted to say that sounds awesome. You should send in a proposal or something - apparently those can sometimes turn into actual things.

I'm not a particularly astute student of Japanese history, but I have long suspected they might have had more than one era. I'd love to see something that hasn't already been done sixty times.
I am currently in my second year of Japanese and East Asian Studies at the University of Manchester so this is definitely something I have considered. I recently sent a proposal to FASA for something else however. I totally agree that a Japanese setting not based solely upon samurai culture would suit Earthdawn though :)

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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Olympus » Fri May 25, 2018 6:09 pm

I was wondering if there was an update on the Companion yet. Expected release of the pdf? Odds of a hardcopy being at GenCon?

Thank you!

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Marzhin
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Marzhin » Fri May 25, 2018 7:20 pm

Olympus wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 6:09 pm
I was wondering if there was an update on the Companion yet. Expected release of the pdf? Odds of a hardcopy being at GenCon?

Thank you!
Can't find the exact quote, but they're waiting for the last couple of artworks to finalize the book. I guess it's a matter of weeks before the PDF lands.
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Mataxes
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Mataxes » Fri May 25, 2018 7:33 pm

Marzhin wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 7:20 pm
Can't find the exact quote, but they're waiting for the last couple of artworks to finalize the book. I guess it's a matter of weeks before the PDF lands.
That's the case. We haven't settled on an official date yet, but it will probably be in the first half of June for the PDF.
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Marzhin
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Marzhin » Mon Jun 04, 2018 8:50 am

On a related note, Jeff Laubenstein just announced he completed his final illustration for the Companion :)
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
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Re: Earthdawn Companion?

Post by Avanti » Mon Jun 04, 2018 4:42 pm

Mataxes wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 7:33 pm
Marzhin wrote:
Fri May 25, 2018 7:20 pm
Can't find the exact quote, but they're waiting for the last couple of artworks to finalize the book. I guess it's a matter of weeks before the PDF lands.
That's the case. We haven't settled on an official date yet, but it will probably be in the first half of June for the PDF.
It is first half of June now!
I'm clicking refresh on the store page for the companion now...

not yet there... Refresh again.

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