FASA Games, Inc.

I’m somewhat surprised to see their karma die is a d4 rather than a d8 to match up with Earthdawn. Curious if this is a deliberate change or a typo?

There's not anything in the errata. I've assumed it was as intended but I guess never really asked.

This is deliberate. Snarks in 1879 are a little tougher than Earthdawn orks, getting the Cast Iron Stomach advantage that gives them resistance against bad food, strong drink, and ingested poisons. Given their relative physical prowess and sensory enhancements over humans, the d4 was chosen to put them on the same level, karma wise, as trolls.

Also note that karma is where humans get their racial advantage. The d8 therefore is the peak, and all other races must come in below that, to offset advantages like sight enhancements and increased strength. There's also the lack of Versatility to consider. Without Disciplines, Versatility does not exist, which takes away the biggest advantage humans have in Earthdawn. We had to compensate for that, and karma was the logical choice.

At some point, I need to point out the really major advantages that the Boojum races have in vision. Heat sight gives you way more than the game really explains. With training, you can read someone's pulse from a distance. You can tell what it is you're tracking in the dark by its heat signature. You can tell the difference between an active hydraulic line and one that's been inactive for a while. Ask a fireman how useful FLIR is in a smoke-filled building. Low-light vision allows you to blatantly ignore darkness mods in combat. We're thinking of adding ultravision to elves when the next mana-level milestone is crossed, and that will open up an entirely new world for them. Being able to see in the UV range allows operation at greater depth in water, identification of plant and animal species by markings not visible to humans, spotting birds in hiding by their fluorescent beaks, an entire new dimension of color that becomes visible. Also, elves won't stay in most hotels, they can see what's been left by previous guests. Ew.

And yet humans can get these advantages quite easily with goggles.

If I could go back in time 20 years I would be like, "Guys, not every race needs to see in the dark." I like the Cast Iron Stomach, but I think it just casually extends to all poison and disease. It comes up relatively rarely, what can it hurt? Windlings got basically a +2 vs swords and arrows and the game has tottered along. Hell, I might just say all trolls get Feats of Strength: +2 to all strength-only tests on top of their high base strength. Dwarves can carry half as much as other races. If you're going to give a bonus, it should be cool and unique.

OK, what specifically would you do? Have you got a table of racial advantages you can post?

I haven't made any actual changes to the game on this point, though I could probably put something together.

I'm interested in seeing your reasoning on this. Please trace your lines of thought and comment profusely. This has been brought up before, of course, with Earthdawn, but if you've got a better take on it, I want to see it and know how you got there.

I guess it would depend on whether one was providing options for all of the sight modifications or add-ons.