Distributing goodies

[Endrek03]

Hey all,
So, I'm running my first Earthdawn campaign. Some may remember me from years ago trying to set one up, but it never panned out in my real life group. Well, finally, it did . . .
. . . and I'm running around like a headless chicken. I'm trying to learn the system, the world, the feel of the game, everything while still trying to put out an aura of confidence and knowledge to my players. New system aren't easy to learn. XD
Anyways, onto the point of this post:

I understand that Earthdawn is *not* D&D, that there is absolutely no "guideline" to distributing loot. I am aware that some GM's keep their players ass broke while others give them bountiful piles of gold. It all depends on the setting.
However, as said above, this is my first time GM'ing for Earthdawn. I was just curious if anyone has some rules of thumb they would like to share about "loot" in terms of wealth and so on. I understand they will / should only get magic items starting when the first player hits Circle 4. But even then, how often and how much? Or -- How much should I leave up to them as Earthdawn is a very "player run" RPG versus all the others.

My next question is kind of along the lines of this -- I have an Air Sailor in the group. I'd like to give him an air ship as soon as possible. To make things awesome, I want to give them the actual Earthdawn itself. Make an epic adventure where they search for it, find it, repair it, and get it working again all the while while learning about the fate of the crew and what the Earthdawn is itself. I think that would be fun, and it would tie in yet another reason why the game they're playing is called Earthdawn.
But . . . when should this occur? When should an Air Sailor (In guideline terms, of course) receive an Airship to command?

Thanks.
Also . . . sorry that I will be bombarding this board with questions over the next few weeks.
Like . . . where the hell can I find the Greenheart River in the book? I've searched through both books. Nothing.
Also, which forest / jungle is Landis located in? It doesn't give a name.

[Mataxes]

[Telarus_KSC]

I have been playing through some Greyhawk inspired material with ED3 recently, so I've been toying with the classic idea of Legend for Gold/Treasure (if recovered from the dungeon and spent/sold in town).

As such, my main guideline are the Treasure worth Legend Award guidelines on p98 of the ED3-GM Guide. So if the group of 3 1st Circle players loot 50 sp each they're doing great. If they walk away from a job with 50 silver each and they also found an ancient ring (worth Legend) valued @ 150sp (they get the cash and/or LP when they sell/display/use it) they are doing GREAT as that nets them each 100sp, just above the range for 1st Circle on that table.

I also use that to gauge how much various adepts charge for a service, etc based on Circle. Also, keep in mind that "common magic items" are pretty much that, common... and that Threaded Items are Named Magical Treasures, not simple +1 swords (thats what the Forge Weapon talent and some blood magic is for).

[Telarus_KSC]

As to the other points: Airship/Riverboat Captains are usually Circle 5+ Adepts...but it actually varies (ED3-GM Companion, p63 under Crew). The minimum is the Captain Rating (talent or skill rank) listing in each Airship or Riverboat's statistics. So a troll Drakkar is CR 5, a simple air-longboat CR 0 (I would say CR 1 if it had a sail and you needed to tack against the wind), an elemental mining veddette (theran style stone ship) @ CR 3, and a Behemoth @ CR 8, etc.

The jungles in and around southern Cara Fahd and Landis aren't really Named yet (they weren't there before the scourge in the form they take now), and so are referred to as the "Deep Jungles" of Cara Fahd and Landis, pretty much.

The Greenheart river joins with the Locust River then into the Liaj, which then flows into Death's Sea (the northern lava portion). The Greenheart and the lower Locust rivers form a kind of border between old-Landis and old-Cara Fahd. If you haven't run into it yet, I spend some time vectoring and then aligning various 1st edition maps, then Piotr annotated all my location markers, the result can be found here (download link on the right in the description):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 4213625244

[Flowswithdrek]

[Avantio]

As you noted, Endrek, it all depends on the mood. I like to start things slow, make my players struggle for every silver piece and gradually increase their rewards while they gain more fame. So at Novice circles it's pretty hard, Journeyman advances them to a level they can easily afford stay at an inn an a very good meal. They can even buy some common magical ites and maybe a thread item if they save up for it. On Warded it gets considerably better as they can count on some free services on occasion (their fame precedes them) and so on.
As for the magic items, I sometimes give them some thread items very early in the game, but never announce it like "Here, this swords is almost glowing in the dark, you can feel the magical energy flowing through it as it screams at you MY NAME IS DAWNBREAKER!"... Nah. All they get is "This is a fine sword. Good craftsmanship." So they have a very high chance of selling it unknowing that it's a magical sword. Of course with time they become more experienced and that is reflected in the hints I give out. I've played out a massive, very heroic and epic campaign with lots of gold and magic items. Characters grown to circle 10 and... it go boring. Belive me, that you don't want to rush things (unless you plan to kill the characters as soon as they become powerfull ]:-> ).

Anyway I suggest you go slowly. Plan your rewards ahead - not necessarily what exactly they get, mind you. Just the overall level of "power" you hand out. And following this, an actual AIRSHIP is an immense level of power, fame and prestige. And I'm not talking about the Earthdawn here, just a regular Airship. Remember that Airships require a skilled Crew to fly - read the chapter about that (PC Guide, P.60 and GM Companion P 57).To fly an Airship of the size equivalent to the Earthdawn you need more than the average player party of 3-5. Even considering that every one of your characters rolls Excellent on their Airsailing talent/skill (anyone except your Airsailor got it?) they can do the work of 20 people, it's still short of the aprox 100 required.

So to streamline my somewhat chaotic post - consider that Earthdawn is all about building a legend -you don't get experience points but LEGEND points. So make sure your players build up their legend before handing over any unique treasure - those have legends of their own and it would be a shame that they outshine the Player Characters.

[ukhata]

personally i like to give my players just enough to circle (i.e 200 silver on circle 1, 300 on circle 2, 500o on circle 3 etc) and then most of the times that much again to spend on gear, and depending on the usage of potions an appropriate amount for that as well. if they used a last chance salve, ill hand the group half of one in extra cash, making them spot the other half themselves.

as for magical items. i give all characters a standard thread item (4 ranks) at circle 4. after that, it depends on the group and their choices. epic choices, epic lewt, safe choices, safe loot.

Ukhata

[Mataxes]

[Oofje]

[Mataxes]

The section you're looking for is in the Player's Guide, pgs 108-112. A successful result on an astral sensing test (DN 6+modifier) allows you to see whether something has a living astral imprint -- which all magic items do.