Setting or system?

[Flowswithdrek]

If the setting doesn't do it for me then there is no amount of awesome rules or mechanics that can fix the game for me.

[Darth Quiris]

Setting before system although if a setting has a horrible system I won't touch it no matter how great the setting is.

Luckily, Earthdawn is tops in both.

[Mountainshadow]

Same here! primarily setting, but if the system is too clumsy, inflexible or just s*#!%? - then I won't touch it! ED has always been a near perfect fit for my tastes in both areas.

[BenoitPoulin]

We've been playing the third edition for more or less 3 years then we switched for EarthDawn Savage Worlds. The Explosion of Dices in combats transform these into pure random whateverness, shadowing the system and creating frustration (the dices can explode to such an extend that, really, there is nothing you can do - some people like this. I am not part of them). The Savage Worlds edition makes a lot of things easier and faster (espacially combat), yet you a lose some aspect of the game (the concepts of circles, of training). The Raise and Ace system can more or less give the same feel the Step system. But there is some flaws, though : some really cool abstraction concepts of Savage Worlds (Dramatic Task, Chase, Social Intervention) don't works well with Adept's Edge (a lot of them give bonus of +4... when the base difficulty in SW game is... 4!) and some spells / powers / talents have simply not be tested at all (ie : Veteran Wizards Spells are simply a list of game-breakers). Yet, it's EarthDawn, which is possibly the greatest High Fantasy setting ever.

[Slimcreeper]

Don't love exploding dice!?! There really is one in every crowd. <grin>

[BenoitPoulin]

Well, I love exploding die with "simple" system (say, such as SW, where it takes only 10-15 minutes to build a character - where, crunch-wise, character development is a cakewalk) because - but it is just my point of view, of course - I find it little frustrating - mind you, just a little - when all the time spent on the mechanics of cool character development (and I am definitely not talking about min maxing here - anyway minmax just does'nt cope with ED atmosphere) - is just cancelled by some explosion of die. There is dice explosion is SW ("Acing"), but there is a possibility to evade those rash random effects (ie : bennies).

[Mogre]

Setting is massively important. I will say that the Earthdawn System is what drew me to it and brought me back to it after my frustrations with other systems.

[BahtRastard]

Definitely setting. My group and I always choose our games based on setting. If the setting doesn't "hook" us, then the rules are worthless. With Earthdawn, we love the dark and gritty setting involving the Horrors. We tend to be somewhat Cthulhu-esque in our campaign and my players favor the flawed hero types with the roleplaying being heavily character-driven.

[Trejes]

The setting is awesome and the system ist very good (can't say in %). So the system wins.

If we are looking foreward to ED4 I want more setting, more story, more unique Earthdawn stuff, more fun with a (almost) cliche free fantasy RPG. If the system will not be fundamentaly changed do with it/tweak it as much as you want. I'm a big boy now (not like in the 90s when I started playing), I can house rule everything back to what I liked more.


Ah man, when I think about it, I realy love the setting. Classic fantasy stuff, but a really good background story, also well written.
The idea that Earthdawn is our past.
All the typical fantasy races but every one with something new or something changed (the elves fallen from grace, the dwarfs as merchants and glue for the peoples of Barsaive, boring humans like in all rpgs but with versatality and as the mother race of the other races, trolls not just über-orks but obsessed with the concept of honor, obsidiman going back to their mother rock: always made me think of the Aborigines and their dreamtime, and so on)
...


PLEASE, give me more of this, not just a new edition with some optimized rules.

[Roth]

Setting/System 200%.

I fell hard for Dark High Fantasy.
The groups I run haven't played in Barsaive itself in well over a decade(we do a lot in Vivane, Talea, and the unknown areas kinda Barsaived myself out), but the basic theme behind Earthdawn is alive and kicking in my campaigns.

System is very RPG alive(?). I love the fact that everything has a price(LP or Damage or Money).