FASA Games, Inc.

Regarding the move of the Karma and Durability talents to circle abilities, I think this is fine, as long as they can still be augmented by other means. For example in our current campaign I own a thread object that incidently increases my Karma and Discipline ranks. If this will still be possible,I guess this gives enough customizability.

The ability for group threads and magic items to boost the inherent "rank" of Durability and Karma Ritual is still in the game.

Please tell me you will include optional rule for having them as separate talents? ;>

Can someone explain to me why people are complaining about a resource that is rather unlimited in the game and why people treat how they spend their Legend points as a potential "waste" of how to allocate them?

It's not like Legend Points are limited. They aren't. Just because you spend some to increase an Talent a rank or two doesn't mean you ever wasted them... and it's not like those points are ever restricted. The rate of increase in your character is always dependent on how you allocate them and its not like you are ever restricted.

There is no rule that says "You can only spend X # of Legend Points on X Talents from X Circle."

It's not a game that is designed where you gain a Circle and then you get X # of Legend Points and you will only get those particular points to spend until you hit next Circle. This game isn't limited in such ways.

So why is there all this talk about people thinking that they are somehow squandering/wasting these points that are conceptually, theoretically and obviously unlimited?

I think anybody who plays this game and puts restrictions upon the potential of both the game and their character's is missing the true potential of what makes Earthdawn really what it is/what it has potential to be.

Speaking as a GM, having standard scaling for Durability and Karma pools is VERY attractive. I could throw whole mid-high circle Parties at my players, build the stats for them quickly and kinda know what to expect, instead of hand-crafting each Adept (will _this_ guy stand up to the Warrior's alpha-strike? Will these combo attacks down the Skyraider?). Having standard places in a character sheet/statblock is great too, as it aids in teaching the system.

If this were proposed following just ED1(or Ed2) rules, I'd be totally against it. Talent Rank was the only differentiating factor in ED1/Classic, so in that case each adept would be even more similar after the change.

But, once the Optional Talent Pools mechanic came out from Classic forward, you don't have to rely on Rank for individual character differentiation. It's much less of a mechanical "loss" so to speak, when proposed following ED3.

I'm totally fine with the changes, having realized that. I can always use Threads, Magic Items, etc to allow my players to customize this. Doesn't a Karma Store Blood Charm sound really attractive at low circles?

I think he's talking about knowing what the PC's karma & Death rating would be? Building NPCs is a pretty time-consuming deal. I would love it if there was an official spreadsheet/character builder to do it for me.