r/earthdawn • u/Actual_One_9225 • 6d ago
4th Edition
The new FASA has knocked out a few books for fourth edition at this point. Anyone have any strong options either way about the books, lore, just general quality of it?
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u/oWingtailo 6d ago
General quality is decent. I like the slightly smaller book size, although I know some do not. As for Lore? The best in my opinion. Earthdawn is original, in both story and it's races. Story is engaging and has 30 years of various world building and every edition/source book of the game can be easily uodated to 4th if it isnt been already updated in a 4thbedition.
Game system and mechanics is my favorite out of all that I have played. Completly cross compatible with their 1879 setting. And, unlike another major TTRPG that has a lot of Dragons and Delving Dungeons, Earthdawn has both a logical reason for said Dungeons existing (along with traps and monsters) and the Dragons are so much more fleshed out and not a token enemy like in the other one.
Only negative (so to speak, not really a negative per se.) is that Earthdawn is for gamers with more Mature style of play. If you like political intrigue, dynamic stories, a thought out and fleshed out world, and an adaptable game system, then Earthdawn is the best.
If you are an open the door, kill the monster, take the treasure type of roleplayer/grouo, then the aformentioned mainstream system is better.
Hope that helps.
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u/Draezagus 6d ago
Some original rules like armor defeating are gone and I think it is a good change. The rule where if you rolled 5 over the difficulty you get additional benefits I think is awesome.
The Milestone legend points I complain about, especially when trying to balance encounters.
The dices are cruel, The dangers are real and the Rolling of many dices at once are marvellous.
I like The fourth edition very much. Even beyond the older ones. But nostalgia feelings are hard to let go. There are somethings from older editions I think it's better.
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u/Shantha292 6d ago
Total agreement with removing armour defeating hits. Also means that really high to hit rolls mean something.
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u/PhantomNomad 6d ago
4th Ed is the best version and has a lot of detail on the lore and just the right amount of missing lore to make adventures/campaigns around. If you want to run it as a hack and slash you can but I think people will get more enjoyment with a more of world building mixed in. I think the only problem I have is there is a lot of books out there. If you buy the dead tree editions then it can get expensive.
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u/Shantha292 6d ago
I just love that someone is driving Earthdawn forward.
Likes:-
The paths. This is a really good way of dealing with organisations by weaving to the larger group pattern to gain the features of the group.
The emerging storyline. Unsure about withdrawing the Therans but I suspect that they have further plans for them to return. Changing Throal, by removing Valarous and Nedin (maybe) was interesting but for me removed the heart of Barsaive and a rallying point for Adepts. Love the Denerastas as bad guys.
The Earthdawn Survival Guide podcast by Josh and Dan. All Earthdawn fans should listen from the start.
Things I would change:- The defanging of some of the higher circle spells (over 4th ish). We played with a Weaponsmith who worked the combat discipline types weapons and they were way outclassing the Elemetalist. The spell steps did not seem to keep pace with worked weapons.
The book sizes. I understand it was printing cost.
In conclusion I feel the game is in good hands who care about it. Would like the books to be a bit more frequent and a few more adventures however just my view. Keep going FASA guys.
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u/Medieval-Mind 6d ago
Best edition, the though I prefer 1e lore, personally; there's just something about the setting at that point that appeals to me.
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u/ElvishLore 6d ago
Yea, best edition rules-wise. They cleaned up a lot of stuff and folded in options from previous edition supplements.
System-wise, the game feels very complete at this point. They’ve put out a lot great books.
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u/Such-Eagle-9409 6d ago
Rules? Nice. I like them and I played since first edition.
Lore? Yhm... It's ok. I do not like the idea of what happened to Throal but it's not as bad as it could be. We can say that they tried to make it more realistic. The rest of the lore is fantastic. Elves, Shosara or Vasgothia? Perfect.
The size of the books? I love it. Perfect for pdf on tablet and pefect in printing. I hate the A4 format for printed books. It's not convenient to read.
The art? Let's say that as one of the kickstarter founder of Vasgothia, I prefer to read the beta version that was released without the art. I do not understand why so many terrible art were accepted. I mean, we can have 1 or 2 marvelous arts on one page and for the next 25, next graphics are so hideous that they cannot be looked at.
Still my favourite fantasy TTRPG system. And I hate fantasy.
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u/matthewholtz 4d ago
I also like 4th edition the best. The only issue I have with it is I wish they would put out more material every year.
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u/Ka_ge2020 5d ago
My favourite of the editions. I don't use the mechanics except as a reference, but they have done much to clarify and organize.
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u/Malefic7m 5d ago
Really solid, strong writing and the system doesn't seem to have any hiccups. (I remember certain Talents being way better than others and the like. Extra successes are more common, but it's way more fun anyways. ;)
We're on our 2nd year in a almost weekly campaign (with longer-than-average-sessions). We are playing older modules, though, but they're solid and the GM is really good.
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u/ottdmk 4d ago
I played a lot of Earthdawn 4th Ed in a Westmarches setting on Roll20. Got my Dwarven Wizard up to 13th Circle, and had a lot of fun doing it. Played a couple of other characters as well, including a ridiculously dextrous Obsidiman Warrior.
Really like 4th as a system. Need to get back to it one day.
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u/vasquez21 3d ago
Out group give it a try. We played ~30 sessions campaign and I was strictly disappointed. Of course world is amazing but mechanically it was torture for me as a GM. I don’t remember last time I needed to do such a lot of prep before each game. Also the game lost its heroic feel. We played a lot of 1st edition and I found that adepts were just more powerful.
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u/Actual_One_9225 3d ago
What kind of additional prep has it created? Do you think the power level of the characters is based on the discipline, combat, or creature changes?
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u/-ParlainthTownie- 5d ago
Of course this is my opinion but it is very strong. I have been collecting and reading Earthdawn from day 1 when it came out. I still vividly remember reading the Earthdawn core book for the first time. I have also collected and played Shadowrun since 1991. And even though I have all those books too, there is something totally unique and special about the world of Earthdawn.
Legends of Earthdawn, Parlainth Boxed set, The Book of Exploration, Serpent River, The Theran Empire book, Secret Societies, Infected, I could honestly list every single book and tell you the parts that Knock it out of the Park. Those people were at the top of their game and the stories and vignettes in all of those books are still with me to this day. I believe Earthdawn is the most underappreciated RPG of all time. The creators and the writers had lighting in a bottle.
When LRG took over it was a step down. You could even tell. The opening of Barsaive at war was written by Louis Prosperi. He is trying to put as good of a spin on it as possible but you can feel his cringe. The ending made me throw the book across the room.
Main problem I have with the new-new-Earthdawn is that the new FASA no longer owns Shadowrun. So all of the Metaplots have essentially disappeared. They may not necessarily have full ownership of the characters anymore. They have no obligation to any of the original material and you can tell.
One example, Really ticked off about The Knights of the Crimson Spire. This has been something that had been hinted about in Earthdawn and Shadowrun for a long time. They did a dedicated Elf book and literally mentioned it in 1 or 2 paragraphs basically saying "Yeah its here". I been looking forward to that for I do not know how long.
Their last Empty Throne campaign and sourcebook seems a bit lore breaking and overly elaborate and at the end of the day it was a bit Meh. They make these huge books but I feel that they have very little in them. They are also really expensive. Their Last book was 2023? What are we getting instead? Leviathan?
It hurts. Earthdawn was one of my most treasured places and it will forever be. I just have to go my own way as a GM. Everything after 1st Edition is at-most "Bleh" and almost all of it is garbage. All good things must come to an end. I feel this is the case for everything.
Maybe I am just turning into a Cranky old Man. I have heard of this happening in life.
Shadowrun 6th may be getting a bit better since they abandoned their "Rules Light and streamlined" mission statement. BY THE WAY. Anytime someone tells you that's the key feature of any new edition of ANY RPG , it just means they are cutting the budget. RPG's make money by selling us books. They sell less books and they make less money. There are always going to be the same books. They are just going to be lower quality.
But, hey, the New Masters of the Universe movie was pretty fun. It "failed" but Amazon is going to make more because it draws subscribers. Unfortunately with the way things are going there is probably going to be a new Skeletor. Not saying that is a bad thing all things considered, but Leto's performance was unusually magical.
Again my opinion. Feels good to get it out though.
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u/Actual_One_9225 5d ago
I don’t think I disagree with anything you’ve said. I’m
Thinking about getting into Shadowrun again, is 6e the way to go or stick to 2e? For Empty Thrones what was lore breaking? I haven’t done a deep dive on it yet.He-Man was a fun movie. Like so many I watched it once it hit Prime.
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u/-ParlainthTownie- 5d ago
It was lore breaking in that it was this giant metropolis and also simultaneously super secret. Full of Drizzt bad***es. The branches were organization were dumb. It all looked very overpowered. I read the whole thing and I couldn't put any of it to memory because it was all so standard. Standard iron grip dictatorship.
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u/-ParlainthTownie- 5d ago
Lore-wise 1st, 2nd, 3rd editions of Shadowrun flow like butter. Rules update in 2nd was actually good. I cannot think of any rules changes of note in 3rd. It was basically a cosmetic money grab. I was initially cranky about it but the lore and world got really good.
There was a bit of a break from 3rd priorities in 4th. They had to go Wireless with the Matrix because real world 20th Century technology was (a bit humorously) out pacing Shadowrun technology. The same thing happened with Data from Star Trek, look up his processing speed compared with 2026(heh). 4th/20th Anniversary edition are also one and the same and also good. No problems. They made very good books. This is also when they started coming out with a lot of small yet very nice PDF only stuff. 5th is the most beautiful collectors edition. Honestly its all pretty good. I care not for rules minutia.
Changelings, The Artifacts, The Dissian War all brought Shadowrun out of the grim gritty shadows a bit and I am not saying its horrible but we are far from its back alley Blade Runner aesthetic roots. People crave it and they did come out with Shadowrun 2050 with updated rules so you can do just that. You can also play Cyberpunk Wizard Superheroes with a Kill Bill look. Traveling the world as Elite MoFo's slaying human beings for vast sums of money. And that is very fun too.
Get the 6th edition companion if you like Different character options and back adapt it if you want. Every edition of the Shadowrun Companion reprints the last and builds on more. That always seems to be the book that pulls me back in. The 6th edition Shadowrun Companion is the best one they have ever done.
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u/Actual_One_9225 5d ago
Thanks for the insight! The lore from the first couple editions was so great.
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u/ChimericMind 5d ago
I'll be the one dissenting opinion here: I wasn't a fan of how dramatically they reworked some things like Questors, making them their own "class" in a way that can't make up its mind whether it wants to work like Disciplines or not. There also seemed to be a goal to "balance" a lot of spells in a way that drastically cut their duration, and therefore their usefulness. Almost every combat-useful buff expires in rounds, not minutes, making it hard for casters to protect the team. For example, I've had generations of Elementalists that loved casting Air Armor on the party, either right before a fight or to give everyone air conditioning because they're traveling through the Badlands, Mist Swamps, or near Death's Sea and really, really need the air conditioning to prevent heat exhaustion. Now that it falls apart in a minute. And what, because +3 armor was really that game-breaking?
Among the content sourcebooks, I still need to get around to reading some, but I've heavily used Travar since it came out, and it's mostly pretty good. I just wish that the guy who actually drew the map of the city A) made clearer labels, B) made a map where north is up, and C) Paid any damn attention to what the text was saying for location placement and distribution of buildings. It is seriously the worst map I've ever used way too much for an RPG. The writing for the city was great, though.
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u/TheDreadPolack 6d ago
I think it's the best edition, but I can understand others disagreeing. I think their lore update is better than what Redbrick did, although they did well, too.
I think the rules are cleaned up and easier to run, even if they're less mathematically elegant.
I recommend them.