Legends of Earthdawn

[Slimcreeper]

Hey! There is an actual play Earthdawn Podcast! legendsofearthdawn.com. I've listened to about half of the preview episode and it is totally bearable!

(I kid because Mataxes is in it. I am really enjoying it so far, enough to stop and recommend it.)

I will say, listening to 1st circle characters struggle to dig a hole makes me more sold on my house rule that everyday tasks are automatically successful, or if we want a narrative aspect, missing the DN simply indicates how many attempts it takes to succeed. DN - result = number of attempts required.

[Mataxes]

We've been playing for a few months now. The first couple of sessions are a bit rough, both because many of the players are new to the system, and because there are so many of us. We eventually split up into two groups, which makes each group a bit more manageable.

I actually think that -- for new players -- having a low-stakes situation in which to play around with abilities and roll dice is a good one. Nobody risks getting injured or killed, and any "failures" result in nothing but lost time.

(Which, admittedly, might cause problems for the girl, but that is something I as a GM would hand-wave. Unless an explicit time limit had been indicated in advance, I'm not going to have an adventure fail because a couple of rolls came up to indicate the group dug the hole in 10 minutes instead of 5.)

(And... I wish things weren't moving so quickly in this adventure. We desperately need to take a day or two to catch our breath and spend our Legend Points. Even if we can't get access to a trainer to raise our Circle, those extra ranks would be very helpful.)

[Telarus]

Cool! I will definitely check this out.

[Dougansf]

Can't wait to see this on iTunes podcast.

[Relative Dimension]

This finally hit iTunes.
I have been waiting for an Earthdawn AP podcast for a while, because the youtube cast is just hard for me to consume.

I agree with the struggle of the low circle PCs on mundane tasks. I guess when timing matters (round by round because an ambush may happen any time) then it makes a little sense, but it is still hard to listen to.

But then again, the defenses of those critters made attacking them very similar (fail, fail, fail, fail, hit for minimal damage, fail). Hopefully they'll improve some ranks soon, and maybe even a circle, and things will get more exciting.

[Mataxes]

Hopefully they'll improve some ranks soon, and maybe even a circle, and things will get more exciting.

If only. As of right now we've accumulated 825 Legend. Due to events, we have not had a chance to spend any of them.

We've kind of stumbled ourselves into a time-sensitive situation (of our own devising), and as a result are trying to get as much done in that timespan as we can. I'm hoping that when that issue is past we'll have a couple days to spend those points.

Another issue is the GM is kind of new to running Earthdawn, and is still getting a feel for balancing encounters.

(When I'm running a game, especially for folks new to the system--as many of this group are--I softball it.)

[Relative Dimension]

If only. As of right now we've accumulated 825 Legend. Due to events, we have not had a chance to spend any of them.

We've kind of stumbled ourselves into a time-sensitive situation (of our own devising), and as a result are trying to get as much done in that timespan as we can. I'm hoping that when that issue is past we'll have a couple days to spend those points.

Another issue is the GM is kind of new to running Earthdawn, and is still getting a feel for balancing encounters.

(When I'm running a game, especially for folks new to the system--as many of this group are--I softball it.)

I'll have to show my ignorance here. I haven't read the advancement rules enough to know if 825 is a lot. I think I recall it taking hundreds, but not sure if 825 is a single rank increase, or a few. And the GM that ran the Earthdawn game I played in tweaked it so that advancement took an amount of Legend Points = to the new rank, so to go from rank 1 to 2 in a Talent took 2 Legend Points. So our LP numbers were vastly lowered to the point that 3 or 4 a session still allowed for advancement.

[etherial]

If only. As of right now we've accumulated 825 Legend. Due to events, we have not had a chance to spend any of them.

We've kind of stumbled ourselves into a time-sensitive situation (of our own devising), and as a result are trying to get as much done in that timespan as we can. I'm hoping that when that issue is past we'll have a couple days to spend those points.

I'll have to show my ignorance here. I haven't read the advancement rules enough to know if 825 is a lot. I think I recall it taking hundreds, but not sure if 825 is a single rank increase, or a few. And the GM that ran the Earthdawn game I played in tweaked it so that advancement took an amount of Legend Points = to the new rank, so to go from rank 1 to 2 in a Talent took 2 Legend Points. So our LP numbers were vastly lowered to the point that 3 or 4 a session still allowed for advancement.

Depending on how you build your starting character, the minimum cost will be between 500 and 1100 Legend to go from First to Second Circle. 825 is usually enough to hit Second Circle unless one is dumping Legend into raising one particular Talent, buying Versatility Talents, or tying the Thread Items. One then needs to find time to raise Talents (which will vary by initial build and house views on sleeping vs. meditating) and a trainer to teach you (and a week for the actual training).

By comparison, the cost for going from Fourth Circle to Fifth Circle is 6600 Legend.

[Mataxes]

In the grand scheme of things 825 isn't a lot, but for a starting character it's not insignificant.

Summary of costs: 100 Legend to buy a Novice tier talent at Rank 1. 200 to raise it to Rank 2. 300 for Rank 3. 500 for Rank 4. (Progression is a Fibonacci series.)

To qualify for Second Circle you need your Discipline talents (5 of them) at Rank 2. With Virag's starting build, it will cost 600 Legend to qualify for Circle 2.

(This doesn't factor in the cost of learning new spells, or bumping up an Attribute value, thread items, etc.)

[Dougansf]

I noticed that Prologue 2 came out on June 10th, but it still hasn't hit iTunes yet.