xiaur wrote: ↑Tue Jun 27, 2017 10:47 am
my question is: which books which came in between these editions are still relevant and worth buying? Which of them are "canon" and which have been discarded in the new timeline? I would very much appreciate your advice and opinions on this.
Two things before I get into your list.
1) While I am the line editor, and will have certain books more (or less) in mind as we further develop the setting, feel free to use whatever you find useful and/or cool in your games. Don't take my word as some kind of holy writ.
2) The following are personal feelings about the books you mention, with additional notes about where/if certain books fit into the revised ED4 timeline.
Here are some specific questions I have in mind:
- How much would you recommend buying sourcebooks like "Scourge Unending", "Way of War", "Namegivers Compendium" if I already have "Horrors", "Adept's Way" and "Denizens of Earthdawn"?
I haven't looked at the first two of those books in quite some time. I remember not being terribly impressed with them, but there isn't anything (that I can recall) which is directly contradicted by ED4. The Namegivers Compendium isn't really necessary if you have the original Denizens books, but (IIRC) it does provide several of the racial Disciplines in the newer progression style. Until we get around to releasing our own version of those, it might be a good place to look.
How much would you recommend buying sourcebooks from the series "Nations of Barsaive" if I already own "Throal", "Blood Wood", "Serpent River" etc.?
The Nations books provide some timeline updates for the post-Prelude (but pre-War) setting, especially for new versions of the older books (Throal and Serpent River especially). The other two (Cara Fahd and Crystal Raiders) less so, since those were originally released in a post-Prelude environment.
How much would you recommend buying "Kratas: City of Thieves" and "Kratas Adventures"? Are these part of the canon now?
How much would you recommend buying Cathay books? Are they part of the canon?
Kratas is pretty good, as far as I'm concerned. I don't currently have any plans to release a new version, and nothing in ED4 currently supersedes or contradicts it. Take that as you will. I don't recall the details of Kratas Adventures well enough to comment. (See my note about adventures below.)
The Cathay books are okay. I don't have any plans to revisit the area, or tie it into current Barsaivian events that much. Nothing in ED4 supersedes or contradicts anything in them (as far as I know -- I haven't done a deep dive on those books at all).
[*] How much would you recommend buying adventures released by LRG or RedBrick? Which are part are the canon?
[*] How much would you recommend buying the non-FASA campaign supplements "Barsaive at War" and "Barsaive in Chaos"? Are they part of the canon?
I can't really recommend Barsaive at War or Barsaive in Chaos. While superficially, the events of the war in the ED4 timeline resemble the ones in LRG's book, as the saying goes, the devil is in the details. Nothing described in Barsaive in Chaos (at least nothing that I can remember from the book -- it has been a while since I've looked at it) has happened in the ED4 timeline.
As for other adventures, other than the 'epics' (which I just talked about), the published adventures are either updates to ED1 adventures or are new adventures that don't have a notable impact on broader setting development.
Thank you very much for your advice!
You're welcome. And welcome back!
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