[RPG] Earthdawn: Firescale Moot

[stevekenson]

Our last couple Earthdawn games have concerned the Shield of Teloris’ time with the Firescale Moot of trolls in the Scol Mountains. We’ve won friends (and made a few enemies) within the moot, and become members of the clan by taking part in a raid against their enemies—horror-corrupted dwarves mining living crystal. Earthdawn trolls are basically fantasy Klingons, so they’re a lot of fun.

Last night’s game was an airship race (and battle) to stave off false accusations and prove Aeron’s worthiness to bear Hurok’s Horn, a troll skyraider artifact left in the care of Morenna Windrider, an air sailor and ultimate “ancestor” in Aeron’s adept lineage (as there are no sky raiders in Kaer Teloris). Aeron is unique in that he has two ghost-masters: Morenna and Hurok, and is using his human Versatility to bridge he gap between Air Sailor and Sky Raider (he has the Fireblood and Battle Shout talents, for example).

Another of our new “friends” is Gelad Denairastas from Iopos. Now, I created Gelad (and wrote much of the published information on Iopos), so I know what kind of guy he’s written to be. Of course, Aeron has no idea, and it may well be Andy has changed some details. It makes for interesting interactions.

I’ve got to say that a lot of the fun parts of Earthdawn are the over-the-top roleplaying elements: telling and re-telling legendary tales, swearing blood oaths, giving new Names to potentially legendary items (like our airship, the Shadow’s End), and watching character schticks (like Illan’s compulsive gambling, or Durn the troll swordmaster’s tendency for the armor-defeating Riposte) develop. I never get tired of that stuff.

Looks like next time our heroes will be finally leaving their home mountains behind and heading off towards the Serpent River and then eastward to the Blood Wood and, eventually, Throal, to see what awaits them.

Comments

[mechanteanemone.livejournal.com]

Your game sounds like a great lot of fun; I'm envious. I adore the Earthdawn setting and tone, but our group tried for two years to get past the system and eventually had to give up after yet another TPK. In theory, I might like the step system, but in practice the variance on rolls jumps around too much; and it's very lethal. Especially falling -- nothing was as dangerous to our group as climbing... We had an entire collection of used-up Deathcheat amulets. I'm still searching for an adaptation that will provide the feel of the Adepts and their Talents, without being clunky.

[xomec.livejournal.com]

Perhaps RedBrick's Age of Legend (http://www.ageoflegend4e.com/) adaptation for D&D 4e will do the trick.

[mechanteanemone.livejournal.com]

Ah, that would be nice, but right now I don't see myself getting into 4e. :-\ I'm much more interested in lighter systems like PDQ, FATE 3.0, etc.