History TabletopGame / Earthdawn

* JustifiedTrope
** Many aspects of the setting seemed designed to justify the traditional fantasy role playing tropes. Why are there dungeons filled with monsters and treasure lying around everywhere? They are kaers that are breached. Why do characters have discrete levels where they get better at things? Because each discipline (aka character class) is tapping into the "true pattern" of that discipline, and your level represents how well you have learned to do this. Why is that fighting monsters gives you points that you can then spend to get better at, for example, foreign language? Because all abilities are magical, and the greater your legend, the stronger your magical power grows. There is no question that they are all justified by the nature of the setting.
** All this makes Earthdawn perhaps the only setting where you can talk about your "Class" and "Level" without breaking character in the least. "I'm a Sixth Circle Thief," for example, simply means "I'm a magician who practices a school of magic specialized in hiding and freeing others from the burden of ownership, and I have undergone five advancement rituals."

After the success of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}},'' Creator/{{FASA}} tried their hand at a fantasy RPG - and they consciously set out to turn the stereotypes on their heads. In the province of Barsaive, humans don't run the world, the dwarves do. Elves aren't carefree forest denizens, the thorns in their skin cause constant pain, and their forest drips blood. There are no all-powerful gods, only Passions, and some of them are crazy. Everyone uses magic, not just spellcasters.

* WeakenedByTheLight: In full sunlight or the equivalent ghoul Attack and Damage steps are at -2.

** Some of the spells in this game are this; examples include Heat Food, Boil Water and Insect Repellant.

* MultiarmedAndDangerous: The Horror named Hate had twelve arms and could make three attacks per combat round.

* MassTeleportation: The city of Parlainth was completely removed from Barsaive before the Scourge, along with all memories of it, to protect it from the Horrors. The plan of the elaborate magic ritual was to take it to another plane of existence until the Scourge was over, and then to return to Barsaive. When it finally did return, the inhabitants were gone and the city was infested with all kinds of creatures, it's ruined streets and buildings waiting to be explored by adventurers in search of Parlainth's legendary treasures.

* AwesomeButImpractical: One of the artifacts included in the first edition main book, Nioku's Bow, was a legendary bow of a famous archer that would glow like the moon if it was ever brought to full power. Doing so required the expenditure of millions of points as well as going on multiple quests, each one of which would be legendary in its own right. The net result of all this is a bow that can do ''almost'' as much damage as the third circle Archer talent Flame Arrow. Flame Arrow involves no special quests and a fraction of the points. Second Edition slashed the prices for the bow's effects by a massive degree, upped its effects (to the point you're doing about quadruple your damage per shot at the maximum), and requires exactly one epic-level quest along the way to empower it (most of its requirements amount to uncovering the bow's story).

After the success of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}},'' Creator/{{FASA}} tried their hand at a fantasy RPG - and they consciously set out to turn the stereotypes on their heads. In the province of Barsaive, humans don't run the world, the dwarves do. Elves aren't carefree forest denizens, the thorns in their skin cause constant pain, and their forest drips blood. There are no all-powerful gods, only passions, and some of them are crazy. Everyone uses magic, not just spellcasters.

* MagicKnight - everyone. All [=PCs=] are magicians - Adepts. Wizards could have some kind of basic martial capability, Warriors had their share of elemental magic, and Weaponsmiths at very very high levels learned how to cast Elementalist spells.
* MassTeleportation - The city of Parlainth was completely removed from Barsaive before the Scourge, along with all memories of it, to protect it from the Horrors. The plan of the elaborate magic ritual was to take it to another plane of existence until the Scourge was over, and then to return to Barsaive. When it finally did return, the inhabitants were gone and the city was infested with all kinds of creatures, it's ruined streets and buildings waiting to be explored by adventurers in search of Parlainth's legendary treasures.

Get a bag. Throw in a copy of Lord of the Rings and some dice. Season with Moorcock and Vance to taste. Shake well. Pour it out on a table. For a while that seemed to be how most [=FRP=]Gs got made.

After the success of ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}},'' Creator/{{FASA}} tried their hand at a fantasy RPG. They consciously set out to turn the stereotypes on their heads. In the province of Barsaive, humans don't run the world, the dwarves do. Elves aren't carefree forest denizens, the thorns in their skin cause constant pain, and their forest drips blood. There are no all-powerful gods, only passions, and some of them are crazy. Everyone uses magic, not just spellcasters.

* AYearAndADay: A number of effects last a year and a day, such as Blood Magic (both the effects and damage caused by it), Horror powers, certain Talents, certain Pattern Item effects, the damaged caused by casting a Horror Call spell and the duration of a dragon's Lair Mark.

* DarkIsNotEvil: To other Name Givers the Nethermancers are incredibly creepy, part of a magical tradition focused on death. They can be incredibly nasty... but they also have both the best magical healing abilities as well as powerful spells designed to fight [[EldritchAbomination the Horrors]]. The truth is that they are seen as creepy. They are actually just... [[StartXToStopX practical]], the Death plane being just another netherworld.

* AwesomeButImpractical: One of the artifacts included in the first edition main book, Nioku's Bow, was a legendary bow of a famous archer that would glow like the moon if it was ever brought to full power. Doing so required the expenditure of millions of points as well as going on multiple quests, each one of which would be legendary in its own right. The net result of all this is a bow that can do ''almost'' as much damage as the third circle Archer talent Flame Arrow. Flame Arrow involves no special quests and a fraction of the points.
** Second Edition slashed the prices for the bow's effects by a massive degree, upped its effects (to the point you're doing about quadruple your damage per shot at the maximum), and requires exactly one epic-level quest along the way to empower it (most of its requirements amount to uncovering the bow's story).

* DarkIsNotEvil: The Nethermancers are incredibly creepy, part of a magical tradition focused on death. They can be incredibly nasty... but they also have both the best magical healing abilities as well as powerful spells designed to fight [[EldritchAbomination the Horrors]].
** They are seen as creepy. They are just... [[StartXToStopX practical]]. The Death plane being just another netherworld.
* EarthAllAlong: As a consequence of being a prequel to {{Shadowrun}}.

* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The Nethermancers have an extensive knowledge of Horrors and spells based on Horror abilities. These allow the Nethermancers to be incredibly effective at fighting the Horrors, but also means that they are more vulnerable to Horror-corruption.

* HumansAreSpecial: The human racial ability, Versatility, allows humans to learn magical abilities from disciplines other than their own. It is arguably the most powerful ability in the game, to the point where some power gamers will argue that there is no point to playing any other race. And Passions help any GameMaster foolish enough to allow the human racial discipline, [[GameBreaker the Journeyman]], into his game...

* JustifiedTrope: Many aspects of the setting seemed designed to justify the traditional fantasy role playing tropes. Why are there dungeons filled with monsters and treasure lying around everywhere? They are kaers that are breached. Why do characters have discrete levels where they get better at things? Because each discipline (aka character class) is tapping into the "true pattern" of that discipline, and your level represents how well you have learned to do this. Why is that fighting monsters gives you points that you can then spend to get better at, for example, foreign language? Because all abilities are magical, and the greater your legend, the stronger your magical power grows. There is no question that they are all justified by the nature of the setting.

* MundaneUtility: Some of the spells in this game are this; examples include Heat Food, Boil Water and Insect Repellant.

* YouFailStatisticsForever: Part of the problem with the dice mechanics. At each "step", the step number is supposed to represent an average roll, so if you are at Step 15, for example, the average roll should be a 15. This was supposed to make it easy for the GameMaster to determine target numbers based on how likely he wants it to be for the character to succeed. Unfortunately, no one explained to the designers about score distributions, and some of the steps have distributions that are very strange. The net result is that for certain target numbers, characters with a lower score in a talent are more likely to succeed than those with higher numbers.
** Third edition partly fixed that by removing 4-sided and 20-sided dice. (you still got the 6,8,10 and 12 ones. Enjoy your bag of dice.) The main problem being exploding dice on the highest value (step 3/1D4 has a 25% to reach 5, so is a theorical step 11/1D20, in practice, step 11 is 1D8+1D6).

* FiveRaces: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Trolls dominate the setting. There are also three other races (T'Skrang, Windlings, and Obsidimen), but these are supposed to be very rare.

* EldrichAbomination: The Horrors are horrific monstrosities that live in astral space, and are the worst major enemy the players will ever face.

* AYearAndADay: A number of effects last a year and a day, such as Blood Magic (both the effects and damage caused by it), Horror powers, certain Talents, certain Pattern Item effects and the damaged caused by casting a Horror Call spell.

* AYearAndADay: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Blood Magic]] allows the sacrifice of blood for extra magic bonus. Damage from the price and duration of the bonus often last a year and a day.

This game contains examples of:

** Third edition partly fixed that by removing 4-sided and 20-sided dices. (you still got the 6,8,10 and 12 ones. Enjoy your bag of dices.) The main problem being exploding dice on the highest value (step 3/1D4 has a 25% to reach 5, so is a theorical step 11/1D20, in practice, step 11 is 1D8+1D6).

** All this makes Earthdawn perhaps the only setting where your PC could easily claim - "I'm a Sixth Circle Thief" - which means "I'm a magician who uses magic to hide and free others from the burden of ownership, and I have undergone five advancement rituals."

Wait, there's more. The humans run the Theran Empire, they use blood magic, they enslave other races, and they make war in flying castles. The trolls are eight and a half foot tall {{SkyPirate}}s in flying stone longboats. The obsidimen are over seven feet tall and made of rock. The windlings are tiny flying people. The t'skrang are [[{{Lizard Folk}} Lizardmen]] who run boats on the many rivers. The orks have been [[{{Slave Race}} enslaved by almost everybody]] and are trying to establish their own nation. All these races are called Name-Givers, on the assumption that naming a thing gives it a magical identity, a pattern that can be manipulated.