Replacing the Engine
By The Warden
Popularity is the goal and curse of society, some say. Those who have revel in it; those without yearn to gain. It seems the need to fit into a crowd works with roleplaying games too.
Last week, Redbrick LLC released two new PDFs linked to the nearly 20-year old Earthdawn RPG: one incorporating the Pathfinder rules and another with the Savage Worlds rules. At first, this caught me eye and I may have let out a slight, teenage-girl noise because (as I may have mentioned in previous posts) I’m a huge Earthdawn fan. 1st Edition from back in the FASA days, I should clarify, though I have made a point of keeping up with later editions picked up by other publishers after FASA gave up the tabletop RPG market, including a copy of the 3rd edition Player’s Guide released a couple of years ago in print through Flaming Cobra (Mongoose Publishing indy label). It reminded me of Redbrick’s announcement almost three years ago of a D&D 4e conversion of Earthdawn entitled Age of Legends, which has obviously been tossed by the wayside for one reason or another.
THE ORIGINAL AGE OF LEGENDS
For those in the dark or familiar with Earthdawn by name only, the crux of the game and the setting is a fantasy world where creatures known as Horrors have literally infested the known world. These are creatures feeding off magic, fear, pain, and other ethereal meals appropriate to their unique forms and ecologies. As the power of magic rose and fell over history, Horrors would break the divide from their home in the Astral Plane and the physical world to destroy everything in sight, resulting in an event known as the Scourge. As the events of the 1st edition RPG began, heroes rose from kaers (underground or magical shelters) to explore the world and help lay down a new foundation for society to reclaim their world. One of the central features of the game was the role of magic in nearly every aspect of adventuring life; while traditional skills existed, all disciplines (AKA classes) used magic to enhance aspects such as sword fighting and stealth.
One of the most complex and interesting devices in the original game was spellcasting. As Horrors could sense the use of magic like a shark to blood, spellcasters had to use spell matrices to mask the presence of spells safely (though it was possible to cast raw magic at your own risk). Thread magic allowed you to weave arcane energies into spells and magic items were created not by powerful magic, but by deeds. After its release in 1993, I’ve seen some of these features duplicated or modified in various RPGs, such as humans with actual racial features other than… you know, none.
But now we’re looking at two alternate possibilities for incorporating Earthdawn to your table using two vastly different mechanical system: d20 and Savage Worlds. Like I said, I was curiously excited to see these at first, but that was gone by the following day as a question lingered in my mind: why?
THE NEW AGE OF LEGENDS
The Open Gaming License found within d20 and used for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is the most common and applied license in gaming today and Savage Worlds comes in a close second. Both markets are flooded with numerous supplement and settings accessing these mechanics, saving both publishers and Gamemasters time and trouble in building their own or learning yet another set of rules and guidelines. (In fact, this very site’s founder runs Mystical Throne Entertainment and publishes numerous Savage Worlds productions.) There’s a benefit to using these licenses, by all means, and I used to be one of the many publishers taking full advantage of them.
Yet Earthdawn, as it exists in its current 3rd edition published by Redbrick LLC, already has its own engine, taken and expanded upon from the original FASA version. And it’s done just fine to last as long as it takes the majority of people to go from birth to high school graduation with three publishers having a go at it. Theoretically, it doesn’t need to use the other licenses except as publicity (and that’s only my opinion on the matter).
At the time of writing, I have yet to read through either new version of Earthdawn, Pathfinder or Savage Worlds, but I have read reviews and found a common thread assessed from reader feedback: both versions spend a great deal of emphasis on incorporating original Earthdawn mechanics into their new license, as demonstrated in this quote from Solace of Savagery’s quick glance at the SW version.
“The book is broken up into 10 chapters with an expectedly heavy emphasis on character creation. The game very strongly ties everything into its magic system. All character builds are essentially arcane using various “adept” archetypes for creation models. The magic system itself is unique and adds quite a bit of complexity over the Savage Worlds core system. The power point system Savage Worlds fans know is replaced with “threads”. While the threads act sort of like renamed power points, that’s where the similarities end. This game ignores the whole idea of trappings and has a huge list of unique magical abilities and spells. It does this through the introduction of 175 + new edges (which are all basically arcane) in addition to nearly 200 listed spells divided by spellcaster type. The number is truly dizzying and accounts for the largest chunk of the book. In a way, this magic system is the antithesis of standard Savage Worlds magic. That fact will likely make or break this game for you.”
– From Solace of Savagery,
“Quick Look: Earthdawn Player’s Guide for Savage Worlds”
The Pathfinder version has an odd system for using disciplines, something you’d originally describe as being Earthdawn’s version of classes. The PF edition requires you to take one of the standard classes given in any Pathfinder game, such as fighter or rogue, then qualify for a discipline through feat taxes. A strange modification, but as I said, I have yet to read it for myself.
Which brings us to the core value of today’s post: the importance of unique mechanics supporting an original setting. Here’s the thing about it… I have no solid opinion one way or the other and doubt whether or not there’s need for such firmness. Geez, what the hell did I pick this topic for?
TO BUILD OR REDECORATE?
For close to ten years, I worked on supplements and adventures supporting other systems, predominantly D&D in its last two editions. My current work, IMO, is so far from the pulse of those systems, you’d think they took my sister to the prom and left her on the side of the highway when she wouldn’t put out. The important question I had to ask myself is why do I feel the need to branch away and try something completely different rather than continue adapting existing mechanics to suit my desired accomplishment? Granted, it would be strikingly easier to modify than create, but if multiple modifications are required to reach that goal, will it even look like a branch of the original? For example, to achieve what I wanted to achieve in my new work, I needed a complete overhaul of initiative and player order to the point that everything else familiar to d20 would fall by the wayside.
When it applies to settings, unique mechanics help demonstrate the role of the world you’ve created by literally forcing players to abide by it. Say your world features giant living robots the size of houses as player characters. Doesn’t seem fair to have these guys standing side-by-side with a human from a mechanical standpoint as just size alone in a system like d20 grant massive (no pun intended) advantages. But you really want to put those giant living robots in your game, so you’re better off creating new mechanics that allow the two character types to exist with a healthy balance encouraging players to make a solid choice between one or the other, not to favour the obviously cool giant robots.
To that end, there are numerous excellent settings and supplements enhancing existing mechanics of existing licenses, creating new material superior to its original design. To those creators, it wasn’t so much the mechanics that reinforced the game but the setting itself, as commonly found in alternate genre or timeline settings (such as Freeport from Green Ronin or Amethyst by Dias Ex Machina). Geek culture has always been entranced by what-ifs, such as what if Batman started off in 1890s London facing off against Jack the Ripper? These settings help create that form of inspired creation and are actually pushed forward by working with existing mechanics.
If there’s any common thread in which settings require a new engine or just an overhaul, it’s magic or technology. With Earthdawn’s original design, magic was a dangerous endeavor polluted by the taint of Horrors; merely copying the standard magic rules of nearly every other game wouldn’t enforce that principle and based on the feedback I’ve been reading about either the Pathfinder or Savage World reiterations of Earthdawn, all of that has been left out mechanically and helps to prove my point. If your setting doesn’t have magic, then it’s technology. Are guns deadly or do they merely wound? Can any character create a transporter and whisk away to another galaxy in a heartbeat? Or are they tired and clunky steampunk contraptions limited to a select few?
All of this, of course, applies predominantly to smaller publishers lacking the resources to invest the time and energy required to build a new system from scratch. For larger publishers with access to actual money, building a unique engine for your game helps it stand out and can be built to feature aspects such as pre-printed cards, a story-based mechanic, and anything else your mind and budget can dream of. For the rest of us who dream to become one, the options exist to build upon the foundations of others without guilt should it suit our purpose and still be respected. How players choose to recognize that work depends on whether they enjoy reading original novels or waiting until the movie hits theaters.