Is Earthdawn worth tracking down?

[Telarus]

Hiya! Long time Earthdawn player and GM, and (full disclosure) I have worked with Fasa on some of the recent Earthdawn 4E Companion material.

We have really updated the CoreStep ruleset for the new 4th Edition of Earthdawn (& Fasa's new game #1879). Many of the exact problems with the crunchy side of the system that were brought up in this thread have been addressed. The three big changes are: 1) re-done Discipline advancement that incorporates "Optional Talents" (an optional mechanic from 3E that was made core). 2) No more "Success Level Table". This cuts out a table lookup _required on every roll_ in previous editions. Now, you get "extra successes" for every 5 points you score above the target number. Most "extra successes" grant +2 to the following Effect roll (Damage, etc). 3) The new extra success mechanic has been woven into and through the whole system (with overlapping talents combined into one, and spells revamped to have more 0 thread spells and the ability to "overweave" a spell for extra effects such as additional targets, extra range, etc, etc).

I can recommend a few links to get you in to the setting and current rules.

First, I really recommend the "Live from Barsaive" podcast. They do a "Tour of Earthdawn" and have a few side-episodes dedicated to rules and character creation. Great stuff: lavamonkeygames.com/livefrombarsaive/

Also, we should have Earthdawn 4E Quickstart material done by (or just after) GenCon this year. Please check our forums for announcements (fasagames.com/forum/). There's plenty of discussion of the current editions mechanics over on the forums, and even a quick preview of my new Airship & Riverboat combat rules.

You can also check out our line developer's blog (Josh Harrison, aka Mataxes): fasagames.com/category/earthdawn/
And the lead mechanic developer's personal gaming blog (Morgan Weeks, aka Panda): pandagaminggrove.blogspot.com/