CREDITS Development and Writing: Carsten Damm Additional Material: Jeremiah L. Schwennen Senior Editor: Jeremiah L. Schwennen Editing: Chad Booth, Mikko Goepfert, Jason U. Wallace Visual Concept: Kathy Schad Cover Artwork: Kathy Schad, David M. Wright Illustrations: Earl Geier, Je Laubenstein, Joel Biske, John Dollar, Kathy Schad, Kent Burles, Larry McDougall, Mark Nelson, Mike Nielsen, Paul Jaquays, Tom Baxa Layout: Carsten Damm Playtesters: Alexander Schumacher, Armin Herbertz, Bastian Wahlich, Bernd Lührsen, Hendrik Dörr, Ingo Gronewald, Jason U. Wallace, Jens Elgeti, Marco Burnus, Marco Knief, Marcus Strauf, Markus Schips, Markus Schönlau, Martin Barmeyer, Sacha P. Buck, Samuel Wahlich, Sebastian Klein, Stefan Büche, Stefan Freck, Stefan Mauch, orsten Göbel, orsten Schleer, Tim Münstermann, Tobias Sonnleitner Earthdawn® is a Registered Trademark of FASA Corporation. Copyright © 1993–2016 FASA Corporation. Earthdawn: e Age of Legend is published by Vagrant Workshop. Earthdawn and all associated trademarks and copyrights are used under license from FASA Corporation. is work is based on FU: e Freeform/Universal RPG (found at http://nathanrussell.net/fu), by Nathan Russell, licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). e Powered By FU logo is © Nathan Russell and is used with permission. is book contains artwork by David M. Wright and Kathy Schad, which has been licensed for single-use only and is used with permission. e content of this book is protected by copyright. Reproduction, even in excerpts, requires written permission by the publisher. Version: 20160428 www.vagrantworkshop.com TABLE OF CONTENTS GETTING STARTED .............5 BEATING THE ODDS ..........35 CHARACTER CREATION ..... 67 How to Use this Book ................ 6 Making the Roll ....................... 36 Starting Experience .................. 68 How the Game Works ................ 7 Success & Failure ......................37 Creating a Player Character...... 68 What You Need to Play .............. 9 M o d i e r s .................................. 40 Sample Character ......................75 AN EARTHDAWN PRIMER ... 11 RUNNING THE GAME .........43 DISCIPLINES ......................77 Legends and Heroes ................. 13 Creating Adventures ................. 44 Discipline Abilities ....................78 Races of Barsaive .......................14 Scenes .......................................45 Air Sailor .................................. 80 Magic .........................................17 C o n i c t s ................................... 46 Archer ........................................81 e Scourge ...............................19 Discussions ............................... 49 Beastmaster ............................... 82 e Province of Barsaive ............21 Notes ......................................... 49 Cavalryman .............................. 83 e P a s s i o n s .............................. 24 Recaps ....................................... 49 Elementalist .............................. 84 Pacing ....................................... 50 TRAITS .............................25 Illusionist .................................. 85 Knowledge is Power .................. 50 Concept .................................... 25 Nethermancer ........................... 86 e Characters are the Tags .......................................... 28 Shaman ..................................... 87 Main Cast of the Show! .............51 Equipment ................................ 30 Sky Raider ................................ 88 Incentives ..................................52 Drives ....................................... 30 Swordmaster ............................. 89 Relationships .............................31 SETTING THE STAGE .......... 53 i e f .......................................... 90 Description ...............................31 Setting Context .........................53 Troubadour ................................91 Talents and Spells ......................31 Getting Started ......................... 54 Warrior ..................................... 92 Karma .......................................32 Creating the Setting ................. 54 Weaponsmith ............................ 93 Groups and Oaths......................33 Sample Setting: Spencer Hill ... 64 Wizard ...................................... 94 TALENTS .......................... 95 AIRSHIPS & RIVERBOATS . 183 SETTING WORKSHEET ..... 216 Using Talents .............................95 Using Vehicles..........................183 CHARACTER SHEET ......... 218 Talent Descriptions................... 98 Scale .........................................184 Sample Vehicles .......................186 ADVERSARY SHEET .......... 220 SPELLS ........................... 135 Using Spells .............................135 CREATURES & SHIP SHEET .................... 220 Elementalism Spells ................138 ADVERSARIES .................. 191 EARTHDAWN MATERIAL .. 221 Illusionism Spells .....................143 Using Creatures & Adversaries...............................191 Nethermancy Spells .................149 RULES SUMMARY ............. 224 Creatures ..................................193 Shamanism Spells ....................155 Dragons ...................................199 INDEX ............................ 227 Wizardry Spells .......................161 Horrors ................................... 202 EQUIPMENT .................... 167 PASSIONS & QUESTORS ....207.... 207 Mundane Items ........................168 Questors .................................. 208 Blood Charms ..........................172 e Twelve Passions ................ 209 Common Magic Items .............173 Legendary Items ......................174 Mounts .....................................177 EXPERIENCE & ADVANCEMENT ............... 179 Gaining Character Points ........180 Spending Character Points .......180 Circles of Mastery ....................182 GETTING STARTED e Age of Legend is an era of magic that existed thousands of years ago in our world’s dim past. Magic touched every aspect of the lives of men and women of the Namegiver races: humans, elves, dwarves, orks, trolls, windlings, t’skrang, and obsidimen. However, as the levels of magic rose, so did the dangers in the world. e rise of magic brought Horrors to Earth, creatures from the depths of astral space that devoured all life in their path. For four centuries, the people of Barsaive hid underground as the Horrors devastated their lands during the dark time that came to be called the Scourge. Now, the people of Barsaive have emerged from their sealed kaers and citadels, ready to ght for life and freedom against the remaining Horrors and the oppressive eran Empire. From all across Barsaive, bold heroes step forward to champion their land, arming themselves for their daunting task with powerful magical spells and treasures. rough magic, skill, and daring, Barsaive’s heroes strive to heal the world of the scars left by the Scourge. In so doing, they become Barsaive’s living legends. he Age of Legend is a roleplaying game of action, OW TO SE THIS OOK T adventure, and fun—a game of grand proportions H U B and elegant simplicity. is storygame is based on the FU game engine by Nathan Russell. e rules in this book his book comes in three parts. e rst part discusses let you create exciting stories in the world of Earthdawn, with T the setting background and core mechanics used to a minimum of fuss and preparation. run the game—the information that tells you how to play. Starting o with An Earthdawn Primer (p.11), you get What you will nd in e Age of Legend is rst and fore- a basic overview of the game world. Traits (p.25) discusses the most an easy game. It is intended as a lightweight alternative basic building blocks player characters are made of, Beating to Earthdawn’s own Step System (which has been around in the Odds (p.35) describes how to roll and interpret the dice, in various editions since 1992). Setting and character creation and Running the Game (p.43) discusses how you set a scene as in e Age of Legend is fairly quick and intuitive, allowing well as providing advice and guidelines for the gamemaster. you to play powerful adepts in this ancient era of heroes, and the game system itself is easy to e second part of the book contains every- learn and very simple to use. thing you need to create your own charac- ters, the places they will frequently vis- We’ve tried to capture the essen- it, and the people they will meet. e tials of the Earthdawn experience, Setting the Stage chapter (p.53) gets and recon gured, adapted, and ex- everyone started building the main panded the FU ruleset to provide environment you will be playing in, you with a simple, story-oriented while Character Creation (p.67) game system. This book contains shows you how to build the actual everything you need to play, includ- heroes of the game. e Disciplines ing an introduction to the world of (p.77), Talents (p.95), Spells (p.135), Earthdawn. However, this book was and Equipment (p.167) chapters contain designed with the rich setting material pub- additional information you need to reference lished for Earthdawn in mind, so knowing more when building your characters and settings for them. about the world is bound to add more depth to your games. Finally, Experience & Advancement (p.179) provides a sim- You can use any of the published Earthdawn books, regardless ple framework to improve