Earthdawn using BW?

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Has anyone tried converting Earthdawn to BW? (or at least, running Earthdawn with BW). I'm thinking it shouldn't be TOO difficult... though the preponderance of magic in the ED setting may be a bit tricksy to convert. But I can play that down I guess.

My plan is to run an ED game using BW rules. So I'd have to work out lifepaths for T'Skrang, Obsidimen, Windlings and all the other ED races (they're not quite the same as the BW ones - I dunno if it's better to try to modify the BW paths or just rebuild the men, elves, dwarves and orcs from scratch...). There's enough material in the ED Denizens books to provide a few LP ideas though - eg T'Skrang would probably have fishermen and brigand paths in there somewhere...

'Course, I've yet to go through MonBu, but this task strikes me as being possible once I have... I was just wondering if anyone had already attempted it.

[luke]

I've never played Earthdawn, so forgive my ignorance in any questions/answers.

What's up with ED magic? There's a whole lotta lotta magic in BW -- Arts, Rituals, Songs, Faith, Sorcery, Howls, Webs -- whaddya they got that we don't?

Also, I'd recommend trying to use as many LPs as is or slightly modified. While not impossible, putting together your own complete CB is a bit daunting.

-L

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

What's up with ED magic? There's a whole lotta lotta magic in BW -- Arts, Rituals, Songs, Faith, Sorcery, Howls, Webs -- whaddya they got that we don't?

I don't think there's anything in the mechanics that's contradictory, it's more the feel... In ED, magic pervades absolutely EVERYTHING. PCs in ED are Adepts, they're not just swordsmen or troubadors or air pirates - they're MAGICAL swordsmen etc. They don't even really use skills - everything they do is a magical effect (functionally, in a D&D analogy they basically have feats instead of skills, that allow them to do magical things). An Adept Warrior's Battle Shout, for example, frightens opponents through magic, not through the shout itself. A calming song that an Adept Troubadour plays doesn't affect its listeners through the music, it does it by the magic of th song. But there are also spells too.

Might end up being complicated to do that in BW, I dunno... I'm still going through the books here. I might just end up just using normal skills here instead.

Bit of background: ED is a post-apocalyptic, high magic fantasy setting. People have been hiding in Kaers - magically fortified underground cities - for the past 400 years, because the magic levels of the world outside rose so high that the barrier between worlds became thin enough to allow incredibly nasty otherdimensional beings called Horrors to swarm into our world and pretty much destroy and corrupt everything that remained outside (this was called the Scourge). In some cases, they managed to break down the defences of some kaers and break through to slaughter everyone within. The magic levels are cyclic though, and eventually they peaked and dropped enough to force most of the Horrors back into astral space, but some remain. Right now, the magic levels are low enough to allow people to leave the kaers and re-establish their civilisations though - but there are still plenty of dangers out there.


Also, I'd recommend trying to use as many LPs as is or slightly modified. While not impossible, putting together your own complete CB is a bit daunting.

I might be able to get away with doing that for the Men, Elves and Dwarves. Elves have a kinda Grief thing since a large chunk of the elven population did something horrifying to themselves to avoid being destroyed by the Horrors during the Scourge. The protection they put outside their home of Wyrm Wood wasn't sufficient to keep the Horrors out, and they discovered that the only way to keep them out was to inflict such pain on themselves all the time that they became distasteful to the Horrors. The ritual caused thorns to sprout through their skin, so that they are in constant agony. The strong ones survived the process, bearing their pain forever after (as do their descendants) - the weak ones went insane and killed themselves.. but the elves survived, in a manner, they became the Blood Elves. The other elves that were scattered elsewhere in the safe kaers throughout the world (along with the other races) were unaffected by this, and are utterly horrified by what their cousins had done, and it's definitely a good vehicle for Grief.

Dwarves aren't really driven by Greed in ED as much as they are in BW though. And Orcs and Trolls aren't the vicious savages they are in BW either.

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

And spells in ED do exist, but you have to be really careful when casting them. They draw their energy from astral space, which is where the remaining Horrors live. Astral space is also rather corrupted too - it hasn't recovered from the Scourge.

So if you're a spellcaster you have to first make a 'filter' to pass the magical energy through from astral space in order to use it. If you take it directly from Astral space without this then (a) it may end up damaging you because the energy is corrupted and (b) you will probably get a Horror's attention, in which case you're in deep doo-doo.

Once it's filtered through, you then have make a 'matrix' to hold and shape the spell energy. Think of this as a 'virtual bottle' from which you can fire off the spell - you only have to make this once per situation, rather than having to recreate it each time you want to use the spell in a situation. After you're done with using it, you dispell it.

I'd like to keep the 'filter' effect in if I convert ED to BW, I don't mind about keeping the matrix though. I've yet to completely read through the Magic section in BW though, so I dunno if something like this is already there.

[luke]

And Orcs and Trolls aren't the vicious savages they are in BW either.

Take that back or I'm going to send a Great One to your house to show you the meaning of civilization.
:twisted:

Sounds like you could just use Natural Magic/Spell Songs for a lot of the magical abilities stuff.

-L

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

And Orcs and Trolls aren't the vicious savages they are in BW either.

Take that back or I'm going to send a Great One to your house to show you the meaning of civilization.
:twisted:

Bit of an Orc fan then are you? ;)

ED Orcs are a bit rough and uncivilised, but they can be fairly smart and civilised too. They're very tailored for Beliefs/Instincts though. IIRC they have a couple of 'triggers' that can send them into a killing frenzy or that absolutely WON'T do that. Problem is, that tends to vary for each Orc. One might want to rip your throat out for insulting his mother, another might not bat an eyelid (but will rip your throat out for saying his fingernails are dirty).


Sounds like you could just use Natural Magic/Spell Songs for a lot of the magical abilities stuff

OK cool, I'll take a look at that.

Still curious to see if anyone's tried this conversion already though. Maybe I'll ask on rpgnet too.

[Evil Dr Ganymede]

Hm... ED is a class-based system, where Adepts (Warriors, Troubadours, Air Raiders, Weaponsmiths etc etc) advance in "circles" (ie levels) and get a fixed and small selection of Talents (ie Natural Magic) at each circle (no more than three at a time).

It occurs to me that a way to preserve this in BW would be to have each Class corespond to a lifepath - the first time you take it is when you are First Circle, second time you take it grants the Second Circle Talents/Nat Magic and a few other skills/traits perhaps, and so on. Each Circle LP would be 3 to 4 years, probably (so 9th Circle characters would be in their 40s/50s and 15th circle (the highest) would be in their 50s/60s?).

Adepts aren't likely to change from one LP sequence to another - being an Adept means you focus solely on one way to view the world. I guess they could drop out and go to a normal lifepath though if they 'retire'.

Could that setup work in BW?

(and note to self: the Natural magic thread in the Magic Burner forum (http://burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1628) is an example of an ED talent converted to BW).