 Earthdawn Gamemaster's Compendium (RedBrick) | |
| Designers | Greg Gorden |
|---|---|
| Publishers | FASA (First Edition) Living Room Games (Second Edition) RedBrick (Classic, Third, Revised Third Editions) FASA (Fourth Edition) Vagrant Workshop (Age of Legend Edition) |
| Publication | 1993 (First Edition) 2001 (Second Edition) 2005 (Classic Edition) 2009 (Third Edition) 2012 (Revised Third Edition) 2015 (Fourth Edition) 2016 (Age of Legend Edition) |
| Genres | Fantasy |
| Systems | Step System Freeform Universal |
Earthdawn is a fantasy role-playing game, originally produced by FASA in 1993.[1] In 1999 it was licensed to Living Room Games, which produced the Second Edition. It was licensed to RedBrick in 2003, who released the Classic Edition in 2005 and the game's Third Edition in 2009 (the latter through Mongoose Publishing's Flaming Cobra imprint). The license is now held by FASA Games, Inc. (from FASA), who have released the Fourth Edition, with updated mechanics and an advanced metaplot timeline. Vagrant Workshop released the Age of Legend edition in 2016 using alternative rules-lite mechanics.
The game is similar to fantasy games like Dungeons & Dragons, but draws more inspiration from games like RuneQuest. The rules of the game are tightly bound to the underlying magical metaphysics, with the goal of creating a rich, logical fantasy world. Like many role-playing games from the nineties, Earthdawn focuses much of its detail on its setting, a province called Barsaive. It was also originally written as a prequel to Shadowrun, mirroring its setting of returning magic with one where magic has just recently dropped from its peak. However, after Shadowrun was licensed out to a different publisher, the ties between the two were deliberately severed.