So I have a plot idea to have a small cast of characters (Vampires, Dragons and such) who are actually from the previous round in which magic was in the world.

While I have issues making that part of my games reality... it would be nice to have some idea's to draw from.

Is there any information for these previous worlds?

Well, there's Earthdawn in its entirety… was there anything else you were looking for?

~J

EarthDawn was the 4th world, we currently live in the 5th world, and then as you mention Shadowrun is the 6th.

I had read something once about Earth Dawn being one of the other worlds.

Thanks for that clue being more clear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthdawn

I should bonk myself on the head for not even counting present day as the 5th world. DUH!

But then I am to understand that 1-3rd worlds are completely a blank slate?

As far as I know, but since a "world" seems to last 3-5,000 years, you would really be reaching to go that far, IMO.

What I've gathered from reading Earthdawn is that the 2nd World was extremely magical (moreso than Earthdawn) and that Dragons were *VERY* powerful in comparison. It might have even been the peak of their civilization. They really don't say a whole lot though. Any magical things from the 2nd World though... I'd be willing to bet they'd be off the charts powerful and even moreso coveted.

There were vampires in the previous age (and, if you believe the hype, a couple during the downcycle), but they were...different.

There's very little stated about World's 1-3. However, there are a few things that have been strongly hinted at.:

• Only even numbered worlds have magic. So, world's 1 and 3 would be non-magical.
• Dragons were around during the second world.
• There were more namegiver magical races in the second world than there were in the fourth world (Earthdawn).

True, that is pretty far reaching.

But my games run on average 3-4 years. Usually with factions of grossly powerful "things" behind the scenes and the players being slowly intergrated over the years to the forefront of the conflict. In many of these games the players never reach the true powers behind the masks.

But mostly I was trying to get some idea of what kind of lore exists for the other "worlds".

Their plenty of out of print EarthDawn sourcebook pdf's XXXX. These would provide you with a good idea of the 4th world and rumours about the 2nd.

Not that I would countenance you downloading them, of course...
XXXX = MODERATOR EDIT

Earlier worlds ey?
Been playing some Earthdawn (Approx 10-12k from our time) I've run into some nasty shit..

First of: There was lingering second world magic that pretty much blow the hats of anything. (Even rumours of surviving second world dragons)
Second: The place was swarming with horrors, the entrance of the fifth world barred them from our dimension, but they're looking for ways back
Third: There is two ways of casting magic, by matrixes (havent quite figured out what they're supposed to be but ultimately they some kind of beacon for mana) and raw magic, 6th world magicians haven't learned to channel magic into matrixes, which is the reason for why drain occurs.
Fourth: Truenames, every creature has a common name, and a universal magical name in the language of creation or power or whatever, knowing that name gives you benefits when using spells against that particular person/dragon whatever.
Fifth: You know atlantis? well it sunk, before it was the capitol of the world pretty much with the Theran enslaving pretty much every country on the planet, Except for Barsaive (current hungary) that was obviously run by dwarves

Harlequin's Back covers some of the Horrors trying to come back - I've also heard that shedim in SR are kind of proto-horrors, but my SR knowledge is mostly 4, so I can't give references.

There's actually three ways of casting magic - grimoire, raw, and matrix. Raw casting is what SR mages do (in ED it's the worst plan ever, because Horrors will come and eat your brains out while you're doing it). I always got the impression that matrixes were basically used to attune and cleanse magic, so that it didn't do nasty things to you. All ED player characters are either phys adepts or phys mages, pretty much - everyone uses magic to fuel physical talents, and spellcasters use it for both physical talents and spellcasting - I've been told that SR3 magic has a huge number of parallels with Earthdawn, but again, I only know SR4 stuff well.

Earthdawn's a fun game - we run it alternating with our SR4 game. If you want more info on it with out resorting to piracy, some of Ancient History's stuff talks about Earthdawn, and in particular, it's ties to Shadowrun.

iirc the Second Age was the Age of Dragons.
Dunklezahn/ MountainShadow
Ghostwalker/ Icewing
Were both from the Second Age, Dunkie being the eldest of all.

I dont ever recall an exact name for the Third Age.

But do check out Ancient Histories site, alot of research there.
There is also the unpunblished but released PDF Book of Dragons and Earthdawn supplement. Linky here: http://www.dragonpaw.org/~ash/earthdawn/dr...agons-v0.10.pdf
I dont recall where the official one was, likely gone though.

Don't know about the shedim, but wraiths used to be declared as proto-horrors.

Are those second world dragons? no wonder they had their way, even in the fourth world even mentioning second world magics would have most people wet their pants

In SR4 terms Casting from matrices, and grimoires hides your "signature" so the horrors can't find you. There use would either be a meta magic so common and necessary that they come with spell casting or simply something you can do in the 4th world because the magic just works different.

Also as for types of ED magic, you left out a biggie: Blood magic. Raw magic in ED didn't hurt... directly. It just left you crazy vulnerable. IMO the best mapping of SR magic to ED magic is that in the 6th world the mana levels are so low that you have to use sacrifice magic get your umph. When the levels rise in a few thousand years 6th world people. This is also not even mentioning thread magic, adept magic, half magic, and Name Magic

If you are looking to ED for SR stuff. Your first stop should be Ancient Files - Hands down. My personal recommendation is to bring the Horrors into the picture. That will take some doing if you want to stick to cannon. Some MAJOR plays put a huge hurt on them. I'm sure other here can tell you exactly where in SR3 that happened.

Other wicked cool things from ED:
Blood Elves -The best rendition of scary elves to date.
Name magic -Cool system, the most powerful type of magic in ED, entirely possible some 2nded ager can still work it in the 6th world.
Throal: A Dwarfen Kingdom full of scholars and merchants. A major find of Throal culture would have huge, magical, racial, and shadow fallout

Really you should just go check out Ancient Files.

There are surviving Second World Elves!

Yeah we met one of those once, She felt insulted by a party member and disintegrated him

I meant in the Sixth World as well.

THIS IS A MOD POST
Promoting piracy on dumpshock is in direct violation of the ToS. Do NOT discuss piracy on dumpshock.

In a non-Mod post voice:
Further, the vast majority of FASA's Earthdawn publications along with a number of newer publications are available in PDF (or hardcopy) from Redbrick games. Here's their list of products from drivethrurpg.com They're also available on a number of other PDF vendor's sites.

Isn't Llofwyr / Goldmaster also in the Age of Dragons club?

Yep, along with his brother Alamaise/Alamais.

Ya they are, and a few others that have yet to be mentioned in SR. But of course that doesnt mean they cant exist in your game.

I searched like a hungry ghoul after more information about these I had a slight recollection of one of the players actually being one. You're right, they're not particular evil, just twisted, mostly insane and in constant agony

http://earthdawn.lrgames.com/howitcametopass.html
Complete Earthdawn timeline, along with some other tasty bits of information.

Where did you come across the Icewing/Goldmaster? I always thought it was Icewing/Llofwyr.

Lofwyr is Gold Master, Ghostwalker is Icewing

Harlequin is most likely a 2nd world elf (discussing living through an Awakening before where Ehran hadn't, see Tom Dowd's short stories), and Alachia definately is a 2nd world elf.

While, the 2nd age is the Age of Dragons, we do know lots of bits and pieces from Earthdawn.... dragon culture forming, Names of some big dragons, like Dunkie and Ghostwalkers mother, etc. [see Ancient History's site], the immortal elves being literal children of the dragons via impregnated elves, and being their slaves....until they rebelled and then took over in the downtime of the 3rd world....; dragons calling huge elementals to fight the Horrors during their onslaught in the 2nd Age, everyone hiding in dragon lairs during the height of it....; a few possible buried cities where the IEs were trained by the dragons in magic....; not much more big picture stuff is known than that....

Also, if you believe the dragon world creation myths presenting in ED material, the 1st Age, was the Age of the Dark One, him being Verjigorm, one of the biggest, baddest Horrors, and the dragons are actually descendants of the Horrors, whom Verjigorm spawned... with the rest of metahumanity (aka "Name-givers") being created by the first Horror to rebel against Verjigorm....; this means the 1st world may have been high in magic too, with a big change at the end, when the sire of the dragons booted Verji et al. out of Dodge...

Hints for most of this are apparent on Ancient History's site and a really careful reading of that free Dragons pdf that was mentioned earlier....

I could have sworn that Ghostwalker was Doll-Maker.

Right or wrong, I had best dig out my dragons books.

You are right. All the cool kids have many names.

Strike that, and reverse it.

After it gets reversed does he unstrike it, or does it stay struck?

~J

See Redbricks version of ED mentioned on boards here, wondering as an SR player if was looking to pick up a version of ED, is Redbricks revised ED the way to go?

No. The way to go is to buy the Horrors sourcebook. You will then achieve enlightenment.

~J

Actually had alot of the 1st edition ED stuff, but its long gone now and considering picking up a newer version of ED for reference and maybe some play, Redbrick version seems closer to the old stuff then LG's version. Am I right in that assumption?

Quite correct.

RedBrick is "Earthdawn Classic," which means they've collated and reprinted a lot of older sourcebooks into two mammoth books, the compendiums (and they fixed a couple wee mistakes while they were at it). The other English-language publisher, Living Room Games, had released a 2nd Edition (no huge changes, really), but now appears not going to release new material. Basically, all three "editions" (First, Second, and Classic, from FASA, LRG, and RB respectively) are interchangeable.

I´d clearly prefer RedBrick, combined with the discipline design system available for free from www.earthdawn.com (which you could use with the LRG version with minor adjustments due to slightly changed disciplines).

LRG fixed a few balance problems, and has more chargen skills, but there is generally no fix that you can not implement on your own. They took a very careful approach.

And what AniH said. The different versions are so interchangeable that we played with FASA+LRG at one table (the FASA one is mine, thats why I´d prefer RedBrick).

RB also releases new material like Burning Desires (an adventure), Shards (short adventures) and next a sourcebook about Kratas.
Books like Nations of Barsaive Vol1. (Throal and the Serpent River) and Name-givers Compendium are re-collections of FASA-books, but with new material added.

Personally I would recommend hanging yourself from the World Tree, losing an eye and watch the twigs and leaves that fall from the tree form into the words and letters from the PDF. This would take about seven days. This is the true path to enlightenment.

Or just go ask the Old Wise Drop Bear at the summit of the highest mountain in the top of the tallest tree.

Of course, whenever talking about the First and Second Worlds the question that always comes to my mind is; "If we aren't supposed to deal with the fraggers why in the hells do we belive their myths?"


In other words, other then the book that lead to the protection rituals what Second World artifacts survived to give us more tidbits on what really happened in the previous ages so we don't have to rely on a the myths of overgrown lizards?

Wait - Harlequinn is Ehran's junior? No way! Where did that come from?

-K.

I would advise against getting the Living Room games second edition. I picked it up and they changed some stuff just enough that I didn't like it, and I would play first edition FASA Earthdawn over any rpg (either pen and paper or video game). I can't speak about the Redbrick one, I just ordered the gamemaster, players, and namegiver books a week ago. So I can't say how good or bad they are.

So up to you, but you can get the old FASA mainbook off amazon for less than $10, the companion (players guide and necessary for higher end play) for less than $5. Also a few Horrors books up for under $20. Various other interesting books as well, the two magic books were good, adepts way was interesting if you want to know about the various "classes", stuff like that. Was a very fun system and game, though the dice system was a bit odd, fun but odd.

For what it's worth (nothing), I've always felt that there's no Fourth World like Jack Kirby's Fourth World. On one level, it's a weird sci-fi tale about your Mother Box telling you to use your Astro-Glider to go through a Boom Tube, but on another level, it's a Homeric epic about Orion of the New Gods, and his amazing propensity for flipping the hell out. It has absolutely nothing to do with Shadowrun, other than that it gives you an idea of just how badass things can be.

Other than that, if you're using throwbacks to Earthdawn eras, you should keep in mind that it seems every time there's a new magical age, the magic is weaker, so even 2nd Agers won't be as powerful as they once were (of course, that leaves a LOT of leeway for them to be uber-powerful). Also, Horrors are amazing, because it's such a loose term. You seriously get to just make up whatever you want. It's great, and flexible, and can be tailored to any campaign you want.

Yeah, that's absurd! Ehran is like the Dr. Phil of immortals.