Earthdawn Revisited - House Rules

Return to Home Page:

= Experience & Gaining Levels = It generally takes 10 years of regular practice and training to master a subject. However Adepts can gain the knowledge of the ancients, perfected their craft or become world champions much quicker than this. How?

This is because Adepts draw on the power of their legend. When stories about their deeds are spread, it bolsters their abilities. Your rank is also about how well known your exploits are and how often they are told.

Your experiences are literally that. If an event is worthy of being a self-contained story then it is an experience. Write it down as: “Defeated the XXXXX of Kaer XXXXX”, “Won the XXXXX” or “Discovered the XXXXX.” Each experience should be a small story and you should gain about 1 experience a session on average.

You can potentially gain experiences by doing the following:


 * Fighting against a powerful Wildcard antagonist.
 * Discovering and exploring a dangerous new area (such as a ruined Kaer or forbidden forest)
 * Completing a quest set by an NPC.
 * A dramatic life or death situation which would make an excellent tale.

Experiences are recorded as describing what happened so here are some examples:


 * "Defeated Hue the Handsome."
 * "Discovered Kaer Morden"
 * "Won the Golden bow from Arl Carsten in the archery contest."
 * "Revealed the Cadaverman serial killer of Cintra"

However these experiences can not be used immediately. They must first be turned in to stories by carousing and either telling the tales of your adventures yourself or getting somebody to do it for you.

Make a performance roll each time you get back to civilisation. With bonuses if you have bought trophies of your deeds or similar proof.


 * Botch: Your stories are not believed. The recent experiences are lost.
 * Failure: People are unimpressed by your tale, only one experience is kept, the rest are lost.
 * Success: You can keep up to 2 experiences. The remainder are discarded.
 * Raises: Each raise allows you to keep an extra experience, if you have any..

2 experiences can be spent for one of the following advances:


 * To raise 2 skills by 1 point (up to the limit of the linked attribute)
 * To raise 1 skill by 1 point above the level of the linked attribute.
 * Gain an adept edge (This can be done a maximum of once per rank, not including starting adept edges)
 * Gain a point in an attribute (This can be done a maximum of once per rank, not including anything purchased at the start.)
 * To buy off a minor hinderance or downgrade a major hinderance to a minor version.
 * To buy a single normal edge from the book.

There are 5 ranks:


 * Novice 0-3 advances - Known by your own people.
 * Seasoned 4-7 advances - Known in a couple of small settlements.
 * Veteran 8-11 advances - Known as minor characters by a local region or a big city.
 * Heroic 12-15 advances - Known either as great heroes in a region or as more minor ones across Barsaive.

Legendary 16 + advances - One of the great legends of Barsaive like the Crimson Face killer, The grand reformer King Varulus III of Throal, Titanstroke Greybeard leader of the Thunderers Scorcher tribe, Vaare Longfang Captain of the Earthdawn, first to leave Throal and return with evidence of life, Valvidius the King of Thieves and others whose actions shape the world around them.

Magical Items:
Experiences can also be used to imbue an item with magical power.

There are three types of magical item:


 * Elemental items - True Elements can be used to create items with exceptional properties. Torches that stay lit for months on end, Flying airships, water-skins that hold a whole barrel of water but don't weigh any more than normal or bricks that, when thrown on the ground, summon a stone wall. These items generally expire as their elements are expended or require a regular infusion of fresh true-elements to re-empower them.
 * Organic Pattern items - These are mundane items that gained great significance and a place in a legend. A perfectly normal sword that slew a legendary adept, a symbol that started a revolution, an item that played heavily in a tragic tale or a battle banner that many people died defending in a major battle, but which, through a heroic effort, never touched the ground. These arise naturally out of significant events and their magical abilities are not always beneficial. When they are talked about as part of a story they gain magical properties related to their legend.
 * Imbued Splendid items - Some Weaponsmiths are capable of making Splendid weapons. These are valuable pieces of art crafted from rare materials such hydra-scales, unicorn horn, crystals that have never been exposed to light or other rare and exotic materials. These are not magical at this stage, but an Adept that uses the item to accomplish a notable deed that is significant (one that becomes an experience), can spend that experience to empower the Splendid item to make it magical. This experience can then not be used by the character to buy advanced.
 * Both Imbued Splendid items and Organic Pattern items can gain more than one player on enchantment. But each enchantment after the first requires

Return to Home Page: