EDRulebook: 4 Game Concepts

The magic of the world follows rules. Understand them and use them, as others will surely use them against you.
-- Cors BlackOrk, Mage of the Crystal Raiders

This section explains the key concepts and terms used in Earthdawn . Some are terms common to most roleplaying games, others are unique to Earthdawn . Whether you are an experienced gamer or new to roleplaying, once you understand how these concepts operate in Earthdawn , the rest of the rules will fall easily into place.

The explanations provided here also appear in other appropriate sections. The first time a term appears in this section, it is set in bold type.

Playing earthdawn

Earthdawn is a roleplaying game that provides all the excitement of an adventure story. Roleplaying games require one or more players and a gamemaster. The players control the main characters of the story, the protagonists of a plot whose outcome is uncertain. The gamemaster directs the action of the story and controls the bad guys, the props, the setting, and everything else the players may encounter. The game is not a contest between the good guys (the players) and the bad guys (the gamemaster), however.

The gamemaster may control all the bad guys, but he or she is actually in sympathy with the heroes. Players and gamemaster must work together to build and experience a tense, exciting adventure.

Characters represent the players in the game of Earthdawn . As a player, you control a character. Everything you know about your character will be noted on the Character Record Sheet . This is where you record your character's abilities, possessions, physical appearance, and other facts about him or her. During the course of the game, the gamemaster will describe to you events or situations; using your Character Record Sheet as a guide, you tell the gamemaster what your character would do in a given situation. The gamemaster will probably ask you to roll some dice, and the resulting numbers will represent your character's attempted action. The gamemaster uses the rules of the game to interpret the dice rolls and the outcome of your character's action.

Making tests

Earthdawn is filled with adventure, danger, and risk, and characters usually end up in the middle of it all. You determine what your character does in a situation and how well he does it by making Tests rolling dice and comparing the result to a specific number. Can your character cast the spell? Does your character convince King Valurus that he had nothing to do with the theft of the Blood Phoenix? Does the troll at the bar dislike your character's face? Can your character knock down the troll who has just insulted him, then dodge the axe-swings of the troll's buddies without spilling his drink?

Rolling Dice

Earthdawn uses six types of polyhedral dice: four-sided (D4), six-sided (D6), eight-sided (D8), ten-sided (D10), twelve-sided (D12), and twenty-sided (D20). When rolling a ten-sided die (D10), read a "0" result as a 10. When rolling a twenty-sided die, read a "0" result as a 20. When you roll dice to resolve your character's actions, the dice are called Action dice . If you roll more than one die for an action, add the dice rolls together to get a single total. Rolling Action dice is called making a test.

Bonus Dice

When you roll the highest possible number on an Action die, you immediately get to roll another die of the same type. Add the result of this Bonus die roll to the result of the dice rolled to make the test. If you roll the maximum on a Bonus die, you get to roll another Bonus die.

A player rolling for Poorht, a windling Thief character, rolls a D8 and a D6 Action dice. The results are an 8 and a 6, the highest numbers possible on the respective dice. He gets two Bonus die rolls. On his D8 Bonus die he rolls a 2, and then a 6 on the D6 Bonus die. He rolls another D6 for a 3. This incredible roll totals 8 + 6 + 2 + 6 + 3 = 25.

Difficulty Numbers

The rules and the gamemaster determine the Difficulty Number for every action. The Difficulty Number represents how easy or hard it is for each character to accomplish any given task, based on the character's experience, abilities, and personal qualities. (See Characters , below.) If your Action dice roll is equal to or greater than this number, your character succeeds at the action he is taking. If the Action dice roll is less than the Difficulty Number, your character fails to accomplish his action.

The Rule of One

If all the Action dice rolled to make a test show a result of one (1), then the character automatically fails to accomplish the action, even if the total result is greater than the Difficulty Number.

Test Results

The tests made in Earthdawn are interpreted or used in one of four ways.
In most cases, the player simply rolls his or her Action dice. If the result is greater than or equal to the Difficulty Number, the test succeeds.
Sometimes both the player and the gamemaster need to know more than simply whether an action succeeded or failed. The quality of the result, or success level , can be important. Characters can achieve one of five success levels: Poor, Average, Good, Excellent, and Extraordinary. Success levels of Average through Extraordinary measure how well your character succeeded at an action. A Poor success level, on the other hand, represents failure bad enough to occasionally have unpleasant side effects. Average success justs meets or exceeds the Difficulty Number. A somewhat better die roll yields a Good success, and a result close to double t he Difficulty Number means Excellent success. To achieve Extraordinary success requires an even better roll.

Leandra swings her sword at a charging Theran guardsman. The Difficulty Number to hit the guardsman is 10. Leandra's player rolls a 21 on the Action dice. The gamemaster tells the player that 21 is an Excellent result. Leandra hits the guardsman with a blow that punches right through the guardsman's armor, doing quite a bit of damage to the unfortunate Theran.

Some situations require that your character affect more than one target at a time. When making a test to affect multiple targets, use the highest appropriate opposing value of those you are trying to affect as the Difficulty Number. Add 1 to this Difficulty Number for each additional item or person beyond one. Tests of this type usually come in handy in social interactions.

Jerreck, an elven Wizard, attempts to use his Arcane Mutterings Talent on a gang of six ork scorchers. The highest Social Defense Rating in the group is 7. The gamemaster adds 5 to the base of 7 (one for each additional ork) for a final Difficulty Number of 12.

Sometimes the die roll result of a test simply represents a value and is not compared to a Difficulty Number. The most common examples are Recovery Tests, in which the die roll result equals the amount of damage healed, and Damage Tests, which determine the amount of damage inflicted on a target.

In some cases, particularly when a character is using talents, skills, and magic, the player will be instructed to roll dice rather than make a test to determine the effect of successfully using a talent, skill, spell, and so on. For example, the most common use of the Effect dice (the dice rolled to determine the effect of a spell) is to generate a number. This number then represents another value, for example, the duration of the spell, the amount of damage the target takes, a creature's Attribute Values, the Difficulty Number for tests made by opponents, and so on. When a character needs to generate such a number, the spell description instructs the player to "roll the Effect dice."

Steps

Earthdawn measures nearly all character abilities in steps . The step number is a number derived from a character's Attribute Value that determines what Action dice a player rolls to attempt an action, cast a spell, and so on. Action dice are ordered on a scale, from lowest to highest. Each level of this scale is called a step. The step number is the bas e number that players modify when their characters use armor, talents, weapons, social skills, or in any other way interact with the environment and other characters during the game.

For example, when a character uses a weapon he adds the weapon's Damage step to his Strength Attribute step to determine the total Action dice he rolls for damage when using the weapon. Increasing a step also increases the Action die. Adding one step to Step 4 puts you at Step 5; Step 5 is a D8. You may also subtract steps. Step 8 is 2D6. Subtracting two steps moves you to Step 6; which is a D10 Action die.

The step number corresponding to an Action dice combination equals the average roll for that combination of Action dice. For example, the average roll of a D10 is 6 (Step 6 uses a D10). D8 + D6 results in an average roll of 9 (Step 9 is D8 + D6). This average takes into account the chances of rolling Bonus dice (see Bonus Dice , above).

The Step/Action Dice Table lists step numbers, their corresponding Action dice, and their Attribute equivalents.

**Step/Action Dice Table**
Step	Action Dice	Step	Action Dice
1	d4-2	26	d20+d10+d8+d6
2	d4-1	27	d20+d10+2d8
3	d4	28	d20+2d10+d8
4	d6	29	d20+d12+d10+d8
5	d8	30	d20+d10+d8+2d6
6	d10	31	d20+d10+2d8+d6
7	d12	32	d20+2d10+d8+d6
8	2d6	33	d20+2d10+2d8
9	d8+d6	34	d20+3d10+d8
10	d10+d6	35	d20+d12+2d10+d8
11	d10+d8	36	2d20+d10+d8+d4
12	2d10	37	2d20+d10+d8+d6
13	d12+d10	38	2d20+d10+2d8
14	d20+d4	39	2d20+2d10+d8
15	d20+d6	40	2d20+d12+d10+d8
16	d20+d8	41	2d20+d10+d8+2d6
17	d20+d10	42	2d20+d10+2d8+d6
18	d20+d12	43	2d20+2d10+d8+d6
19	d20+2d6	44	2d20+2d10+2d8
20	d20+d8+d6	45	2d20+3d10+d8
21	d20+d10+d6	46	2d20+d12+2d10+d8
22	d20+d10+d8	47	2d20+2d10+2d8+d4
23	d20+2d10	48	2d20+2d10+2d8+d6
24	d20+d12+d10	49	2d20+2d10+3d8
25	d20+d10+d8+d4	50	2d20+3d10+2d8