EARNING LEGEND POINTS

Character experience is measured in Legend Points. The gamemaster awards Legend Points based on a character’s accomplishments and other factors during an adventure; accumulated Legend Points allow characters to increase their talents, skills, and abilities, and so on. (See Gamemastering Earthdawn for more about awarding Legend Points.) Your character earns Legend Points for performing the following specific types of actions.

• Achieving adventure goals. For example, if the group’s goal is to uncover treachery against the Throalic throne, your character earns Legend Points as your group exposes the traitors to loyal authorities. Your character also earns Legend Points for achieving goals set during a single game session, because most session goals are stepping stones toward achieving the adventure goal. For more information about session goals, see Gamemastering Earthdawn .
• Defeating opponents in combat or other conflict. Defeating an opponent does not necessarily mean killing him. If your group removes the opponent as an obstacle to the adventure goal without resorting to violence, your character earns the same Legend Points as if he had defeated that opponent through combat.
• Gathering magical treasure or other legendary items appropriate for heroes. Earthdawn takes place during the Age of Legend, and the game system rewards those who act like heroes by giving them the means to become more heroic.
• Individual deeds. These can be clever ideas or deeds of valor. If your character takes or suggests an action on which the success of the adventure clearly turned, your character may receive Legend Points for that individual deed. See Creative Roleplaying and Heroics in Gamemastering Earthdawn, for more information.

• Roleplaying. Much as an actor takes on a role, a player may adopt the mannerisms, speaking habits, and attitudes of his character. Roleplaying a character well can earn your character Legend Points, but only if your roleplaying makes the game more enjoyable for others at the table, not just yourself. If your roleplaying makes it more difficult for the gamemaster to run the game, your character will not receive Legend Points for your roleplaying.

PLAYER EXPERIENCE

SPENDING LEGEND POINTS

IMPROVING ATTRIBUTE VALUES

The Legend Point cost for improving the same Attribute Value multiple times increases for each additional point added to that value. For example, to improve one Attribute Value by 1 point costs 800 Legend Points. To improve that same Attribute Value a second time costs 1,300 Legend Points, and so on. Consult the Attribute Increase Table below for the cost of improving Attribute Values.

Though Attributes seem expensive, they can be worth it. Improving an Attribute Value also improves the numbers associated with that Attribute. For example, increasing a character’s Strength Attribute Value by 1 point also increases the character’s Lifting Limit and Carrying Capacity, and may increase the Strength Attribute step.

To avoid any confusion that may arise from changing an Attribute Value, leave your character’s original Attribute Value on the Character Record Sheet and note the improved Attribute Value in some other place: for example, in brackets beside the original number.

INCREASING TALENT RANKS

1. Your character has enough available Legend Points to pay the full cost of the new rank.
2. Your character is rested and in good health. A character currently suffering any damage or Wounds may not increase the rank of his existing talents or learn new ones.
3. Your character can meditate uninterrupted for 8 hours per talent rank being purchased. Your character needs this time to remember his early training and imagine how the higher rank he wants would have altered those lessons and exercises. Through meditation, he magically extends his initial training to incorporate his experience and create new knowledge and ability within himself.

To find the Legend Point cost of increasing the rank of a talent, first consult the description of your character’s Discipline (see Disciplines) to determine the Circle at which your character can gain the talent. Then find the Circle column on the Talent Rank Cost Table that includes the Circle of the talent for your Discipline. In the left-hand Talent Rank column, find the rank you wish to purchase. Then read across that Rank row until you reach the appropriate Circle column. The number where the Circle column and the Rank row meet is the cost in Legend Points for that talent rank.

• An Archer wants to improve his Mystic Aim talent from Rank 3 to Rank 4. Because Mystic Aim is a First Circle talent for Archers, the player reads down the Circle 1-4 column until he gets to the Rank 4 row. The Legend Point cost listed for a Circle 1-4 talent at Rank 4 is 500. The player spends 500 of his Archer’s Current Legend Points to gain the rank, subtracts that 500 Legend Points from his Archer’s Current Legend Point total, then changes the rank of his Mystic Aim talent from 3 to 4.
• A player wants to improve his Swordmaster’s Winning Smile talent from Rank 2 to Rank 4. Winning Smile is a Second Circle talent for Swordmasters. Consulting the Talent Rank Cost Table, the player sees that it will cost him 300 Legend Points to go from Rank 2 to Rank 3, then an additional 500 Legend Points to increase from Rank 3 to Rank 4. The total Legend Point cost for the increase in ranks is 800 points. The player spends the points, subtracting them from his Current Legend Points total, then changes the Character Record Sheet to show his Winning Smile talent at Rank 4.
• A Nethermancer’s player decides to improve his character’s Spirit Hold talent from Rank 5 to Rank 6. Spirit Hold is a Fifth Circle talent for Nethermancers, and costs 2,100 Legend Points to improve to Rank 6. The player notices that the character has only 2,060 Current Legend Points, not quite enough to increase the talent rank from 5 to 6. The character must earn a few more Legend Points before the player can afford the increase in rank.

TALENT RANK COST TABLE

Talent Rank Circle 1-4 Circle 5-8 Circle 9-12 Circle 13-15 1 100 200 300 500 2 200 300 500 800 3 300 500 800 1,300 4 500 800 1,300 2,100 5 800 1,300 2,100 3,400 6 1,300 2,100 3,400 5,500 7 2,100 3,400 5,500 8,900 8 3,400 5,500 8,900 14,400 9 5,500 8,900 14,400 23,300 10 8,900 14,400 23,300 37,700 11 14,400 23,300 37,700 61,000 12 23,300 37,700 61,000 98,700 13 37,700 61,000 98,700 159,700 14 61,000 98,700 159,700 258,400 15 98,700 159,700 258,400 418,100

INCREASING SKILL RANKS

Characters can also use Legend Points to buy skill ranks. Though similar to talents in that many talents can be used as skills, i.e., non-magically, gaining skill ranks differs from gaining talent ranks in the following ways:

• No character can increase a skill beyond Rank 10.
• Increasing the rank of a skill requires the character to undertake a number of weeks of training equal to the rank purchased. For example, improving a skill from Rank 3 to Rank 4 requires 4 weeks of training.
• Skills take practice. After completing his training, a character must practice for a number of months equal to the rank purchased. For example, improving a skill from Rank 3 to Rank 4 requires 4 months of practice after training for 4 weeks.

In addition to Legend Points spent on the new skill rank, training to improve a character’s skills costs money. An average week of training costs silver pieces equal to 25 x rank purchased. This cost may increase to as muc has 50-100 x rank purchased in silver pieces if a character wants private instruction.

The Legend Point cost for purchasing skill ranks appears in the table below.

SKILL RANK COST TABLE
Rank of Skill Legend Point Cost 1 200 2 300 3 500 4 1,300 5 2,100 6 3,400 7 8,900 8 14,400 9 23,300 10 37,700

PURCHASING KARMA POINTS

All characters can use Karma, the raw magical energy that runs through the world of Earthdawn. Characters can use Karma Points to enhance the possibility of success for certain actions, and can purchase Karma Points with Legend Points. To find the Legend Point cost of Karma based on your character’s race, consult the Karma Table of Creating A Character . Once per day, a character can purchase Karma Points up to a maximum equal to his Karma Ritual Rank by performing his Karma ritual (see Disciplines). As the character performs the half-hour ritual, he pays the Legend Point cost for the number of Karma Points he wants to purchase. Once he has completed the ritual, the character adds the Karma Points to his Current Karma in the Karma section of his Character Record Sheet.

Seethian, a windling Thief, has a Karma Ritual Talent Rank of 2. When he begins his daily Karma ritual, he must pay Legend Points to gain his maximum of 2 Karma Points. Consulting the Karma Table on p. 53, his player sees that 2 Karma Points cost Seethian 10 Legend Points. After Seethian completes the half-hour ritual, he adds 2 Karma Points to his Current Karma.

WEAVING THREADS

Characters can also use Legend Points to weave magical threads. Characters who have put the necessary experience and effort, represented by the Legend Points, into weaving these threads can then attach them to True Patterns of people, places, or items. For an in-depth explanation of how to use Legend Points to weave magical threads, see Workings of Magic.

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