Quote from: PseudoephedrineWhat was the Barsaive setting like? The big selling point seems to be its in-game justifications for RPG staples like dungeons. Was there anything particularly interesting about it other than that feature?

I think that you'll have to search online for a setting summary because that answer is equal parts complex and dependent on one's taste.

What I found semi-interesting was the blend of lovecraftian style "horror" elements.  Completely alien menaces lurked in the dark corners working their schemes in the background.  Of course, this being a heroic game, the PCs could even (eventually) square off against the horrors directly, and expect to kick their butts, which is something I liked too.

The races were interesting.  Yeah, you've got your Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Orks, and they're pretty standard.  But the T'Skrang, Obsidimen, and Windlings were each interesting variant races with their own flavour.  Our group thought the T'Skrang were especially cool as they're not your standard "talking alligator" lizardmen.

i remember there being sky corsairs or something too--flying ships as part of the theran empire, maybe?  

fond memories of playing earthdawn.  couldn't really get the magic system, and would never conceive of gm-ing it.   and i thought the rate of advancement was a tad slow.  but the setting overall was pretty unique, and the mechanics different enough.  

i also remember doing a :raise:  :what:  when i found out that it was supposed to be in SR's past.  then trying to figure out where dunkelzahn (is that it?) the dragon fit in barsaive

I loved Earthdawn.  It neatly filled the "Bored With 2e; What Do We Play Next" gap in the nineties for me and my group.  It felt like FASA had taken a D&D game, fixed some of the most annoying elements, and rolled it into an interesting and fun system.  (I know the Step system gets a lot of hate for slowing stuff down, but rolling handfuls of exploding dice is frankly pretty awesome fun sometimes.)

I eventually felt a little crushed under the weight of the setting and the relative fluff/crunch of most of the supplements.  I also thought a few of the rules were more than a bit quirky (e.g. Why can't my Warrior competently use a bow until 3rd circle without spending about a million legend points?)  I thought Karma dice ended up being far more important than they should have been; this in turn made Windlings, Orks, and Humans extremely powerful, while making Obsidimen and Trolls a sucker bet.

On the other hand, some of the stuff is just gorgeous.  The magic system was beautiful, though it ran into some gigantic balance problems past about 5th Circle.  I thought the Karma Rituals were a nice and flavorful way to incorporate both class flavor and the karma points themselves into the game.  I loved the magic items; there weren't any generic items laying around; most of them required personal expenditure of energy.  (Although needing to be 4th circle before using them was a bit rough...)

Finally, although the supplements are nice for flavor, they ended up only giving me about 6 pages of mechanics in a 128 page book (apart from the magic sourcebooks).  I felt like I was paying $20 for crappy fiction (and in some cases, that's exactly what I was doing.)  I was often left with a, "Well, this is nice, but I have no idea how to use it in a game..." feeling.

The metaplot was a little crushing, too, and since it was so tied in with the mechanics, it was kinda rough to divorce it from the system.

Still, I have much love for ED and keep the books on my bookshelf with the material I still use.

-O

Quote from: beeberi remember there being sky corsairs or something too--flying ships as part of the theran empire, maybe?  

Sky Raiders. There was a whole profession (or whatever they were called) for them, and the race most known for the practice were the trolls.

Quotei also remember doing a :raise:  :what:  when i found out that it was supposed to be in SR's past.  then trying to figure out where dunkelzahn (is that it?) the dragon fit in barsaive

I always thought that that was a bit silly, and that it made much more sense for Earthdawn to be in SR's future.

Quote from: RupertI always thought that that was a bit silly, and that it made much more sense for Earthdawn to be in SR's future.

yes!  much better!

i should propose that to the guy in my group who gm'ed ED.  maybe a simple twist like that will inspire him to ref it again.

Quote from: obrynI also thought a few of the rules were more than a bit quirky (e.g. Why can't my Warrior competently use a bow until 3rd circle without spending about a million legend points?)  

They fixed this in Red Brick's Classic Edition in two ways:

First, improving a Skill is easier. It still isn't as fast as a improving Talent, but you can have a character with competent skill ratings.

Second, an Adept can train in a Skill that he will later pick as a Talent, and then merge them. So, if your character won't learn how to use the Melee Weapons Talent until 10th Circle, he can still train in the Melee Weapons Skill, and when he reaches 10th Circle he can turn the Skill into a Talent (there is a table, and it is very possible that the resulting Talent rating is different than that of the Skill).

QuoteI thought Karma dice ended up being far more important than they should have been; this in turn made Windlings, Orks, and Humans extremely powerful, while making Obsidimen and Trolls a sucker bet.

Karma costs are now the same for all races (10 LPs), though the bonus is still different. Then again, I have no problem with the latter...