Bad: Non-d20, Non-Greyhawk, Non-boring.. oh wait, those are PLUSES!!
I just started playing EarthDawn a few weeks ago and swore that I wasn't going to buy the book. The mechanics are weird with the steps and no classes. The setting was totally alien: You've been living in a cave for 100years while magic runs rampant, now your people decide to start going out to see if it's safe. Sounds plain weird and unplayable.
THEN you actually play it!
The steps are just ways to give you better chances to succeed as you improve your character and you get to reroll and add your dice if they come up with the max value on the die. So rolling two smaller dice is better than rolling one big die. That took me a little while to figure out.
The lack of levels is also a plus, you're not stuck with "To Hit goes up by one each 3 levels, you get 4 more skill points at each level".. You choose whether to put your "Legend" points into stats, skills, magic, fighting when and where you want. It really works.
The setting is strange but fun. It's not boring as some settings can get, "There's a guard from the temple of X, he's going to arrest us if we do anything evil". There's no alignment just a preference for one community or another. For one side of a disagreement or the other. An Troll can be a "good guy" or "bad guy".
I really like this game and bought the PDF. If you'll excuse me I have legend points and silver to spend. :)
|