This is an explanation of the notations on your character sheet and some of the basic mechanics of the Earthdawn game.
A note on Steps: Most abilities in Earthdawn are measured in Steps—a number that indicates what kind of dice
are rolled when making a test. For instance, each Attribute has a value, but also has a Step number—the higher the
Step, the more and higher-value dice are rolled. Talent and Skill Steps add to Attribute Steps, weapons add to the Strength
Step when determining damage, and so on.
Keep in mind that in Earthdawn, no matter how low your Step number, you always have a chance to succeed—when rolling
dice, one re-rolls any die which achieves its highest number and keeps adding to the total (a rule called “exploding”
dice). For instance, say you had a damage Step with a dagger of 6, which is 1d10. You stab a nasty Horror and roll a 10,
then re-roll and get a 7. The total damage done is 17 points. If you rolled a 10, a 10, a 10, and a 3, you’d have
done 33 points of damage, because the process keeps repeating.
Name: Your character’s name (obviously). Names are powerful in Earthdawn, but almost all Namegivers use their
proper Name. Hiding or changing your Name may actually change who you are.
Discipline: The magical Discipline your character follows. More than just a profession or “class,” your
Discipline helps shape how your character views the world.
Cavalrymen might see life as a series of battles to be won or paths to be ridden; Archers might see it as a series of arcs
to travel and targets to be struck; Troubadors could regard life as a series of tales woven together. Figuring out an appropriate
metaphor for your character can be one way of getting a handle on his or her personality.
Circle: Your level in a Discipline is measured in Circles. To advance to a higher Circle, an Adept must become skilled
enough in their current Talents to move on and must find an instructor from a higher Circle of the same Discipline to train
them. Additional Talents and abilities are available at each Circle. The concept of Circles and Disciplines is actually
used in the world of Earthdawn, though usually not in a number-driven way—someone might tell you that, “He’s
a Swordmaster of very high Circle,” to tell you that you were going up against a tough opponent. Most Adepts in the
world only reach the fourth or fifth Circle of their Disciplines, though adventurers can attain eighth or tenth Circle, and
tales tell of Adepts who have reached as far as the fifteenth Circle.
Race: Your character’s Namegiver race. See the History section for details.
Age: Your character’s age.
Hair: Your character’s hair color.
Eyes: Your character’s eye color.
Height: Your character’s height, in feet and inches.
Weight: Your character’s weight, in pounds.
Sex: Your character’s gender. It's useful to note that among orks, there is little division of labor except in
child-rearing; women may take on any profession without stigma, and many are the stories of great ork heroines.
Attributes: As in most roleplaying games, Attributes measure your character’s inherent strengths and weaknesses.
For each Attribute, you have a value and a Step number. Attributes are measured on a scale from 3 to 18, though racial bonuses
may allow scores higher than this. Earthdawn uses six main Attributes:
Dexterity: Agility, speed, and hand-eye coordination. Determines foot speed and basic ability in physical skills and
combat.
Strength: Muscle power. Determines how much a character can lift or carry, and how much damage is done in combat.
Toughness: Endurance and general health. Determines how much damage can be taken and natural ability to heal.
Perception: Mental quickness, alertness, and ability to notice things. Determines ability with mental skills and spells,
as well as resistance to spells.
Willpower: Concentration, sense of self, and force of will. Determines resistance to illusion magic and potentially
damaging spells, as well as effectiveness of spellcasting.
Charisma: Persuasiveness, social savvy, and ability to create a positive impression. Determines success or failure
at using and/or resisting charm, persuasion, and other social skills.
Karma: Karma represents the forces of luck and magic in Earthdawn. Karma points are used to add dice to a roll your
character makes—1 point equals one die of the type for your race (as indicated on your sheet--orks get a d8, which is
quite good). This represents your character’s ability to draw on the forces of the universe magically to help you perform
important actions. Karma points may be added to any Discipline Talent that you have (as described in the Talents section);
as you advance, you will be able to spend Karma on more kinds of actions. To regain Karma points, you must perform your Karma
Ritual and spend Legend points (again, explained more fully in the Talents section). Karma notations are:
Current: Your current number of available Karma points.
Maximum: The maximum number of Karma points your character may have at any one time.
Cost: How many Legend points each Karma point costs to purchase.
Action Die: The type of die your character adds to his roll when he spends a point of Karma.
Legend Points: Legend points are the “experience points” of Earthdawn. They are used to increase your
Talents, Skills, and Attributes, purchase new Talents and Skills and Karma points, and to activate magical items requiring
Threads. You acquire Legend points by defeating opponents (not necessarily through combat), collecting important treasures,
and acting in a generally heroic, creative, and/or entertaining fashion. Legend point notations are:
Current: How many Legend points your character currently has (0 starting out).
Total: How many Legend points your character has earned throughout her adventuring.
Legendary Status: As you acquire more Legend points, you become more widely known for your deeds. Your Legendary
Status indicates how many people might have heard of you, how widely circulated stories of your adventures have become, and
how much fame you’ve accumulated. Those with a high Legendary Status may receive special privileges and treatment,
and may be sought out by those looking for a brave hero.
Racial Abilities: If your race has any special abilities, they are listed here.
Damage: Lots of things in Earthdawn can cause damage to your character.
There are a few kinds of damage in Earthdawn. When someone attacks you, the damage is determined in points. If you take
enough points in one hit, you suffer a Wound. Below the Wound Threshold (described below), damage is taken as cuts, nicks,
scrapes, bruises, and so on: non-threatening injury that does not affect your abilities much. Wounds, however, represent
significant harm: broken bones, organ punctures, cut tendons, and so on, and these do affect your abilities. In addition
to these types of damage, your character may take Blood Magic damage from swearing certain kinds of magically-powerful oaths
or using Blood Magic.
Several indicators exist for the Damage section, almost all determined by your Toughness Attribute:
Death Rating: The number of points of damage your character can take before slipping into death.
Wound Threshold: Damage equal to or exceeding this number in one hit causes a Wound. For each Wound after the first,
your character will suffer a –1 to all Step numbers until the Wound is healed.
Unconsciousness Rating: When your character has taken a number of points of damage equal to or exceeding her Unconsciousness
Rating, you must make a Willpower roll. If you fail, your character slips into unconsciousness. Recovering from unconsciousness
takes time or someone shaking you a lot.
Recovery Tests: Because Adepts are magically tuned to the universe through their Discipline, they may draw on the
power of the cosmos to heal their injuries. Your character may make a number of Recovery Tests per day to heal himself; this
is without medical treatment, but requires the character to be resting for a period of time. One hour must pass between Recovery
Tests. Once your daily Recovery Tests are used, you must get a full night’s sleep before attempting another test.
Certain medical treatments or potions may add to your Step number for Recovery Tests.
Recovery Tests are also used to heal Wounds. Once your character has recovered from all damage done to him and is at full
health, a Recovery Test must be used to heal each Wound suffered.
Recovery Dice: The die rolled to determine the number of points recovered when a Recovery Test is made; usually the
same as your Toughness dice.
Current Damage: The number of damage points your character currently suffers from. Points of Strain (explained later)
are also recorded here and count towards your Death and Unconsciousness Ratings.
Wounds: The number of Wounds your character currently has.
Blood Magic: Swearing Blood Oaths or using Blood Charms or other Blood Magic works by temporarily taking a bit of your
life force. Because these actually lower your Death and Unconsciousness Ratings while they are in effect, they are recorded
here, so that separate track can be kept of them.
Characteristics: Several Characteristics define your character’s abilities. They are:
Defense: Your character’s resistance to attacks on their person—to successfully attack you, an opponent
must equal or exceed your appropriate Defense rating with their attack roll.
Physical Defense describes how hard you are to hit in combat. It is assumed that characters are trying to avoid being
hit, so no “dodge” or “parry” rolls are made. Characters may make an Avoid Blow test as a last-ditch
effort to dodge an attack (either through a Skill or Talent, or on a default roll); however, this costs Strain and can result
in the character falling down.
Spell Defense describes how hard you are to affect with spells.
Social Defense describes the difficulty of manipulating or deceiving your character.
Armor: The effectiveness of your character’s armor. This number represents how many points of damage are subtracted
when you are hit in combat. Physical Armor represents armor worn on the body, which protects against physical attacks;
Mystic Armor represents strength of mind and protects against magical attacks. Both of these numbers may be increased
by certain kinds of spells and magical items.
Initiative: How quickly your character can join in combat. Initiative determines when your character acts in a combat
round. Your base initiative is your Dexterity Step; Armor Mod. represents the fact that certain armor may slow you
down if it is heavy and reduces your initiative; Final Step/Action Die represents the Step number used to determine
your initiative including any armor penalties. Mystic Armor does not affect your initiative.
Movement: Your Dexterity determines how fast you move. These numbers represent the number of yards your character
can move in one turn if they are not encumbered. Full Movement is your speed when flat-out running; Combat Movement
is how far you can move and still attack in the same round.
Strength Characteristics: Your Strength Attribute determines how much you may lift or carry. Carry indicates
the weight in pounds your character can comfortably hold on their person; Lift indicates the maximum weight your character
can lift.
Skills: Skills and Talents are two different kinds of abilities in Earthdawn. Skills represent proficiencies that
you learn through study and practice, like most of the skills we use in the real world. You learn the Skill of Melee Weapons
by sparring and learning under a master; you learn Mathematics by studying books and doing practice problems. Just like in
real life, Skills in Earthdawn require time and effort to master (as well as spending Legend points), and usually someone
to teach you. Your characters begin with certain Skills: you know how to speak your native tongue and Throalic (the dwarf
tongue and the common language of Barsaive). Skills are measured in Ranks—each Rank of a Skill adds a Step to
your Attribute for using that Skill. Mental Skills usually add Steps to your Perception; physical and combat Skills add to
your Dexterity; and social Skills add to your Charisma.
There are two specific types of Skills worth mentioning. The first are Knowledge Skills. These represent not an ability
to do something, but study and information about a particular topic. History and theory skills fall into this category—they
represent something that your character has knowledge of. When you are in a situation where such knowledge might prove useful,
I’ll roll a Knowledge Skill test for you (or you can request I make one if you think it’s relevant); if successful,
your character may have a piece of useful information.
There are also Artisan Skills. As outlined in the History document, Namegivers discovered that those who had been
marked by Horrors could not produce art of any kind. So nearly every child in Barsaive is trained in some form of artistic
skill. You may be called upon to give demonstrations of your art skill to prove your purity.
Each Skill lists the Rank at which your character has the Skill, the appropriate Attribute Step, the Final Step of both combined,
and the dice rolled for that Step number.
Talents: Talents work in a similar fashion to Skills, but only Adepts possess Talents. Talents are not studied—they
are acquired magically. Talents are magical abilities, allowing their possessor to perform feats impossible for common Namegivers.
Talents are what set Adepts apart from all others.
To advance in a Talent, an Adept need not practice it—he must have used it successfully, and he meditates upon it, imagines
himself using it, and concentrates on how it brings him more into line with his Discipline.
The listings for Talents include the same information as for Skills: Rank, Attribute Step, Final Step, and Action Dice. It
also contains other important information:
Discipline: If there is a “Y” in the “Disc” space for a Talent, it means it is a Discipline
Talent for your character—one which is intrinsic to your Discipline. The main game mechanic of this is that your character
can spend Karma points when using this talent whenever she likes.
Karma: If there is a “Y” in the Karma space, it means that the Talent requires Karma to be used.
Your character must spend a point of Karma to use this Talent. Otherwise, no talent requires Karma.
Strain: In addition to taking damage from weapons and spells, there is another kind of damage called Strain. Strain
represents physical exertion of a high scale, along with mental concentration and a very minor kind of Blood Magic. If there
is a number in the Strain space, your character takes that many points of damage when using this Talent.
Weapons: In this space are listed all the weapons your character possesses. It’s a fairly simple listing—after
the weapon is listed its damage Step (the Step number the weapon adds to your Strength Step for calculating damage), and the
final Damage Step for the weapon, which tells what dice are used to calculate damage done by the weapon.
Half-Magic: Because of their intense training in their Discipline, Adepts have some minor abilities related to that
Discipline (as described on the character sheet). To make Half-Magic Tests, add half of your character’s current Circle
(always at least 1) to the Talent or Attribute specified by the situation. Such tests work exactly like Skill Tests.
Equipment: The equipment your character possesses. No real mystery here.
Racial Ability: If your character’s race possesses any special abilities, they will be described here.
