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My Playing God column is currently on hiatus, as Ive
joined a large new gaming group and its turned into a
busy summer, so my world development is on a back
burner AGAIN. While I wait for my brain cells to
recharge and inspiration to return, Ill be reviewing
sourcebooks, helpful web pages, and other RPG-related
things . . . Anything to keep the editor off my back!
Anyone who knows me well knows that I love the
Earthdawn gaming system. I play it on-line and in
person. I tell anyone and everyone who role plays that
they should try it. I search used bookstores and the
web for the out-of-print FASA sourcebooks. I can
spend all day reading those books, too, and enjoy them
as much as a good novel. Yesindeedydo, I love my
Earthdawn. Thus, I was quite happy to see that Living
Room Games is publishing more new Earthdawn material,
and that my local gaming shop is carrying it!
Scourge Unending is the most recent Earthdawn
sourcebook. The fine folks at Living Room Games have
an ongoing timeline for Earthdawn, updated with every
new sourcebook they publish. This book provides
updated information on well-known Horrors (for those
poor deprived souls who have never played Earthdawn,
Horrors are bad, nasty monsters who feed off of
negative emotions and love causing pain, anguish,
destruction and reality TV shows) and throws in some
new Horrors and a bunch of new Horror Constructs. It
also contains information on the Hunters of Throal, an
organization dedicated to ridding Barsaive of the
Horrors.
Living Room Games has continued FASA's grand tradition
of writing about the Horrors and other creatures
included in this book from the perspective of
characters in the game, as if this were indeed a book
comissioned by the library of Throal. After a brief
story about each Horror, the game stats are given.
This makes the book useful, yet entertaining as well.
Also, for every Horror or Horror construct, there is
an "adventure hook," which gives the GM an idea of an
easy way to work this particular baddy into their
campaign.
Overall, Scourge Unending is a great sourcebook, and I
think that GMs running a high-powered game will
especially find it useful. There are a few highs and
lows that I would like to point out, however:
- For people like me who have FASAs original Horror
book, much of the information in here is redundant.
There are some new Horrors, but quite a few are
recycled from the old book. For people who dont have
the out of print Horror book, this is good as it gives
them access to some of the baddest of the bad, which
they may want to throw at their players. And of
course, I think it was worth the $18 for the good
writing and the wicked Cauthrunne, the Queen of Crows.
- Though this book is written in the style of the old
FASA books, much of the writing isnt of the same
quality. There are typos and other mistakes littered
throughout the book that a good proof reader would
have picked up on, and in several cases you can tell
that the writer had a good idea, but they couldnt
quite get it down on paper.
- On the other hand, Living Room Games hires better
artists than FASA did. A dozen artists contibuted
beautiful interior illustrations. One of the artists
is a personal favorite of mine, Denise Jones, creator
of the Eversummer Eve web comic. The art is in a
variety of styles, all of which fit well with the
Earthdawn theme and accurately portray the creatures
theyre supposed to.
And thats about it. This book would be a worthy
investment for any fan of the Earthdawn game, though
it is MUCH more geared to GMs than players, as there
is no new information for Adepts.
In closing, I would like to say . . . Chris, if youre
reading this (and I intend to make sure you do!), I
have one word for you . . . EARTHDAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(thank you)
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