News — Earthdawn

I make no bones about artist Jeff Laubenstein being my favorite fantasy artist of all time.  Maybe that makes me odd, or maybe it makes me a genius, but whatever the case, there is no argument with the fact that Jeff has been doing RPG work for thirty years, and his contributions to non-D&D are astounding.  Today, I look at just random pieces of his that have always brought me joy. The 'Ladies Laubenstein', certainly a subject matter of his that has always kept my interest A nice trio of characters, and he certainly has a way with creating distinct...

Today I’m taking a look at FASA’s Earthdawn Companion. Earlier in the summer I showed some of the art of the Earthdawn core book, and this 162 page supplement, produced in 1994, is just one of a dozen truly inspired books for this game.I remember I used it extensively when I ran a campaign I called ‘Mother’ during the last stages of my college career. The campaign took place during weekend visits with my friends from high school, and in fact the first ever ‘The Week’ of gaming was run almost exclusively with Earthdawn during my last spring break.My girlfriend...

In the beginning, there was Shadowrun… and it was good.  Then, in 1993, FASA created Earthdawn as the semi-precursor to their breakout cyberpunk hit.  Much like the world of Conan reflects an age of Earth long forgotten, Earthdawn filled this same pre-history, which I have to say was infinitely cool considering the story from which Shadowrun was born.  However, somewhere along the line FASA took a turn that would unfortunately doom the game to a moderate hit that fell quickly into mediocrity.  To me, FASA had no concept of its own OGL, and thus failed to realize that the game...

I was one of those semi-crazed FASA fans, and certainly a devoted player of Shadowrun, so when the company announced it would be taking the plunge into the fantasy market with Earthdawn, I was right there with money in hand. Now, I’ll not address the Earthdawn gaming mechanics here, as that is never what these posts are about, but instead focus on the subject at hand which is the Earthdawn Adventure: Mists of Betrayal. Art Directed by my very close friend Jeff Laubenstein back in 1993, it was also project managed by Joel Biske.  Together, these two guys really, truly,...