Dungeons & Dragons in the Age of Legend
For years humanity huddled in underground kaers, as the beings known as Horrors ravaged the land in an orgy of terror and destruction. Now the long, dark age of the Scourge has passed, and brave adventurers emerge to reclaim their world.
Elf, ork, t'skrang, human, and other races explore a world that teems with strange creatures and hidden dangers; a world of lost cities, of ancient and forgotten treasures and indescribable wonders; a world where the very earth and sky vibrate with magical power. In this age of legend, heroes rekindle the glory of days past and become the legends of tomorrow.
Earthdawn is a fantasy role-playing game, originally published by FASA Corporation, now published by Living Room Games. It describes an age of magic and legend in Earth's very distant past, filled with magical races and creatures. Although Earthdawn has its own game system (soon available in a second edition from LRG), many of its premises make it admirably suited as a campaign setting for the most venerable of fantasy RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons (published by Wizards of the Coast). For example, the people of the Earthdawn world build kaers (underground shelters) where they lived during the nearly 300 years of the Scourge. Now that it's over, dozens of these kaers lie abandoned, some ruined or corrupted by the Horrors, filled with monsters, deadly traps, and hidden treasures. Ready-made dungeons, anyone?
Here I present some basic notes for converting the land of Barsaive (the default campaign setting for Earthdawn) into a D&D campaign world. There's not too much information on the game-world itself here. For that, I recommend picking up some of the excellent Earthdawn source material, particularly the Barsaive campaign set, The Serpent River sourcebook, Throal: the Dwarf Kingdom, the Sky Point and Vivaine boxed set, and Crystal Raiders of Barsaive. They describe the wonderful, magical world and provide plenty of ideas for adventures.
The material here provides some guidelines for fitting the races and character types of Earthdawn into the Dungeons & Dragons, Third Edition rules. I may add to these as the mood strikes. If you happen to use them, please e-mail me and let me know how they work out for you.
Earthdawn and its related characters and images are copyright FASA Corporation. Dungeons & Dragons is copyright Wizard of the Coast. No infringement is intended of either copyright.