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Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to the RedBrick Earthdawn Classic FAQ. Here we hope you will find answers to your questions. If you don't please feel free to Contact Us and we will attempt to answer your question (and probably add it to the FAQ!).

1. So who are you?

RedBrick Limited is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and currently consists of four main staff - James Flowers, Richard Vowles, Josh Harrison, and Carsten Damm. Additional to these people are several co-developers -- Carlton Anderson and Steven Black, among others -- who are proving invaluable in their ability to work through the mountain of material we have and wrestle into a consistent well-ordered state.

2. What does EDC mean?

EDC is the abbreviation we are using to denote Earthdawn Classic material. The Earthdawn Classic products are based on the FASA-published Earthdawn supplements. This has evolved over the last year. The Earthdawn Classic materials are primarily going to be in the form of reprints and PDFs of FASA supplements (starting with out-of-print books). The changes in the new books have meant we have had to look at how we are presenting new materials.

3. What are you planning on doing?

Our goal is to breathe new life into Earthdawn and firmly establish the line again by creating high-quality roleplaying products. Check our News page for updates and upcoming products!

4. Does this mean a different metaplot?

It "could" mean a different metaplot. At the moment, RedBrick does not intend following the metaplot beyond products like Prelude to War, Orks of Cara Fahd, Crystal Raiders of Barsaive, Secret Societies of Barsaive, and the unpublished Dragons book.

5. So what are you going to publish?

We have a whole heap of ideas of what we want to publish. Some will be in online format, some will be in printed format, and there are other things in the works as well. The initial releases will be the Player's and Gamemaster's Compendiums. Like the bricks that form the foundations of a building, these are the two "core" books on which the next releases will be based.

6. Won't this fragment a small ED community even more?

We don't think so. Not any more that it already is. Time will tell.

7. Do you have a mascot?

A bog gob was mooted by James, but he is also keen on plush t'skrang (from an ED Mailing List suggestion...). We're not sure what he would do with one, but he talks about it quite often! Mind you, James also talks about bog gobs a lot as well... We have license rights to produce merchandise (some already out and more on the way) and make miniatures (See further down), so there may become a favorite from there.

8. You have a spelling mistake on your web site.

Oh? Sorry. Please let us know where it is (except for other people's postings, of course).

9. So do you own Earthdawn now?

Nope. We just license it from FASA Corporation.

10. Your web site is pretty boring!

Yeah, sorry about that. Getting the basic site functionality working was considered the most important priority. Once we have some books ready for print, things will change. We have Sade colouring some existing Earthdawn art for us at the moment, so expect to see more of her work gracing our pages.

11. Sometimes I can't get to your web site?

Given that updates are made on a regular basis, the server will be down for short periods of time. By short, we usually mean 1-2 minutes - anything longer than this is probably a bigger problem! Please do try again. It's the price to pay for a dynamic, fan involved web site! Note that, due to time zones differences (New Zealand is GMT+12) we are sometimes asleep if the site goes down. Just means it might be a bit longer before we bring it back up. Richard is contantly updating and refining the code to finetune the site stability.

12. So do you want fan involvement?

Yes, absolutely. Although we will tend to primarily rely on "professional" writers for some material (the stuff that you really want as core books) that doesn't mean you can't be involved from an ideas, proofing, supplementary material, art, whatever, perspective. If you want to contribute to EDC, we welcome you with open arms. If you consider yourself up to "professional" writing, you'll want our Submission guidelines (available from the Downloads menu). We're not precious about this, however. There's a lot of Earthdawn fans out there, and we're keen to engender support for the game now and going forward. Please be conscious that sometimes we have to make "hard" decisions that won't appeal to everyone. That, my friends, is the price of business (and part of the nature of our hobby).

13. Why don't you publish for Second Edition?

We want to keep our materials more in line with FASA's supplements, taking existing material and adding extra content to it in a similar manner. We feel that the direction that LRG have taken is not where we want to go with the product. That doesn't mean the two lines will be incompatible!

14. But you can't buy First Edition anymore!

Yes you can, from StiggyBaby. StiggyBaby has some stock of First Edition books left. We encourage people who purchase from them as they are an excellent vendor. They will also supply your local gaming store if you ask them. As noted earlier, we are also looking at re-releasing those books that are out of print and that will take some time to go through the review process. Some of these can be found at Drivethrough RPG. We figure most people really want new material rather than existing stuff, but following the release of the Player's and Gamemaster's Compendiums, there will be new players who won't be able to get access to things like Vivane and Parlainth, so we intend to make those available again.

15. Are you going to use Anime art?

No, not unless we do Earthdawn Anime, which we have nowhere in our plans (I can safely say). No one here at RedBrick really likes that art style. If you do, sorry. We like the FASA style - Laubenstein, MacDougall, Nelson, and others.

16. Will you be distributing in the US? Elsewhere?

At the moment, we can confirm distribution from the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Australasia. We're also looking at online options for eBook formats as well - DriveThuRPG, for example.

17. So how are you going to expand Earthdawn?

Word of mouth is a strong medium. We will be relying on fan support for the game line. On top of that, RedBrick will be attending major conventions in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. While we don't have bottomless travel and marketing budgets, we hope to use more conventional advertising (magazines, and so on) as well. More to share in this area as we move forward.

18. Who are your Questors anyway?

So far those who have agreed to be Named are: Bradley Robins, Kathy Czechowski, J. Anne Mauck, Lou Prosperi, Jacob Jorvang, Lars Gottlieb, Andrew and Tiffany Ragland, and Christopher Mahoney.

19. Is your schedule going to conflict with LRG?

Possibly. But hopefully not in the short-term. We may be approaching some similar material differently from Living Room Games. We have initiated some dialog with the LRG team and look forward to working with them on any areas where there are obvious synergies for us both.

20. What is RSS?

It's an online syndication method that allows the news information from web sites to come to you. There are a number of software applications out there that support this format - one that is recommended is FeedReader.

21. So are you going to do miniatures?

Yes, we sure are. We are in the process of getting the existing Heartbreaker miniatures and then we will be casting and re-selling these. If you have a FLGS that wants to stock them, please let us know. There are about 50 or so packages that Heartbreaker put out, but we may not be following the same packaging structure - it depends on their popularity.

22. So what has changed in Earthdawn Classic?

A lot. And at the same time, not a lot. A vague answer to be sure. More than can be explained in a FAQ, anyway. While we are keen to ensure as much compatibility with earlier/other editions as possible, it quickly became evident as we were combining the material from multiple sources together that we had a bigger job on our hands that we anticipated. To that end, and the reality that the game hasn't seen a major overhaul since its release in 1993 (over a decade ago), it was became more appropriate to approach the game "refresh" differently. Check the blogs out for design notes from the line and co-developers. With well over 40 playtesters contributing, we hope the results are well received.

23. What's all the talk about a Third Edition?

Earthdawn Classic has been designed to remain as close to the original FASA material as possible. While the Classic line is due to release very soon, we have decided to spend more time with the rules and go back to the basics with Earthdawn: Age of Legend (or ED3). Roleplaying game mechanics have evolved in the past decade, and we will try to bring the Earthdawn rules into the 21st century. Don't expect these anytime soon, however: lifting the Earthdawn game to a whole new level may take years.

24. Can I become a playtester/developer for RedBrick?

Yes, you probably can. We will call for playtesters and developers when the time is due, so check back to our site frequently!

25. Who is the Earthdawn Line Developer?

James Flowers is our overall Product Director and Line Developer for Earthdawn. While Carsten Damm, Josh Harrison, and Richard Vowles serve as advisors, James is the one making the final decisions. We also have Lead Developers, who manage the details on one or more of our projects (for example, Carsten Damm is the Lead Developer for ED3).

26. How often do you update this FAQ?

Not often enough judging by the amount of changes we needed to make to add item 26 to the list! Last updated: 3rd June 2005.