With the release of more pictures and other teasers for Rise of the Eldrazi, I was suddenly struck this evening by a bit of correlative nostalgia.
The Zendikar to Eldrazi transition reminds me of Earthdawn.
Earthdawn is a fantasy roleplaying game originally published by FASA, the folks who brought you Battletech (which spawned the Mechwarrior games) and Shadowrun. The Earthdawn property is currently licensed by Redbrick Limited, and you can see their Earthdawn product line by clicking here.
The concepts behind Earthdawn and Rise both clearly plug into the Greek titan myth (click here to learn more about those guys), and the general idea of "older, scarier things that are coming back."
In Rise, the Eldrazi are coming back, and it's bad news for everyone.
An Eldrazi - clearly bad news
In Earthdawn, Magic moves in multi-thousand-year cycles. When it's surging high, things go terribly wrong, and big, old-time magical creatures known as Horrors come out and wreck the world. The setup for the Earthdawn game is that when times were bad, people bricked themselves into great underground cities, some of which survived...and now that magic is on the downswing again, adventurers are out exploring the world, delving into cities that didn't make it, and fighting the occasional Horror.
An Earthdawn Horror - you will lose some party members on this one
Given that Zendikar is the "adventure gaming" block, it's not surprising that it would have some overlap with any fantasy adventure RPG. That said, I always loved the Earthdawn setting as one of real action and adventure, and it's nice that Zendikar, Worldwake, and Rise are pinging that same spot in my mind.
Comments (2)
Did FASA ever clearly establish that Earthdawn used the same "world" as Shadowrun? Or are the connections (the races, the magic cycle) just nods and echoes between two unrelated properties?
Posted by Anonymous | March 10, 2010 01:51 PM
Posted on March 10, 2010 13:51
I'm not the best Earthdawn expert ever, but I believe FASA left it at the level of "implying vigorously" that there was a connection. They did have more connections than just the races and magic, though, as they talked about immortal elves and dragons, as well as having specific magical things (e.g. rituals) being basically the same between settings. It also helps that Earthdawn world map is basically the Caucasus/Caspian Sea area.
Posted by Gifts Ungiven | March 10, 2010 02:01 PM
Posted on March 10, 2010 14:01