Editing Earthdawn (section)

==History==
Starting in 1993, FASA released over 20 gaming supplements describing this universe; however, it closed down production of ''Earthdawn'' in January 1999. During that time several novels and short-story anthologies set in the ''Earthdawn'' universe were also released. In late 1999, FASA granted Living Room Games a licensing agreement to produce new material for the game.

The ''Second Edition'' did not alter the setting, though it did update the timeline to include events that took place in Barsaive. There were a few changes to the rules in the ''Second Edition''; some classes were slightly different or altered abilities from the original. The changes were meant to allow for more rounded characters and better balance of play. Living Room Games last published in 2005 and they no longer have a license with FASA to publish Earthdawn material.<ref>{{cite web| title=Living Room Games Forums| url=http://forums.lrgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1043&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30| date=2009-01-30| access-date=2009-01-31| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619174337/http://forums.lrgames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1043&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30| archive-date=2009-06-19| url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 2003 a second license was granted to RedBrick, who developed their own edition based on the FASA products, in addition to releasing the original FASA books in PDF form. The ''Earthdawn Classic Player's Compendium'' and ''Earthdawn Classic Gamemaster's Compendium'' are essentially an alternative Second Edition, but without a version designation (since the material is compatible anyway). Each book has 524 pages and summarizes much of what FASA published—not only the game mechanics, but also the setting, narrations, and stories. For example, each Discipline has its own chapter, describing it from the point of view of different adepts. Likewise, Barsaive gets a complete treatment, and the chapters contain a lot of log entries and stories in addition to the setting descriptions; the same applies to Horrors and Dragons. Errata was incorporated into the text, correcting previous edition errors and providing rules clarifications.

While RedBrick tried to remain faithful to FASA's vision and visual style, they revised almost everything and introduced new material to fill the gaps. RedBrick began publishing new Earthdawn novels in 2007. In 2009, RedBrick announced the Third Edition of the game. To gain a larger audience for this edition, RedBrick published the book through Mongoose Publishing's Flaming Cobra imprint. The first two books were released in July 2009. In 2012, RedBrick ceased publishing and announced the transfer of the Earthdawn license to FASA Games, Inc.

In 2014, FASA Games announced the forthcoming publication of Earthdawn Fourth Edition and launched a successful Kickstarter to support the project. Fourth Edition is described as a reworking of the game mechanics, with redundancies eliminated, and a simpler success level system. The game world is advanced five years, past the end of the Barsaive-Thera War, in order to clear dangling threads in the metaplot and open the game world to new stories.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/783548120/earthdawn-4th-edition|title=Earthdawn 4th Edition|website=Kickstarter|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref> The first Fourth Edition title—the Player's Guide—was released in early 2015. In 2014 FASA Corporation also gave permission for Impact Miniatures to return the original Heartbreaker Hobbies & Games Official Earthdawn Miniatures range to production. In order to fund this, Impact Miniatures launched a successful Kickstarter project.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/674003445/earthdawn-rpg-fantasy-miniatures|title=Earthdawn RPG Fantasy Miniatures|website=Kickstarter|language=en-US|access-date=2018-09-18}}</ref>

In 2016, Vagrant Workshop released the ''Age of Legend'' edition using a permutation of the [[Role-playing game terms#R 2|rules-lite]] mechanics of the ''Freeform Universal'' RPG system. With its rules-lite mechanics the ''Age of Legend'' edition is marketed as being "ideal for one-shots, convention games, and introductory games — even for kids!"