Version ß9
Getting Started
Building A Character
– Description Section
—- Basics
—- Details
—- Description
—- Portrait
Character Fundamentals
– Adventurer
—- Legend Points
—- Discipline Selection
—- Multiple Disciplines
—- Attributes
—- Health
– Talents and Skills
—- Discipline Talents
—- Knacks
—- Skills
– Equipment
– Thread and Blood Magic
– Spells
– Log and Abilities
—- Log
—- Abilities
– Spell Matrix
– Step Dice
Menu
– Play
—- Situation
—- Character Conditions Display
—- Damage
—- Condition Modifiers
—- Karma
—- Target Number
—- Misc Modifiers
– Save and Load
– Options
—- Theme
—- Books
—- Additional Options
– About
Personal Notes
Getting Started
Steps is a client side web application to assist with building and running Earthdawn characters. The goal of this guide is to explain how to create an Earthdawn Character using Steps. The expectation is that you own a copy of the books and have an understanding of Eathdawn as a game, I will not go into much depth about the rules or the character creation process, but I will explore the various parts of Steps.
At the time of this writing Steps is currently at version Version 1β09. From version to version the layout has changed and features added, but generally this guide should still remain relevant if you are using a different version.
From my observations, the majority of changes have been quality of life improvements and additions of new book material. If you want to get involved or want to drop Lars a note for all his effort you can reach him at lars@secondstep.dk. He does this in his spare time as a labor of love. Thanks Lars! You are doing Upandal’s work.
Web Edition: http://www.secondstep.dk/steps/
Desktop Edition: https://travelingwizardrpg.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/steps-%ce%b209-desktop-edition/
Building a character
Description Section
The top most portion of the character sheet is the Character Detail Section that includes Basic, Details, Portrait, and Description. This is largely for flavor except for the Race pull down menu discussed in the Basic Section.
Basics
Name: Put the name of your character in this text line.
Player: Put the Players name here.
Race: Use the pull down menu to select your race. Changing the race of the character will automatically change the Attribute > Race starting value below. If you are playing a Human or Windling it will automatically add your additional talent (Versatility or Astral Sight) to a section below called Other Talents.
Details
The details section also has a series of text lines for you to further list the details of your character.
Description
The Description box designed for you to enter your characters description. This description box will continue to grow with the description of your character. You are not limited to any character limits length.
Portrait
The Portrait section allows you to select from provided character portraits or use one from a URL (including your computer). To change from the default Empty image, click Change.
There are a number of included portraits automatically filtered by the Race you chose. Click the portrait you want or paste the file path line above then click >> and validate the preview is what you expect. Click OK to confirm it and return to the character sheet.
Character Fundamentals
Adventurer
Legend Points
Legend Points are the life blood of your character development. Using this section you can manage your Current and Total legend points earned. If used consistently this can be very helpful to character audits and rebuilding a character after loss or death.
The i next to the Legend Point will give you a break down of Legend Points spent. This is extremely useful for doing character audits and to make sure you understand where you legend points are being spent.
Discipline Selection
Using the + you can add your chosen Discipline(s) from a pull down menu to your character. This will modify what Talents and Optional Talents you have access too. Your Discipline will automatically fill in your Discipline Talents in the Talent section. As you increase the circle number it will further change the options.
Multiple Disciplines
Additionally you can add additional Disciplines by click the + again. Your additional Disciplines will ask you at what level you started this circle and what the current circle is for that Discipline.
Note: If you turn on the Questors in Options, you will get the option for adding Questor levels for your character.
Attributes
The Attributes section is a central part of Steps character creation process. From this section a lot of dependent values are automatically calculated and filled. It is only though the Attributes and Discipline Circle that you are able to change many of the Characteristic and Health during creation.
The first column list the Attributes; Dexterity, Strength, Toughness, Perception, Willpower and Charisma.
Race: The default racial starting values based on your race.
Points: A pull down menu that list value it adds to the Current column and the cost differential subtracted from Attribute Points Remaining variable.
Increase: A pull down menu for setting attribute increase using Legend Points. The cost is automatically deducted from Current Legend Points.
Bonus: Bonus is not adjustable in Edit mode. You can add bonuses while in Play mode (see Menu section) for more information. This shows any Misc Bonuses added to your character.
Attribute Points Remaining: A variable to keep track remaining points, if you are using the point buy method. This section can go negative.
Current: Current combines the Race, Points, Increase and Bonus values into the Current value.
Step: The Step number associated with the Current Attribute value.
Dice: The dice you roll based on the Step. Note: For most test you will add your Talent or Skill steps.
Health
Most of the Health values are automatically generated based on your Attributes and Circle. Discipline specific Durability is recalculated when you change that Discipline’s Circle value. The i symbol next to Unconsciousness/Death and Blood Damage/Wounds is clickable and will open another window that will track that type of damage. You may only change these values in Play mode.
Talents, Knacks and Skills
Discipline Talents
The Talents include in this section are automatic based on your current Circle. As you increase your Circle or add additional Disciplines your talents will be added. There is a pull down menu that list the Optional Talents you can choose. Note as you increase in circle you will have more ‘Not Selected’ talent options available.
Talent Name: The name of the talent.
Source: Where you get this Discipline Talent. If it comes from multiple Disciplines both will be listed. This is helpful for determining Circle advancement.
Page: For convenience purposes the book with page number for the talent is listed.
Action: List the type of action.
Strain: How much strain is required to use this skill.
Free: Used during character creation to assign your Free points.
Rank: A pull down menu to select the rank you have in this Talent. Change the rank value updates your Current Legend Points.
Attribute: List the associated attribute for the given skill.
Bonus: Calculates all the bonuses from special items such as Tread Item and Thread/Blood Magic.
Step: List the combined step value for the Attribute and Rank steps.
Dice: List the dice assigned to the value in the Step column. This doesn’t take into account any additional spells or effects, such as Monstrous Mantel.
NOTE: The Free column is for spending the free (8) Talent Points you get during character creation. Use the pull down menu to select value of 1-3. During character creation you are not permitted to raise any starting Talent above 3. Selecting a number here will change the Rank value to the free value and will subtract from the Remaining Talent Points variable. Free will not subtract the value from Current Legend Points. Make note of this if you are rebuilding a character and not creating one from scratch.
Rank keeps track of your Talents rank. This pull down menu allows you to select from 0-15. The rank you select using this pull down will subtract the Legend Point cost from your Current value.
The Attribute column list the Attribute used for making test. Bonus is not a column you can modify in Edit mode. However, during Play mode you can make these changes. Bonus could be use to raise a Talent value such as weaving threads to a group pattern.
Step is the sum of the Attribute step plus your rank and any bonuses available such as modifiers selected during Play mode. This is a shortcut and meant to make finding what to roll for a given talent faster. Dice is the final column. The Dice is based on the value in the Rank column. Note: You may need to modify what dice you roll based on spells or other abilities.
Knacks (Hidden)
Knacks are a hidden row until you meet a specific requirement. Knacks were first introduced in the Earthdawn Companion. Click the + under Knacks to add the Not Selected Knack. Clicking the pull down under Knack Name will give the list of available knacks to choose from based on your character.
Knack Name: Name of the Knack you chose.
Page: Book and Page number for that Knack.
Talent: The Talent associated with that ability.
Min Rank: The minimal rank required by the Talent.
Action: The type of action required to use the Knack.
Strain: The Strain requirement, if any.
Attribute:List the associated attribute for the given Knack.
Step: List the combined step value for the Attribute and Rank steps, if applicable.
Dice: The Dice you roll based on the Step value.
Skills
Skills are listed in this section. Two skills are included automatically with the appropriate ranks assigned to them based on the character creation section in Earthdawn Players Guide. There are a number of columns across the top that additional information.
Skill Name: List the name of the skill.
Category: List the type of skill; General, knowledge and artisan.
Page: Denotes the book and page number on that page the skill is listed.
Action: List the type of action.
Strain: How much strain is required to use this skill.
Free: Used during character creation to assign your Free points.
Rank: A pull down menu to select the rank you have in this Skill. Change the rank value updates your Current Legend Points.
Attribute: List the associated attribute for the given skill.
Step: List the combined step value for the Attribute and Rank steps.
Dice: List the dice assigned to the value in the Step column. This doesn’t take into account any additional spells or effects, such as Monstrous Mantel.
NOTE: The Free column is for spending the free Artisan (1), Knowledge (2), General (8) Skill Points you get during character creation. Use the pull down menu to select value of 1-3. During character creation you are not permitted to raise any starting Skill above 3. Selecting a number here will change the Rank value to the free value and will subtract from the Remaining Points in the chosen Skill Category. Free will not subtract the value from Current Legend Points. Make note of this if you are rebuilding a character and not creating one from scratch.
Click the + to add new skills. Choose the category of Skill from the pull down menu; General, Artisan, or Knowledge.
After selecting the Category the Skill Name pull down is accessible. The General skills are broken down into Cost categories associated with the character’s rank; Novice. Journeyman, Warden, and Master. The Knowledge skills have a common list of general knowledge areas common in Earthdawn. If can also type into the box to narrow your search or create you own Knowledge skill name. Artisan skills are similar to Knowledge skills in the selection process and customization process.
Note: If you want to remove a skill click the X to the left of the name.
Equipment
This is the equipment management area. You can use this section to manage all types of equipment your character will acquire during the play of the game. By default, you are given all the equipment a new character receives during character creation.
Equipment
In Use: This rarely used column helps indicate what types of Armor, Thread Items or Shield you are using. You may own multiple and want to keep track of them in your Equipment but not all of them can be used at the same time.
Type: Indicates the type of Equipment. There are many different types of equipment and all equipment from the various books are broken into a type category.
Equipment: The item(s) and object(s) you own.
Name / Description: The name and description.
#: Quantity of the item.
Page: Denotes the book and page number on that page the skill is listed.
Value: Indicates the cost or value of the item.
Weight: Indicates the weight of the time. If you are tracking weight for carrying purpose this provides a quick reference. The application doesn’t track this value for you.
To add equipment to your character sheet click the + button. In the pull down menu there is a list of different types of Equipment. Click the pull down menu in the Equipment column to select the actual items.
Some of the Equipment from the list contains additional details. For example (shown above), Armor includes things such as Physical and Mystical armor ratings as well as any Initiative penalties. There are additional pull down menus that represent Forged bonuses. The categories match up with the categories included in the Earthdawn Players Guide.
Thread and Blood Magic
Click the + to add Thread Magic or Blood Magic effects.
Thread and Blood Magic:
Applicable: A checkbox that determines if this line should modify your characters statistics.
Name: Name and/or type of magical affect.
Target: The target of the Thread or Blood Magic. This could be the name of the Group Pattern, the individual you swore a blood promise too. (Known Bug: As of this writing, there is a bug in this field where it loses focus after typing one letter. This will be fixed in a future version)
Page: The book and page for reference.
Effect(s): What statistics will be modified if Applicable is checked. For many of the options there are additional pull down menus that require customization. Example: Group True Pattern allows players to select to add up to 5 threads into the true pattern for up to 5 different options.
Spells (for Spell Caster Disciplines Only)
This band only appears if you have ranks in a spellcasting Discipline.
Spells:
Spell Name: Name of Spell.
Discipline: List what Discipline the spell is pulled from.
Circle: The Circle this spell is first available to your character.
Page: What book and page for you to reference for this spell.
Remaining Spell Points: This is used to determine how many spell points you have for character creation. After you are out of points or purchase a spell you shouldn’t be able to purchase during creation, it will automatically subtract the cost from your Current Legend Points pool.
Log and Abilities
Log
The Log section is an expandable text box that allows you to enter any amount of text into it. It’s meant to help you keep track of events and/or legend point rewards or anything else of note.
Abilities
The Abilities section is automatically populated with your racial abilities and your Discipline abilities. As you increase in Circle it will fill out the Abilities you received in that section.
Spell Matrix
This section is only for spellcasters and is meant to help you keep track of what spell is in what matrix. If you purchase additional spell matrix in your Talent Options, another box will automatically appear. When you get to a high enough Circle it will automatically update your matrix.
Spell Matrices
Matrix Type: This will list if it’s a Standard, Enhanced, Armored, or Shared.
Source: This is the Discipline and source Free or Optional based on how you got that Spell Matrix.
Rank: The rank of the Matrix and thus the highest level spell you can put into it.
Step Dice
The Step value and dice rolled for each step. This is included as a quick reference and goes up to Step 105.
Menu
The menu, or hamburger menu as I call it, has a number of additional functions. We are going to got through all of the options and discuss what each one does.
Play: Switch between play and edit mode.
Load: Load your saved character json file.
Options: Change various options related to rules and Steps.
Save: Save your character as a json file.
New: Discard changes and start a new character.
About: Credits and other software information.
Play
The play mode is designed to help in managing your character while playing the game. It slides the Situation frame into view and hides other objects that were present in Edit mode. An example of this change comes from Attributes where it only shows your current value, step and dice.
Situation
Damage: How much damage has your character taken.
Wounds: How many wounds your character has taken.
Health Buff: This is a damage offset value. The first box is for Health Buff to Unconsciousness rating and the second box is for Death rating. You can receive Health Buff from powers such as Woodskin. The value assigned automatically add that to the approprate rating before triggering the Character Condition banner.
Character Conditions Display
When your character takes damage over their Unconsciousness rating + the Health Buff offset, you will get the condition banner above, Unconscious.
When your character takes damage over their Death rating + the Health Buff offset, you will get the condition banner above, Dead.
Damage
This section can be used to assist when your character takes damage. Using these properties can help with the arithmetic for calculating how much damage you actually take.
Apply Damage: Used to calculate how much damage you took.
Subtract: The amount to subtract from the Apply Damage value.
Direct Button: Take Apply Damage value minus the Subtract value add that to Damage above. This could be used for taking Strain damage.
Physical Button: Take Apply Damage value minus the Subtract value and minus In Use Physical Armor and add that to Damage above. This can be used when taking physical weapon damage.
Mystical Button: Take Apply Damage value minus the Subtract value and minus In Use Mystic Armor and add that to Damage above. This can be used when taking some spell damage.
Apply Wound if damage > #: If the total damage added to Damage is equal to or greater than your Wound Threshold value, it will add 1 to the Wounds value above. The # is automatically filled in for you based on your Wound Threshold value.
Condition Modifiers
In this section you can add conditional modifiers to your character sheet and it will update the appropriate stats. It will note the normal value, the modifier and the modified value when it applies to your character.
Stance: Pull down menu to select a stance. Normal, Aggressive and Defensive. Steps doesn’t automatically apply Strain to your Current Damage when you change the pull down.
Knocked Down: Check box to apply Knocked Down penalties.
– Applies to Social Defense: Applies the penalties to Social Defense too. Dependent on Knocked Down checkbox be applied.
Harried: Applies the Harried penalties to the character sheet.
Surprised: Applies the Surprised penalties to the character sheet.
– Applies to Social Defense: Applies the penalties to Social Defense too. Dependent on Surprised checkbox be applied.
Darkness: Pull down menu for the level of Darkness penalties to apply to the character sheet.
Karma
The Karma section is used to manage karma spend.
Points: This section is used for modifying the Karma points value. Set the value of your current Karma in the pull down menu.
Spend 1: This button will automatically subtract 1 from the Points value.
Bonus/Replace: Pull down menu that modifies the Karma value in Characteristics. The value pull down menu the Step bonus offset. Example: If you choose 1 it will add one Step to the Karma Step.
Target Number
Target Number: This is the target number given to you by your GM. This could be a creatures Physical Defense or anything else.
Roll: This is the value you rolled.
To Hit result over TN: To Hit result over Target Number value.
Extra success to hit: This is how many extra success your roll got. Remember to add +2 steps for each extra successes on Damage test.
Misc Modifiers
These modifiers allow you to apply specific modifiers to the stats listed. Use the pull down menu to add steps to these modifiers.
Save and Load
These options allow you to Save all of the changes you’ve made on the character sheet to a json formatted file. Since this application is client side only, even the web version, you must save for your changes to persist. Using the Load button navigate your file system and load the json file to the character sheet.
Options
The Options menu allows you to modify the standard options.
Theme
The Theme pull down menu gives you the option to reskin the user interface with a particular background image. Steps comes with many different options. In this manual we’ve been using the Simple theme. I recommend using different themes as a visual queue when running multiple characters. As a Game Master I utilize this feature to know I am on the right NPC.
Books
The Book section allows you to toggle content on and off based on specific resources. Additional there is unofficial resources included. If you don’t have the particular books you may consider turning those resources off. Note: By default Questors are turned off and not available. If you have a Questor you must toggle this option on and the option will appear under Discipline.
Additional Options
The Additional Option section allows you to modify various aspect of the game if you are using different version of the game. Modify this section to customize your game.
About
Personal Note
I want to say thank Lars Gottlieb for his tremendous work and effort in making Steps. I’ve only recently come along to start helping. Without his time, effort and vision this product wouldn’t exist for the community. Steps is free and open for everyone to use. I’m happy to help doing my tiny part in carrying the torch for Steps and the Earthdawn community.
If you are not a member you should join the active Facebook Community The Earthdawn Guild. We have a great and active community of people from all over the world.
You should also consider joining the FASA Games Discord server.
Finally, if you want copies of Earthdawn, I strongly encourage you to ask your local game shop or purchase the books from FASA Games directly. Large online retailers like Amazon are convenient but take a percentage out of the creators pockets. Help support creators and other small business everywhere.
Thank you so much for reading my little website. I would love to hear from you.
-Traveling Wizard
Traveling Wizard RPG 