If you have played other fantasy roleplaying games, be aware that
Dying Earth characters and adventures differ in important ways from your past experience. You’ll enjoy
this game more if you forget the assumptions of most other fantasy settings. For instance:
1. If you’re in a fight, something has probably gone horribly wrong. Many fantasy adventurers thrive on
combat, but Dying Earth characters prefer to avoid violence. Far better to gain the upper hand through verbal
verve, cunning, wit, and treachery. An attack upon your person can only mean your duplicity has been uncovered.
The game’s combat system makes it hard to win fights after an injury. Far better to flee, then return in the night to
exact a cold, crafty revenge.
2. Characters are more or less alike. A great attraction of other roleplaying games is the deep exploration
of the unique characters you create—their histories, backgrounds, motivations, speech patterns, and so on. Not
here! Though Jack Vance conjures many complex characters in his other novels, the Dying Earth stories present
lightly characterized, streamlined personalities. Everyone speaks in the same eloquent style; here at the end of
Earth’s life, few desire more than a comfortably decadent existence, preferably at the expense of their fellows. The
Dying Earth character system gives all the detail required to suit the stories’ atmosphere.
3. Killing? How uncivilized. Though countless small towns and villages follow their own idiosyncratic
customs, most communities frown on open murder, even in self-defense. A human combatant who offers surrender
means it, and will honor the surrender in letter if not spirit. (Deodands, erbs, and other monsters are a
different matter.)
The Dying Earth combat system encourages non-lethal victories. The accepted way to defeat an enemy is
through humiliation and impoverishment. Your character does not gain improvement points by winning battles;
you earn these points yourself, by entertaining the other players.
4. Your character will inevitably suffer reverses. Try to enjoy it. In most roleplaying games you want your
character to succeed all the time. But in The Dying Earth your PC’s goals and actions may not always be admirable,
and even if they are, indifferent fate will trip him up anyway. That’s just the way the stories work.
As in Vance’s stories, a Dying Earth character who fails to Rebuff another’s Persuasion, or succumbs to
Temptation, can get hoodwinked into the most dismal and ridiculous predicaments. Look at these as opportunities
to be entertaining. Remember, your character’s improvement doesn’t depend on money, success, maintaining
dignity, or looking good; improvement depends on your own creativity.
DS.