Anyone composed a one page Eberron setting intro?

[Xor]

I'm looking to start a new campaign with my D&D group in the next month or two and am in the process of getting together introductory material. I'm hoping that my players are going to embrace the setting fully and really enjoy the game. I realise though that a lot of the responsibility for generating the interest will be down to me as DM presenting the world in an exciting manner.

So I thought that i'd try and put together a one page introduction that briefly explains the immediate history of the world and the current state of play. The problem that i'm having through is that there seems to be so much to try and cram in that i'm having trouble putting it all together into one smoothly flowing text.

Trying to briefly explain the continents, nations, war, houses, dragon marks, dragons, demons, races, religions, etc, etc all seems a bit much to cover.

Has anyone else already done this and would be happy to share their work with the rest of us?

Is there simply too much to try and fit into a one page intro?

 

[Plane Sailing]

My basic orientation document is more than one page (I think it has to be), I'll glady email you a copy if you like. If you use the link in my .sig to email me, and then I'll email it back to you.

Cheers

 

[Plane Sailing]

By the way, welcome to ENworld!

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Is there simply too much to try and fit into a one page intro?

Yes.

However all is not lost. The answer is don't try to include everything. In fact unless it is directly relevant to your first game don't include it.

Unless you are running the adventure in the back of the ECS, Don't start in Sharn, there is too much going on there.

Find out what races (& classes) characters wish to play, and include appropriate material. If you don't have a shifter in the party (and no-one chooses silver flame as a "god") then you don't need to mention the lycanthrope crusade. The party may learn of it later, but it may have nothing to do with the plot of the first game.

So Lords of Dust & The Chamber, the age of demons are probably unnessasary info in the begining. If you aren't using psionics then ignore Dreaming Dark.

I'm doing a 1-shot set in Valenar. I'm including the history & culture of the elves, some major parts of the 100 year war, and the dragonmarked houses.

Do I include that there was a civil war among the elves and house Vol was wiped out? yes.

Do I include that Blood of Vol is a cult led by an undead member of House Vol? No. I probably won't mention Blood of Vol at all.

 

[Xor]

Thanks Plane Sailing, I've mailed you my email, look forward to reading your intro.

Yes.

However all is not lost. The answer is don't try to include everything. In fact unless it is directly relevant to your first game don't include it.

I'm tending to agree with MaverickWeirdo that there is too much to try in the world to try and fit it all into one brief intro. I guess thats part of the appeal of Eberron though, there's always something new to explore or find out...there is so much mystery left to be uncovered.

My quandry though is wanting to offer the players enough information for them to each find something that appeals to them to build their character around. I'd hate for them just to pretty much ignore the setting and build some generic character that would slot into just about any campaign. I want the players to choose dragonmark feats, become involved in the houses, play the eberron specific races, etc. etc.

I'll look at Plane Sailings intro and see about merging it with my own, then distilling it down to a nice neat brew.

Unless you are running the adventure in the back of the ECS, Don't start in Sharn, there is too much going on there.

Hrm, interesting advice. Everything i've read in the Campaign book seems to steer you towards setting your first adventure in Sharn. Although I do see the wisdom in your logic MW.

Find out what races (& classes) characters wish to play, and include appropriate material. If you don't have a shifter in the party (and no-one chooses silver flame as a "god") then you don't need to mention the lycanthrope crusade. The party may learn of it later, but it may have nothing to do with the plot of the first game.

Yup, I plan to do exactly this. I've told the players that we'll have a char-roll up session in a couple of weeks, then we'll continue with the current game while I plan the campaign around their Eberron characters. Then we'll bring the current game to an end and swap to the new Eberron one a short time later.

So Lords of Dust & The Chamber, the age of demons are probably unnessasary info in the begining. If you aren't using psionics then ignore Dreaming Dark.

I'm doing a 1-shot set in Valenar. I'm including the history & culture of the elves, some major parts of the 100 year war, and the dragonmarked houses.

Do I include that there was a civil war among the elves and house Vol was wiped out? yes.

Do I include that Blood of Vol is a cult led by an undead member of House Vol? No. I probably won't mention Blood of Vol at all.

Yeah, some of the above info is definitely things that they dont need to know about at the character creation stage. In fact, part of exploring the new campaign world should be exactly about finding out some of the above info.

I'll just have to have a session of deciding which info falls under the heading of "useful for players to build characters around" and which info falls under the heading of "fun to find out once the game has got started".

Thanks for the tips.

 

[Klaus]

Henry, our August Moderator, had a nice Eberron Primer. Perhaps you could contact him and ask for it.

 

[fuindordm]

I've got a 20 page primer that I did up for my own campaign. It covers all the new options that Eberron offers.
A page of history
A paragraph on each of the nations and important regions
A paragraph on each of the old races, and a bit more (plus mechanics) on the new ones
A brief overview of the dragonmarked houses and the entry-level powers of the dragonmarks
A paragraph on each of the major religions, and a table of the deities in the Sovereign Host and Dark Six
A description of action points, how they're used, and the new feats available to players.

Every new feat and prestige class is mentioned at least once, but they're scattered throughout.

Feel free to send me an e-mail for it, benmathiesen@hotmail.com

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

For my game set in Valenar I made up:

a 1 page "Selected History of Eberron"

a short description of Valenar Culture and a Glossery of Terms (together they fit on 1 page)

I found that i was able to leave out huge amounts of material. The only religion I covered was The Keepers of the Past. (The rest has little impact on what I'm running.)
I did not include all 13 dragonmarked houses (There is little or no chance of them encountering any Dwarves, Gnomes, or Half-Orcs.) Of course mine is a 1-shot game, not the start of a campaign. On the other hand how much should low level characters know about "the planes"?

if you want to see my write-up email me at MavWeirdo {at} hotmail {dot} com