Whatever you want to call it, it ain't good.
I feel the opposite.
When the search for a new campaign setting was announced, I just knew it was going to be something that would epitomize a ridiculously over-the-top magic-driven world. Lightning rails and air-elemental-powered jet planes, huh? Sure, why not?
Why not, indeed......advance the timeline a bit, develop a different XP earning system, and you've got a world where it's not only possible, but likely....
After all, what could ever be heroic about long, arduous treks across great seas or open country?
In D&D, almost nothing ever was. You're only a slave to a long, arduous trek at low levels, and even then low-level comfort spells can make food and water, keep you warm or cool, or give you a horse or three. The long, arduous trek was only the part the DM glossed over to get you to the dungeon. Sometimes, you'd get a random encounter....
And I don't see any of those basic ideas thwarted in Eberron. Your airship can still be attacked by primitive native cultists on the back of wyverns in transit, for instance, just the same way your long arduous trek can be ambushed by orcs in the night. It's only different in the trappings, really. Indeed, once you've take the airship to the mountain city, you still have a long, arduous trek through the mean streets and over the sea of sand before you reach your location, and have a good ol' fashioned orc ambush, too.
Basically, long, arduous treks are the things of low magic and low levels, and Eberron seems to assume neither.
One edition after another, one campaign setting after another, D&D has gradually become a fantasy game that's completely devoid of the fantastic. Acquiring a magic sword is now about as wondrous and exciting as taking a 10-minute ride down to Ace Hardware or Radio Shack.\
Whaaaa? If anything, it's become more fantastic. Less focus on historical armaments, more on armor spikes. Less trying to achieve the Middle Earth ideal than trying to make wizards fun to play by launching fireballs. Now, less castles and horses and more magical trains and airships....how is that LESS fantastic? Indeed, the omnipresence of magic is a very *fantastic* quality, much more so that when the only +1 sword in the nation is the king's ancient heirloom.
And nobody at WotC, past or present, seems to think it should be any different.
The majority of the buying audience doesn't seem to think so, either.
In the latest issue of Dragon, Eberron's creator likens it to "Lord of the Rings". I don't know how the heck he can make that association when magic in LotR is largely subdued, making it spectacular when Gandalf does actually display a bit of it.
Perhaps in an epic feel? Perhaps in ancient empires and savage peoples? Perhaps a struggle against evil in the dark realms? LotR was much more than Middle Earth and Gandalf's magic light of unquestionable elfish whatever...which I hardly think is spectacular, and actually think is kinda lame, but can accept it on allegorical grounds.
A game, I can't accept on allegorical grounds alone.
I know fans of Middle Earth or Westeros that I've introduced to D&D have found themselves underwhelmed by the tabletop boom-blasting videogame that they found themselves playing. As jaded as most of us are, a lot of us don't think about how odd it is to take encounters with demons and fireballs and raising the dead for granted.
Eh, that's your preferred style then. But just because you like it better doesn't make it better.
Not that I begrudge spellpunk settings, but I do wish that WotC would acknowledge that there are different flavors of fantasy.
I don't see them denying this....there's a world of difference between Eberron and, say, Forgotten Realms, and I think they see this as an advantage rather than a hinderance. LotR rip-offs are a dime a dozen. They're going for a different market, hoping it is as popular.
