Should I buy Eberron 4e even though I play 3e?

[megamania]

I was considering ordering the new 4e Campaign guide for Eberron to search for ideas for my 3.5 game.

Would it be worth the money?

I've heard there there are good maps but what about other gaming material and plot ideas?

 

[GnomeWorks]

Having taken a few-minute perusal of it, my initial response would be "no." It seems very heavy on crunch, with little about the setting itself. If you're just looking to mine for adventure ideas, it doesn't seem to have much material.

It's possible that there's stuff in there that would be useful, and I just happened to miss it, though.

 

[Imban]

If you own the 3.5e Eberron stuff, almost certainly not. There's very little worth having there if you're already an Eberron fan and not playing 4e.

If you are looking to get into Eberron for the first time it's actually pretty good.

 

[Jack99]

Having taken a few-minute perusal of it, my initial response would be "no." It seems very heavy on crunch, with little about the setting itself. If you're just looking to mine for adventure ideas, it doesn't seem to have much material.

It's possible that there's stuff in there that would be useful, and I just happened to miss it, though.

There is almost no crunch in the campaign guide. The poster quoted above must have mistaken it with another book. Or whatever. He is wrong.

Re: your original question. I found it more precise and better structured than the 3.5 campaign guide, and both are awesome books. If you already have the 3.5 one, I don't think I would advice you to buy the 4e one. But if you don't have any, I would buy the 4e one.

 

[FireLance]

There is almost no crunch in the campaign guide. The poster quoted above must have mistaken it with another book.

Most likely the 4e Eberron Player's Guide.

 

[GnomeWorks]

There is almost no crunch in the campaign guide. The poster quoted above must have mistaken it with another book. Or whatever. He is wrong.

...ah, right. I was thinking of the player's guide.

As an aside, Jack, you could be less of a jerk about it.

 

[MadMaxim]

If you have all the 3.5 sourcebooks like me then you don't need the 4th edition books for background information because time hasn't progressed between the editions. Unless you're considering playing 4th edition I think it would be a waste of money, not that the books are bad in any way, though.

 

[Asmor]

...ah, right. I was thinking of the player's guide.

As an aside, Jack, you could be less of a jerk about it.

All he said was that you were wrong. How is that being a jerk?

Back on topic, I'd say probably not. While the 4e ECG is a really nice book, if you've already got a lot of 3e stuff and you're not interested in 4e then I think you're golden.

 

[drothgery]

All he said was that you were wrong. How is that being a jerk?

Back on topic, I'd say probably not. While the 4e ECG is a really nice book, if you've already got a lot of 3e stuff and you're not interested in 4e then I think you're golden.

Yeah; with very few exceptions (most of which deal with new-for-4e or newly-prominent-in-4e stuff), what's in the 4e ECG was either in the 3e ECS or in the various 3e Eberron supplements. Having said that, if you never bought Dragonmarked or Five Nations or Sharn: City of Towers, then there will be a lot of new stuff for you in the 4e ECG.

 

[malraux]

As others have said, the layout of the info is a bit better than the 3e ECS. The other thing the 4e ECG provides is a list of knowledge checks on virtually everything with associated DCs. I could see that being handy if your players are either really experienced, and thus need a way to determine what their character knows, or really inexperienced and don't know the basic knowledge of areas.