Which is the Best WOTC Setting to Purchase?

[Nebulous]

I'm actually overwhelmed at how many great settings are out there. Any setting can be tweaked by a vigilant DM to make it his own. You start looking around at game stores and you will literally be buried under a mountain of hard choices. Even if you HAD the money to buy everything out there, you would never have enough time to play in every campaign. I'd even say that every setting has something worthwhile and unique to it that another setting can't match. It is a very difficult choice (and an ultimately expensive hobby) that we have here. And as DM, it usually falls to me (and my pocketbook) to support the game. I just have a thing about collecting beautiful books, and this industry is pumping them out by the truckload right now.

 

[Corsair]

Nearly every non-WotC setting I've looked at has had *something* in it that was intrinsic to the setting but I absolutely hated. This also applies to WotC settings, but to a lesser extent.


Then I discovered Eberron, and soiled my pants.


So many great things about it, but the most important thing about Eberron is that it makes sense. It takes all the idiosyncracies about DnD, DnD magic, DnD Races, and takes those into account when it was made. Add into that a very good style concept, and it's the best thing since sliced bread.

 

[MacMathan]

I would go with Eberron. It has been built for 3e from the ground up and is receiving good support from WoTC.

Also there is not 20 years of novel, supplements, and back history to catch up on like there is for FR.

 

[PK]

Eberron vote +1 here.

Tell me this...why are there thousands of +1 longswords floating around the economy when a) a wizard has to spend his own hard earned xp to make it and b) he can't use it.

Eberron solves this - magewrights and artificers

How can you have any sort of intrigue with a church if as soon as a priest does something wrong, she/he can no longer cast spells?

Eberron solves this - no alignment restrictions for clerics

If Elves are longer lived, smarter, more artistic, and in every way possible the grandest and most perfect being on the planet, why are they not dominant?

Eberron solves this...elves are morbid, ancestor worshipping people who spend all of their time trying to recreate the masterpieces of the past rather than focusing on the future or present.

Those are just some ways that I find Eberron fixes a few of the problems I find in Grayhawk or the Realms. It is a matter of choice and preference though. I understand that some hate airships and the lightning rail, but in the game I've run the players have been on both, but I doubt we've spent 10 minutes combined on them. They were just quick easy ways of getting them from point A to B. They don't impact the setting, IMO.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I was told most TPM's are badly produced and edited

This is simply not true.

There are some that are like this, but there are also WotC products like this.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I don't think that's a reasonable comparison. How many of Freeport supplements post-date the launch of Eberron? Freeport's nearly as old as 3e, IIRC.

How on earth does that impact whether or not Freeport or Eberron has more support? Eberron has less, period.

And PDF-only products are borderline as to whether they're worth counting.

You really ought to look at the PDFs in question, then. Do note that Treasures of Freeport has arguably a better artist (Christopher Shy) than most Eberron books have.

And the day that Eberron has a setting-specific book of monsters, a setting-specific book of treasure (not just magic items, in fact very few of them), a setting-specific book of NPCs, a setting-specific mega-adventure and a setting specific book of short adventures, then we'll be closer to parity between the two settings.

And, of course, Freeport also has a trilogy (expanded with an additional newish short adventure) of adventures like Eberron currently does.

Of that list, only the treasure book is a PDF. If you add in PDFs, you get a bunch more adventures and that additional supplement.

 

[JoeGKushner]

How on earth does that impact whether or not Freeport or Eberron has more support? Eberron has less, period.


You really ought to look at the PDFs in question, then. Do note that Treasures of Freeport has arguably a better artist (Christopher Shy) than most Eberron books have.

Sorry. I love Shy's art. I've got a CD with his cover work on it, and he's done some great stuff for Hollywood.

That does not make him a good RPG artist though. Just the take I've heard several people mention.

I know people who don't like Bill Spwinkowizt's style in comics either.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I know people who don't like Bill Spwinkowizt's style in comics either.

Poor Bill Sienkiewicz, not even his mama can spell his name right without looking it up first.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Another vote for Eberron

Forgotten Realms fans say FR has gotten better and moved beyond "world destruction plots", and I think it has - but I'd rather use a setting that doesn't have FR-style baggage in the first place. (Plus, until Mystra is killed off and replaced by a neutral non-humanoid figure, I want nothing to do with the setting. Naturally this would involve the loss of Chosen status for several NPCs. Killing off Eilistraee would make me happy as well, and if Gruumsh ever gets his revenge on Corellon I will nearly as happy.)

Eberron, being newer, has much less information to absorb. I find that to be a plus. A big one. That gives more space for the DM. The kind of FR information I tend to like, like Halaster's actions in the Fall of Cormanthor, are quickly drowned out by later changes, like big H making some kind of deal with the good aligned goddess of magic. (Sorry, it's a pet peeve.)

I wish I could vote for one of WotC's D20 Modern settings. I like the rules, but I don't like any of the official settings. (I'm not counting Star Drive or other Alternity settings, however.)

 

[pntbllr]

Hi-

I'm think about buying either Eberron or Forgotten Realms but can not decide which to get, so why not ask you guys which setting should get my hard earned $$. I thought about a Non-WoTC setting but I heard most of those other setting are pretty bad.


thanks guys


Scott

I own both but haven't played Eberron yet. I think if you have to choose you should go with Eberron for the current support available. I like Forrgotten Realms because of familiarity and comfort, it was the current suported product when I started using it.