Why didn't Eberron click?

[Werther von G]

Someone upthread mentioned that they, and their group, weren't impressed by the names in Eberron. This is a riff off that, inspired by one of the folks in my current group.

The name of the world is Toril; the name of the setting is "Forgotten Realms."
The name of the world is Athas; the name of the setting is "Dark Sun."
The name of the world is Kara-Tur, or Rokugan; the name of the setting is "Oriental Adventures."
The name of the world is Greyhawk; the name of the game is "Dungeons & Dragons."

(okay, perhaps not the perfect fit the others are. I acknowledge and move on.)

The premise: if a setting is to succeed, the name of the setting should in and of itself be evocative. I hear "Ravenloft" and think of flights of black birds; I hear "Forgotten Realms" and I imagine distant lands. Even "Dark Sun" is potent with its inherent paradox and suggestion of post-apocalypse. ("The sun's gone dark? Tell me more.")

I don't begrudge them for naming the world Eberron; I think it's a lousy idea to have named the *setting* Eberron, and having a nonsense word in 72-point type on the cover.

 

[DralonXitz]

I personally think the Eberron CS is a work of sheer brilliance. My group stopped playing DnD in 2001 I believe(Been playing SWRPG,LOTR, and Modern since) until about a week ago, when one of my players bought Eberron. Every d20 and RPG weve played, theyve loved to be Bounty Hunter's and Outlaws, so after reading through our one copy we decided to start a campaign in it in about a month. I read through it, expecting some kind of lame overtalked about world, but was I wrong indeed. The Dragonmarks, the Prestige Classes, the magical technology, the houses, it fits perfectly for our group. I strongly recommend Eberron to all.

 

[tarchon]

If only they had listened to me and included a little $0.10 clicker with every book!

General Julius Caesar spoke these words to his soldiers as he crossed the Rubicon in defiance to his government. In literal translations, it means, "The Dye is Cast".

Why was he casting dye into the river? St. Patrick's Day?

 

[Express]

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Souljourner
I've been playing D&D for about 15 years, and this is the first setting in a long time that has sparked any interest besides "what crunchy bits can I get out of it"?

My sentiments exactly.

Ditto and ditto

I have to say in all the build up to Eberron, WOTC sent me conflicting signals of what Ebberon was like or what its "feel" was. Dinosaurs AND trains-huh?

But once I got it I liked it. Part of this is because its a new setting made for 3.5 and because the power level of npcs is so low. I guess I also like the fact it has the whole "kitchen sink" of DnD in it too.

But I also like that its not a thinly disgused copy of earth. To me for instance the Realms are like Earth- Arabia is here, East Asia is in the east, theres an Egyptian culture, etc. (Not a slam on FR ,I like FR).

You can make parallels with earth and Eberron but they dont seem that clear to me at least..

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

The name of the world is Greyhawk; the name of the game is "Dungeons & Dragons."

The name of the world is Oerth, the name of the setting (and city) is Greyhawk.

 

[Von Ether]

I agree. Planescape & Dark Sun both wowed me the first time I picked them up. I was amazed at the scope and depth of innovation in each setting. I was blown away by how each setting had turned D&D on its head, making something fresh out of the same old thing. And I was disappointed by how little my players cared. They wanted their D&D, which is predictable, understandable, and required little intellectual investment. Not once in ten years did I get a Planescape game going for more than a few sessions, and forget about Dark Sun.

WotC is smart. For most gamers, those settings were just too different. For all their innovations, Planescape & Dark Sun forgot about Joe Gamer - the guy who just wants to show up, roll some dice and relax. He doesn't want to be burdened with too much information about the campaign setting. He wants to know that elves are elves, dwarves are dwarves, and that knights ride around a Eurocentric landscape slaying dragons. Anything more than that is too great an investment. You might notice, then, that WotC advertised not for another Planescape, but for a new setting that was "the same, but different."

Very clever, that. You give the gamers who want the old reliable axioms of D&D to hold true, and you give the fans of newness something new to play with in terms of campaign flavor. Guys who just want to roll dice won't get bewildered by a setting full of fundamental changes, and guys like me who love flavor innovations get them in spades. Not everyone will be happy, but Eberron is still a win for WotC for these reasons.

Agreed.

This may be a bold statement, but for me it seems that Eberron is, setting wise, a metaphor for what happened to DnD in 3.0 ruleswise. In 3.0 we weren't introduced to anything new, just catching up DnD to the last 10 years of gaming innovations.

In that respect, Eberron seems to be catching up DnD with the cooler ideas that blossomed in the d20 boom and put them into a setting. Whether that all gels seems to be a matter of personal taste.

Me personally? I'd rather play Eberron than Forgotten Realms.

And that's even after I can draw numerous parrallels between what's already out there and Eberron.

 

[Torillan]

Now I get it......

The question really is "Why didn't it click FOR ME"?!

Well, as another had said, different strokes for different folks. You do make several interesting points about the setting, and posed them quite well.

The easiest response is, as long as you at least take a look at it, and it doesn't appeal to you, then don't buy it. It's certainly not for everyone.
Me, I've been playing D&D off and on for nigh on 22 years now and it struck me as rather refreshing. That's just me though. I liked it, my group seemed to like what they've seen, and I'll be starting up a new campaign in Eberron as soon as our current campaign wraps up. I'm really looking forward to it.

I see quite a few threads starting up, not just here, that seem to want to whine about various things they don't like about the setting. There are enough of them here on ENWorld alone that more don't need to be started up.

Sorry for the rant, but I just finished a 12 page paper regarding euthanasia practices around the world and I'm a little wound up. It's only been out for two weeks or so (in the U.S anyway), so give it some time to see what happens. Some people feel that its good, and while it may not be perfect for them, I think Mr. Baker and company did a very admirable job.

This is your local exhausted nursing student signing off. Thanks for listening.

 

[Lucias]

In 2002 big 3E campaign, the one I'd been running since the PHB came out, ended and I walked away from 3E and d20 completely burned out on the system.

In the years since I've rediscovered the joy of Rules Cyclopedia D&D and have been playing that along with Hackmaster, Deadlands, Savage Worlds, and Buffy. Savage Worlds, in fact, met almost all of my gaming needs. No reason to ever go back to D&D.

But Eberron nabbed me. The previews showed me things I wanted to see. I bought the book at B&N before the official release date. I devoured it. It is one of the most fun and well-designed D&D settings I have ever seen...justifying the existence of some of the D&Disms that break the verasimilitude in most campaign settings. Eberron has nearly everything I look for in a campaign setting (from a guy who was weened on AD&D 2e Forgotten Realms and Planescape).

I actually upgraded to 3.5, something I had promised myself I wouldn't do, just to play the game as intended. Several other of my gaming friends who long ago walked way from 3E have felt the same way.

That's just what's been happening around here. I can't speak for elsewhere.

I'm not saying you should like it. It very well may not appeal to you. But it seems to appeal to people like me...which might have been just what WOTC intended.

 

[JEL]

I bought it and passed it around my gaming group. We love the new mechanics. We love the flavor. But the actual countries and storylines just don't do it for us. For some reason the people and places just aren't that compelling. And while it might seem shallow, we all had serious problems with the names. We really, really, did not like the names.

This is the exact same reaction I had. I think the book is great for ideas, but I'd never run the setting itself.

 

[Thief of Always]

Eberron is an awkward name. They could have done better, but then again, they could have done worse.

My friend is actually interested in the setting, mainly because it reminds him of Jules Verne. Perhaps the flavor of it is not the typical fantasy everybody's used to. Maybe it's the company making it. I think it might be a combination of several things.

The main turn off for me about Eberron is the fact that this was the end result from the setting contest. I still feel funny that a relative of a WOTC employee was the one that won. I don't know...

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.