Eberron It Is? [UPDATED & CONFIRMED!]

Nickolaidas · Jul 23, 2018

"More planes in 2019."

Praise the (Dark) Sun!

Jester David · Jul 23, 2018

Schmoe said:
I just want to point out that the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron is apparently playtest material. If someone is looking for official crunch, this is not it.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-...yfinders-guide-to-eberron-be-more-clear-about

Official and final are not the same thing

Unearthed Arcana is official, as is this product. It’s published by WotC. That makes it “official”. Unofficial content would be stuff on Kieth Baker’s blog.
Similarly, being open to the Adventurer’s League has no bearing on being official or not, as there’s a bunch of options in the very official and final DMG that are not open.

This book, as shown by the Unearthed Arcana, is still open to change based on player feedback. Or, more likely given how slow WotC is to update stuff, not. This is very likely it.

Mercurius · Jul 23, 2018

It seems that it could be either final or beta, depending upon popularity. After skimming Baker's intro in the preview, it does sound like it could be the draft of an eventual fuller treatment, even a hardcover book. But WotC isn't bound by that.

As I said in another thread, this isn't a bad way to go for classic settings: Put out a beta-ish PDF that is low risk and cost. Update it as it is finetuned. If it becomes very popular, give it the fuller treatment--expand, more art, etc--with a hardcover book. If it doesn't become popular, at least diehard fans of the setting have their 5E conversion document.

Enevhar Aldarion · Jul 23, 2018

Over in the Ravnica thread I wondered if the announcement would be made on today's episode of Dragon Talk. But while they did tell us about the books before the show airs, today's episode will be about Eberron and Ravnica! So tune in at 5pm Eastern/2pm Pacific on Twitch to hear Keith Baker talk about Eberron.

God · Jul 23, 2018

Ath-kethin said:
Your dismissal of Eberron as not "a really good setting" is telling, especially given your error in stating the setting was not updated for 4e - Eberron had a Player's Guide, a Campaign Guide, and an adventure in 4e, same as Dark Sun.

It's "telling," I suppose, because I absolutely am of the opinion that Eberron is not a subjectively good, or interesting setting, and considerably inferior to those that came before. Hence not being bothered to follow its support in 4E (which I also didn't bother with because I didn't like it.)

Ralif Redhammer · Jul 23, 2018

Well, that’s a bit of a bummer. While it might be cool to read, I think I’ll pass on setting my next campaign there. By my own rule, I don’t allow playtest material in my campaigns. I don’t think it’d be fair of me to have that rule and then run a whole campaign based on a book marked as playtest.

Schmoe said:
I just want to point out that the Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron is apparently playtest material. If someone is looking for official crunch, this is not it.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-...yfinders-guide-to-eberron-be-more-clear-about

Bacon Bits · Jul 23, 2018

Eirikrautha said:
Hmmm, I seem to remember someone from WotC suggesting that grognards would be happy with this release. "Grognard" = French for Napolean's "Old Guard." Old guard does not translate to me as a setting developed for 3.5.

Same. Eberron was the most recently published new campaign setting*. It's really difficult to call it "classic" or "old school" even if it was 15 years ago when every other campaign setting is at least 20 years old!

[*: No, Points of Light doesn't count, even if you really liked it. The material for that was "published" in about a dozen adventures (basically 2 adventure paths) and in the ones I have the most significant indication that they take place in Nentir Vale is the names of the god on the temple doors in town. Beyond that there was one monster supplement, and I think a novel. The gazetteer was cancelled when D&D Next started and it never saw print. Both Mystara and Red Steel have more material published about them, and that's saying something.]

That said, Keith Baker is a talented dude and produces some good stuff. Still, I havent seen anything compelling in this setting to offset the opportunity cost of the new mechanics (dragon marks), et al.

I've played Eberron a few times, and while I didn't particularly care for it for D&D, I do like Keith Baker's work. There were things that we liked that we nicked for our regular games. Both Warforged and Artificers ended up at our table more than once when the campaign suited them. I will probably pick it up just for our Savage Worlds games since that jives better with the pulpy atmosphere that we always have had in Eberron.

One thing I'm not real interested in is the, "If it exists in D&D, it has a place in Eberron" sentiment. I know that dates from the original setting, and I know why WotC loves the idea of kitchen sink settings, but I don't really care for that. I like settings that restrict the player or narrow the available mechanics to create a certain aesthetic.

This will be the second book they've published that I won't buy (with the first being the Ravnica one announced today). Oh well, I guess they'll get around to the other settings I want to see. It just irritates me that I can get Ravnica or Ebberon stuff on DMsGuild, but not Spelljammer, Planescape, or Greyhawk. Open them all...

Click to expand...

Yeah, that is a little irritating. I was really hoping for Dark Sun, and Greyhawk remains my favorite setting. I understand that they want to control how these settings are made, but at the same time, they publish really slowly. Maybe I should buy both books just to encourage them to do more web-published campaign splatbooks in the hopes that they get to something I'm really interested in.

dave2008 · Jul 23, 2018

God said:
...an update of a really good setting, like Planescape, Greyhawk or Dark Sun. ?

What, in your opinion, makes those "really good" settings.

variant · Jul 23, 2018

Demetrios1453 said:
Eberron still needs official rules for psionics and artificers, so this is likely a placeholder until those are thrashed out and the remaining rough edges in this are smoothed out for an actual hard copy release.

Then they are charging for an incomplete product that will likely show up in another product where you will be expected to pay for it all over again. That's even worse.

timbannock · Jul 23, 2018

variant said:
Then they are charging for an incomplete product that will likely show up in another product where you will be expected to pay for it all over again. That's even worse.

That's my only gripe with this thing. If they said in the product description that it was playtest material, I'd be okay with that because I'd know up-front it's a no-buy for me. But that fact is buried inside of the last paragraph of Keith Baker's introductory text (which is mostly reminiscing about Eberron's creation) which can only be viewed on DMsGuild...and not at all on DnDBeyond. So 50% of the venues make it impossible to know that fact up front.

I assume that wasn't done intentionally, but it's a sore point.