Eberron inconsistencies

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Aw come on, D&D has always striven for consistency and authenticity. Since its earliest days.


"Behind the door is a 20x20 room with 6 storm giants." No food, no water, no sanitary facilities, and the door is too small for them to have fit through in the first place.

"Zagyg did it" makes everything consistent and authentic.

 

[lostingeneral]

A little late to the party here, but I'm fairly certain conductor stones have a current running through them.

From Adventurer's Guide to Eberron, page 12:

The lightning rail gets its name from the electric bolts that jump between conductor stones (and to a coach when it passes over them).

So from that source, at least, it sounds like there is a constant electric current runs through them (which is how I've played it in my game whether that was the original intent or not).

 

[Aaron]

Actually, I think there's an article series called the Economicon discussing what's possible in a D&D world, and that the rules are reasonable* (*with the article's explanations).[...]

I'm aware of the "general" D&D inconsistencies, and I'm not interested in them, cause I and my players believe they are inevitable and substantial part of the game.

But they have nothing in common with setting inconsistencies.+While

Eberron has a slightly different situation, we still have loads of monsters in their ecosystem that we don't have in ours. Orcs there are druids, so they could grow lots of food; but the other creatures, especially wild ones, are not.

Where is all the food?

Maybe there aren't so many monsters out there.

You don't have to put every single monster of the various MMs in your campaign.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Between things like this and the myriad answers here of "You can't run a teleportation business, House Orien would kill you", or "prominent nobles would put you out of business", it really looks like part of the point of Eberron is you can't really change the setting.

No, it tells you much more about some other peoples DMing styles though!

Part of the EXPRESS point of Eberron is that Keith Baker wants people to make it their own setting. That is why some mysteries are left unanswered by WotC.

DM's can let PCs try anything that they feel comfortable with. Why hasn't anyone else tried it? Well, they just aren't the protagonists of the story, for instance.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, one of the big inconsistencies with Eberron is the scale of the map. There was a lot of discussion about this when it was first introduced; the scale per the book is mind-bogglingly vast. I'd recommend compressing all the distances so that it is more on the scale of Europe, say.

I'd also consider just using the original Eberron campaign setting book. Lots of other books took things in various directions which were at odds with some of the original principles of the setting; I think the original book was a lot more reasonable in that respect.

Apart from the map scale, of course

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Since nobody has mentioned it yet, one of the big inconsistencies with Eberron is the scale of the map. There was a lot of discussion about this when it was first introduced; the scale per the book is mind-bogglingly vast. I'd recommend compressing all the distances so that it is more on the scale of Europe, say.

As I recall, wasn't that something changed late in editing, too late for all interested parties to object in time?

 

[Spatula]

And wasn't the map scale reduced in the 4e Eberron campaign book?

 

[fireinthedust]

I'm aware of the "general" D&D inconsistencies, and I'm not interested in them, cause I and my players believe they are inevitable and substantial part of the game.

But they have nothing in common with setting inconsistencies.+While Maybe there aren't so many monsters out there.

You don't have to put every single monster of the various MMs in your campaign.

Weeeell, Ebberron assumes there is a place for all the 3e stuff in it, somewhere, modified. Some things are replaced, like Driders with the scorpion-people, but in general that was at least one of the design goals. Just for argument's sake, then. Even if it wasn't an issue, there should be more livestock/herd animals than there are mentioned in the setting; the war could have something to do with why there are fewer, thus the otherwise unobtrusive predators suddenly turning on adventurers...


And the general inconsistencies could help explain the setting inconsistencies, if there is a match-up they could explain. The teleportation circle thing is a general issue as well, including why there aren't international consortiums in all RPG settings with magic, considering it only takes some Int to be a wizard, not just a high Int. Eberron tries to reconcile the rules in a "realistic" way. The quirks of economics, of social structures and needs, could have far-reaching consequences that aren't mentioned in the books, but end up explaining the things we're here complaining about.


Oh well.


I'm wracking my brain here, just trying to help.


Okay, I got it: if there's widespread literacy, why isn't there widespread democracy?

And why the heck are the Dragonmark houses the only ones with the monopolies? I mean, in theory anyone could be making money off magic item creation, or messages, or trains.

Why are gnomes in charge of messages, while elves are in charge of illusions/shadow? I mean, gnomes are the illuionists, traditionally. Or inventors, and Cannith got that.

Why are there evil clerics in good religions when there's a plethora of low-level detect alignment spells? (ooh, that's a good one) Especially since the Silver Flame is all about rooting out evil? What, they're unaware of the idea of alignment when they have spells for this stuff?

 

[Krensky]

Okay, I got it: if there's widespread literacy, why isn't there widespread democracy?

Because near-universal literacy does not necessarily lead to democracy.

 

[Embermage]

Okay, I got it: if there's widespread literacy, why isn't there widespread democracy?

Eh, I've been to a few places with a lot of one and very little of the other, I don't really see these two concepts as having all that much correlation. YMMV, of course. A decent in-game explanation? Traditionally having a productive, comfortable middle class is among the strongest factors prompting democracy, and many of the nations of Khorvaire don't really have that. Plus, the patriotism/nationalism/jingoism of the Last War could really put a damper on pushes for government reform - and as long as people are concerned that the next spark could kick off renewed fighting, widespread war is politically and militarily inconvenient, with those who clamor loudest for reform being labelled as enemies of the state. This question is really hard to answer with one single generalization, I guess it really depends on individual societies.

And why the heck are the Dragonmark houses the only ones with the monopolies? I mean, in theory anyone could be making money off magic item creation, or messages, or trains.

The way I see it, their advantage is that 1) they have a leg up with inherent inherited abilities (dragonmarks) that naturally lend themselves to particular industries, which helped make the houses competitive; and 2) they were just there first (that is, the first monopolies, not necessarily the first companies into any particular market). The dragonmarked houses had an advantage in an open market of having renewable magical resources that didn't require training or years of study, just an accident of birth. After that, they had the advantage of forming their companies around a family unit, which helped them keep the company together and keep everyone focused on the good of the company.

The dragonmarked houses also have the advantage of market momentum keeping them in place. They have offices all over the place, incalculable wealth, and centuries of history behind them. That kind of power is hard for anyone to compete against. People do compete with them though, but by and large their options are 1) let the house buy them out, the way corporations in our world do with successful startups; of 2) get crushed by the full might of the Twelve. There's a reason that monopolies in the U.S. existed, and why they had to be dismantled by government action. Once a corporation gets a monopoly, they become able to turn market forces to their own benefit to maintain that position.

Why are gnomes in charge of messages, while elves are in charge of illusions/shadow? I mean, gnomes are the illuionists, traditionally. Or inventors, and Cannith got that.

I think this one just comes down to averting stereotypes in order to make the setting unique. The only reason those things are expected of certain races is that they were done that way in other settings. One might ask similar questions of racial treatments in Dark Sun, for example, and likely get the same answer.

Why are there evil clerics in good religions when there's a plethora of low-level detect alignment spells? (ooh, that's a good one) Especially since the Silver Flame is all about rooting out evil? What, they're unaware of the idea of alignment when they have spells for this stuff?

This one bugs the hell out of me, and is a huge inconsistency. How does a church with hundreds of paladins have evil priests that go unsmited? While there are ways to go about hiding an evil alignment, it's hard to argue that a low-level cleric or lay priest has the means to keep their nature concealed for any significant period of time from a paladin. The Silver Flame even has an Inquisition specifically to root these guys out. Maybe there's just so much selfish, looking-out-for-number-one evil around that smiting everyone who pings your evildar is unworkable.

I simply handle this one by cutting detect chaos/evil/good.law out of my game entirely, and giving paladins detect undead instead. In a world like Eberron, I dislike the idea of being able to spot evildoers at will, it detracts from the pulp/noir portion of the setting for me. Again, YMMV.