D&D 5E Eberron: Rising from the Last War Coming For D&D In November

A new D&D campaign setting has appeared on Amazon -- Eberron: Rising from the Last War. It's slated for November 19th, at $49.99.

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Explore the lands of Eberron in this campaign sourcebook for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

This book provides everything players and Dungeon Masters need to play Dungeons & Dragons in Eberron—a war-torn world filled with magic-fueled technology, airships and lightning trains, where noir-inspired mystery meets swashbuckling adventure. Will Eberron enter a prosperous new age or will the shadow of war descend once again?

• Dive straight into your pulp adventures with easy-to-use locations, complete with maps of floating castles, skyscrapers, and more.

• Explore Sharn, a city of skyscrapers, airships, and noirish intrigue and a crossroads for the world’s war-ravaged peoples.

• Include a campaign for characters venturing into the Mournland, a mist-cloaked, corpse-littered land twisted by magic.

• Meld magic and invention to craft objects of wonder as an artificer—the first official class to be released for fifth edition D&D since the Player’s Handbook.

• Flesh out your characters with a new D&D game element called a group patron—a background for your whole party.

• Explore 16 new race/subrace options including dragonmarks, which magically transform certain members of the races in the Player’s Handbook.

• Confront horrific monsters born from the world’s devastating wars.

There is an alternate cover for game stores:

WotC's Jeremy Crawford confirmed that "The book incorporates the material in "Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron" and adds a whole lot more."

 

[Parmandur]

I am not sure if I am following the coherence of your argument here, @Paul Farquhar. First, you argued that archaeology was a major feature of every D&D setting, which I do not believe is true. Then your response to that was to equate "the presence of ancient ruins to investigate" with 'archaeology," which is also false. When I challenged the idea that these things equated, your response was a curt re-quote of something I had previously said. So I invited you to provide your own counterargument, which brings us to this above quote, which leaves me scratching my head because you first make an unsupported appeal to definition that fails to connect the definition with your thesis and then equivocate on that definition so that the activity of PCs in D&D constitutes "archaeology" by liberally stretching that definition. There are a number of problems with this argument, many of which involve the arguments shifting from one goal post to another.

If you want to argue that grave-robbing and plundering tombs is a major part of every D&D setting, I'm still not sure I would agree (e.g., Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, etc.), but that seems like a more defensible position than saying "archaeology is a major feature in every D&D setting ever" as a way to marginalize the greater prevalence of archaeology in Eberron in comparison with other D&D settings.

I believe he also said that archaeology was somehow more FRs' "turf" than Eberron's, and he has so far appealed to the use of "forgotten" in the setting name, the fact that it has history and libraries, and that grave-robbing is something that the Harpers occasionally do. Do you agree with him then that Forgotten Realms has more of an archaeological theme than Eberron? I do not doubt that Forgotten Realms has archaeology, but we are arguing about its prevalence in comparison with Eberron and the extent to which it can be considered a prevalent feature of FR as it is with Eberron.

Oh, heavens, no, I don't agree with that position. While grave robbery is pretty core to the entire concept of D&D, archeology as a social justification is not, with Eberron being rather exceptional in that regard.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Which other settings have universities with faculties dedicated to archaeology? Because Eberron's Morgrave does. Plus, Indiana Jones was a tenured professor, not merely a grave robber.

I don't buy this idea that for graverobbing to be archaeology it must be backed by a university. Lord Carnarvon payed for his expedition with Howard Carter with his own money and had nothing to do with any university. Belzoni, the closest RL Indiana Jones, was not connected to any university. And I could list off dozens of others.

However, the Forgotten Realms (e.g. Waterdeep, Suzail) and Planescape (Sigil) have universities. Golarion (Pathfinder FR) has several.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's also true of literally every setting, from the Wilderlands of High Fantasy on.

What is?

I don't buy this idea that for graverobbing to be archaeology it must be backed by a university. Lord Carnarvon payed for his expedition with Howard Carter with his own money and had nothing to do with any university. Belzoni, the closest RL Indiana Jones, was not connected to any university. And I could list off dozens of others.

However, the Forgotten Realms (e.g. Waterdeep, Suzail) and Planescape (Sigil) have universities.

Having universities doesn’t make archeology a theme of the setting.

Digging up/entering old ruins for the purpose of academic discovery is archeology as such. Some people want to view it is indistinguishable from “grave robbing” other than social stigma, but I’m happy to just roll my eyes at that. The actual distinction is academic discovery.

This may exist in FR, but it isn’t a major theme of the setting. It is in Eberron.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Having universities doesn’t make archeology a theme of the setting.

I believe I said that. I wasn't the one who claimed that archaeology required universities.

Digging up/entering old ruins for the purpose of academic discovery is archeology as such. Some people want to view it is indistinguishable from “grave robbing” other than social stigma, but I’m happy to just roll my eyes at that. The actual distinction is academic discovery.

Even if you insist on Archaeology only having the purest motives, I can attest from personal experience that there are plenty of eccentric gnome scholars in pretty much any D&D setting wanting pure research.

This may exist in FR, but it isn’t a major theme of the setting. It is in Eberron.

It's a theme that occurs in Eberron. It's not the major theme in Eberron - I thinking you are letting your experience of particular adventures colour your view of the setting.

And it's a theme in most other D&D (and D&D ajacent) settings.

The is an archaeological dig in the Baldur's Gate CRPG. A companion in Pillar's of Eternity is an archaeologist. Pathfinder has an archaeologist subclass for bard, as well as several university archaeology departments that feature in Golarion adventures.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Oof. So ... there is a distinction between basic graverobbing (I loot graves and sell what I find for personal gain) and modern archaeology (I carefully record the presence of items at, um, gravesites and, under the color of law of the national authority for the area, return the items to the national authority and publish my results to further my academic career and/or to advance knowledge) ....

But the difference can often be muddled, especially when dealing with the past. And maybe that's not a great topic of discussion?

Esp. when we're are talking about made-up campaign settings?

They are wholly distinct fictional themes. Only cynical “hot take” critics and old Cracked videos refer to Indiana Jones as a grave-robber, because that is a separate archetype from the one he is an example of.

This is directly relevant to the discussion of whether archeology is a theme of a setting.

 

[Aldarc]

What I think is worth noting is that the academic distinction between treasure-hunting/grave-robbing and archaeology is also one that exists in Eberron, something that gets discussed in various sourcebooks. While these things can be muddled, especially when it comes to the process of recovering antiquities, the point is that archaeology exists as a named, prominent academic discipline within Eberron (e.g., Morgrave University) and therein it conscientiously grapples with those issues by archaeologists and academics in the setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

They are wholly distinct fictional themes. Only cynical “hot take” critics and old Cracked videos refer to Indiana Jones as a grave-robber, because that is a separate archetype from the one he is an example of.

This is directly relevant to the discussion of whether archeology is a theme of a setting.

Actually, characters in Indiana Jones movies refer to Indiana Jones as a grave robber. And it's an archetype he finds it difficult to separate himself from.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I believe I said that. I wasn't the one who claimed that archaeology required universities.



Even if you insist on Archaeology only having the purest motives, I can attest from personal experience that there are plenty of eccentric gnome scholars in pretty much any D&D setting wanting pure research.


It's a theme that occurs in Eberron. It's not the major theme in Eberron - I thinking you are letting your experience of particular adventures colour your view of the setting.

And it's a theme in most other D&D (and D&D ajacent) settings.

The is an archaeological dig in the Baldur's Gate CRPG. A companion in Pillar's of Eternity is an archaeologist. Pathfinder has an archaeologist subclass for bard, as well as several university archaeology departments that feature in Golarion adventures.

You may want to mentally review the difference between the term “a major theme” and “the major theme”, because they don’t mean the same thing.

Further, while there are the occasional archeologists in dnd games, it just isn’t a noticeable part of the world building. What FR campaign guide mentions archeologists of renown or institutions that support them? Who are the powerful who fund archeology in FR, and what game supplements are they discussed within? Are they in primary supplements or obscure deep dive books from the end of 2e’s setting book extravaganza?

The point is, something existing in a setting doesn’t make it a theme or important aspect of that setting.

Pulp archeological adventure is a theme of and inspiration for Eberron, to a much greater extent than any other published dnd world.