D&D General What do you like about Eberron?

[Reynard]

Or if they don't like that, just ignore it. WotC is fine with it no matter what one does.

That was true up until they decided to have their own Endgame. And we know how that turned out...

 

[Laurefindel]

I don't see this as an unfortunate side effect in the slightest. If the DM is restricting because they know those details and desires that everything in their setting is highly connected to that setting, that's an absolute win.

We know that kitchen sinks setting like FR get republished and sold across editions, and that thematically restricted settings like Dark Sun get republished and sold across editions, so both are absolute valid ways to play. A DM who is trying to have a highly thematic setting, enough that they don't want to add something because it won't have those connections, is making a perfectly valid choice and it's not "unfortunate" to me that they picked one reasonable choice instead of a different reasonable choice of a kitchen sink.

I mean, to be fair, Eberron IS a kitchen sink setting. They took great care to include everything D&D into Eberron. "If it exists in D&D, there's a place for it in Eberron" was the motto for a while (and still is maybe?)

It's a fancy, designer-model kitchen sink that fits in a specific house aesthetics, but a kitchen sink nonetheless. And there's nothing wrong with that.

 

[GM Lent]

While I harbored some resentment toward Eberron back in the day because it won the setting design contst and my own submission (deservedly) did not, I have to say that there was nothing I didn't like about Eberron. As others have said, it felt more like a living world that had grown and developed organically than most others, and didn't shy away from the fact that magic/technology that makes people's lives easier (and/or could be sold fo a profit) would absolutely be utilized large scale.

In a very real sense, it reminded me of the way the old Al-Qadim approached world-building. Nations and states were more important than racial ties, and in the cosmopolitan areas you'd find orcs and ogres and goblins working right alongside your humans and elves. Afetr all, civilizations develop for a reason, and those reasons are as compelling for any person as they are for another. I also loved the way Eberron, like Al-Qadim, made religious struuctures almost more importat than the deities they followed. And I really loved the fact that, just as in Al-Qadim, the gods weren't presented as just really powerful monsters - they were distant and unknowable and mysterious.

Eberron made D&D make sense.

 

[Keldryn]

I mean, to be fair, Eberron IS a kitchen sink setting. They took great care to include everything D&D into Eberron. "If it exists in D&D, there's a place for it in Eberron" was the motto for a while (and still is maybe?)

It's a fancy, designer-model kitchen sink that fits in a specific house aesthetics, but a kitchen sink nonetheless. And there's nothing wrong with that.

It's definitely a kitchen sink, but it feels much more coherent to me than most kitchen sink fantasy settings. The Known World from BECMI was always my favorite setting when I was younger (that's what I started with), but coherency is not its strong point. Grey Box FR was pretty fantastic as well.

When an existing setting is updated for a new edition of D&D, I much prefer the approach of re-imagining the world as though particular game mechanics and class/ancestry options had always been there. Dark Sun 4e is a good example. I loved how it introduced the Eladrin and the dying Feywild (the Land Within the Wind). I also liked how Eberron 4e had the Feyspires that would fade in and out.

So yeah, that's my absolute favorite thing about Eberrron. It gets re-imagined through the lens of a new D&D edition, instead of trying to justify every difference within the fiction of the world. Given that it begin its life in 3.5e, it hasn't really needed significant re-imagining anyway.

My second favorite thing about Eberron is that it has its own unique cosmology and doesn't contort itself to fit into the Not So Great Wheel and its rigid basis in alignment mechanics combined with a mishmash of real world mythology.

Or if they don't like that, just ignore it. WotC is fine with it no matter what one does.

Of course. Ultimately, I will ignore whatever I don't like, and what other people do with it doesn't make any difference to me.

Like I said, it bothers me way more than it should. I suppose it's about the product and design direction of making everything related, even when it doesn't fit or make sense. I'm not losing sleep over it, it's just super annoying when I think about it. Lol.

 

[Gradine]

I feel Eberron has strong faction identification stuff.

Karrnath with their Necromancy. Thrane and the Church of the Silver Flame. Blood of Vol. Dragonmarked Houses. Interesting factions with identity that can be riffed on.

What's really great about how this is presented too; you really can just run these factions as surface level with their very strong identities, but you can also dig deeper and see the cracks and the fractures and splinters and really play around with that complexity and nuance.

The Eberron setting was the first D&D setting where alignment wasn't a given for certain species of Material Plane monsters.

It really cannot be undersold how significant and important this was.

For me, Eberron was THE blueprint for “D&D” with a twist. It takes the “our elves are different!” trope and applies it to pretty much everything, which at first was both refreshing and intimidating.

Yup. Well, pretty much everything. It still doesn't apply to Dwarves. After all, Our Dwarves Are All The Same

 

[Gradine]

And now, let the memes commence:

 

[Bravesteel25]

Eberron feels like an actual place. I feel like I could step through a portal Isekai-style and imagine myself living there.

I love how the setting leaves so many mysteries open and unexplained.

I really appreciate the way religions and organizations mix as well as the take on corporations via the Dragonmarked Houses.

The fact that I can have a post-war escapade in one area of Khorvaire that then morphs into a high stakes pursuit by lightning rail culminating in a deep dungeon delve (and have that all make sense in the world!) is a big plus for me.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

If I remember right, Keith Baker has/had a website where he would write 'his' Eberron, which I thought was interesting to see a designer's version of their setting, done without committee.

One article he had that I found very interesting was when he got into the concept of reskinning, which maybe some players weren't familiar with, and as an example, he reskinned a barbarian into a Brelish supersoldier, if I remember right, who instead of being a raging beast, their powers and rage came from alchemical experiments that had been done to them

 

[Corinnguard]

Yup. Well, pretty much everything. It still doesn't apply to Dwarves. After all, Our Dwarves Are All The Same

Athasian Dwarves were certainly different. Then again so were many of the D&D species that existed in both the 3e and 4e versions of that setting.

 

[Gradine]

Eberron feels like an actual place. I feel like I could step through a portal Isekai-style and imagine myself living there.

I love how the setting leaves so many mysteries open and unexplained.

I really appreciate the way religions and organizations mix as well as the take on corporations via the Dragonmarked Houses.

The fact that I can have a post-war escapade in one area of Khorvaire that then morphs into a high stakes pursuit by lightning rail culminating in a deep dungeon delve (and have that all make sense in the world!) is a big plug for me.

If you really want to do a deep dive into the Eberron setting, Keith Baker's blog is a must-read. He adds a ton to the pre-existing lore and you can also take or leave what you want