Am I the only one who feels Eberron's setting to be limiting?

[StupidSmurf]

Please note that this situation is identical to the fact that nearly every FR character has to account for what (s)he was doing during the Time of Troubles. I am a huge FR fan, and I have no problems with this. I imagine that Eberron fans similarly love coming up with hooks to connect their characters to the war.

Say what? Nearly every FR character has to account for their activities during the Time of Troubles? How so?

For the record, I thought the Time of Troubles was a concept whose awfulness was only exceeded by the way that concept was carried out and told. But that's just my opinion, and is kinda getting off topic...

 

[Len]

I've never once had the Gaming Police knock on my door to make sure I was running a setting to code.

But that's because you slip the inspector an envelope every month, isn't it?

Say what? Nearly every FR character has to account for their activities during the Time of Troubles? How so?

That's the point. If it wasn't an issue in FR, why is it a problem in Eberron?

 

[Mystery Man]

Eberron and the Last War is prett much the flip side to the FR coin. FR for the most part has this great feeling of stagnation to it. Maybe it's just me, but I can't help but look over the scads of FR books I own and think that while it's a expansive setting with plenty of development, it's a still frame. Nothing is actually taking place. There's no movement. The history has all long since happened and now everything is just sitting around. With Eberron there is at least the feeling that something's occured. More than just nations existing, the nations actually did stuff.

OH PUHLEEEZE!!!

 

[Peter Gibbons]

I've also noticed that Eberron's setting is described as 'dark fantasy'. While I'm not exactly sure what's meant by that, I'm beginning to draw the conclusion that 'dark' means 'depressing' because basically every character is going to have some sob war story. "My brother was killed.", "My home town is in ruins.", "I lost everything and have nothing left to live for.". While I'm sure these characters will find their purpose in life again, probably over the course of several novels and much monster slaying, it's all still very depressing.

Eberron is heavily influenced by film noir, which is a very "dark" and "depressing" genre. Obviously, it's not to everyone's taste. Personally, I love it.

So I'm afraid I can't really sympathize with your plight. I don't mind the fact that any character I create is going to have been affected in some way by the Last War, any more than I mind the fact that every divine spellcaster in the Forgotten Realms has to have a patron deity. It's just part of the reality of the setting.

But hey, if you really can't stand the idea of having lived through the Last War, how about a character who has been in suspended animation for the last 500 years and just now woke up a la Sleeping Beauty?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

I find it to be the nature of any campaign setting to be limiting.

This is good.

Would Lord of the Rings have been better with the addtion of superheros mutants?

Would Star Wars be better with the addition of zombies?

Would Band of Brothers better with the addtion of sports car racers?

No. No. and No.

Limitations can help a setting as much as they restrict it. Stories can meld better. The characters become more cohesive.

Sorry, but I support settings like Eberron over settings like Forgotten Realms.

Less is More.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

The war took place (primarily) in the central region of the continent, but there are other character options.

Eldeen Reaches, Droaam, Lhazaar Principalities, Mror Holds, Q'Barra, Shadow Marches, & Zilargo saw little of the war. Aerenal was not in the war.

Now these Nations did have some citizens choose to join the war, typically as mercinaries, but lots of their people were not in the war.

If you are looking for a specific example to give the DM, on page 198 it says "Set behind the monster-filled wilderness of Droaam the isolated Shadow Marches missed most of the events that occurred in central Khorvaire."

 

[Nightfall]

Or you could be a planar guy like me. *cheers Dak, the Silverflame Githzerai paladin*

 

[Tewligan]

Would Star Wars be better with the addition of zombies?

Although I get the gist of what you're saying, I just had to point out that everything is better with zombies.

 

[ssampier]

Look at this way: Instead of playing just a fighter, you could be warrior who fought for freedom in a war-savaged land. The war could potentially give your character some depth and, for lack of a better word, character. If you've ever heard war stories from veterans, you'll understand.

Although I get the gist of what you're saying, I just had to point out that everything is better with zombies.

And ninjas! Empirical zombies and Rebel Alliance ninjas, deadly precision, "Dead you are, hmmm?"

 

[Henry]

You're allowed to pretend the war never happened in creating or writing about a character?

Certainly, the war happened (assuming the DM is using the default premise), but remember that the war didn't necessarily happen for that character. As Maverick Weirdo suggests, not only were there areas that saw little or no action, but even among Breland, not every single able-bodied male or female saw action - there's plenty of room to hide, as Eberron's detractors are quick to point out (the continent has something like a 5% population density ) So you could have:

--dirt poor in the depths of Sharn who were never called to duty
--people in the outlying territories who didn't get involved in war
--deserters who ran to the country to escape
--people whose families were important enough to buy them a pass from serving duty

And of course, the war veterans themselves. For that matter, even if a character served in the war, his simple response could be, "I don't want to talk about it," and if you want, just provide cryptic snippets when desired about life in the war. (Think Firefly or Serenity's Zoe and Mal, if you ever watched those.) So there's plenty of room to fly in this setting.

This seems to be the opposite of the Forgotten Realms philosophy where a character can be as open-ended (within the limits of the ruleset) as you want him to be.

Well, looking at it from another angle, Forgotten Realms is limited, in that you can't have anyone whose background was from a continent-wide war, either (well, unless you count Maztica). (And for any FR buffs, no, the business with the Golden Horde doesn't count to me, because no one west of Cormyr felt it at all, from what I saw).