Graf
Explorer
I suppose this could go in general. But I told my players that I wouldn't put this thread there so it goes here. Suppose I deserve it if I get no responces.
[In additional to the usual spelling mistakes I generate a bunch of proper names for the setting are not spelled correctly… sorry.]
Eberron shows a lot of similarities with the Scarred Lands. A concrete organized pantheon of gods, a complex weave of different secretive groups and evil monsters lurking in the shadows. Given that I have an inclination toward making games and campaigns too complex this can be a double-edged sword.
My natural impulses toward thinking things over and creating something then adding an additional layer of information, interactions, shadowy actors, and so forth every session has often turned prior games into a heavy soup. The most recent game was better but I feel that Eberron plays to my strong points by giving me a good pallet (some complexity is ok) but also to my weak points in that the setting is more "naturally complex". Unlike the Scarred Lands, where most power groups are still limited to the region that they are based in, virtually every Eberron group of note is transcontinental (if not global). The Lords of Dust, Emerald Claw, Dragonmarked Houses, the Chamber, the Dreaming Dark, the Auram… in fact just about every single group listed in the book can show up anywhere.
And in a city based in Sharn (which is where the game looked like it was going to be started) the possibility that, left to my own devices, I might unleash total bedlam is a concern.
(thus this post)
So how to avoid it?
I expect I will have to pick a few main groups and stick to them and deliberately keep the rest from being more than background. Changelings, for example, will be a part of the game, but, no matter how cool they are, they were never going to be more than Jawas. Local color but little impact on the story.
The following is a rough list of cool stuff that I am leaning against putting in the game.
I.e. no major NPCs from that group/race, no groups taking an interest in the party or hunting spooky artifacts the PCs got access to, etc. The list is a combination of stuff that I think is cool (or would want to play as a PC character) or else where I think the stress factor for the players and me for them being involved in the world is too high.
Stress factor: What I mean by stress factor is that a group that is powerful enough that it could “stay in the shadows indefinitely” -> where the group could never figure out who was up to what or why and just be continuously led around by the nose or else a region that is basically a Scarn style “kill zone” populated by hordes of dangerous monsters with an unwinnable battle against an impossible foe that a good character would feel compelled to take part in. Or to put it another way "things that make the game 'unfun'".
Lords of Dust
Demon Wastes
The Chamber
The Draconic Prophesy
Quori/Kalashar/psions/Inspired
Changlings
Shifters (the druid substitution levels and moonspeaker class in Races having done much to elevate what had seemed a boring race to me – but druids were a big part of the Scarred Lands).
Warforged origins in Xen’drik/that warforged are still being created by House Cannith/etc.
Vol
I tend to think that some things, like the repeated invasions and wars (first Demons vs Dragons, then, the Dreaming vs. Giants, Giants vs. Elves and Dragons, Dragons and Elves, then of the Chaos demons vs. the Hobgoblins) are a big part of the history but not really a big part of the current world. Theoretically the Dragons are out there influencing events but the party doesn’t know that, they aren’t ever likely to find out, and if they do they’ll either be ignored, discredited or silenced by the opposition of literally hundreds of god-like beings (or more likely, just one who happened to be nearby).
So these things could be trotted out as the explanation for things… “this big spooky ruin was created when X released vast magical energy in it’s attempt to stop/defeat/imprison Y” without actually turning up.
Because the super-secret societies are all secret (and super powerful so they remain secret) they, for all practical purposes, don’t need to exist. It’s like Schrödinger’s Cat, except that the box is nailed shut.
So what is “core” in the sense that it has to show up in the game, because it’s an unavoidable part of the world?
So far, the list is short:
(the Last War)
Dragonmarked Houses
Mourneland (both the political impact of the day of morning such as displaced refugees as well as an easy source of dungeneering)
The political structure of the starting country (i.e. Breland would be the King and nobles; Sharn would be nobles, criminal syndicates and merchants)
Newspapers and reporters, obviously the Korrenburg Chronicle isn’t the WSJ or even the New York Times but they do do investigative reporting. And that’s fairly novel for a DnD game.
Religion (the Sovereign Host and the Dark Six)
Anything else I’m missing? Disagreements about what’s core? Experiences you want to share?
[In additional to the usual spelling mistakes I generate a bunch of proper names for the setting are not spelled correctly… sorry.]
Eberron shows a lot of similarities with the Scarred Lands. A concrete organized pantheon of gods, a complex weave of different secretive groups and evil monsters lurking in the shadows. Given that I have an inclination toward making games and campaigns too complex this can be a double-edged sword.
My natural impulses toward thinking things over and creating something then adding an additional layer of information, interactions, shadowy actors, and so forth every session has often turned prior games into a heavy soup. The most recent game was better but I feel that Eberron plays to my strong points by giving me a good pallet (some complexity is ok) but also to my weak points in that the setting is more "naturally complex". Unlike the Scarred Lands, where most power groups are still limited to the region that they are based in, virtually every Eberron group of note is transcontinental (if not global). The Lords of Dust, Emerald Claw, Dragonmarked Houses, the Chamber, the Dreaming Dark, the Auram… in fact just about every single group listed in the book can show up anywhere.
And in a city based in Sharn (which is where the game looked like it was going to be started) the possibility that, left to my own devices, I might unleash total bedlam is a concern.
(thus this post)
So how to avoid it?
I expect I will have to pick a few main groups and stick to them and deliberately keep the rest from being more than background. Changelings, for example, will be a part of the game, but, no matter how cool they are, they were never going to be more than Jawas. Local color but little impact on the story.
The following is a rough list of cool stuff that I am leaning against putting in the game.
I.e. no major NPCs from that group/race, no groups taking an interest in the party or hunting spooky artifacts the PCs got access to, etc. The list is a combination of stuff that I think is cool (or would want to play as a PC character) or else where I think the stress factor for the players and me for them being involved in the world is too high.
Stress factor: What I mean by stress factor is that a group that is powerful enough that it could “stay in the shadows indefinitely” -> where the group could never figure out who was up to what or why and just be continuously led around by the nose or else a region that is basically a Scarn style “kill zone” populated by hordes of dangerous monsters with an unwinnable battle against an impossible foe that a good character would feel compelled to take part in. Or to put it another way "things that make the game 'unfun'".
Lords of Dust
Demon Wastes
The Chamber
The Draconic Prophesy
Quori/Kalashar/psions/Inspired
Changlings
Shifters (the druid substitution levels and moonspeaker class in Races having done much to elevate what had seemed a boring race to me – but druids were a big part of the Scarred Lands).
Warforged origins in Xen’drik/that warforged are still being created by House Cannith/etc.
Vol
I tend to think that some things, like the repeated invasions and wars (first Demons vs Dragons, then, the Dreaming vs. Giants, Giants vs. Elves and Dragons, Dragons and Elves, then of the Chaos demons vs. the Hobgoblins) are a big part of the history but not really a big part of the current world. Theoretically the Dragons are out there influencing events but the party doesn’t know that, they aren’t ever likely to find out, and if they do they’ll either be ignored, discredited or silenced by the opposition of literally hundreds of god-like beings (or more likely, just one who happened to be nearby).
So these things could be trotted out as the explanation for things… “this big spooky ruin was created when X released vast magical energy in it’s attempt to stop/defeat/imprison Y” without actually turning up.
Because the super-secret societies are all secret (and super powerful so they remain secret) they, for all practical purposes, don’t need to exist. It’s like Schrödinger’s Cat, except that the box is nailed shut.
So what is “core” in the sense that it has to show up in the game, because it’s an unavoidable part of the world?
So far, the list is short:
(the Last War)
Dragonmarked Houses
Mourneland (both the political impact of the day of morning such as displaced refugees as well as an easy source of dungeneering)
The political structure of the starting country (i.e. Breland would be the King and nobles; Sharn would be nobles, criminal syndicates and merchants)
Newspapers and reporters, obviously the Korrenburg Chronicle isn’t the WSJ or even the New York Times but they do do investigative reporting. And that’s fairly novel for a DnD game.
Religion (the Sovereign Host and the Dark Six)
Anything else I’m missing? Disagreements about what’s core? Experiences you want to share?
