An Eberron Review by SKR

[I'm A Banana]

He sounds like a gamer reviewing a book with a critical eye to me...his opinion is no more valid and valuable than, say, Psion's.

Of course he gets a few details meshed and has his own personal gripes -- he's not pro on this, just a fan of D&D with a new book.

So my review of his review is 'thanks for your opinion, fellow average gamer guy!"

 

[Aaron L]

I think his review was great, it just sounds to me like he got hammered by editors at some point and took it to heart. I think SKR is a great designer and don't intend to knock him, just rib him a bit is all.

 

[Vocenoctum]

But anyway, as I said, enchanted is never used for enchantment spells. Instead, you use the name of the actual spell -- charmed, dominated, etc. The same way that you will say someone is hasted rather than transmuted.

I think it would have been better to simply not refer to the school as "enchantment" and use it only for magical enhancement.
But, they didn't, so they should at least stick to their own rules.

 

[fanboy2000]

So my review of his review is 'thanks for your opinion, fellow average gamer guy!"

I'd give his D&D reviews a little more weight than the average gamer because he's been on the design team for two 3e campaign settings (FRCS and Ghostwalk). It's not like he's writting a review of the latest fall fashion ;-)

I give Psion's reviews about the same weight I give my paper's movie critic. (But I trust Psion's opinion of any give gaming product more that I trust my local paper's movie critic on any given movie.)

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'd give his D&D reviews a little more weight than the average gamer because he's been on the design team for two 3e campaign settings (FRCS and Ghostwalk). It's not like he's writting a review of the latest fall fashion ;-)

I dunno, I got a lot of hints there that he was only a bit more up-to-date on D&D than he was on fall fashion. Things like not having the Book of Exalted Deeds or the Book of Vile Darkness (and thus missing the possession rules), not noting the d20 Modern and UA connections for Action Points, griping about semantics when he doesn't get his own straight, I think, balanced out his indie-knowledge (which he even admitted he didn't really have in this situation).

I mean, yeah, he's a pro, but I'd still trust someone who wasn't hired by WotC at one point, but knew their stuff enough to post a good review.

It's not a BAD review, just no better than the thousands of others this thing is going to get.

 

[Gez]

I think it would have been better to simply not refer to the school as "enchantment" and use it only for magical enhancement.
But, they didn't, so they should at least stick to their own rules.

And their own rules are that used the same word for different meanings, and letting context sort 'em out, is just fine.

 

[GentleGiant]

And their own rules are that used the same word for different meanings, and letting context sort 'em out, is just fine.

Errrr, I don't think that Rich Burlew is going to appreciate you posting any Order of the Stick images here... just a thought given these words:
http://www.giantitp.com/tg0009.html
and
http://www.giantitp.com/FAQ.html#faq14

 

[Gez]

Errrr, I don't think that Rich Burlew is going to appreciate you posting any Order of the Stick images here... just a thought given these words:
http://www.giantitp.com/tg0009.html
and
http://www.giantitp.com/FAQ.html#faq14

Giants have to stick together, heh?

But it was duly linked, so I don't think it was too much a problem. I just wanted his point to be seen also by people too lazy to follow a link.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I've never understood why it bothers people that "level" has multiple meanings in D&D. Sure, it could have been done differently. But I've never in my life met anyone who actually had trouble following what was meant by "level" in any point of the game, and I've been playing since I tought myself to play with the Moldvay boxed set at age 9.

 

[Remathilis]

SKR is smoking crack...

Domains: Eberron has the Artifice domain, which is very similar to the Craft domain from the FRCS (almost the same granted power, very similar spell list except Eberron doesn't have some of the unique FRCS spells). Ditto for the Craft domain, Community domain. New domains (to me, at least ... they may appear in Book of Vile Darkness or Book of Exalted Deeds but I don't have those books): Commerce, Community, Decay, Dragon Below (a faith-related domain, somewhat like the racial domains in FRCS), Exorcism, Feast, Life, Meditation, Necromancer, Passion, Shadow, . Renamed domain: Deathless (variant of the Repose domain from Oriental Adventures). Not a bad selection of new domains for the cleric fans out there.

He obviously hasn't read a d20 book since FRCS...

Artifice appeared in Deities and Demigods.
Community has appeared in Every book since the PH that has had new domains (including FRCS)
Exorcism was in Defenders of the Faith
Passion and Meditiation were in Dragonlance Campaign Setting
Shadow is the renamed Darkness Domain (FRCS/D&DG)
Deathless is no where near the Repose domain. Neither the granted power nor the spell list is similar.
Repose was in D&DG and Faith and Pantheons (Not Oriental Adventures)
Only Community appeared in Book of Exalted Deeds, none appeared in Book of Vile Darkness

Sean needs to do his domain homework.

EDIT: Sean might have met the Grave Domain from OA, not Repose.