D&D 5E Chronicles of Eberron Is Keith Baker's New D&D Book, out now!

After a few days of teasing, Eberron creator Keith Baker has announced his new book -- Chronicles of Eberron! By Keith and Imogen Gingell, the 200-page book will be available on DMs Guild in December.

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Hektula is the Scribe of Sul Khatesh, the Keeper of the Library of Ashtakala, and the Chronicler of the Lords of Dust. Her treasured tomes hold arcane secrets still hidden from human and dragon alike. What lies beneath the Barren Sea? What powers does Mordain the Fleshweaver wield within Blackroot? Who are the Grim Lords of the Bloodsail Principality? All these secrets and many more can be found in the Chronicles of Eberron…

• Chronicles of Eberron is a new 5E sourcebook from Eberron creator Keith Baker and designer Imogen Gingell.
• This book explores a diverse range of topics, including lore and advice for both players and DMs, along with new monsters, treasures, spells and character options.
• Chronicles of Eberron will be available on the DMs Guild as a PDF and print-on-demand.

But that's not all! There is a collaboration with Hero Forge and new T-Shirts!

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[doctorbadwolf]

You can call it an obnoxious claim when when WotC puts out proper setting books for Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance of the quality of Eberron: Rising from the Last War and Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. Even Mythic Odyssey's of Theros, Radiant Citadel and Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica are better setting books then the Spelljammer, DL, or the SCAG (which is better then SJ or DL at least, I can't believe they manage to do less detailed setting books then the SCAG).

And books like VGtM, FToD, and MToF have contradictory lore, not just with established canon, but within the books themselves.

Mechanically, with a few exceptions things are solid thanks to playtesting,but this is the worst edition for lore, because lore is so poorly supported.

I can, and will, call it an obnoxious behavior. No need for any change to the state of the game.

They are producing exactly what I and many others prefer them to publish, and leaving the stuff we don't need or care about the officiality of for the people who do care about it. I can, have, and will continue to, run games using the books you claim are terrible for lore. Deep dive books are not necessary at all. They could put out exactly the same books without anything like the DMsGuild, and the game would be just fine. It just wouldn't be catering to your subjective preference.

Most of the lore put out for 2e and 3e was a waste of ink. 4e at least focused on making all of the lore useful for actually playing the game, but even it had hundreds of pages of unnecessary lore that the vast majority of groups never used because they were running homebrew worlds anyway.

5e finally stopped that bad practice, and is publishing only what is needful, and leaving the deep dives into lore that was already written 20 years ago and roughly 6 people have used in the meantime for DMsGuild, where creators can try to make a name for themselves by catering to more niche interests.

It's a better model. Why the heck would I want them to put out two+ books at 250+ pages each just to set out the "basics" of every single setting, like they did for the last 2 editions, largely covering the same ground as every iteration of that setting that has been reprinted with minor edits anywhere from 2 to 5 times before?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Eberron is awfully good. I thoroughly enjoyed my Rise of the Runelords conversion set there.

One thing it does need I think though, is a really good Eberron set campaign.

Which would be hard for WotC to pull off while leaving the intentionally unanswered mysteries of Eberron canonically unanswered in the book. Unless it focuses on smaller-scale issues, like dealing with crime lords in Sharn, prospecting in Q'barra, or something along those lines, I would prefer WotC to stay away from making a major Eberron adventure path.

Now that I think about it, an adventure compilation book of a bunch of small adventures might actually work best for Eberron. Sadly, they mostly have to be "setting agnostic" in 5e.

 

[TwoSix]

That's because WotC produces almost next to nothing while letting the DMs Guild make everything. At this rate, what's the point of buying anything from WotC directly? I'll just get the DMs Guild content.

I haven't bought much of WotC stuff since Tasha's. Not because I'm mad at them or anything, just nothing they've been working on has really been in my wheelhouse, and I use a lot of homebrew.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Now that I think about it, an adventure compilation book of a bunch of small adventures might actually work best for Eberron. Sadly, they mostly have to be "setting agnostic" in 5e.

Which means you miss out on all the cool Eberron-specific stuff. I want an adventure in Sharn that involves a chase through and between the miles-high towers. I want an intrigue-heavy social-deduction murder mystery, but it's an underwater city in Shargon's Teeth and the factions include morkoths, and sahuagin, and aboleths, and worse. I want the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the adventurers have secured the golden idol from the tomb/temple and now have hordes of poison dusk lizardfolk chasing them to their getaway skyship. And then they're pursued by the villains in their own elemental aerial vessels.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

As much as chide Wizards of the Coast for the lack of world building in 5e and the lack of support for established settings, Eberron is clearly the exception to the rule. Congrats to Eberron fans and many kudos to Keith Barker and everyone else supporting this setting.

This is thanks to Keith Baker, not WotC. It’s also the setting that 5e has monkeyed with the least- again thanks to Baker.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Which would be hard for WotC to pull off while leaving the intentionally unanswered mysteries of Eberron canonically unanswered in the book. Unless it focuses on smaller-scale issues, like dealing with crime lords in Sharn, prospecting in Q'barra, or something along those lines, I would prefer WotC to stay away from making a major Eberron adventure path.

They could take inspiration from some of the major quest lines in Dungeons And Dragons Online. Some of them dive deep into Eberron's lore, deal with pretty epic issues, all without answering any of the big mysteries we would all want left unanswered.

Also, they wouldn't have to be canonical.

Now that I think about it, an adventure compilation book of a bunch of small adventures might actually work best for Eberron. Sadly, they mostly have to be "setting agnostic" in 5e.

I think they could do it if they first set an adventure in and around Lantan in FR.

Which means you miss out on all the cool Eberron-specific stuff. I want an adventure in Sharn that involves a chase through and between the miles-high towers. I want an intrigue-heavy social-deduction murder mystery, but it's an underwater city in Shargon's Teeth and the factions include morkoths, and sahuagin, and aboleths, and worse. I want the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the adventurers have secured the golden idol from the tomb/temple and now have hordes of poison dusk lizardfolk chasing them to their getaway skyship. And then they're pursued by the villains in their own elemental aerial vessels.

Why couldn't they do what they've done before with FR, and just set an adventure in Eberron with notes for playing it in other worlds?

Or do an adventure like the DL book that is coming next month. I mean...it's not like they couldn't just do like Ravenloft, but in reverse. Setting book, and then setting expanding adventure book.

Hell, I bet they will do exactly that, eventually, for several adventures. I'd even bet they eventually make a Planeswalking adventure that involves visiting multiple MtG settings.

But an anthology of Eberron adventures would be just the thing, IMO, though I'd settle for an anthology exploring many worlds. Actually, that would be a great premise for a book expanding on the planes and worlds of the (blegh) Great Wheel. My preference would be for it to have commentary like a "of everything" book, from various famous Planeswalkers, and there would be adventures set in the worlds most important to each of them, as well as each of the previously published settings, with throughlines and common threads that culminate in an adventure in somewhere like Sigil or the Radiant Citadel.

 

[dave2008]

This is thanks to Keith Baker, not WotC. It’s also the setting that 5e has monkeyed with the least- again thanks to Baker.

This is true, but it also true that because WotC created the DMsGuild KB is able to share his vision of Eberron with fans.

 

[Bolares]

100% it's the main thing that attracts me to the setting.

have you already read it?

 

[Reynard]

As much as chide Wizards of the Coast for the lack of world building in 5e and the lack of support for established settings, Eberron is clearly the exception to the rule. Congrats to Eberron fans and many kudos to Keith Baker and everyone else supporting this setting.

Except it's not WotC supporting Eberron, it's Baker himself.

 

[Bolares]

One think that keeps Eberron healthy is that it's fans are really clear about what they want/don't want of the setting, and we are protective of keith and his ideas.