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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ZSutherland" data-source="post: 3078043" data-attributes="member: 7638">To the OP:Buzz has made two really compelling points.  One, you don't want to "sell" a setting to your players.  "Selling" implies bogging them down with information they don't want or need.  Instead, "invest" your characters in a setting.  Eberron lends itself to a different sort of adventure than FR.  The authors of the FRCS went to a great deal of trouble to mention (and in some cases detail) intriguing adventure locations.  Eberron went another route and spent time detailing intriguing NPC political/religious groups.  FR focuses heavily on dieties and their impact on the world, where Eberron's dieties are given scant attention and have signifigantly less impact on the game than even standard D&D dieties.  In either setting, a dungeon is a dungeon is a dungeon.  Campaign setting in the dungeon is color at best because the characters' actions are not unduly imposed on by the setting.  They will revert to SOP for dungeoneering.  However, if the plot of the FR story is that the players are scouring not a dungeon, but the tomb of Soandso the Deceitful, former Chose of Mask, and you let the PCs in on the fact that the place is trap-riddled and that some research into Soandso's life and career may well help them survive, the setting becomes important to them.  In Eberron, if the adventure is to travel to various locations in Sharn uncovering clues to solve the murder of a minor member of House Orien, it is up to you to involve the specifics of Sharn, House Orien, and other Eberron tropes and themes in a way that demands their attention to setting detail by affecting their choices.  Otherwise, it's just another murder mystery.There are several ways to go about this.  One is circumstance modifiers.  Perhaps the party's cleric (in Eberron) is a servant of the Silver Flame.  If the story takes the PCs to the Eldeen Reaches, give the cleric a circumstance penalty on social skill checks when dealing with the area's residents, and tell the player that you did so.  When he asks why, explain (briefly) the history of the area and their general outlook on life and nature.  Then explain how the area retains a large shifter contingent and that the Church of the Silver Flame wiped out most of the shifter's lycanthropic ancestors during a crusade because they were "abominations."  The NPCs are thus naturally distrustful of a cleric of that religion and the party may need to use someone else as their "face" while they're in the region.  The best way though, is to give the PCs some equity in the setting; this is why I used the term "invest" earlier.  You want them to feel like they are a part of the setting, that the world responds to them, but you want to structure it in a way that is appropriate to the setting.  At low levels in FR, really play up the fact that heroes are a dime a dozen.  Give them serious scut-work to do, like cleaning out the rat infestation in the bar's cellar.  Nothing says "You're nothing special" like rodent patrol.  Don't have nobles or important characters hire low-level PCs or even deign to speak to them until they're really made a name for themselves.    Do the reverse in Eberron, where PC-classed individuals are rare.  Develop relations with recurring NPCs that display certain facets of the campaign world.  Have the prevailing authority grant them land and title in exchange for their great service.  Finally, play up themes.  Everyone in Eberron has their prejudices and agendas, but they are rarely the sort of "high-adventure unleash the demon-god" type of agendas.  So, don't have the PCs hired out by the the High Clergy of the Sovreign Host to retrieve the holy-widget and stop the evil arch-lich.  Hire the PCs out to an Aundairian noble to recover evidence of a plot against the queen, and then have that evidence indicate that maybe the queen isn't the sort of person they want to protect.The other good point that Buzz made is that D&D has a very strong implied setting, and it can trip you up just as much as it can help you.  When you tell your players you will be playing D&D, they show up with certain expectations.  They assume they will encounter certain familiar game facets (PC-classed individuals, orcs/goblins/kobolds, dungeons, and the alignment system).  It's okay to rock the boat by violating those expectations, so long as you do it sparingly so it maintains its shock value.  What you want to do with a published setting is use those aspects that pique their interest, not dash their expectations.   They're used to goblins, so give them goblins, but if it's Eberron, apply the elite array for their stats, raise their CR, and have them work like the disciplined military units they are.  It gives the PCs a reason to look into why goblins are acting in unexpected ways, which in turn leads them to learn more about the setting.  On the other hand, don't put the PCs in a homebrew where humans live in dank caves and old ruins waiting to be slaughtered by arrogant PC-classed goblins in search of loot and xp.  It's too far outside their expectations and will just bewilder and frustrate them.Lastly, remember that you're there to have fun.  If you and your players are having a grand time pointing at a random spot on a map and settling down for a night of dungeoneering, why sweat the details?</blockquote>

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