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Does Eberron need to be high fantasy?
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<blockquote data-quote="Krakenspire" data-source="post: 6789353" data-attributes="member: 6787754"><p><em>High fantasy is defined as fantasy set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than "the real", or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements.</em></p><p></p><p>So by the above definition please tell me a single D&D world that isn't high fantasy. All dungeons and dragons are set in a different world where magic exists. Low fantasy doesn't exist unless its a homebrew or perhaps a D20 modern concept. So unless you don't want to play D&D then you are most likely playing high fantasy.</p><p></p><p>Now as for the feel of Eberron, being a massive junkie of the world I can say that it <em>can</em> feel like FR but it shouldn't. First thing is magic is common. And by common I mean for sale. Only the poorest area's of Sharn don't have everbright lanterns in the street. The whole city is in a manifest zone that allows it to create sky scrapers. Wizards and mystical cabals don't make magic flying ships, magewrights do. The magical versions of smiths or tradespeople, which you can find pretty much everywhere.</p><p></p><p>This means that magic is essentially industrialized and that gives it automatically a completely different (and more internally logical) feel than FR.</p><p></p><p>The second big difference is that characters are actually hero's that can and will have massive effects on the world. There are very few NPC's that have PC classes above 12th level and usually they were quite the movers and shakers. </p><p>There are more that have a mix of NPC classes and PC classes that go above that (ie: 11 warrior/5 fighter redcloack commander , or 18 adept blood of vol priest, both who live in Sharn) </p><p>The only two NPC's that I can remember that could be straight PC's is Jaela Daran cleric 18 within the confines of Flamekeep and Moradin the Fleshweaver transmuter 18 - elvish wizard who lives in Droam. Even Lord of the Blades was level 12, and Kauis I was level 11 (but a vampire so....). Vol was a level 16 wizard and a lich.</p><p></p><p>As soon a characters got to 5th level they are capable of things that very few others in the world were capable of without massive magical investment or money. Unlike FR where every other wizard/sorcerer can case a fireball, in Eberron that was rare and special. </p><p></p><p>Finally a comment on steam punk. Steam punk is a very specific genre that is very neo-Victorian in nature. Eberron has some neo-Victorian feel to it. Xendrik the "dark continent" can feel very much like colonialism before the First World War. But Eberron is far beyond that, closer to the interwar period but before the great depression. In many ways it's the roaring 20's, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones, Al Capone, and the rise of new powers (Soviet Union, Imperial Japan). It has no neo-Victorian art or architecture in its design and that is a critical component of most steampunk. It's not retrofuturism at all.</p><p></p><p>And the final difference is that in FR there is evil and there is good. No grey area. Sure moral challenges but no grey area. Red dragons bad. Gold dragons good. In Eberron morality is almost always grey. The greatest proponent for democracy in the Breland is Lawful Evil. Democracy is good right? But the guy who's pushing it is a real jerk. What about Karrnath who created massive undead armies during the war. Faustian bargain to save the country. Church of the Silver flame... LG religion. Responsible for massive repression and executions in the former Aundarian city of Thaliost.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Krakenspire, post: 6789353, member: 6787754"] [I]High fantasy is defined as fantasy set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than "the real", or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements.[/I] So by the above definition please tell me a single D&D world that isn't high fantasy. All dungeons and dragons are set in a different world where magic exists. Low fantasy doesn't exist unless its a homebrew or perhaps a D20 modern concept. So unless you don't want to play D&D then you are most likely playing high fantasy. Now as for the feel of Eberron, being a massive junkie of the world I can say that it [I]can[/I] feel like FR but it shouldn't. First thing is magic is common. And by common I mean for sale. Only the poorest area's of Sharn don't have everbright lanterns in the street. The whole city is in a manifest zone that allows it to create sky scrapers. Wizards and mystical cabals don't make magic flying ships, magewrights do. The magical versions of smiths or tradespeople, which you can find pretty much everywhere. This means that magic is essentially industrialized and that gives it automatically a completely different (and more internally logical) feel than FR. The second big difference is that characters are actually hero's that can and will have massive effects on the world. There are very few NPC's that have PC classes above 12th level and usually they were quite the movers and shakers. There are more that have a mix of NPC classes and PC classes that go above that (ie: 11 warrior/5 fighter redcloack commander , or 18 adept blood of vol priest, both who live in Sharn) The only two NPC's that I can remember that could be straight PC's is Jaela Daran cleric 18 within the confines of Flamekeep and Moradin the Fleshweaver transmuter 18 - elvish wizard who lives in Droam. Even Lord of the Blades was level 12, and Kauis I was level 11 (but a vampire so....). Vol was a level 16 wizard and a lich. As soon a characters got to 5th level they are capable of things that very few others in the world were capable of without massive magical investment or money. Unlike FR where every other wizard/sorcerer can case a fireball, in Eberron that was rare and special. Finally a comment on steam punk. Steam punk is a very specific genre that is very neo-Victorian in nature. Eberron has some neo-Victorian feel to it. Xendrik the "dark continent" can feel very much like colonialism before the First World War. But Eberron is far beyond that, closer to the interwar period but before the great depression. In many ways it's the roaring 20's, Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Indiana Jones, Al Capone, and the rise of new powers (Soviet Union, Imperial Japan). It has no neo-Victorian art or architecture in its design and that is a critical component of most steampunk. It's not retrofuturism at all. And the final difference is that in FR there is evil and there is good. No grey area. Sure moral challenges but no grey area. Red dragons bad. Gold dragons good. In Eberron morality is almost always grey. The greatest proponent for democracy in the Breland is Lawful Evil. Democracy is good right? But the guy who's pushing it is a real jerk. What about Karrnath who created massive undead armies during the war. Faustian bargain to save the country. Church of the Silver flame... LG religion. Responsible for massive repression and executions in the former Aundarian city of Thaliost. [/QUOTE]
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