Dungeons & Dragons Online is slowly changing my mind about Eberron

[Thunderfoot]

Agreeing with you 100%

The marketing for Eberron early on seemed to emphasize how different it was from every other D&D setting, and how unlike normal D&D it was and how it had things totally unlike other settings. Reminds me a little how early 4e marketing (the "not fun" parts) turned people off 4e before it ever came out: hyping up how it's completely unlike D&D that came before in every way while catering to play styles and tastes totally different from other.

A lot of the same complaints were leveled at both products in response too.

Oh, and if anybody here is still playing DDO, I'm on the Sarlona server with a 4th level Human Paladin (Anacletus St. Cuthbert)

SWEET - I run a fighter and a rogue on Sarlona (Khengis and Dakarri), I'll look for you next time I'm on.

And I'm on the same bandwagon about Eberron. I really didn't like the setting, (I still don't for PnP RPGs), but for DDO it's pretty awesome. I guess the big difference is that it's probably the BEST setting for a DnD MMO, a bit of steampunk, a bit of magic, a bit of "out there alien culture" all rolled into one big fat setting.

 

[amerigoV]

So, how is this an improvement from AD&D in terms of making there be more Wizards and hence more magic items and enchantments?

In AD&D (2e at least, I don't have my 1e books handy) all it took to be a Mage was a 9 INT, and you could cast up to 4th level spells with that. All 3.x did in this regard was standardize the math about requirements for spellcasting, instead of unintuitive tables in the back of the PHB, and those requirements were sometimes higher.

Well, I am at a disadvantage to answer at the moment - I barely played 2e and its been waaay too long since 1e - and all my pre 3.x books are in a box since I just moved.

I guess the one difference is the stat improvements allows more to potentially grow into it.

 

[Klaus]

SWEET - I run a fighter and a rogue on Sarlona (Khengis and Dakarri), I'll look for you next time I'm on.

And I'm on the same bandwagon about Eberron. I really didn't like the setting, (I still don't for PnP RPGs), but for DDO it's pretty awesome. I guess the big difference is that it's probably the BEST setting for a DnD MMO, a bit of steampunk, a bit of magic, a bit of "out there alien culture" all rolled into one big fat setting.

Speaking of Sarlona: that is a part of Eberron that could have warranted an entire setting by itself. Secrets of Sarlona pretty much doubled the scope of the setting, with an entire new continent that begged to be explored.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Speaking of Sarlona: that is a part of Eberron that could have warranted an entire setting by itself. Secrets of Sarlona pretty much doubled the scope of the setting, with an entire new continent that begged to be explored.

Shhhhh. Those are secrets.

I'm downloading the DDO stuff right now. Does the whole game take place near Stormreach? Is there no ship that goes to Sharn?

 

[wingsandsword]

Shhhhh. Those are secrets.

I'm downloading the DDO stuff right now. Does the whole game take place near Stormreach? Is there no ship that goes to Sharn?

Yeah, the game is based around Stormreach. You start out on a small island just north of there, but once you've played through that plotline once you can skip it if you want.

It's not an MMORPG about exploring the whole vast world, it's more of dungeon crawls, with some wilderness around the Stormreach area to explore. Think of it as a 1st to 20th level campaign based around Stormreach.

As was noted earlier, this may be because this part of the setting is most like classical D&D and can relate to the broadest expanse of players.

 

[Ahzad]

if any of you ENworlders play on the Cannith servers look me up sometime. it would be cool to adventure with some folks from here. i've got about 5 different toons from lvls 6 to 15. my primary is a wizard named ahzad.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Although I don't think Eberron is perfect -- it's got a bit too much of Mystara's problem, with "and over THIS hill, is a completely different culture, with no apparent relationship to that other one!" -- I am baffled that anyone wouldn't like a D&D setting because it enabled Indiana Jones or Sam Spade as D&D characters. The idea of having a big university as a patron alone seems obvious in retrospect, but was incredibly inspiring -- for me, it was a fresh take on why characters are adventuring, with additional wrinkles seldom seen in the game.

That said, DDO is set in the part of the world that I find the least interesting, but I'm glad that it's found its audience.

 

[doctorhook]

I've gotta be honest: speaking as a big fan of Eberron, the only thing surprising to be about this is the fact that DDO was the thing that won you over. That game must not be as terrible as I'd heard!

"and over THIS hill, is a completely different culture, with no apparent relationship to that other one!"

Personally, I don't find that at all with Eberron. Khorvaire seems pretty natural when you start to compare it to 19th-century Western Europe. OTOH, I absolutely have the same complaint you mention when I think about the Forgotten Realms. ("Here's Fantasy-Spain, here's 'The Shire', here's America, here's Ancient Egypt, and here's Medieval Japan and China! Enjoy!")

 

[IronWolf]

I've gotta be honest: speaking as a big fan of Eberron, the only thing surprising to be about this is the fact that DDO was the thing that won you over. That game must not be as terrible as I'd heard!

DDO is actually pretty fun. I found it preferable to WoW in many ways. Though I attribute a lot of that due to getting to fight monsters that I was so used to form the pen and paper games of D&D and using 3.x mechanics.

 

[Wild Gazebo]

Seems to me D&D highlighted the different 'shiny bits' about Eberron to mask what is essentially a 'kitchen sink' setting.

I've always found the radical repulsion and attraction rather perplexing.

Or perhaps I'm just unusually apathetic.