D&D 4E Eberron and 4e - hopes and fears

[Rechan]

The question is, if Eberron doesn't need some meta-event to explain the edition rule changes, then why does FR?

Bloat.

FR was just starting to sink under all the baggage. It needed a "reset button", so to speak.

 

[Darkwolf71]

The question is, if Eberron doesn't need some meta-event to explain the edition rule changes, then why does FR?

Anyway, the intent does seem to be for Eberron gamers to abandon the world with 4e, since so many large rule chunks will be missing, until sometime in 2008 - at the earliest.

It is entirely possible that Eberron was designed with this conversion in mind. I mean it came out in, what, 2004? 4e was already being worked on at the time and at that point they probably had at least an idea of how drastic the changes would be.

 

[heirodule]

Not declined. They said it was not going to be required. Big difference.

The RPGA is in fact, running a 'Living Eberron' It is called Xen'drik Expeditions

That's you're opinion, and you are welcome to it. However, a quick look at the product page shows two 'non-system specific' releases between now and 4e launch. Both are for Eberron. Is it as popular as FR? No, probably not. But, it isn't tanking either.

Xen'drik Expeditions

1) is ending before 4e starts
2) is not being replaced (yet, no announcement anyway) with any other Eberron organized play. WOTC decided to go with a FR setting for their main organized play setting.
3) its not a "living" campaign (more popular type), which goes on open-endely, but is a 1.5 year limited campaign style.

 

[Kaodi]

If there any changes to Eberron's cosmology, I could see perhaps that the Ethereal Plane and Plane of Shadow are just dropped completely. The world of Eberron might just be at the center of the Astral Sea, for all we know.

Thelanis and Lammania kill the Feywild and take its stuff. Mabar and Dolurrh do the same for the Shadowfell. All we lose is two planes that I do not recall having an important function to begin with.

Which is not to say I am advocating changing it at all, but those changes that I would not have a hard time swallowing I think.

Dragons, on the other hand... I suspect that there will be a few Eberron specific rules for them. I do not think it will be a major problem. The only big difference from Core will be that Bronze and Brass dragons will perhaps keep their place while Iron and Adamantine are oddities or residents of Shavarrath...

 

[heirodule]

Also the gaming industry as a whole and WOTC in particular seem to have a tough time devoting resources to something that isn't wildly successful in comparison to its companion.

Witness GW canceling further 40k RPG books, and Greyhawk (called a legacy setting along with FR when Eberron debuted. Greyhawk died, FR is the first out the gate. That says to me that Eberron is less marketable in the eyes of WOTC, though probably a modest success.)

 

[heirodule]

It is entirely possible that Eberron was designed with this conversion in mind. I mean it came out in, what, 2004? 4e was already being worked on at the time and at that point they probably had at least an idea of how drastic the changes would be.

I doubt it really. The problem is that Eberron is the world that does the BEST at taking all the 3.5isms and making a consistent world out of it.

And now 4e is changing the mix, and I have a tough time imagining how it will be treated consistently.

 

[Nymrohd]

What Eberron is really lacking is a couple of key novelists to help the setting.

 

[kennew142]

I just noticed that you've been running D&D for only slightly less time than I've been alive. Whoa.

Yeah. One of the referees in my group is only 20. If my wife and I had had children when we first got married, they would be older than he is.

 

[Wolfspider]

What Eberron is really lacking is a couple of key novelists to help the setting.

Quick, someone call Rose Estes!

 

[Darkwolf71]

Xen'drik Expeditions

1) is ending before 4e starts

Irrelevant. I was responding to a post which said RPGA did not do a 'Living Eberron'. I pointed out that they did (and currently are).

2) is not being replaced (yet, no announcement anyway) with any other Eberron organized play. WOTC decided to go with a FR setting for their main organized play setting.

I'm sure it will be replaced, but running an Eberron campaign requires an Eberron campaign setting which won't be available untill 2009. Perhaps early with DDI content, but not certainly not at launch.

3) its not a "living" campaign (more popular type), which goes on open-endely, but is a 1.5 year limited campaign style.

You may have a point here. I haven't been a part of the RPGA since well before 3.x came about. I wouldn't know the difference.