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

[Spatula]

Xen'drik Expeditions

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.

Uh, kinda hard to have organized Eberron play with no 4e Eberron campaign guide out this year. Before Eberron can be converted to 4e, you need playable gnomes, half-orcs, druids, and psionics (the absense of barbarians, bards, monks, etc. can be hand-waved away for now). And then the Eberron-specific items, that would presumably be in the 4e Eberron book (the new races, the artificer). Having an "official" 4e Eberrron campaign will not be possible any time soon, according to the release schedule.

Bloat.

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

They could have simply moved the timeline forward and accomplished the same thing, without trashing the current state of the world. The illusion of change ("Everything has changed!" except that it really hasn't, the new paintjob just makes it look more accessible) without setting the fans against each other.

 

[drothgery]

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.

I don't know. At least some of the Eberron races that aren't in the PHB will be in the MM for sure (gnomes, warforged), shifters are strongly rumored to be, and I'd bet changelings are likely there, too. So WotC will need to put Kalashtar up on D&DI to complete the set (granted, full-fledged PC race writeups probably won't appear until the ECS-equivalent, but that's okay), but that's about it.

Psionics and artificers are more problematic, but shaving the serial numbers off of magic users and magic item crafters ought to work for a year.

 

[LoneWolf23]

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

If we really want it to match Forgotten Realms, Eberron would need a few decades' worth of novels, with recurring author-favorite heroes with incredibly high stats.

...And I thought one of the points of Eberron was "YOU're the highest-level hero on the block"?

 

[I'm A Banana]

Y'know what I think would be cool for Eberron?

A *good* videogame (The stuff Atari/Turbine is putting out doesn't really count. )

That'd be the link with the 13-25 crowd it needs to be truly good. Eberron needs its Neverwinter Nights.

 

[Nymrohd]

Eberron needs its Baldur's Gate
or a Planescape: Torment

 

[The Ubbergeek]

Both are good... NWN for the more player centered thing, the other for the story.

 

[WhatGravitas]

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.

Sure, but interestingly, some 4E things really feel appropriate, for example the Shadowfell and Feywild:

"In the Beginning, the Progenitor Dragons warred, Siberys, Eberron, and Khyber. When Siberys was slain, and Eberron became the Dragon Between, they created the world. Siberys scales formed the Ring of Siberys, and fading Siberys became the Feywild. Eberron became the Material World, imprisoning Khyber, who lashed out a last time and created a wound in Eberron's reality, a dread world called the Shadowfell, an echo to his rage and evil, as the Feywild is an echo of Siberys life and glory."

Much better than Ethereal Plane and Plane of Shadows, which are 3Eisms that are very tacked on.

And many 3Eisms are still there, like widespread spellcasting (see Worlds and Monsters - everyday people know that magic exist and don't fear it), magic item creation - and since more items are now "quirky" (the ones not in the big three primary slots), it feels more like magical inventions than the bonus items. The only hit is the redefinition of races, because Eberron was based on the assumption that the core races find an integral place in the world.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Klaus]

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

Why? One of the downfalls of Dark Sun and the greatest criticism of FR are the "metaplot advancing" novels.

Eberron has two series of one-shots (War-Torn and The Inquisitives), has had several trilogies (Dreaming Dark, The Dragon Below, The Mark of Death, The Heirs of Ash) and just had its first hardcover (Storm Dragon, by James Wyatt).

 

[Nymrohd]

Well the problem with FR is that the novels do metaplot advancement. There is no such fear in Eberron when the timeline is officially frozen.
The reason why novels are good is because they attract attention to the setting, and if they are well written, novels are one of the most effective ways to introduce someone to the character and feel of a setting.
Also some people who just love the books occasionally buy RPS supplements for fluff.

 

[Vael]

I'd love to see an Eberron computer game. The visuals of Eberron are so striking, and make for such interesting environments. But I wouldn't want a Xen'Drik game, I'd want to wander the towers of Sharn, duke it out with villians on an Orien Lightning Train, etc.