Eberron and Cross Setting Play

[BrooklynKnight]

Hey folks.

So the other night I was thinking of creative ways to allow players in an Eberron Campaign to branch out to other settings. I wanted to merge planar travel with Eberrons unique flavor and flair. So, I couldn't just plop a gate inside a mountain or use the Far Shadow like the MOTP suggests for Forgotten Realms to Great Wheel travel in 3.x..

After some thought I decided on using two of Eberron's most exciting features. Something that wouldn't allow players to easily replicate the method and make traveling to other worlds an epic adventure in and of itself. The elderitch machine and Argonnossen.

Deep in the bowels of the Dragon Continent one of Argonnossens Oldest Dragon Sages and planar experts resides in his mountain fortress. Inside his observatory is a giant crystal sphere inside which is a model of Eberrons cosmology. It shows all the planes in their current positions and many "theoretical" planes as well (a perfect method to introduce outer planes of your own creation to the campaign).

Around the chamber are various doors, one for each campaign setting. Greyhawk and the Great Wheel, Forgotten Realms and Aber-Toril, Krynn, etc etc. Each door is trapped with a prismatic wall behind which is another crystal sphere. Each crystal sphere has within it a perfect model of each Cosmology. In the Greyhawk sphere is the Great Wheel, everything is represented in some way. The Inner and Outer Planes, the Outlands and Sigil. The Abyss, the 9 Hells, etc etc etc. Torils crystal is much the same with it's planes represented by a giant planar tree. There's even a room and sphere for Dark Sun.

They can use these spheres to go anywhere in the "multi-verses" presented. They can also observe any location on the planes. Simply touch the sphere and speak the control word, which of course is a really long and complicated word in draconic, then think about what you want to see, or where you want to go. Nothing is out of bounds, the only places they cannot see are those blocked by divine or near divine might.

How they deal with the Dragon, travel to Arggonossen and the other stuff is all up the players of course. I havn't decided if they truly travel to the other planes or if its all a "dream state" or whatever else, but in any case it brings an exiting new twist to the game, especially for new players who's first exposure to D&D has been Eberron!

 

[rgard]

Sounds great. I like how you present the opportunity for them to travel to other campaign realms.

I did something similar. The players found discs (made of various materials, steel, mithral, obsidian, gold, jade, etc.) and after more adventuring they found a slot in a wall to place one of the discs. They did and each disc would take them via a portal that opened to a different plane of existence:

1. A jungle (with dinos, think Jurassic park)
2. Tatooine (SW, go meet some Jedi)
3. A Traveller Scout ship that had suffered a hull breach in space. That was a death trap until later levels.
4. The old west, circa 1880.

I had initial adventures planned for each foray depending on their levels when they used the portal.

And had dinos in the MM, Traveller T20, SW RCR and Sidewinder. Fighting dinos ended up being their main use of the portal, though a Tusken Raider did manage to get into their world.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Talenta Halflings in the Wild West, lol.

 

[CCH_LLC]

This is an interesting idea, but honestly aside from getting to the middle of Argonessen and having to deal with an Elder dragon it seems a bit simple to get to the other settings. Perhaps you could keep everything the same, except that the dragon only has an observatory, he knows when other settings might be currently available for travel and how to get there, but he cannot just do it himself. Perhaps from the observatory you could see that Greyhawk is currently within range but to get there you need to first get to Thelanis, then travel a good distance across that plane before you can get to its greyhawk manifest zone which puts you on the grewhawk equivalent of Thelanis from which you have to get to greyhawk itself.

One of the primary aspects of Eberron as a setting is it's remoteness, it should be remote by remote standards, have the PCs risk being trapped in another setting permanently if they overstay the opening.

Make getting there an adventure, there should be a reason why there is no inter setting travel from Eberron before your characters.