Eberron-as corny as I think?

[Mystery Man]

Other than the perjorative of "sad" you threw in to your description, you have pretty much described the development of D&D itself. Look at the list of books that inspired D&D in the 1e DMG. Look at the stories Gygax has told about the early adventures he ran his groups through. Heck, look at the 1e DMG suggestions for adventure settings and ideas. At its corre, and at its roots, D&D is, and always has been, a mish-mash of pulp science fiction and fantasy stories. Pretending otherwise is just being willfully ignorant.

Game history

 

[Anti-Sean]

Bah. I'll dare to do whatever I want, and I'll diss Eberron in whatever way I want. Face it, the setting is a sad mish-mash of every pulp, sci-fi, and fantasy story Keith Baker ever read, all thrown together in the most haphazard way imaginable.

Not much restraint there. Not much ingenuity, either.

It's a crappy setting, plain and simple.

Awww, man! Why didn't you tell me that a year and a half ago before I picked up the ECS, read through it, and fell in love with the setting? Or eight months ago, before I started DMing a campaign set in Eberron that my players have been enjoying just as much as I have? (And boy, are they going to be *furious* when they find out we haven't even been playing D&D this whole time, despite my claims to the contrary!) To think of all that time wasted enjoying a campaign setting that you've so concisely and elegantly proven is crap! All those months of inspiration found, and idea after idea spawned from it - such a shame...

Naturally, you'll be kind enough to furnish us with an example or two of what a *real* campaign setting is, so that those like me can correct our previous mistakes.

 

[Mystery Man]

Awww, man! Why didn't you tell me that a year and a half ago before I picked up the ECS, read through it, and fell in love with the setting? Or eight months ago, before I started DMing a campaign set in Eberron that my players have been enjoying just as much as I have? (And boy, are they going to be *furious* when they find out we haven't even been playing D&D this whole time, despite my claims to the contrary!) To think of all that time wasted enjoying a campaign setting that you've so concisely and elegantly proven is crap! All those months of inspiration found, and idea after idea spawned from it - such a shame...

Naturally, you'll be kind enough to furnish us with an example or two of what a *real* campaign setting is, so that those like me can correct our previous mistakes.

I had a friend very much like Jocamchi. He basically ran the same campaign for 20+ years and claimed that his experience trumped anything that I would have to say about the game. He would constantly put down my players for the roleplaying and character concepts and dis my campaigns becuase they didn't fit into his mold. I say had a friend because I just don't associate with the guy anymore.

 

[BadMojo]

Naturally, you'll be kind enough to furnish us with an example or two of what a *real* campaign setting is, so that those like me can correct our previous mistakes.

Yeah, all this time I've been enjoying Eberron (both reading supplements and playing) I"ve been horribly, horribly wrong. I'm deeply shamed at my ignorance.

I swear I was having a great time with my Warforged fighter crushin' Emerald Claw skulls, but it must have been more of Keith Baker's Jedi Mind Tricks.

"This is the campaign setting you've been looking for."

 

[WarlockLord]

"Science fantasy." Popular authors include Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe, and China Mieville, as well as James P. Blaylock and Michael Moorcock. Titles to look for include Big Planet, The Shadow of the Torturer, Perdido Street Station, The Iron Dragon's Daughter.

I've read Jack Vnce and Gene Wolfe, and they were pretty good.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Well I love it.
It seems to be the setting I always wanted and it came out at a time when I could use it.

I had always had my games in a psuedo-greyhawk/homebrew world. Now I have a new world that is exciting to me and my players. Starting over in a new setting made the entire game new again.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Yeah, all this time I've been enjoying Eberron (both reading supplements and playing) I"ve been horribly, horribly wrong. I'm deeply shamed at my ignorance.

Well, can we just agree that enjoying Eberron is Bad Wrong Fun?

 

[MarkB]

Well I love it.
It seems to be the setting I always wanted and it came out at a time when I could use it.

That's how I feel about it. It's like the homebrew setting I never had the time to build - at least 60% of the ideas I wanted to implement turned out to be featured in some form in Eberron (most specifically, a social and economic structure that isn't at odds with the availability of magic in D&D, national identities overriding racial identities, and nations which aren't knock-offs of real-world cultures), and in addition there are loads of things I never thought of but wish I had. Wrap that up in campaign-setting background more detailed than I'd ever have time to make, and it's more-or-less perfect.

 

[Keldryn]

I started playing D&D in 1986 with the Mentzer "Red Box" Basic Set and "Blue Box" Expert Set, and thus "The Known World" was the very first campaign setting that I was exposed to. Even after moving on to AD&D 1e rules, I still kept running games in The Known World, as it was near and dear to my heart and the Gazetteer series was fantastic. Even after I bought the 1e World of Greyhawk boxed set, I still prefered the Gaz series, as it felt more wondrous and fantastic, and less stodgy and conservative.

Eberron reminds me a lot of the D&D Known World (or "Mystara" as it eventually came to be known). Not in terms of thinly-disguised Earth cultures transplanted to D&D, but in terms of the feel of the setting. Mystara had a lot of pretty out-there ideas, and wasn't afraid to include them. When I read the Eberron books, it brings back fond memories of my days running games in The Known World -- The Principalities of Glantri, The Isle of Dread, Karameikos, the Republic of Darokin, the elven clans of Alfheim, The Savage Coast, Norwold... Reading Sharn: City of Towers constantly reminds me of Glantri City in Gaz 3, which is a good thing.

More than any other official D&D setting, Eberron really takes me back to that feeling that I had when I started running D&D games with the map in the Expert Set (and X10 Red Arrow, Black Shield) and the Gazetteer books. But it's a more refined, better-developed setting, without a lot of the silliness. The Known World has always been one of my favourite settings, but it did admittedly contain a lot of pretty silly elements. Eberron feels like a more grown-up version of The Known World that still maintains that sense of the wondrous and fantastic, without limiting itself to a very stereotypical view of what D&D is supposed to be.

 

[Dragonbait]

Eberron is not corny. It's just too D&Dish.

It follows the latest trends of current fantasy. High magic (magi-tech), the airships, big focus on culture rather than individual race (but the two will often go hand-in-hand, but not always), and so on. I have mixed feelings about some of it, but it comes down to style preference rather than if it is too "corny" or whatnot. It is a detailed setting with a lot of room for PCs and strong support from WoTC. And it has Keith Baker. it's different than the 1ed and 2ed settings. It is not corny.