Eberron...is it worth picking -up?

[Dykstrav]

Here are the things that I actually like about Eberron:
• The characters are relatively low-level. Characters above 10th level or so are uncommon.
• High-level magic is rare.
• The world is largely known. There's not one major continent and then a bunch map blankness expanding outward in every direction.

Here's a few things I don't like:
• Magic, in general, is much more common. Common enough to act as technology and allow for a sort of industrial revolution in an arcane sense.
• Travel is too easy and too fast. You just get on an airship or lightning rail and go.
• It reminds me of an MMORPG. I havent played DDO, but Stormreach and Xen'drik really don't interest me as the entire continent of dungeons that it's supposed to be.
• Alot of the political and social aspects of Khorvaire are too close to real-world situations for my taste. It's fine if that's what you're looking for, but it's jarring to me and makes it basically impossible for me to suspend my disbelief get immersed in the setting.
• I'm not terribly interested in the pulp genre for D&D. When me and my group want pulp, we play Call of Cthulhu in the 20's or d20 Past.
• Eberron really sticks its fingers into too many pies. One of the defining tenets is that you can find anything in D&D in Eberron. While I can appreciate the idea of product support (the Player's Guide was nifty in that it actually included material for adding optional sourcebooks into Eberron), it still has this overall "art by commitee" feel to it. It tries to do alot of adventures types and alot of genres but doesn't do any of them particularly well. But there is also a case to be made for no other D&D setting doing pulp quite as well I suppose.

Honestly, I'm not trying to turn this into another "I hate Eberron" rant. All I'm saying is that it's really not my cup of tea and I was disappointed with it. If you know someone with the campaign setting book, you might want to read over it a bit before you buy (I wish I had).

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Dykstrav, Interesting.. many of your dislikes are my likes.


My biggest draw to the setting is the political landscape. Unlike other settings, the court intrigue goes beyond inheritance of the throne and which nation is fighting which other nation.

I also like the 'art by committee' as it is done right. Instead of shoe-horning everything in, the framework is built so that it can support many things. The Coils of Set module is an excellent example. With the rich background and history Eberron offers it is simple to place this module into the context of the world without jarring other things out of place.
The same can be said about Ravenloft... etc, etc..

Eberron feels, to me, more real than other settings simple because of its deep and rich history. Adventures can be tied to things instead of floating out on thier own {ToEE anyone?}

TSR was great at creating standalone adventures. Eberron is great at allowing adventures to be linked to the rest of the world. But the cool thing is the adventure doesn't have to be. Tombs of the Barbarian Kings {Goodman Games} fit nicely in with a simple change to the backstory and didn't need a link to anything else.


Oh, and travel is only easy and fast if you are going where the Lightning Rail is going... or rich enough to pay for an off-the-track Airship. Otherwize you are stuck with caravans or horses.

 

[Crothian]

I didn't like Eberron at first. But reading and playing and now running it ?I do like it much better. It still has some flaws and things I don'ty like, but every setting does. It is worth picking up if you like it and if you've read the threads about it you should know if the elements are things you would like. As DM though I find it really easy to enhance the things I like and not include the things I don't like.

 

[RainOfSteel]

That being said, I was wondering if those who play in or use Eberron could let me know their opinions and impressions. I don't know much about it so anything will help.

Personally, I like the Eberron setting. The books are full of excellent inspirational ideas, and so they are useful even if you never run the setting itself.

The initial setting elements presented in the first book is not classic Swords 'n Sorcery Fantasy, but then it wasn't meant to be, so people who accuse it of not being that are silly.

The main book's setting is the continent of Khorvaire, and it has elements of quasi-victorian, late-renaissance, and a magical industrial revolution.

Jumping over to the continent of Xen'drik, and one gets a lot closer to a conventional DnD Fantasy setting, albeit with many fresh twists.

The world has a lot of room for various styles. The cosmology of orbiting planes alone is fascinating.

As for the warforged, I liked them the moment they were introduced. Having been a fan of the Calibretto in the comic Battle Chasers might have helped my acceptance level.

 

[the Jester]

Well, I run my homebrewed campaign pretty much exclusively, but I LOVE Eberron. I would buy it just based on the fact that there are soooo many cool ideas in the book- either for exotic societies, rules tweaks, cool monsters, etc. Two thumbs up (at least the ECS book; I don't have any of the other stuff).

 

[Solarious]

And hey! With Lightning Rails or Airships, you can now simulate those crazy heist scenes that you always wanted, but with the lethal velocities/altitudes! Nothing says redshirts better than being able to push goons off the side and listen to their screams as they fall to their doom.

One of the better aspects of Eberron is the fact many of the aspects of each other are comparmentalized. You can ignore (or underemphisize, in the Warforged's case) anything you don't like too much without trouble, and still have plenty to throw at your players.

But one of the big draws (IMO) into Eberron is how they reimagined many of the races. Sure, dwarves are close to their roots as money grubbing bankers with axes and secure vaults... you've also got the most frightening gnomes ever imagined who live in a society where quadruple-crosses are considered par for the course. Elves aren't tree huggin' hippies, but ancestor-worshiping devotees in the most literal sense possible, either sustaining them in perpetuality through worship, becoming warmongers so that their (ancestor's) spirits can live vicariously though them, or the old fashioned undead method. Dragons don't sleep in caves waiting for their hordes to be plundered (and neither are they color coded this time around ), but live on a seperate continent, where they plot, plan, and manipulate the fate of the world at their whims.

There is lots to love about Eberron.

 

[Banshee16]

the size issue is a nitpicking by some people complaining that the population density of Khorvaire is too low. That's right, people found something entirely new to complain about.

I think low population densities are to be expected, given the setting takes place 2 years after a 100-year long continental war just ended. I've always imagined the lands of Khorvaire as climbing out of complete exhaustion from the war, with hundreds or thousands of depopulated cities and towns all over the countryside....ghost towns, villages with dozens of empty homes, and only a few dozen people left, trying to rebuild, etc.

The book Secrets of Sarlona seems to address this....the continent of Sarlona wasn't involved in the war, and their population levels are *much* higher......IIRC, they've got nations with upwards of 13 million residents, instead of the 2-3 million that I think some of the nations in Khorvaire have.

Banshee

 

[Solarious]

Oh yeah, don't forget the utterly obliterated country. Something bad went down and ripped Cyre a new one. It's now the biggest open-air dungeon, ever. No healing inside, any sort of monstrosities can exist within, and it's Bad News (TM) in general. Chews out adventuring parties looking for lost Cannith holdings and swallows them whole, forever a part of those fields on undecaying corpses. They call it the Mournlands. I call it my little TPK garden.

Of course, some people increase the population of Khorvaire by 10 anyways.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I have the Eberron Campaign Setting and several supplements but have never run or played in a game set there. Having said that, the books, particularly the ECS itself, are chock full of interesting and original ideas, some of which I've stolen for use in my Pirates of the Caribbean/Skull & Bones game which has a similar pulp feel, mostly stuff from Secrets of Xendrik.

I'd recommend it to anyone wanting a change from more vanilla D&D settings like Greyhawk and FR. Definitely will run a game set there myself, probably in Sharn which I think is a great fantasy city (albeit with a very dry to read sourcebook).

Cheers


Richard

 

[hopeless]

Regarding Eberron

Have run a one off game so far with the option of continuing it however that was because one player had to give the session a miss and he doesn't care for D&D... at least he doesn't now he's found out he can't run his favourite 2nd editon character a wild mage.
I prefer starting off at 1st and was keen on Kingdoms of Kalamar before Eberron came out and after picking up the ECS picked up the other supplements and novels because I found it more interesting.
So far I altered the Forgotten Forge scenario from the ECS by having a character from one of the novels get involved (the gnome in the Orb of Xoriat) and turned it around to indicate House Cannith had the scribe murdered because he was also dealing with the gnome and whilst the gnome has his own motives there's alot more going on than just a long forgotten Cannith Forge...
I recommend it if only because I'm a fan of the Final Fantasy game series and whilst I'd rather they didn't restrict airships I'm afraid I'm one of those people who love a complex subplot to adventures!
About the only thing I have against it is that they haven't tried producing a 0th level adventure but I've been recently "inspired" by a thread about the Keep on the Borderlands and am looking to readdress that concept... once I can get a certain player to get over his misgivings...
Take care and all the best!