D&D 5E Eberron popularity in 5E

[hbarsquared]

I love Eberron. I'm not a fan of Forgotten Realms, but I am a fan of generic fantasy and FR still fills that category. But I love Eberron.

The strength I see of "not advancing the timeline" is the freedom of GMs TO advance the timeline. If I, as a DM, want to have a campaign take place in 1,034YK, I can, without needing to reference the 998YK base setting and the 1,005YK and 1,25YK "updates.". This is one if the reasons I don't desire Eberron to be "updated" or the timeline to be koved forward.

I don't need an Eberron setting book - the lore from 3e books and Baker's website or more than enough for inspiration!

I love (some of) the novels. Wish there were more. Dresden Files is the closest thing to Eberron fiction, and now I have to wait for Peace Talks...

What I would like to see are balanced 5e interpretations of what makes Eberron unique. I'll repeat them here: Dragonmarks. Warforged, Kalashter, Shifters. Artificers. Quori, Daelkyr. Not a lot, but enough.

I want a full-fledged 256-ish adventure/campaign set in Eberron.. That's my ideal. I don't need a rehash of the nations, of the history, of the races, of the Houses, of the conflicts, of the Prophecy... I'd love to see a full-blown adventure that embraces pulp and noir and steampunk and ambiguity and technology and magic and mystery and chase. With an appendix of 48 pages tjat hits all the mechanical needa of Eberron fans.

That's my hope.

 

[AverageCitizen]

A lot of people talk about disliking Eberron because of it's magitech, but honestly, I don't think that is the most defining characteristic of Eberron. I barely even notice it, and for whatever it is, it is certainly not steampunk, whoever told you that misread the introduction.

Eberron is about pulp, adventure and daring contrasted against brutality, betrayal and disillusionment. That is why I like it. It is balanced on a knife's edge between Indiana Jones and Conan. Players and DMs can walk that line, if they want, or they can tip it one way or the other and never look back. I think the writing in the core books is far and away superior to the writing in most of FR. It also had some ingenious mechanical hooks that made the game interesting for everyone.

Way too many people dismissed it as "tech". They missed out. I wish the mechanics would get 5e support because I think ingenious mechanical integration was one of the hallmarks of the original and these patchwork jobs just don't do it justice.

 

[Wrathamon]

It also could fill a noir style game, and it could also be played as traditional sword & sorcery. It is a great setting. One of my favorite.

The only parts I'm not a huge fan of are the way the Daelkyr look, and all that is Sarlona, Kalashtar, etc. I like psionics, but this part of eberron has chunks I like and much I don't. Feels star trek/gate to me. I dont know why that is a bad thing, but I have a hard time with it.

The video games are horrible representations of Eberron.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

A lot of people talk about disliking Eberron because of it's magitech...

I've even seen people avoid Eberron and claim the reason as being the inclusion of this or that element that is actually also included in their setting of choice, and they take no issue or ignore it there but hold it against Eberron (airships, as an example).

Not that there aren't any valid reasons to not like Eberron, because their are (going back to airships, even, I dislike how Eberron airships are made to function by extraplanar slavery, and prefer airships - which I adore - to have methods of lift/propulsion that are either entirely technological like steam-engines and giant balloons, or which use magic in a way other than binding unwilling elemental creatures and acting like there is no moral issue there because, I guess, "Fire ain't people, no matter whether it can have philosophical conversation on that topic or not.") ...and I'm ranting, sorry - my point was to say that there are valid reasons to not like Eberron, whole or in part, but that a staggering percentage of people that express dislike for Eberron cite nonsensical reasons instead.

 

[Bolares]

I've even seen people avoid Eberron and claim the reason as being the inclusion of this or that element that is actually also included in their setting of choice, and they take no issue or ignore it there but hold it against Eberron (airships, as an example).

Not that there aren't any valid reasons to not like Eberron, because their are (going back to airships, even, I dislike how Eberron airships are made to function by extraplanar slavery, and prefer airships - which I adore - to have methods of lift/propulsion that are either entirely technological like steam-engines and giant balloons, or which use magic in a way other than binding unwilling elemental creatures and acting like there is no moral issue there because, I guess, "Fire ain't people, no matter whether it can have philosophical conversation on that topic or not.") ...and I'm ranting, sorry - my point was to say that there are valid reasons to not like Eberron, whole or in part, but that a staggering percentage of people that express dislike for Eberron cite nonsensical reasons instead.

But that can be an awesome theme for stories, a group of elemental-rights extremists start attacking the factories in Zilargo, dropping ships from the air,and the PCs are hired by House Lyrandar to stop the attacks. But when faced with the extremist the group has the moral choice to make, between fullfiling there contract with House Lyrandar or freeing the elementals

 

[AtomicPope]

The Dragon Marks are a defining characteristic of Eberron but they really didn't reach their intended function until 4e. Dragon Marks primarily serve an economic role, creating a monopoly on professions like a hereditary guild system. They allowed certain people to perform certain jobs free of material costs. For example, in 4e pretty much all long range teleportation required a ritual with expensive material components. Since House Orien doesn't need material components or ritual spell books their service costs go down considerably. In fact, they could perform service free of charge just to undercut the competition. That didn't really work in 3e considering Dragon Marks simply granted you the ability to cast a spell that anyone else could cast.

Dragon Marks in 5e probably won't work for the same reasons. If you look at Tieflings and Drow you'll see they pretty much have a 3e version of Dragon Marks built into their starting race package. If you look at feats the Magic Initiate feat looks a lot like Dragon Marks too. The problem comes when trying to justify an economic advantage for casting a spell that anyone else can cast. That's where the kewl magic ability doesn't match the setting's fluff.

 

[Remathilis]

The Dragon Marks are a defining characteristic of Eberron but they really didn't reach their intended function until 4e. Dragon Marks primarily serve an economic role, creating a monopoly on professions like a hereditary guild system. They allowed certain people to perform certain jobs free of material costs. For example, in 4e pretty much all long range teleportation required a ritual with expensive material components. Since House Orien doesn't need material components or ritual spell books their service costs go down considerably. In fact, they could perform service free of charge just to undercut the competition. That didn't really work in 3e considering Dragon Marks simply granted you the ability to cast a spell that anyone else could cast.

Dragon Marks in 5e probably won't work for the same reasons. If you look at Tieflings and Drow you'll see they pretty much have a 3e version of Dragon Marks built into their starting race package. If you look at feats the Magic Initiate feat looks a lot like Dragon Marks too. The problem comes when trying to justify an economic advantage for casting a spell that anyone else can cast. That's where the kewl magic ability doesn't match the setting's fluff.

The big thing about dragonmarks is that there is an economy of scale involved. Most feats can be taken at fourth level, and spellcasters are fairly rare. Most people can't get access to magic easily except through the houses.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

But that can be an awesome theme for stories...

That's exactly the heart of my point; It can be an awesome theme for stories, and it is right there, ready to be utilized... and yet I know of no NPC organization(s) in the setting which dedicate themselves to liberation of these enslaved sentient creatures, pursuit of a different method to power ships, or anything to do with the topic - and that means that unless I have the setting respond to PCs taking the time to think "Hey... wait, isn't this slavery?" with anything other than immediate and complete "Nah, it's cool." or "Yeah, and it would be totally weird if you weren't on board with that." then I am diverging from the setting in a pretty major way, and if I am going to diverge from a setting in a major way, I'd rather just use a different setting I'm not diverging from so significantly (just like how I'd rather play 5th edition with next to zero house-rules, or play 2nd edition with next to zero house-rules, rather than take one and make major changes to make it more like the other).

I dislike that the setting misses such a major and obvious opportunity for those cool stories to actually be part of the setting rather than something I bolted on.

 

[TwoSix]

That's exactly the heart of my point; It can be an awesome theme for stories, and it is right there, ready to be utilized... and yet I know of no NPC organization(s) in the setting which dedicate themselves to liberation of these enslaved sentient creatures, pursuit of a different method to power ships, or anything to do with the topic - and that means that unless I have the setting respond to PCs taking the time to think "Hey... wait, isn't this slavery?" with anything other than immediate and complete "Nah, it's cool." or "Yeah, and it would be totally weird if you weren't on board with that." then I am diverging from the setting in a pretty major way, and if I am going to diverge from a setting in a major way, I'd rather just use a different setting I'm not diverging from so significantly (just like how I'd rather play 5th edition with next to zero house-rules, or play 2nd edition with next to zero house-rules, rather than take one and make major changes to make it more like the other).

I dislike that the setting misses such a major and obvious opportunity for those cool stories to actually be part of the setting rather than something I bolted on.

I'd probably quibble with the idea that it's a major divergence from the setting; setting up an Extraplanar Elemental Freedom Force feels like the Eberron equivalent of Hermione Granger starting S.P.E.W.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I'd probably quibble with the idea that it's a major divergence from the setting; setting up an Extraplanar Elemental Freedom Force feels like the Eberron equivalent of Hermione Granger starting S.P.E.W.

In the setting, use of airships powered by bound elementals is fairly ubiquitous, much like house-elves in the Potterverse. There is an analogue.

The difference is that the Potterverse has S.P.E.W. and Hermione Granger as part of the actual story presented, rather than the actual story presented being that no one of note openly thinks that house-elves should be treated differently and S.P.E.W. being introduced to the story by way of fan-fiction only.