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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Abe.ebA" data-source="post: 2930499" data-attributes="member: 32545">I think "what's pulp" has been covered pretty thoroughly, so let me try "how is Eberron pulp" instead.Now, bearing in mind that I've only read the campaign setting and the Sharn book and neither recently:Eberron is pulp-y in that the setting is, at least partially, designed to offer lots of pulp-inspired plot lines.  The continent of Xen-Drik (sp?) alone offers hooks for an entire sub-genre of pulp: the explorer-adventurer.  Indiana Jones is a modern example of this sort of thing but it was a pretty common theme in old pulp novels.  The hero would be an academic who happened to be in tip-top physical condition, or a straight manly-man tough-as-nails type.  They'd head off into Darkest Africa, the Burning Desert, or Burroughs' Mars or wherever and have adventures with the local flaura, fauna, and native peoples.  Often-times it was in search of some lost treasure or other.  I immediately thought of Burroughs' Mars books and Allan Quartermain when I saw the Xen-Drik section of the CS.  The shady figures and conspiratorial organizations that others mentioned being present in pulp novels enter Eberron thanks to the clan structure of the dragonmarked houses.  All these people conspiring with and against one another leaves plenty of opportunity for back-alley dealings and underhanded skullduggery.Sharn, specifically, capitalizes on at least three features of pulp genre fiction:  the sleuth mystery, the death-defying chase, and the general urban setting of many pulp works.  The whole hard-boiled gumshoe theme was pretty much invented during the pulp era (I think anyway... that's the impression I tend to get and I've always linked the two in my mind) and the Inquisitives of Sharn fill the role quite nicely.  The towering..er..towers and prevalence of air-based travel leaves tons of opportunities for chase/fight scenes aboard flying carriages (think of the truck scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but happeneing at 2000 feet) or whatnot.  And the sheer urban-ness of Sharn lets you set your campaign in the Big City if that's the feel you're going for.Now, none of this deals at all with the other supplements and modules that have come out for Eberron.  I've not been terribly interested by the Races/Magic of books and haven't read any of the modules, so for all I know Wizards has totally lost the plot on Eberron since the first couple of books came out.  But the CS and Sharn were certainly pulpy; IMHO, anyway.</blockquote>

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