Eberron sneak peek!!!

[Mordane76]

Mostly to keep a flair of mystery and exitement. That and I was told to "use my better judgement". :-D

That was obviously a veiled suggestion to spill your guts to anything and everything that moves! TELL!

 

[~Johnny~]

ArthurQ, thanks for the update! (BTW, I recognize you from the D&D NYC Meetup page.)

I applaud your decision to keep your write-up spoiler-free. On the other hand, you did reveal some new information!

I was one of the lucky few to play(test) an adventure that is soon to be published.

I assume this was Eberron: Shadows of the Last War. Or was it the adventure slated to be included in the Eberron Campaign Setting book?

The Warborn are almost like a construct, but alive and a PC race thats ECL 0. Belive it or not its fairly well balanced.

I'm glad to hear they're balanced. BTW, I believe the official term is "Warforged."

There is a new type of feat, that goes along family lines, that lets you do something special and diffrent. I'll refrain from telling you exactly what mine did, but it was very usefull.

Interesting! Are these dragonmarks?

The Shapers are....well...decendants of lycanthropes that can make small physical changes, not a complete transformations.

Awesome, that's new info that makes a lot of sense. What a neat idea! BTW, I believe the official term is "Shifter."

We started out in a city that was built on top of an old city that was built on top of another city, that was partically underground. There were "lifts" powered by magic that moved you up and down, harpy messenger services, magic train lines...

Cool! Was the city Sharn? I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the setting's more high-magic elements, but I can't wait to see an official setting that really does that stuff right.

 

[ElerethBerantor]

Sounds really cool.

There are a few concerns I've been having about Eberron though that I hope you might be able to address, since you've played it now.

Action points are my main concern--I played an Oriental Adventures campaign using action points about a year ago and, quite frankly, the action point stuff was just awful. Maybe the DM didn't do them right, but it just didn't feel right.

So, the question is, did being able to use AP make the game less exciting in any way? One of the things I didn't like about it was you didn't have to think "do I want to you this ability later?" so much--if you needed it again, you just spent some AP. It seemed to take some of the danger out of battles, too. What are your thoughts on this?

 

[2d6]

Thanks for the info Arthur!


There is alittle more information about the preview here ->
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=63462007&replies=1

 

[LRonKnieval]

Sounds really cool.

There are a few concerns I've been having about Eberron though that I hope you might be able to address, since you've played it now.

Action points are my main concern--I played an Oriental Adventures campaign using action points about a year ago and, quite frankly, the action point stuff was just awful. Maybe the DM didn't do them right, but it just didn't feel right.

So, the question is, did being able to use AP make the game less exciting in any way? One of the things I didn't like about it was you didn't have to think "do I want to you this ability later?" so much--if you needed it again, you just spent some AP. It seemed to take some of the danger out of battles, too. What are your thoughts on this?

I was also lucky enough to have Keith run my friends and I through Ebberon as well.
Heck, I was lucky enough to play the Artificer.
Anyway, I liked the Action Points. They were really easy to understand, rules wise and came in handy a couple of times. Admittedly, I might have been more conservative with them had I been gaming in an ongoing campaign. Overall, they were kind of like hero points except not as powerful, and slightly more plentiful. Also their use was specifically defined. As the Artificer, I used them to speed up my casting times when trying to beef up everyones stuff before a tricky encounter.
Keith also mentioned the real trick to using them was to have the character add a bit of dramatic flair to explain their justification for use. Such as an extra burst of adreniline to recover an initially off-placed strike.

What was really the coolest factor about Ebberon, aside from new classes and feats and stuff., was the depth of the setting, its flavor and what not. I got a real sense that alignment was more subjective and that certain races, while they have a tendency to be of a specific slant, weren't always as such. I thought that worked nicely with the inclusiveness that 3.0/ 3.5 were trying to attain. What also amazed me was , although distinctivrly different, there was a ton of familiarity to the setting and nothing struck me as being particularly odd or awkward. Overall, it was extremely dramatic and really visual. We even started in a tavern, sort of... but it was exciting. Instead of feeling cliche, it was more like the start of Indian Jones when the Nazi's break into the Siberian bar looking for the amulet.
I also liked that there were feats for specific classes but also restricted to different sects. (Kind of like how L5R does it with clans, but with a little more umpf!).
I could probably go on an on about what a great time I had, but more so I look forward to the June release of the Eberron.

 

[caudor]

Thanks for the info about Ebberon. At first, I wasn't too thrilled the premise of trains, dinosaur riders, and other strangeness, but after reading all the additional info is really warming me up to the campaign now.

The one idea that appeals to me the most is that I can use anything (well almost) in my hoard of d20 books without it feeling out of place because there is a place for it somewhere. Well anyway, I hope that turns out to be the case.

I'm looking forward to learning more about any adventures planned for release. In fact, I hope they create a mega-module (starting at 1st level) or a adventure path series to support this campaign.

 

[Henry]

ArthurQ, can you tell us if the action points are basically on the same mechanics as d20 Modern (since I know you're familiar with that system), or are they different? The reason I ask is that action points in d20M have always stricken me as slightly underpowered (or boring, depending on point of view), but I'm hoping they're modified them slightly to make them more appealing.

 

[Kai Lord]

Mostly to keep a flair of mystery and exitement. That and I was told to "use my better judgement". :-D

I understand. Though I'd love to hear more details about the Warborn and Shapers, particularly the Warborn.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

ArthurQ, thanks for the update! (BTW, I recognize you from the D&D NYC Meetup page.)

I applaud your decision to keep your write-up spoiler-free. On the other hand, you did reveal some new information!


I assume this was Eberron: Shadows of the Last War. Or was it the adventure slated to be included in the Eberron Campaign Setting book?


I'm glad to hear they're balanced. BTW, I believe the official term is "Warforged."


Interesting! Are these dragonmarks?


Awesome, that's new info that makes a lot of sense. What a neat idea! BTW, I believe the official term is "Shifter."


Cool! Was the city Sharn? I know a lot of people roll their eyes at the setting's more high-magic elements, but I can't wait to see an official setting that really does that stuff right.

Gah, The session was from 8-midnight and i was quite litterally passing out most of the time. Forgive me for using the wrong names, it's nearly impossible to remember them.

But you're right.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

ArthurQ, can you tell us if the action points are basically on the same mechanics as d20 Modern (since I know you're familiar with that system), or are they different? The reason I ask is that action points in d20M have always stricken me as slightly underpowered (or boring, depending on point of view), but I'm hoping they're modified them slightly to make them more appealing.

They were used in pretty much the same way. To augment an attack roll or skill check. However they had other uses too, aside from activiating specific abilities. You could use them to activate an ability you've used up for the day (at double cost) and I get the feeling that they will have more uses.

I tended to use them to help me do some really cinematic, action packed, manuvers. Keith seemed to be very open to making them give more umph when you described exactly what you were doing and it really was something exiting or unusual.

For example, in the first combat scene we had to fight 3 assasins. I killed one and the Warforged killed another. Then everyone packed in around the 3rd and by my next turn there was litterally nothing I could do. Since I didnt want to be left out of the action I stepped on a table, used this to help me use another PC as a stepping stone to drop kick the assassin.

Keep in mind this was a Paladin in Full Plate with low dex doing this. With a really good roll and an action point to augment it and to give it an air of "this needs to work" I succeeded.

Another time I used it when running over a glass surface to augment a balance check so I could power attack a zombie.

I think i used it to augment a critical hit once too.

Its just a great setting.
When Eberron comes out, i plan to steal many rules and feats and try them in FR. I dont think I can run Eberron like Keith did.

But wow, let me say, there is nothing like playing in a setting with the dude that wrote it, its such a powerfull experience.