Eberron, What is it exactly?

[Mitchbones]

I know its a campain setting, and Ive heard alot of praise about it, but I honestly dont know anything about it. I was wondering if any of you could enlighten me on the setting.Whats good, whats bad. Should I buy or no?

Edit: Forgot Wikipedia is my friend

 

[Darrin Drader]

I know its a campain setting, and Ive heard alot of praise about it, but I honestly dont know anything about it. I was wondering if any of you could enlighten me on the setting.Whats good, whats bad. Should I buy or no?

Edit: Forgot Wikipedia is my friend

I've read over the setting, I was even at WotC when it was released, yet I still can't answer that question.

Eberron is airships, lightning rails, Xendrik, warforged, dragonmarks, artificers, the great war, Sharn: City of Towers, and The Mournlands. Eberron is D&D, and Eberron is Pulp. That's probably the best I can sum it up, because the one thing Eberron isn't is a focused micro-setting, and I don't mean that as an insult. Look for traditional D&D staples used in non-traditional ways. Look for traditional D&D elements used in traditional ways. There's a lot going on in Eberron, and I feel like we've just scratched the surface with the information we've been given so far.

 

[jokamachi]

It's too much.

 

[Stone Dog]

Let me give you a small stack of links to help you with that...

This is the Gearing Up For Eberron Archive. It is what WotC put on its web page for some prerelease information. The Whirlwind Tour of Khorvaire is pretty nice.

Try to ignore the Extreme Explorer PrC... or at least its name. It is a PrC who's niche is manipulating Action Points. It got saddled with an unfortunate name. Happens to alot of nice people.

These are Dragonshards. They are free articles about different facets of the setting writen by the creator, Keith Baker. The ones on the gnomes of Zilargo are my favourite I think.

There are also alot of good solid reviews on this site and on RPGnet to help you out. They are probably more in depth than most posts... especially ones made while somebody is struggling with sleep.

One thing that probably needs to be addressed is a common misconception. "Everything in D&D has a place in Eberron." That was a main marketing thrust from WotC and it is often brought up as "everything in D&D can be found in Eberron." It is a fine distiction, but it can make the difference between the setting looking versitile or crowded.

You like Psionics? We have several origins of psionics integral to the setting. Don't like them? They are easily pushed to the background. Pay them no mind.

Like druids? We got druidic sects devoted from protecting the world from abberations and planar incursions to bringing about the end times so that the world can renew in a grand cycle.

Dragons? Lots of flavors and none of them dependant on color. Except on a broad sort of level. For example whites are still reletively small, stupid and ill behaved... just not set to evil as the default.

Orcs? What, savage blood thirsty savages, noble fiend slaying guardians or just plain sort of folk that live along side humans? We got those in the mountains around the Mror Holds pestering dwarves, doing a barbarian sort of Gondor thing on the edge of the Demon Wastes and just trying to get by like everybody else in the Shadow Marches.

Seriously, check it out. There is alot of good stuff in there and plenty of dials to fiddle with and get your Eberron just the way you want it.

 

[Stone Dog]

Edit: Forgot Wikipedia is my friend

Let us know what you think when you read in a bit more!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Eberron is pulp adventure through the D&D lens. It's Indiana Jones as a dungeon-delving rogue. It's a metaphor for Western Europe between World Wars I and II, with all the espionage, exploration, and cultural development that implies.

It's a world that takes the assumed level of magic in the core rules, and actually tries to determine how it would impact society.

And while it'll never be my only published setting of choice--I'm too big a fan of traditional fantasy--it's definitely one of my favorites.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

"Eberrron, What is it exactly?"


It is cool.

Next question.