D&D General Eberron - why don't you run it? [-]

[Micah Sweet]

Have you reminded your players it's called a role playing game? The whole point is you're supposed to put yourself in a different mindset.

Seems a little antagonistic. I don't run into this problem often at my table, but I have seen it in the past many times and have no reason to doubt @DEFCON 1 's general claim.

 

[Lanefan]

That's great when you are in your local neighborhood, but if you were traveling and had to stop for food, do you trust some random diner or McDonald's?

I just got back from a 10-day road trip where we did a mix of both "random diners" and chain places (Denny's, McD's, etc.) and while the food was fine at the chain places it was generally better at the random diners.

McDonald's might not be top tier, but the menu and pricing is fairly consistent across the country and you know what they are going to offer. Dragonmark houses offer the same reliable services and standardized pricing.

I can see how something like Dragonmark or other magic chain-franchises would evolve but that bridge goes a little too far for me. However, basic things like widespread lighting in cities, curing spells used to augment health care, weather spells used to help crops grow, and so on just seem so obvious that their assumed absence in a setting like FR is a bit jarring.

 

[pukunui]

After reading most of the Eberron stuff for 3rd edition I came away from it having a difficult time justifying this in other settings. How do all of you Realms and Greyhawk etc. people approach this now? Or do you still handwave it (which is certainly a fine approach, fantasy rpg worlds don't need to be super logical, just gameable)?

In the Realma at least, I’d say Baldur’s Gate is probably closest to Eberron in feel. It’s very noir, and it’s got more (magi)tech than other FR cities, thanks to the Temple of Gond. It even has relatively modern cranes in its port.

Lantan is another part of the Realms that has a strong Eberron vibe, but it’s never really been explored in much detail. Chris Perkins wanted to do something with it after including it on the map in Tomb of Annihilation, but I guess it didn’t pan out.

 

[Lanefan]

It might be worth mentioning that in the UK we tend not to have random diners. Motorway services are pretty much all chains and are pretty terrible, as well as having hugely inflated prices. Hence the picnic.

In the UK you do, however, still have some random pubs that haven't been snapped up by the chain operators yet; and my memory of those is that they can be very hit-or-miss, much like the random diners here.

 

[TiQuinn]

My favorites are the truck stop diners if you run into them during a road trip. Personally I’d take Waffle House over a McDonald’s any day.