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

[pukunui]

Is there? I can't say that I've seen any WotC adventures specifically set in Sharn.

I had more fun with Korranberg though.

The starter adventure in the 3.5e book is set in Sharn, the starter adventure in the 5e book is set in Sharn, one of the two AL campaigns is set entirely in Sharn while the other one has several adventures set there.

It’s pretty much impossible to find a 1st or 3rd party Eberron adventure for 1st level that isn’t set in Sharn! (The opening adventure for the Oracle of War campaign might be the only one.)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

the starter adventure in the 5e book is set in Sharn

That’s very short - more an episode than an actual adventure, but it does use the setting, as it centres on a sky coach chase.

I never had much 3e stuff, we were playing other games at the time.

But Sharn is pretty boring.”oh look, floating skyscrapers!” and you have seen the place.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Mostly because tge players aren't familiar with it.

Only 1 of them owns the book and tgats s recent addition.

Eberron is pretty much the only setting book my players do have!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I like a lot of generic D&D pantheons, Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Krynn, Golarion, the real world and fictional ones from Deities & Demigods/Legends & Lore, 4e core, and others.

The Sovereign Host specifically just does not call out to me and hook me like those others do.

I actively dislike the Christianised Polytheism of generic D&D, especially the meddling deities of the Forgotten Realms.

I really like the Silver Flame as a religious organisation with real political power, much more like real world religion. Much more “medieval” than those other settings.

I see the Sovereign Host as a kind of folk religion, clinging on in the shadow of the Silver Flame. One of my players was interested in The Traveller, but it is more like real world polytheism, where you are not required to choose one deity from the deck.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Given that this is a negative thread, one thing I don’t like about Eberron is the proper names. Too difficult to spell, and too many are similar to each other.

 

[GrimCo]

I just don't dig magitech or magic as technology in a way Eberron does it. If i want blend of magic and technology, i would rather go to full on steampunk like Iron Kingdoms. In essence, magic + technology, not magic is technology.

 

[Valetudo]

I run my gods like greek mythology movies like Hercules and clash of the titans. They are a bunch of inept squabbling pervs running celestial diddy parties with the mortals and basically perpetually causing problems.

 

[Voadam]

I really like a bunch of Eberron as a setting, The Five Kingdoms war. The weaponized necromancy of Karrnath, the crusading inquisition types of the Thrane theocracy, the dead Mounlands with the Lord of Blades, and the whole lost giant continent of Xendrik are really evocative. I like the history of Galifar versus the goblinoid civilization and what that means for the current setting.

Breland and Aundair of the five kingdoms are really meh for me though. One has the floating city, I think there is a big arcane academy in one, and one has a big spy operation. Mostly generic to me and not that memorable and distinct the way other parts are. If Cyre had not become the Mounlands I think it would likely be the same for me.

Some of the other places on the main continent are hit and miss as well. Pirates are a little weird for me to fit in with the post WWI pulp and noir vibe of the core stuff. Halfling dino riders are possibly interesting as well as the multiple elven cultures and gnomish illuminati. Druidic orcs are pretty cool as well as the demon fighting and demon allied stuff.

Also psionic continent and dragon continent are just not really my cup of tea, I don't really have an interest in exploring either as a DM or as a player. Jungle continent of degenerate giants, scorpion surface Drow, and ruins of the ancient high giant civilization are great and promise pulp D&D adventure, dragon controlled civilization and weird oppressive psionic one with alien/abberation hybrid stuff is just a bit more weird and not strongly adventure oriented for me in the same way, and not interesting themes to me.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I think this is a common misconception of Ebberon's world building. There is high level magic, about as much as Krynn, Mystara, or most of Oerth. The two things is that high powered magic is not openly part of society. Magewrights, dragonmarks and dragonshards free high level wizards and clerics from the mundanity of running temples and building lightning rails, so that they can be threats and important allies, not merchants. Or on the other side, not so many of them that the PCs are never not needed. There is no "let Drizzt or Elminster handle it" scenario, you aren't playing the Defenders waiting for the Avengers to show up, but it also doesn't mean Dr Strange and Dormammu aren't there behind the scenes either.

Limiting Eberron to only low level magic/play (e6) robs Eberron of the biggest threats: Daelkyr, Lords of Dust, the Quori, the giants of Xen'drik, the Lord of Blades, Lady Vol, etc. They exist and threaten Eberron in a variety of ways. You need someone to handle those threats and if Eberron doesn't have a Circle of the Eight, it's gotta be your PCs.

I think the other issue is that in D&D, magic item creation was primarily the realm of high level wizards. Eberron didn't want to make every member of house Cannith a 9th level wizard, so they created the cheats needed to allow low level non-wizards to make magic that replicated modern technology. That doesn't mean 9th level wizards don't exist, just you don't need a lot of them to justify the absurd level of everbright lanterns in Sharn.

So yeah, 9th level wizards still exist in Eberron as NPCs, it's just there aren't thousands of them and they aren't spending their days making eternal wands.

And that's the problem. 9th level wizards and other characters exist, but they are few and far between and you might only meet one of them out of every 500 NPCs you meet.

Whereas we have a band of five of them all walking around together as a super-team. Meaning that they as a group completely overshadow almost every single other character in the setting. Which to me kind of spoils the point of it. Now it's not an insurmountable issue and can be easily handwaved away... but to me it does just lessens the premise of the setting a little bit when you have those 12 to 15 high-level personages that are spread out amongst the dozen or so nations of Khorvaire... PLUS you have 4 to 6 of them all walking around as a group AS though they were the Avengers themselves. And that's only because they are the PCs.

And as far as needing characters that can handle those "high-level threats" in the setting... the only reason those threats like the Quori, Lords of Dust or Lady Vol ARE high-level is because Eberron is a D&D game that uses leveling-up as its reward system that the PCs will eventually reach... so the game HAS to make these threats high-level for if and when the PCs reach those levels too. But I mean if you run the game as an E6... then you wouldn't need those threats to be as high-level as they currently are. One would just de-power most of them so that they still remain as proportionally more powerful than the PCs as they are right now, except the PCs are now 4th, 5th, or 6th level instead. So rather than needing to make a Quori that is a credible threat to a 15th level PC... it only needs to be credible to a 5th.

But like I said, it's not that big a deal and we've all been working with it all along. It's more just the setting's one stubbed toe. But c'est la vie.

 

[timbannock]

I don't run Eberron because for some reason the magitech element of it just doesn't match my expectations and interests regarding what magitech should be. Mind you, I couldn't even tell you what it is I'm looking for, but Eberron just isn't it. Warforged are the only element I'm interested in. I like the idea of the dragonmarked houses, but not their implementation. Beyond that, absolutely none of the setting or mechanics hooked me.