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Message: <blockquote data-quote="~Johnny~" data-source="post: 1477827" data-attributes="member: 16493">I'm starting to think that maybe rounser doesn't like this whole Eberron conceptWell said. For more from Eberron designer Keith Baker on this subject, <a href="http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/development.html#tone" target="_blank">click here</a>.Just a note on this. One of the Dragon articles mention half-orcs will be a bit more common and have a defined culture, though it's a small one that borrows heavily from their parent races. The basic idea is that at some point in Eberron's long history, half-orcs started marrying one another and having children. There's still plenty of room for "born of two races, but at home among neither" angst, but it's also possible to play a second-generation half-orc. This fits well with the fact that while orcs are still feared by humans, they're not just scary monsters living in the forest. In fact, orcs were the first druids, and there's plenty of backstory yet to be revealed. The <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/eberron/ebb_20040217_HalfOrcs_Shadow_Marches.jpg" target="_blank">Shadow Marches half-orcs</a> (I love that picture) are probably the largest half-orc settlement.Like most mage spells in the wake of the destructive Last War, invisibility isn't particularly common. And it has a counterspell available at the same level, which I think should keep the social effects pretty balanced. Again, the point is not that everyone in the world is extraordinary; the point is to provide a rich context for extraordinary people.In fact, the unearthly Inspired (and presumably, the <a href="http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/world.html#kalashtar" target="_blank">Kalashtar</a>) look like <a href="http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/317art7.jpg" target="_blank">beautiful humans</a>. The souls of the Inspired reside on Dal Quor, the plane of dreams, which gives them the innate ability to harness the powers of the mind. Beings of other races can tap into similar abilities with training.Interestingly, mind flayers appear less connected to psionics than to the concept of madness. Like other aberrations, Illithid are the result of Eberron's conterminous period with Xoriat, the plane of madness. This event thousands of year ago unleashed Cthuloid abominations that druids (like the aforementioned orcs) were barely able to repel.(All the planar stuff in the setting's history is really cool. It's a great way to pull in some of the inventive flavor of Planescape while remaining rooted in a more traditional fantasy world.)In one sense, Eberron adheres more to the DMG than any published setting does: all those NPC fighters and mages in Forgotten Realms are actually warriors and adepts in Eberron, as the DMG recommends. This fits well with Keith Baker's core description of Eberron's themes: "War. Action. Intrigue. Exploration. Magic. PCs as extraordinary individuals with the ability to make a difference in the world." The magewright is part of this philosophy, put prestidigitation and mount into the hands of NPCs, without giving them the tools to turn every village into a city of wonders like Sharn. Just a note on the "every monster, spell and race having a place" comment. While many races -- giants, goblinoids, demons and aberrations -- have an established place in the setting, it's not just a case of finding a place for everything in the kitchen sink. Another quote from Keith: One last comment on magic "making sense." A homebrew setting is a good place to make monsters and magic rare and extraordinary, something that only the heroes encounter. But a published campaign setting needs to have scads of monsters waiting around for adventurers, and a wealth of character generation options for characters who want to use magic. Combine that with some decent justification for PCs to remain extraordinary individuals and you've got my attention.You can have a perfectly wonderful fantasy novel where the characters spend all their time fighting one kind of enemy -- like orcs or humans -- but to do so in D&D can get pretty dull. Give me a monster-filled world, along with intertwined cultures and histories for all the major monsters, and I'll take what I want from it. Omission is easy; creation is time-consuming and keeps me away from the actual roleplaying.</blockquote>

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