Eberron's Worth...

[JoeGKushner]

Well I don't know how you quantify an informed opinion in this case, but having been playing and DMing since 1983 in each of its incarnations/editions I feel this does give some small (perhaps tiny) measure of weight to my opinion on the matter. My opinion in this case is that DnD never has and still doesn't need to publish official campaign settings filled with airships, trains, and PC robots/transformers especially in an era where they are supporting so few settings. They should have left the robots to the third party publishers and redone Greyhawk or Mystara DnD didn't need a steampunk remix.

/end rant

And as someone whose being playing and DMing since 1984, I find a breath of fresh air welcome and enjoy seeing new options that others may enjoy, even if I myself don't partake of them.

For example, while psionics don't get a huge nod in Eberron, it's heads and shoulders above what they ever got in FR and GH.

Eberron also benefits from being more in tune with the actual game system. Greyhawk has moments when it's low magic fantasy equal to anything from Conan or Nehwon then goes into campaign overdrive with the actual adventures the players are in.

I'd love to see GH revised but I'm glad that WoTC is smart enough to do something DIFFERENT.

 

[Grymar]

Eberron is the anti-campaign and that's why I enjoy it. I'm sick of elves that are better than everyone else, dragons who only want to sit on piles of gold, and ugly being equal to evil (orcs, goblins, etc).

Eberron takes these and spins them around. Now the elves are death-worshiping necromancers, dragons are age-old philosphers, orcs are the original druids, and goblins are the heirs to the worlds great fallen empire.

The airships and trains are only there to facilitate a certain style of play. They do not define the setting unless you force them to.

The warforged are not robots, they are another way of examining life and spirituality in a world where death is uncertain. They also seek to examine what happens to the tool when there is no more nails to pound.

 

[Shade]

Eberron does little for me. I tried to like it, but it just feels to "off" from the flavor I enjoy.

I actually like the warforged and some of the more non-traditional stuff quite a bit. It's the other areas of the setting that don't do much for me. I dislike the take on religion. I find the shifters and changelings to be unintersting, little more than an attempt to make lycanthropes and doppelgangers playable races without level adjustments. The focus on mercantile houses bores me. The dragonshards also don't really do much for me. I dislike the reimagining of the various core races. But most of all, I dislike the cosmology.

Overall, it just doesn't have the right "feel" for me. I do like the Mournlands, the daelkyr, and the integration of action points into the world. The amount of things I dislike just outweigh the things I do like enough to turn me off from the setting.

 

[wayne62682]

I 100% echo the thoughts that Eberron is a breath of fresh air and a great campaign setting; certainly much better than tired fantasy cliches like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. It seems to me that the majority of naysayers either: A) haven't played it but took one look at it and wrote it off as "steampunk" and/or B) Are far too ingrained in Tolkienesque fantasy to ever give anything unique a try but instead want WotC to devote resources to rehashing old campaigns that would do nothing but appeal to bitter grognards who sit and gripe about the "good old days" before "3.x made D&D too much like videogames"

 

[Celebrim]

I think there is way too much bashing of people who aren't amazed by Eberron in this thread.

I think Eberron is cool. I like it better than most. But it doesn't appeal to me.

Partly, I think that Eberron reminds me way too much of the FR. (Although its a far better setting than FR.) Alot of it seems like, "What if a fantasy world had an Edwardian culture?", which is an interesting if not entirely unique question. I see alot that is different, but very little that is original. Bits and peices from GURPS splatbooks, Warcraft, steampunk, and so forth. I don't mind that, and I can't say my home brew is any different or better, but it doesn't make me want to tell stories there.

 

[Jedi_Solo]

I am a fan of Eberron. Our current campaign is in Forgotten Realms but our DM has pulled a lot of stuff from Eberron and just plopped it down. The Merchant Houses, Dragonmarks and Warforged are all alive and well in our campaign.

As information was just starting to leak out about the setting I was actually somewhat leary myself. I wasn't sure what to make of the warforged and the lightning rail seemed out of place.

But after having read the main book I saw that the warforged just made something that has (almost) always been in the system a playable race (constructs) and since the setting is based on "magic as technology" I ask people why the setting would NOT have a magical mass transportation system?

 

[JeffB]

I 100% echo the thoughts that Eberron is a breath of fresh air and a great campaign setting; certainly much better than tired fantasy cliches like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. It seems to me that the majority of naysayers either: A) haven't played it but took one look at it and wrote it off as "steampunk" and/or B) Are far too ingrained in Tolkienesque fantasy to ever give anything unique a try but instead want WotC to devote resources to rehashing old campaigns that would do nothing but appeal to bitter grognards who sit and gripe about the "good old days" before "3.x made D&D too much like videogames"

heh...pot, meet the kettle!

*your* post sounds pretty bitter if ya ask me


As to the subject at hand, meh...some cool stuff in eberron...but as someone else said..the "meh" outweighs the good.

I guess I could say...I like the themes in an overview sense... the actual working model leaves alot to be desired (IMO of course).

 

[Umbran]

I think there is way too much bashing of people who aren't amazed by Eberron in this thread.

Quite.

Here's the deal folks - you can have a thread where you can say you like Eberron, and why, without being bashed. The catch is that you can't use it as a pulpit to bash folks who don't like Eberron.

As usual, the Golden Rule applies. Play nicely, please.

 

[Mouseferatu]

My problem is not with people who dislike Eberron. I have some good friends who dislike Eberron, and I can certainly see how its feel/aesthetic wouldn't appeal to everyone. Heck, while I personally love the setting, I love it precisely because it's different from the baseline; I would fight tooth and nail to keep it from ever becoming the game's default setting.

So I, too, would prefer to see less bashing of people who dislike the setting in general.

That said...

I do object to people who express dislike for it based on false assumptions, such as the aforementioned "robots" and "steam punk," neither of which exist anywhere in the setting. My only requests are:

If you're going to bash the setting, bash it for what's actually there.

If you can't be bothered to read the setting because what you've seen doesn't appeal to you, that's fine. But don't then turn around and bash it as though you've got insight into it, when you do not.

 

[kenmarable]

I 100% echo the thoughts that Eberron is a breath of fresh air and a great campaign setting; certainly much better than tired fantasy cliches like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms. It seems to me that the majority of naysayers either: A) haven't played it but took one look at it and wrote it off as "steampunk" and/or B) Are far too ingrained in Tolkienesque fantasy to ever give anything unique a try but instead want WotC to devote resources to rehashing old campaigns that would do nothing but appeal to bitter grognards who sit and gripe about the "good old days" before "3.x made D&D too much like videogames"

Uh, "b" is just a TAD bit loaded there. I wholeheartedly agree that there's plenty of "a", but my experience with "b" is more that many people really enjoy Tolkeinesque (as well as some people who enjoy other varieties of fantasy) and Eberron just isn't their thing.

Horror movies and campaigns aren't my thing.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream isn't my thing.

I got nothing against them or people who like them, their just not my thing. I think it's pretty safe to say that there are people who are informed enough on Eberron to realize it's not their thing either without being "bitter grognards".

Personally, I *heart* Eberron for most of the reasons others have mentioned - especially the new takes on old aspects of D&D, and that those new takes are cool! I think it benefited a great deal from not having several decades and rule editions of background to work with. That can add a lot of history and flavor to a setting, but it can also rule out a lot of good design choices.

On the flip side, Greyhawk, I'm sorry to say, has never really done it for me. It's not a "tired fantasy cliche", just not my thing. Got nothing against it or those who love it, but Greyhawk is mint chocolate chip ice cream to me. Not my favorite flavor.

If the Eberron-lovers side of the debate wants other people to be open-minded, maybe we should sorta, you know, be open-minded, too? Otherwise you're making us look bad in front of the Greyhawk crowd, and that's just disrespectful.

I do object to people who express dislike for it based on false assumptions, such as the aforementioned "robots" and "steam punk," neither of which exist anywhere in the setting. My only requests are:

If you're going to bash the setting, bash it for what's actually there.

If you can't be bothered to read the setting because what you've seen doesn't appeal to you, that's fine. But don't then turn around and bash it as though you've got insight into it, when you do not.

qft