Eberron's Worth...

[JeffB]

The game world is assumed to be close to real world medieval, but many feel that the 'realistic' consequences of certain spells, magic items and monsters would cause the world to look much more modern.

For example would castles survive long against flying monsters and spellcasters? Would close formations of troops exist when wizards are slinging fireballs on the battlefield? Would the black death have had the effect it did, when the wealthy and powerful can receive cure disease?

I see what you mean. But IMO, this is thematic. The rules (all editions) provide for cure disease and fireballs and whatnot, but this is really dependant on the campaign setting's themes and later rules editions where it became more commonplace/accepted.

Were all these magics available in those earlier rules editions? Absolutely.

Were they meant to be common? it's certainly not implied in earlier versions of the game, where magic items/spells/healing was encouraged to be "rare", and there were harsher consequences when receiving/using such magics (i.e. ressurection/system shock, tougher level loss from draining, save or die poisons,etc., etc.).

If there are a gazillion mages, and high level magic and cleric spells are common..well yeah, I can see the issue. Again though, this is something that evolved over time in campaign material and later editions of the rules. The game was not originally designed to suit or cater to such campaigns. It was meant not to really simulate the high fantasy of late 1E/2E Era Realms or Eberron...it was designed to suit campaigns of the S&S Genre and to a certain extent a "tolkien-esque" feel. Where magic is not unheard of, but yet, there aren't 12 high level mages living in/temples to a half a dozen gods who provide healing in the local hamlet/dale.

As is being bandied about in another thread, D&D has evolved into it's own stamp of Fantasy genre in the past 15-20 years.

 

[Vocenoctum]

The game world is assumed to be close to real world medieval, but many feel that the 'realistic' consequences of certain spells, magic items and monsters would cause the world to look much more modern.

For example would castles survive long against flying monsters and spellcasters? Would close formations of troops exist when wizards are slinging fireballs on the battlefield? Would the black death have had the effect it did, when the wealthy and powerful can receive cure disease?

For myself, it starts with timeline. Reality didn't exist in the medieval period for thousands of years, but it seems like the settings in D&D do. The only way for justifying it is that such advancements in technology were not as needed in D&D simply due to magic, but then you have to wonder why magic hasn't shaped society as much as it shaped the landscape.

I personally figure that any small village will be different with even a first level cleric than it is without that cleric, but GH & FR (IMO) only deal with the consequences of giant effects. Sure the Invoked Devestation and Rain of Colorless Fire are magical, but there's not much addressing the simple low-power items.

Eberron goes the opposite way somewhat. The large scale effects are less common but more mysterious and world altering, but low level items are more integral to the setting.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I totally agree with your above statements. Once again in no way do I think it's a bad setting, just not my cup o' tea. It's funny you all think like this because in another thread me and some others debated setting design vs. adventure prep where some argued whether preping a setting was a waste of time or not. I don't believe it's so, and really believe the way a setting is designed facilitates and enhances adventure design.

I saw mention in another thread about how Greyhawk was more pushed by the adventures, while FR was more pushed by the story/ metaplot. I think Eberron is more about giving a base for play with lots more adventure ideas sprinkled throughout. Greyhawk presented plenty of places to adventure, but the work wasn't as obvious for individual adventures there.