Forgotten Realms VS. Eberron. Which should I run?

[Desdichado]

Now, just to inject a little more spice in this debate: Has anyone considered combining Eberron and Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk?

I've heard a few people talk about locating Sharn in Halruaa or some such site, but beyond that, no.

 

[Desdichado]

Anyway, to wrap up, I would consider a setting that doesn't bump too much into the concepts that the Iron Kingdoms is covering. Eberron may do that in unexpected ways and it sounds like you're tired of FR, so I would look around more at some of the other settings available.

I've heard a lot of comparisons made between IK and Eb, but I don't find them to really be very similar. They have completely different tones and themes, and the points of similarity are much more superficial and specious than they might appear at first glance' i.e., warforged and lightning rails does not at all make Eb into a "steampunk" setting, for instance.

 

[Mystery Man]

Uh, no, that's not true at all. They have very few of the construct immunities at all, unless you take lots of levels of the Warforged Juggernaut prestige class, and they have many of the construct frailties instead (immune to healing magic, for one.) My experience does not indicate that they are broken at all; in fact, the warforged player in our Eberron game (who is not at all a power gamer; he's all about suboptimal characters if they're interesting, and is in fact playing one in another campaign I run) thought that if anything the Warforged could be called underpowered.

Not only that, they are a signature component of the setting; leaving them out is a bit like leaving elves out of Forgotten Realms.

Agreed, warforged are not overpowered at all. What they are is a race that players will fight over to play. One of my players is wanting to run an Eb game that is months off and the arm wresting is already starting.

 

[Desdichado]

Agreed, warforged are not overpowered at all. What they are is a race that players will fight over to play. One of my players is wanting to run an Eb game that is months off and the arm wresting is already starting.

Is that because they think its a powerful race, or because it's something that's very different from what they've done before and therefore intriguing, though? Our current Eberron game (with four players) are exploring a fair amount of the new Eberron races (we have a human, a warforged, a shifter (me) and a kalashtar) but none of that is because those races are better, it's just because, hey, that's new and different.

Hmmm... I really need to work on cutting back on comments (in parenthesis); I rely on them too much (to be effective (at writing.))

 

[ReignMan]

At the end of the day its Horses for Courses, Diferent Strokes for Different Folks, whatever you want to call it.

I'm a big fan or the traditional fantasy that is FR but I'm currently running an Eb campaign and the PC's are loving it. It's different, new, cinematic yet still based on the traditional emelments. Whether or not the novelty will wear off I don't know, the campaign is till very young.

I can't see it working for Epic campaign sessions though - PC's are allready the centre of attention at low-med level.

From a DM's point of view it's not all plain sailing, a lot of work is required to backfill adventures that are thin on detail from the core and CS books. Some encounters are a little liniar and set peice and the books don't really account for your PC's doing something out of the ordinary (e.g. My PC's came up with a really good plan and completeley obliterated an encounter from which the adventure assumed they would run away).

Agree with Henry though - go to the message boards on WOTC and get a flavour for it.

 

[MetalBard]

I've heard a lot of comparisons made between IK and Eb, but I don't find them to really be very similar. They have completely different tones and themes, and the points of similarity are much more superficial and specious than they might appear at first glance' i.e., warforged and lightning rails does not at all make Eb into a "steampunk" setting, for instance.

I completely understand this. I was more referring to the superficial than anything else. I'm not sure about other people, but while running two games at a time I like to keep even some of the superficial details somewhat different. That's all.

 

[Von Ether]

At the end of the day its Horses for Courses, Diferent Strokes for Different Folks, whatever you want to call it.

I'm a big fan or the traditional fantasy that is FR but I'm currently running an Eb campaign and the PC's are loving it. It's different, new, cinematic yet still based on the traditional emelments. Whether or not the novelty will wear off I don't know, the campaign is till very young.

I can't see it working for Epic campaign sessions though - PC's are allready the centre of attention at low-med level.

From a DM's point of view it's not all plain sailing, a lot of work is required to backfill adventures that are thin on detail from the core and CS books. Some encounters are a little liniar and set peice and the books don't really account for your PC's doing something out of the ordinary (e.g. My PC's came up with a really good plan and completeley obliterated an encounter from which the adventure assumed they would run away).

Agree with Henry though - go to the message boards on WOTC and get a flavour for it.

For someone who has no interest in Epic rules, wouldn't that be a bonus. A setting where PC are the penlutimate powers without needing another rulebook to do so?

It goes without saying a savvy FR GM could do the same by ignoring the NPCs or just having an "event" take them out. I say give Eberron a spin for a change of pace and see if it sticks. If not, you have a long running game to go back to, no loss.

***
I can't say much on FR, though, I've never played it. Most "standard" fantasy settings haven't appealed to me in a looooong time. (I used to think that made me "better" than other role-players. Now I realize it just means I'm jaded. ).

THe only "negative" I've ever had with game world is it's ubiquitousness. Like a muzack song that played too long, you sorta wish the background music would change at least once in a while. Overall, I am in the "DM who doesn't need continuity-fan players know more about the game world than he does" catagory.

 

[Henry]

Guys and Gals, I'll say it one more time: Knock off the personal attacks, or people start getting bans.

Surely we can discuss pros and cons without nastiness.

 

[Desdichado]

Henry, via Joshua Dyal]EDIT - Removed Joshua's comment on Gez's comment about Brennan's comment - Henry

D'oh! Sorry!

 

[ZSutherland]

I originally posted with a general favor towards Eberron, and I stand by it, but to be fair I thought I'd mention some things I don't particularly like about Eberron and some things I do like about FR. Keep in mind that I have run a good deal of FR but have only prepared the beginnings of a campaign for Eberron.

Eberron Cons:

1) The new races. I really like Changeling, but am fairly ambivalent towards Kalashtar since I don't have the Expanded Psi HB yet. As for Shifter and Warforged, I'm not a huge fan. I really liked Monte Cook's AU, though not Diamond Throne, but I just can't get into fuzzy races. I think it may have something to do with the fact that they're generally represented as being crude dolts, and Eberron's shifters are no exception. I don't mind the race, per se, but I don't like it as a PC option. Warforged strikes me as weak mechanically and kind of boring (mileage obviously varies since many are apparently quite excited by them.) Again, I don't mind the race, but it strikes me as a poor choice for a PC.

2) Religion. I like the very large and well fleshed-out pantheons in FR. It makes sense to me because religion and faith play such a large role in the campaign setting. Eberron's religion seems like it was intended to be less intrusive. However, their pantheons (while small in comparison to FR) seems bulky for the intent. Nine gods in one pantheon, six in another, the silver flame, the blood of Vol, 5 specified druidic orders with textual indications that there are more, etc. That's quite a bit of religion for a fairly sparse population where dieties are gods not GODS.

3) Dragons. I really like the concept of a large group of philosopher/seer dragons who engage themselves with concerns far beyond the lesser races' ken. However, I'm mildly irked that the text suggests that nearly all the dragons live on this particular island/continent that's basically inaccessible to the PCs. It sort of takes the Dragons out of Dungeons & Dragons. I realize I can ignore this as the DM, but we're talking about actual facets of the setting.

Forgotten Realms (Pros)

1) Highly diverse terrain. I, like others, don't like the glacier parked next to the desert, but I'm glad there is a glacial plain and a serious desert area (a few actually). It makes it easy for me to escape the woodsy feel that infuses so much of D&D.

2) NPC Organizations. These abound in FR. Admittedly, there are many present in Eberron as well, but simply due to the longer life of FR, they are more fully developed and you're probably more familiar with them if you've been running FR for quite a long time. They make planning intrigue and adventures easy by supplying you with an extensive list of potential antagonists and supporters for your PCs.

3) High Magic. Magic is prevelant in both settings, but in Eberron it's more mundane. That strikes my mood at the moment, but I do like the intense, in your face feel to magic in FR. I disagree with those who say FR is tolkienesque. Magic in LotR is a fairly subtle effect. In FR, it's huge and everywhere. Dragons lair all over the place, the gods take an active hand in the events of the mortal world, spell casters are common, pockets of wild magic dot the landscape, etc. It's obvious why there are so many adventurers in the Realms. There's so much for them to do.

Anyway, I hope these help you get a feel for Eberron. Henry's right in that you can probably find better info on Wizard's boards. I know there's a primer stickied near the top of the Eberron board there that gives a broad overview.

Z