Forgotten Realms vs. Eberron

[ProfessorCirno]

I very much perfer Eberron over the Realms in 3e.

4e? I dunno. I don't know how 4e will do Eberron since Eberron, to me, is based on "I SWING ON THE CHANDELIER PAST THE WARFORGED SWASHBUCKLER AND KICK THE CAT-PERSON IN THE HEAD BEFORE HE CAN ATTACK THE LITTLE GIRL POPE!" Doesn't seem to fit "points of light in a sea of daarrrrrrkneeeeeeesssss" too well.

As for Forgotten Realms...look, I never got that into the Realms. I found the Sword Coast to be the most mind numbingly boring thing imaginable. This reset, on the other hand, seems to change everything that needed to stay the same and got rid of the stuff that actually sucked. All the strange and exotic locals? Oh, they're gone. But hey, the Sword Coast is just the same as it always has been! Ugh. And what's this complete BS about Tyr killing Helm? Who the hell OK'd that one? I assume that's why Lathander, the second most worshiped god in the entire world, decided to become some long since dead sun god of some long since dead empire. It was because his brain couldn't comprehend WTF was going on in the writers' heads. So yeah, the Rising Sun heresy - you know, the one that his ENTIRE CONGREGATION DENIED - is true. Yeah. And funny, on that Lathander note, he's going from Neutral Good - the very avatar of it, at that - to Lawful Neutral. Which no longer exists.

Meanwhile, Ao has presumable been retconned out of existence, and Mystra dies again. This is, what, the third time the goddess of magic has kicked the bucket? I say Ao has been retconned, as he seems perfectly content not to do anything while his entire pantheon rips each other apart for seemingly no reason.

 

[Serendipity]

I'm on the fence about the Eberron books. Really tis going to depend on how useful they are to me. i.e. crunch. I don't need fluff (I've got the original books for that thanks). My concern is that since Eberron was so completely married to 3.5, how will it "feel" in 4.0?
Couldn't care less about the Realms so that's not an issue. Almost certainly I'll get the first Eberron book, after that we'll talk.

IMO, the Realms is possibly the worst way to build a setting that technically matches that definition. It was bad when it was released in a gray box and has only festered with age. I cannot recommend any pre-4e version of the setting, and have honestly been hoping for it to be discontinued since about 1990. To me, it is the Lorraine Williams era of D&D made manifest, with a few Mary Sues thrown in for good measure.

Wow. Summed up better than I could possibly have expressed.

 

[Hellcow]

My concern is that since Eberron was so completely married to 3.5, how will it "feel" in 4.0?

My point is that I don't feel Eberron WAS married to 3.5; we were engaged, sure, but there were always some sticking points in the relationship. We added action points into Eberron; in 4E they are part of core rules, and actually allow a little more of the "amazing action" I wanted (IE, you simply HAVE to get to leap the drawbridge and it's going to close this round - use an action point for a move action to jump that extra distance!). The skill challenge system is a far more flexible tool for inquisitive campaigns than the Investigate feat. And rituals are, IMO, a better match for the everyday industrial magic of the magewright than the Vancian system; it's easy to see how someone could be a professional arcane locksmith. And the shift in attitude towards alignment and removal of things like detect evil is definitely a good match for Eberron.

So as someone who's been playing 4E Eberron for months now, I don't feel that the "feel" of the setting is dramatically different; if anything, the core mechanics have drifted closer to Eberron.

 

[Serendipity]

So as someone who's been playing 4E Eberron for months now, I don't feel that the "feel" of the setting is dramatically different; if anything, the core mechanics have drifted closer to Eberron.

In theory I agree - the mechanics, or rather that nebulous concept of how the mechanics "feel" do appear to be a better fit for Eberron than 3.5 was, but of course I reserve judgement til I've some experience with this under my belt.

Now as to whether or not this will necessitate me throwing dollars at WotC next year remains to be seen. A point could be inferred from your words that it is not necessary with what's already been released for 4e and Eberron.

 

[Hellcow]

A point could be inferred from your words that it is not necessary with what's already been released for 4e and Eberron.

I'm playing 4E Eberron right now, and I hope others are as well. You don't NEED the 4E Eberron book to do it. However, our goal with the 4E books is to make sure that they are valuable for both old and new players. The world isn't CHANGING in the way that FR has (with the Spellplague, timeline adjustment, etc) - but there will be new toys to play with, and a deeper look at some areas of the world. It should feel the same - but again, we want to make sure the book's going to be worth your while.

 

[Serendipity]

... but there will be new toys to play with, and a deeper look at some areas of the world. It should feel the same - but again, we want to make sure the book's going to be worth your while.

Now THAT sounds mighty promising.

 

[Shazman]

The Forgotten Realms has been completely trashed to "transition" it to 4E. Go with Eberron.

 

[drothgery]

The Forgotten Realms has been completely trashed to "transition" it to 4E. Go with Eberron.

If you don't have an existing history with the Realms as a campaign world, that's not a bug, it's a feature. Now, if you've played and loved the 3e Realms, then it'd be a different story, but as someone who never played there and never read the novels (though I've got some rulebooks; pre-Eberron, I thought FR had the best production values of any D&D setting out there and so was worth mining for ideas), I'm much more likely to play in (or even run) a game in the 4e Realms than the 3e Realms.