Have you been disillusioned by Eberron?

[Graf]

I don't see any reason to run an Eberron game instead of a homebrew.

KM,

I've read your posts with enjoyment over the years here and on other boards. At the same time I have to say something.

Most Homebrews suck.
Most of the worlds are boring and derivative, and most of the games run in them are harmed by the fact that they are located in a homebrew.

Generally people who homebrew are finicky people who have difficulty sharing the storytelling for their players and need to make up lots of extra rules to deny access to options and assert their control.
Some homebrews are of course great and many fantastic campaign settings (GH, SL, and FR) were all somebodyfs homebrew at some point. But that original spark of creatively was loving published by gifted little fanboys who forgave employment in other sectors of the economy where they could make decent money to make DnD more fun for people.

So the big thing Eberron offers over a homebrew isn't really that itfs easy. Itfs that it's an actual functioning, balanced campaign setting that has been worked on by a number of gifted geeks instead of somebody's sand-box-of-the-mind.

If you are asking what Eberron offers over settings? The list is pretty big.
(Primitive Screwhead covered a lot of good ground)

One difference that my players have been remarking positively upon:
It's got ambivalence towards alignments; neither race nor church membership nor divine spell casting is any indication of a persons alignment. Great pains have been taken to make the world support "evil people doing good things for your side". If you like Maltese Falcon style DnD with intrigue its better at that than other settings.

 

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

· How do you feel about the setting now that it's been out for about a year, and why do you feel that way?

I wish I had more time to re-read those few Eberron books that have come out. Paradoxically (and though it'd probably not be good for the setting) I'd like to see more books come out faster.

· Are you as happy with it as you are Greyhawk and the Realms, the other two supported settings?

Well, we don't actually play in Eberron, we play in the Realms. See, what I do is I raid the Eberron books for ideas to help flesh out my Realms Campaign.

There's quite a bit in the Eberron setting that can be ported to the Realms --especially with regard to magic-- and be made to use and comport to the Realms and its flavor.

· Are you as happy with it as you used to be? Alternately, are you as unhappy with it as you used to be?

Well, I'm neither high nor low on the setting.

I just hope that as Eberron grows it suffers no RSE's (well, **E*SE's, I suppose), the design staff keeps to the original design intent of the ECS, the novel writers for Eberron don't author stories that solve the very same campaign hooks presented in the ECS that **players** are supposed to experience and solve in their own campaigns (like happend in Dark Sun, for those who recall), and that Wizards of the Coast anticipates demographic and play style changes such that they build flexibilty into Eberron to suit these changes ahead of time, so that when the demographic or play style changes do come along and Eberron must adapt, the transition is relatively smooth.

And if nothing else, at least the Halruuan skyships in my campaign have a lot more variety to them...

J. Grenemyer

 

[resistor]

I'm definitely not burned out on it. I still love it!

As many have mentioned, I love how it handles psionics.

Also, I love the lack of high-level NPCs and the lack of significant metaplot. Those are the 2 biggest reasons I despise FR.

Anyways, my copy of Five Nations should arrive soon, and I'm really anticipating The Explorer's Handbook.

 

[Parlan]

Seems the main arguement I hear for how much someone likes the setting is "it's a departure from tolkeinesque fantasy". The logic of "I'm tired of A. Since B is very different from A, B must be cool" doesn't wash IMO.

I don't follow you here.

"I'm tired of A. B is different from A. So I like B" is a perfectly valid way to support one's opinion. We're dealing with preferences here, not solving algabraeic proofs.


Part of the appeal of fantasy is imagining how new concepts would play out.

What would a world where dragons are real be like?

What would it be like to be a powerful wizard?


Imaging that was what brought me into the fantasy genre. Now I've grown pretty comfortable with those ideas, I want something else to spark my imagination for a while.

Some of the ideas in Eberron have done that. Warforged are neat but it's shifters that really caught my fancy.

But then I've always wanted to grow fangs and maul people... and anyone who's ever sat through a company meeting has thought the same! ;-)

 

[Testament]

<SNIP>
The setting even seemed to have very modern attitudes about warfare, politics, and class.

And? Where is it written that D&D MUST be drawn from a medieval structure? Since we don't live in a world where we have this sort of magic available, how are we to know that things wouldn't pan out that way, instead of YET ANOTHER Medieval European structure?

Eberron seems to have gone with a "why not?" and "what if..." structure, and then imposed coherence on it. And I love the results.

 

[Timeboxer]

And? Where is it written that D&D MUST be drawn from a medieval structure?

Speaking as a historian, I think that what Eberron does with this is particularly interesting. It doesn't strike me as modern as in present-day, but it does strike me as modern as in early 19th-century World War I, which I sense is exactly what they're trying to evoke.

But.

 

[Sejs]

I don't see any reason to run an Eberron game instead of a homebrew.

While the same can be said for any setting, one of the real big reasons folks run in a published setting instead of everyone using their own homebrewed one is such:

A fully-developed, sufficiently detailed setting requires a huge ammount of time and effort to create.

I can pick up, read, and digest the ECS in a weekend. I could not, however, create Eberron in that same space of time.

 

[Starman]

I agree with you, but Wizards cares not one whit about what we like. They created a setting that will appeal to the 1o-15 year old crowd who has been steeped in Harry Potter, Pokemon, and Yu gi oh.

Yes, they added in some more adult elements to help win over existing fans, but they are firmly in the mindset that "Eberron ain't your grandpa's setting."

Spellpunk is what the kiddies want.

Why is it that some people have a hard time understanding that other people may like something they do not and that it is okay?

I like Eberron a lot. Some of my friends like it, others don't. Tastes differ. You not liking it does not make it "what the kiddies want" and appealing to the "10-15 year-old crowd."

Starman

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Other: I've never been illusioned with it to begin with, so to say. It didn't capture me to begin with, I can remember looking through the book once and seeing stuff I didn't care fore (rules-wise, but I can be wrong about that), I didn't need another campaign setting, anyway (I have FR, Rokugan and Midnight if I want to do something, and the other DM's have their own world and Ravenloft)

 

[Belen]

Why is it that some people have a hard time understanding that other people may like something they do not and that it is okay?

I like Eberron a lot. Some of my friends like it, others don't. Tastes differ. You not liking it does not make it "what the kiddies want" and appealing to the "10-15 year-old crowd."

Starman

So? I never said that you could not like the book. I mentioned the target audience of the setting. The target audience is 10-15 year old kids. I am sorry if you disagree, but telling the truth in no way tarnishes your enjoyment of a setting.

If they made a setting for the 30-40 year old crowd, then I can guarantee you that it would be different. It would have a lot more sword and sorcery elements at the very least.

Dragonmarks, shifters (mutants), warforged (robots/androids), and lightning rails does not evoke the same themes as traditional D&D. It does have a lot in common with the current anime cartoons though.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. However, my point remains that it is not something I enjoy after having played and run the setting.

I never said that you were wrong in liking the setting. I am sorry that you took it that way, but there is no reason to get defensive because I dislike something that you like.