D&D General "I have played in or run a D&D campaign set in Eberron." (a poll)

[Retreater]

I guess I'm one of those grognards who'll say "it just doesn't feel like D&D to me."
When it was released, my group scoffed at it and made it the butt of many jokes. It was the poster child of everything we considered was going wrong with "modern D&D."
I would say it was because we were already set in our ways and preferences when it was released, but then again we also made fun of Spelljammer for the same reasons.
If others like it, that's great. But here's why it has never appealed to me:

• I'm not big on the "dungeon punk" design.
• The technology takes away from the wonder of magic.
• It was built to support 3.5 and shows that - and 3.5 happens to be my least favorite edition of D&D. I'm still sick of it - despite having not touched the system in close to a decade.
• The world is so "weird" that you can't easily port adventures or standard fantasy to it.
• The selling point of "it's basically post-WWI" is inaccurate.
• It's never been properly supported with adventure content - I have no idea how to run the thing.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I am just going to say it: not only is Eberron the best setting ever created for D&D, it is the "most D&D" setting ever created.

Why are we agreeing so much recently?

Because this statement is 1 Billion Percent correct.

Never been so happy to get smoked by someone in a competition. Good on Keith.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Yep. Loved the setting when it first came out for 3.5 and bought a bunch of the books, although I never ran it. Bought the two 4E books too, but still never ran it. Wasn't until I got the 5E Wayfinder's Guide that I finally decided to jump in to run it with a pair of groups.

Still love the setting... but each of my campaigns usually jump from setting to setting just to vary things up, so I don't know if I'll get back over there again any time soon.

 

[Zaukrie]

I guess I'm one of those grognards who'll say "it just doesn't feel like D&D to me."
When it was released, my group scoffed at it and made it the butt of many jokes. It was the poster child of everything we considered was going wrong with "modern D&D."
I would say it was because we were already set in our ways and preferences when it was released, but then again we also made fun of Spelljammer for the same reasons.
If others like it, that's great. But here's why it has never appealed to me:

• I'm not big on the "dungeon punk" design.
• The technology takes away from the wonder of magic.
• It was built to support 3.5 and shows that - and 3.5 happens to be my least favorite edition of D&D. I'm still sick of it - despite having not touched the system in close to a decade.
• The world is so "weird" that you can't easily port adventures or standard fantasy to it.
• The selling point of "it's basically post-WWI" is inaccurate.
• It's never been properly supported with adventure content - I have no idea how to run the thing.

Can't port adventures? That's all I've ever done. I don't know why you think that.

I'm not sure the rest of your bullets are accurate either, but that bullet just makes no sense to me at all.

 

[payn]

• The world is so "weird" that you can't easily port adventures or standard fantasy to it.

This isnt true at all. I assumed it was "too weird", but once I played it, I found it does standard fantasy as well as any campaign setting.

• It's never been properly supported with adventure content - I have no idea how to run the thing.

You can run it like any other thing. Seriously, the weird stuff is pretty easy to keep in the background and/or even ignore.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Absolutely. Eberron neatly scratches that "but what if D&D actually made sense?" itch. It's flexible enough to allow basically any kind of campaign, and distinct enough to that it even made gnomes, halfling, and orcs interesting and integrated in the setting.

 

[Retreater]

Can't port adventures? That's all I've ever done. I don't know why you think that.

Putting in blimps and lightning rails while running metropolises with skyscrapers kinda changes the default assumption of most standard D&D adventures.

You can run it like any other thing. Seriously, the weird stuff is pretty easy to keep in the background and/or even ignore.

If you put in the background the things that make the setting unique, why even play in Eberron?
If you're going to run Ghosts of Saltmarsh in Eberron and not put blimps and robots in it, why not just keep it in Greyhawk?

 

[Zaukrie]

Putting in blimps and lightning rails while running metropolises with skyscrapers kinda changes the default assumption of most standard D&D adventures.

If you put in the background the things that make the setting unique, why even play in Eberron?
If you're going to run Ghosts of Saltmarsh in Eberron and not put blimps and robots in it, why not just keep it in Greyhawk?

Funny. Blimps are like spelljammer ships... Also, I've run at least two non eberron published adventures that had blimps. I realize that's just an example....

 

[Voadam]

I played in an Eberron game and really enjoyed it.

I overlay a lot of the Great War and five kingdoms into my mashup homebrew setting, particularly over the Ptolus succession civil war and the base Golarion nations. Prince Karrn of the Lothian Principality of Ustalav striving for the Imperial throne, for example.

 

[Voadam]

Putting in blimps and lightning rails while running metropolises with skyscrapers kinda changes the default assumption of most standard D&D adventures.

If you put in the background the things that make the setting unique, why even play in Eberron?
If you're going to run Ghosts of Saltmarsh in Eberron and not put blimps and robots in it, why not just keep it in Greyhawk?

You can focus on what you want in the setting.

The Xendrik Expedition Against the Giants game I played in did not involve the Blood of Vol, the Argonnessen Dragon stuff, enlightened Quori, Lightning Rails, dinosaur riding halflings, or Karrnathi undead but it felt authentically Eberron with dragon marked house politics, an expedition into the jungles of Xendrik, and the whole degenerate giants of ancient Xendrik storyline.

If you want to use shifter, changeling, and warforged PCs in a Saltmarsh game you are running, setting it somewhere in Eberron could work. I have not read the Saltmarsh adventures so I can't advise on how to weave in Eberron elements from the DM side but if there is anything Tharizdun related the Dragon Below cults can work pretty well as a substitution. The Lords of Dust would work well for a lot of Greyhawk big villains as well (particularly the Horned Society, Erythnul, and the various Demon Lords who often pop up in Greyhawk).

Eberron is a big and diverse D&D setting. You can fit a lot of adventures in fairly easily.