D&D 5E Keith Baker: Exploring Eberron

Eberron creator Keith Baker has been busy recently! He has unveiled the cover to his new book, to be released in July on DMs Guild in PDF and Print on Demand hardcover. It will dive into parts of Eberron that have received little attention in prior books, including the undersea civilizations and the planes.

Keith sent Sly Flourish a PDF copy of the book, which Sly flipped through


Also, check out the KB Presents Twitter for past previews

 

[ChaosOS]

Awesome Blog so far, but i'm wondering if Exploring Eberron is going to detail out all the special materials form the previous editions. Crysteel, Byesk, etc...

I don't think so. To be honest I don't think 5e supports those systems very well - weapon rules are an inch deep, encumbrance is irrelevant, and generally speaking you don't get anything more meaningful than "caddy squire fetch me my nine iron silver longsword"

 

[Vael]

Ooooh, I had never considered the implications of persona's and romance. That is really interesting stuff.

And, you know someone made a play about it. Heck, I want to write a story about it now.

One of the reasons I love Eberron so much is that this isn't just a world I want to game in, it is a world I want to read and even possibly write stories for.

 

[Chaosmancer]

One of the reasons I love Eberron so much is that this isn't just a world I want to game in, it is a world I want to read and even possibly write stories for.

I haven't done a deep dive on it, but ever since I started playing a Sarlona Campaign as a member of the Summit Road I've been getting little pieces that are just so rich and interesting.

 

[ChaosOS]

PAX Unplugged 2019: Booth 3323!

I’ve just arrived in Philadelphia for PAX Unplugged, one of my favorite conventions. I’ll be spending a fair amount of the convention at the booth for my company Twogether Studios. We&#…

keith-baker.com

Speaking of Exploring Eberron, I’m afraid that the release has been delayed. While we’ve already started layout and editing, holidays and a number of personal issues have delayed by work on the final chapter and I’m still getting it wrapped up. I will announce here as soon as I have a date I am confident in, but at this point I feel that it’s probably going to be a January 2020 release. I am as disappointed as anyone about this, but the Traveler had other plans.

 

[Weiley31]

Well I expected a delay. Still cant wait to see what subclass Gentle is.

 

[ChaosOS]

They've decided to delay to February to ensure they have time to make a quality product

 

[hbarsquared]

Too bad WotC didn't do the same.

 

[Fedifensor]

One thing I'd like to see in Exploring Eberron (or any other Eberron book that makes it to print) is how the economy of the Dragonmarked Houses interacts with PCs. For example, in The City of Towers, the group is broke and needs money...but they have two dragonmarked PCs in the group. Jode can heal...and the going rate for a cure wounds spell is 25 gp per the new Eberron book. Lei has the Mark of Making and is a full-fledged artificer. Why pawn Daine's sword if one cure wounds or artificer spell (even at a steep discount) can pay for their food and lodging?

Do the Houses enforce a monopoly? Is there a stigma from purchasing a service from a Dragonmarked person who is not affiliated with the House? Did they just want to avoid attracting unwanted attention?

Granted, you don't want PCs spending all their time selling their services using their marks...because then they're not adventuring. But is there an in-game reason preventing them from doing so to get a little extra cash when needed?

 

[tetrasodium]

One thing I'd like to see in Exploring Eberron (or any other Eberron book that makes it to print) is how the economy of the Dragonmarked Houses interacts with PCs. For example, in The City of Towers, the group is broke and needs money...but they have two dragonmarked PCs in the group. Jode can heal...and the going rate for a cure wounds spell is 25 gp per the new Eberron book. Lei has the Mark of Making and is a full-fledged artificer. Why pawn Daine's sword if one cure wounds or artificer spell (even at a steep discount) can pay for their food and lodging?

Do the Houses enforce a monopoly? Is there a stigma from purchasing a service from a Dragonmarked person who is not affiliated with the House? Did they just want to avoid attracting unwanted attention?

Granted, you don't want PCs spending all their time selling their services using their marks...because then they're not adventuring. But is there an in-game reason preventing them from doing so to get a little extra cash when needed?

That somewhat runs into the problem of the economy being designed for a manorial one like fr & greyhawk. You can change the equipment lists to silver standard or similar, but then you have the problem with spells & so much else being pegged to the default one rather than say two ounces of high grade Syranian* sand or something you have X gp of powdered diamond & such so it makes a mess of things
* Sand from the plane of blue sky wjere towers float in endless sky is certain to be pretty rare ;D

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One thing I'd like to see in Exploring Eberron (or any other Eberron book that makes it to print) is how the economy of the Dragonmarked Houses interacts with PCs. For example, in The City of Towers, the group is broke and needs money...but they have two dragonmarked PCs in the group. Jode can heal...and the going rate for a cure wounds spell is 25 gp per the new Eberron book. Lei has the Mark of Making and is a full-fledged artificer. Why pawn Daine's sword if one cure wounds or artificer spell (even at a steep discount) can pay for their food and lodging?

Do the Houses enforce a monopoly? Is there a stigma from purchasing a service from a Dragonmarked person who is not affiliated with the House? Did they just want to avoid attracting unwanted attention?

Granted, you don't want PCs spending all their time selling their services using their marks...because then they're not adventuring. But is there an in-game reason preventing them from doing so to get a little extra cash when needed?

The answer to this is in Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

Do the Houses enforce a monopoly?

Absolutely they do.

Is there a stigma from purchasing a service from a Dragonmarked person who is not affiliated with the House?

Not a stigma - a crime. The Dragonmarked houses control the law in Sharn. Anyone using a dragonmark without house authorisation will quickly find themselves facing an offer the can't refuse - join the house or go to prison. If they are a member of a house, they will need to follow house rules and won't get to keep most of their profits.

Even if the PCs aren't dragonmaked, corporate culture rules Sharn. They will need to pay guild fees to operate commercially, as well as pay protection to one of the crime families.

This is why "Group Patrons" are in ERFTLW - without the backing of an organisation PCs are going to find themselves crushed between competing megacorps.