D&D 5E Keith Baker Presents Closing Doors On Eberron

Keith Baker has announced that his Eberron-based publishing company will be ending production after 4 years. The company, led by Eberron creator Keith Baker, produced four incredibly popular books on the Dungeon Master's Guild--Exploring Eberron, Chronicles of Eberron, Dread Metrol, and Eberron Confidential. There is one more book planned--Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone will be released by Visionary Production and Design who will also be continuing publication of the four existing books.

Eberron is an official D&D world, and was introduced to 5E with Eberron: Rising form the Last War in 2019.

We appreciate all the support and enthusiasm that our fans brought these past four years, and it is with a heavy heart that we must inform you that on June 30, 2023 KB Presents will be closing its doors. It has been a joy and honor to bring you our version of Eberron and we are incredibly proud of what we have created.

As we pursue new challenges and opportunities, we leave the existing works under the stewardship of Visionary Production and Design (https://twitter.com/visionarypnd). This includes the following Dungeon Masters Guild titles:

Exploring Eberron: Exploring Eberron - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Chronicles of Eberron: Chronicles of Eberron - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Dread Metrol: Dread Metrol: Into the Mists - An Eberron / Ravenloft Crossover - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild
Eberron Confidential: Eberron Confidential - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

If you would like to continue supporting the former KB Presents production team, you can find us at:

Laura Hirsbrunner, Editor: Laura Hirsbrunner
Imogen Gingell, Designer: Imogen Gingell
Wayne Chang, Producer: Adventuring Zone
Keith Baker, Lead Designer: Twogether Studios

Our final book, Frontiers of Eberron: Quickstone, is slated for release in the latter half of 2023 and will be published under Visionary. We appreciate your taking this journey with us and we look forward to our paths crossing once again.

Thank you!

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I think @Scribe was expressing their personal view. You don't have to agree with it.

Of course, but I am just questioning that view to get some clarity

 

[Stoutstien]

Yes he did . He was awarded ($100,000* IIRC) for his winning entry. And then paid several times to write content for Eberron (as were other creators by the way).

Yes, he never owned the setting because he sold it away as part of the contest. That’s was clear from the beginning. He knew that going into the contest.

Also, it is within reason to believe that KB is only famous because of his connection to D&D. We may never have gotten Eberron without WotC. He way never have shared his world and talent without the forum D&D gave him.

*PS - Ed was only paid $5000 for Forgotten Realms by TSR and he actually owned it!

This has heavy "daddy WoTC" energy. It's probably hold more water if he didn't have portfolio of award-winning games that aren't d&d related.

So all the 3e stuff not by Baker is just thrown out? What if I don’t give a crap about “canon.”

Should the rule of cool apply here or is that only in game?

Depends on who you are talking about. That's why you generally look for individual/content designer over who's logo is on the spine.
You don't have to individually follow Canon and I've actually recommend that you don't.
for the sake I've established settings however you need coherent and consistent material. Those of us who like to purchase said material it's part of the experience. They don't care about that anymore because the return for it isn't worth the effort. (Which makes them alienating people twice as stupid because they had other people willing to put in the effort and all they had to do is sit back and collect the money) so we won't be buying anymore. They'll probably spend it in a way that it's somehow the customers fault and use that for excuse why they haven't come up with anything new and why the only rebirth setting worth the paper is ERFLW.

This is based on the fact that it's been the only setting that was reintroduced that was well received by the people who already were invested in the setting.

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

He wants to do new things. Not sure why this is on anyone else.

Are you trying to be funny

 

[Senior_WotC_Janitor]

Fully support him moving on if that’s what he wants. But it’s bad news for Eberron. Settings with their creators still actively attached are less susceptible to wrongheaded “reimaginings” and “exciting fresh takes”.

And the cult of the author lives on. All hail the almighty author etc

 

[Scribe]

So all the 3e stuff not by Baker is just thrown out? What if I don’t give a crap about “canon.”

Should the rule of cool apply here or is that only in game?

Nobody is going to force you to care about it. My response was to a question of if we (as if there is a singular view) ignore stuff he didnt create, thats all.

I think @Scribe was expressing their personal view. You don't have to agree with it.

Correct.

For me its simple. Eberron is great at being what it is. To me its the only setting of 5e that I would consider a 'complete' setting, with a canonical set of books that would be extremely clear, easy to source, and have as that 'complete' setting. There is massive appeal in that for some folks, myself included.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

This has heavy "daddy WoTC" energy. It's probably hold more water if he didn't have portfolio of award-winning games that aren't d&d related.

Does he? I am completely unaware of his work outside of Eberron. Did he get those before or after he became famous from WotC and Eberron?

Depends on who you are talking about. That's why you generally look for individual/content designer over who's logo is on the spine.

Do you mean “I” here? I don’t typically look at the authors of RPG products. Though to be honest the DM buys most of the products not me.

You don't have to individually follow Canon and I've actually recommend that you don't.
for the sake I've established settings however you need coherent and consistent material.

That can be helpful to some, but I wouldn’t say it is needed. There is a value to inconsistency.

Those of us who like to purchase said material it's part of the experience.

Sure, I’ve no issue with that.

They don't care about that anymore because the return for it isn't worth the effort.

You’re losing me here. Who doesn’t care about what? Also, care and caring as much as you want or in the way you want are different things. I bet “they” do care, just not how you want them to care.

(Which makes them alienating people twice as stupid because they had other people willing to put in the effort and all they had to do is sit back and collect the money) so we won't be buying anymore.

Who is “we” and how are “they” alienating people. Sorry, I am just not following you here.

They'll probably spend it in a way that it's somehow the customers fault and use that for excuse why they haven't come up with anything new and why the only rebirth setting worth the paper is ERFLW.

Since WotC doesn’t do spin like this are you talking about fans?

This is based on the fact that it's been the only setting that was reintroduced that was well received by the people who already were invested in the setting.

That is not true. Many fans have liked 5e Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, and even spelljammer.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Nobody is going to force you to care about it. My response was to a question of if we (as if there is a singular view) ignore stuff he didnt create, thats all.



Correct.

For me its simple. Eberron is great at being what it is. To me its the only setting of 5e that I would consider a 'complete' setting, with a canonical set of books that would be extremely clear, easy to source, and have as that 'complete' setting. There is massive appeal in that for some folks, myself included.

Thanks for the clarification!

However, why stop at what KB worked on? That is less clear and less easy to source than just saying “official” (WotC) content? What about writers you worked on the same books KB worked on? How do you separate why they did and what KB did? Did other writers do a poor job and so they shouldn’t be considered canon?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Does he? I am completely unaware of his work outside of Eberron. Did he get those before or after he became famous from WotC and Eberron?

Do you mean “I” here? I don’t typically look at the authors of RPG products. Though to be honest the DM buys most of the products not me.

That can be helpful to some, but I wouldn’t say it is needed. There is a value to inconsistency.

Sure, I’ve no issue with that.

You’re losing me here. Who doesn’t care about what? Also, care and caring as much as you want or in the way you want are different things. I bet “they” do care, just not how you want them to care.

Who is “we” and how are “they” alienating people. Sorry, I am just not following you here.

Since WotC doesn’t do spin like this are you talking about fans?

That is not true. Many fans have liked 5e Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, and even spelljammer.

Many other fans have not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Thanks for the clarification!

However, why stop at what KB worked on? That is less clear and less easy to source than just saying “official” (WotC) content? What about writers you worked on the same books KB worked on? How do you separate why they did and what KB did? Did other writers do a poor job and so they shouldn’t be considered canon?

Its his world, his vision for it is the clearest, so to my mind his opinions carry more weight. You can add other stuff if it works for you of course.

 

[Stoutstien]

Does he? I am completely unaware of his work outside of Eberron. Did he get those before or after he became famous from WotC and Eberron?

Do you mean “I” here? I don’t typically look at the authors of RPG products. Though to be honest the DM buys most of the products not me.

That can be helpful to some, but I wouldn’t say it is needed. There is a value to inconsistency.

Sure, I’ve no issue with that.

You’re losing me here. Who doesn’t care about what? Also, care and caring as much as you want or in the way you want are different things. I bet “they” do care, just not how you want them to care.

Who is “we” and how are “they” alienating people. Sorry, I am just not following you here.

Since WotC doesn’t do spin like this are you talking about fans?

That is not true. Many fans have liked 5e Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, and even spelljammer.

WoTC doesn't care about those who actually fork out the money for content. Hence the drive to make it impossible to go anywhere else ( it since then blowing up in their face and then trying to pass it off as a 1000 different things other than what it was. And yes, they DO try to spin stuff in this fashion at an increasingly alarming rate.) As you said DMs buy the bulk of the content and those are exactly the people who care about this stuff. Im not at the point of purging them from by library but as i said I'm not giving them another cent. I'm in the final legs of the last 5e table that I'm going to run for the foreseeable future as well.

As for other settings being received well.... There is a reason all the top selling books in the GM guild are from a single setting.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Many other fans have not.

Absolutely - that was a given

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

It’s his world, his vision for it is the clearest, so to my mind his opinions carry more weight. You can add other stuff if it works for you of course.

How do you tell where his vision stops and another starts. Many of the books had more than one author (I assume). Do we know what is his vision and what is someone else’s?

I know his blog is all his - and it is a great read, but I’m talking official books here. Heck.

 

[Micah Sweet]

How do you tell where his vision stops and another starts. Many of the books had more than one author (I assume). Do we know what is his vision and what is someone else’s?

I know his blog is all his - and it is a great read, but I’m talking official books here. Heck.

Official is not an important distinction to me personally, as long as the content is there. That's why I always pipe up at news about WotC's legally closed settings.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

WoTC doesn't care about those who actually fork out the money for content.

I disagree and more so when we talk about the actual D&D group.

Hence the drive to make it impossible to go anywhere else ( it since then blowing up in their face and then trying to pass it off as a 1000 different things other than what it was. And yes, they DO try to spin stuff in this fashion at an increasingly alarming rate.)

I think we are talking about 2 different things. I was talking about that the don’t spin about how their products do or don’t do well. Which you seemed to be imply they do.

As you said DMs buy the bulk of the content and those are exactly the people who care about this stuff.

Some do sure. We came ina homebrew world and we all care about it. But I don’t think my DM cares much about any official setting.

As for other settings being received well.... There is a reason all the top selling books in the GM guild are from a single setting.

Actually, that could be an argument for just the opposite. If people didn’t like what WotC produced you would expect fans to but a lot of it on DMsGuild. The fact that they don’t suggest that people do like what WotC has made for those settings.

Now, I don’t believe that is true, but I don’t believe your argument either. The are just both pretty groundless arguments/ opinions.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Official is not an important distinction to me personally, as long as the content is there. That's why I always pipe up at news about WotC's legally closed settings.

Nor me. So the content is important - not who makes the content? Is that your argument? I thought you were supporting the KB only argument?

For me, I don’t care about the author as much as I care about the content. Thought they often go hand in hand.

 

[dave2008]

Yeah, honestly. As I noted in one of my other posts. Take the content he's released, and thats it, you have a complete setting and canon. Very simple, very clean lines of 'is or is not'.

Do we know what is his and what is not? For example, there are three authors listed on the 3e Eberron Campaign Setting Guide: Keith Baker, Bill Slavicsek, James Wyatt. So do we discard this book because there are other authors?

 

[dave2008]

This is based on the fact that it's been the only setting that was reintroduced that was well received by the people who already were invested in the setting.

Actually, right now both Van Ricthen's Guide to Ravenloft and The Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide are outselling Eberron on Amazon. So is Dragonlance, but that is not a setting guide really.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The

Nor me. So the content is important - not who makes the content? Is that your argument? I thought you were supporting the KB only argument?

For me, I don’t care about the author as much as I care about the content. Thought they often go hand in hand.

They go hand in hand often enough for me to treat it as true until proven otherwise.

 

[Stoutstien]

Actually, right now both Van Ricthen's Guide to Ravenloft and The Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide are outselling Eberron on Amazon. So is Dragonlance, but that is not a setting guide really.
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Selling books total isn't the same form retaining fans from the past.

Actually, right now both Van Ricthen's Guide to Ravenloft and The Swordcoast Adventurer's Guide are outselling Eberron on Amazon. So is Dragonlance, but that is not a setting guide really.
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This is a useless star regarding retention and books sold....on a different site

 

[Scribe]

Thanks for the clarification!

However, why stop at what KB worked on? That is less clear and less easy to source than just saying “official” (WotC) content? What about writers you worked on the same books KB worked on? How do you separate why they did and what KB did? Did other writers do a poor job and so they shouldn’t be considered canon?

In the current time, I have no reason to trust companies in regards to sticking to existing canon. I do not like the direction of either 5e WoTC, or PF2 Paizo. Its not so much about having other authors, as I know KB didnt write all these things solo, but it gives me a simple benchmark. Call it an appeal to authority, or a specific vision, but its essentially 'done'.

Rising from the Last War
Exploring Eberron
Chronicles of Eberron.
KB Blog if needed.

Thats it for me. If he's stepping away, I'm not interested in anything else.

Do we know what is his and what is not? For example, there are three authors listed on the 3e Eberron Campaign Setting Guide: Keith Baker, Bill Slavicsek, James Wyatt. So do we discard this book because there are other authors?

As noted above here, its just the 3 books. I'm not interested in another 'modern sensibilities' take from Wizards after 5 years.