Need help with Eberron opening to a module...

[starkad]

And it dawned on me that the folks that are playing in this one-shot module (con-style) may or may not know much about the world. I need to write up something not too drawn out, but that gets the current events detailed to them somewhat...

The module I made is centered on the Karrnath/Aundair border, and will only encompass those two nations. It's picking up where the book suggests, slightly less than two years after the Treaty of Thronehold is signed. The party level is moderately high at 10th, and all of them were affected somehow by the war.

I have all the character histories done, the characters themselves are done, but my worry is that the setting will be lost to the players. I don't want to bore the ones that may not care, but I don't want to turn folks that are interested away from the setting for lack of detail.

To that end, I need some help designing perhaps a paragraph or two (maybe even as much as a page if it's a fairly quick read) to read or give to players in the module, to give them a bit of an idea of what has happened in the world, and the current political stance of both Karrnath, Aundair, and Valenar. The other regions really don't factor in much, except perhaps just a sentence or two on Cyre being destroyed and how.

Please post anything you think should or might be included, and I will do my best to cobble it together to make this an enjoyable game for everyone involved.

Thanks in advance!

 

[starkad]

As a follow-up... I am debating whether or not to describe any of the houses to them.

Here's what is involved in the module:

Karrnath
Aundair
Valenar
Cyre in the passing
The Sentinel Marshals
Karrnathi undead
relationship between Karrnath and Aundair
relationship between Valenar and everyone else
Effects of the Last War, and how it started, how it ended, etc


I wrote some stuff up, but it ended up being 3 pages, and long-winded (I have a dramatic flair, sue me!), so I am looking to cut it down. I figure that the generalities of the world could be used by other ENWorld members for their modules also, so hopefully something comes of this other than comments of 'stop being lazy!.

 

[starkad]

Ok, let's put it a different way... How would you approach a new world to folks that most likely will not know much about the setting?

 

[lior_shapira]

My group started Midnight(FFG) about 6 months ago, and all the players are lazy gits who didnt bother reading what I sent them , So the way me and the alternate DM of our group did it was as follows:

At the beggining of each session for the first month we would start with some introduction read by the DM, 2 or 3 paragraphs that took about 10 minutes to read and introduced some new aspect of the world to the players. We tried to flow with the adventure and make it relevant to what happened last time and would happen this time.

It worked pretty nicely, although it helped that the module we were playing was already meant to be an introduction to the setting.

To sum up, I've never managed to "make" my players read anything, so I spoon feed them in small doses, the info sticks longer

 

[Deimodius]

Try this: type up a one page summary of the general history of Ebberon, and any regional information they might need to know for charcater creation, then offer a 500 to 1000 XP bonus to anyone who submits to you (with their charcater) a minimum two-thirds of a page chacater background that refers to, or has some basis in, Ebberon history, etc. (which they can get either form the sheet you gave them, or by reading through your book).

 

[starkad]

The problem is, this is a con-style module, with pregens and ~3 hour window to play. If this were an ongoing adventure, I'd almost definitely use the bonus XP award (I really like that idea btw, thank you). I already have about 3/4s a page character background for each character, but I wanted a 'this is the world in a nutshell' type thing. And I can't figure out how to compress it down into a paragraph or two.

 

[Deimodius]

Well, Ebberon has news sheets, doesn't it? Why not add an intro scene where the PCs are standing in the twon square reading a posted news sheet (you read aloud) or where a town crier is reading one aloud, or where other people are arguing about a story in the news sheet, thus giving the opportunity for passing along info.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

Well, despite not having finished reading through the Eberron book yet, here is my best REALLY short summary for Eberron to newbies:

There was a large country made up of 5 Kingdoms. There was a large war, The Last War, that lasted over a hundred years when the ruler of that country died and the 5 Kingdoms fought over who would rule. One of the kingdoms was entirely destroyed in the fighting. During the war, a bunch of "living constructs" known as warforged, who have souls and are sentient, were created to fight the war for the kingdoms. Now, the kingdoms have finally signed a treaty, the war ending in stalemate. At the end of the war, the warforged were officially given full citizenship.

Eberron: the dragon between, as the world is known, is a world with a lot of common low level magic. There are many "professional" spellcasters who are not powerful but enchant and sell low power magic items and help to make people's lives easier. Most residents of Eberron view magic as simply another part of their daily lives. There is even a new class, artifacer, who specializes in creating and using magic items.

Life works much as it does in other worlds except for a couple of differences. There is a lightning rail, a magic train, that travels from city to city and some very rich people have flying ships. There are 13 Dragonmarked houses. They are families (some of the members of which are born with magical marks that let them cast spells without being spellcasters) who have major politcal power and wealth due to their abilities and their control over trade and crafts thruought the major contenent of Khorvaire. Also, alignment is not as cut and dry in Eberron, just because a dragon has gold scales doesn't make it good, and just because something is evil doesn't mean you should kill it.


That's about it. You may want to include one more paragraph about the new races, if you think it is needed for the adventure you are running. But, I think that about covers what most average person on the street may know, and the important things. I suppose you COULD tell them about Dragonshards and give a detailed writeup of each of the kingdom, but I don't think it'll be needed for most games. You could answer individual questions about things that come up in game as they happen.

Majoru Oakheart

 

[starkad]

I like the newspaper idea, that's pretty cool. I might work that in!

Good work Majoru, I like the last part especially about the gold dragons and evil.

 

[Plane Sailing]

The module I made is centered on the Karrnath/Aundair border, and will only encompass those two nations.

Because it is CON-style and only involves the border with those two nations, don't bother trying to give any general info about Eberron. Just stick to the distinctives and the relevant.

At it's most basic you've got two nations at uneasy peace after being participants in a devastating magical war (along with other combatants). The party are presumably going to be working for one side, so you can give them the local propaganda version of events. If you are using any of the new races or classes in Eberron you'll have to describe that adequately.

Don't forget that in Eberron 10th level PCs would be higher level than most rulers of kingdoms or dragonmarked houses BTW!

Cheers