new poll so everyone will be happy!!!!!!
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Kashell
First Post
As much as I enjoy talking about ideas with technology (and even flirting with it a bit with the muskets and pistols I've added to my campaign and gnome technology) I find that a fantasy setting should be fantasy, and only that.
By nature, magic and technology clash. In my campaign world magic is forbidden in areas where technology exists...often with harsh consequences.
This is of course, all in my opinion. Some people see it the other way around.
By nature, magic and technology clash. In my campaign world magic is forbidden in areas where technology exists...often with harsh consequences.
This is of course, all in my opinion. Some people see it the other way around.
Not played it. Eberron is pretty much the opposite of what I want in a D&D game. Industrialized magic means the world feels less magical. Why do I need to put elements like golem-trains and crystal ball networks into a fantasy game, when I could just play a modern game and have cars and google?
Acid_crash
First Post
Gave it an 8.
Eberron answered the question that has nagged me forever... what kind of world would we kind of have if magic did exist and was utilized for the common folk in everyday use instead of being horded and used as a rare 'all super powerful' thing? Eberron is one of the first worlds that makes sense and uses magic in a way that makes sense.
But no setting is perfect and I am stingy on rating scales. It's not perfect so no 10 and I have a couple nitpicks to warrant it not getting a 9. So, it's a 8.
Eberron answered the question that has nagged me forever... what kind of world would we kind of have if magic did exist and was utilized for the common folk in everyday use instead of being horded and used as a rare 'all super powerful' thing? Eberron is one of the first worlds that makes sense and uses magic in a way that makes sense.
But no setting is perfect and I am stingy on rating scales. It's not perfect so no 10 and I have a couple nitpicks to warrant it not getting a 9. So, it's a 8.
Samuel Leming
First Post
I haven't played it, but I've read it. I think it's a 5.5. Right in the middle. Dead average.
I've seen stuff like this before, except for the class-based rakshasas. I've seen at least a dozen DM's create homebrew worlds based on following the (A)D&D magic system on it's logical path. Eberron is better than some of these, but not others. Flying ships? Seen it. Warforged? There've been a few Battlechasers inspired games. Didn't play in those. Invasion from the far/mad realms? Repelled it. Twice. A city of towers propped up by magic? Seen it, blew it up & ran like hell.
There's stuff I like in Eberron, and stuff I don't. When I get the bug to DM again, I'll be pulling quite a bit of the material for my homebrew. I like the Quori. Not the class-based rakshasas though. *Flush* The warforged will be way way way over there, past the dromites.
I suppose part of my opinion comes from expectations based on the setting search. With twenty thousand options to choose from I expected a spectacular setting. Instead we got a spectacular writer giving us a kitchen-sink setting. I was expecting something like Glorantha, but Eberron is closer to FR++ without the "DM's broom" NPC's.
I voted a five. I took off 0.5 from the 5.5 because of the class-based rakshasas. If they had included flumphs I would have voted a six.
Sam
I've seen stuff like this before, except for the class-based rakshasas. I've seen at least a dozen DM's create homebrew worlds based on following the (A)D&D magic system on it's logical path. Eberron is better than some of these, but not others. Flying ships? Seen it. Warforged? There've been a few Battlechasers inspired games. Didn't play in those. Invasion from the far/mad realms? Repelled it. Twice. A city of towers propped up by magic? Seen it, blew it up & ran like hell.
There's stuff I like in Eberron, and stuff I don't. When I get the bug to DM again, I'll be pulling quite a bit of the material for my homebrew. I like the Quori. Not the class-based rakshasas though. *Flush* The warforged will be way way way over there, past the dromites.
I suppose part of my opinion comes from expectations based on the setting search. With twenty thousand options to choose from I expected a spectacular setting. Instead we got a spectacular writer giving us a kitchen-sink setting. I was expecting something like Glorantha, but Eberron is closer to FR++ without the "DM's broom" NPC's.
I voted a five. I took off 0.5 from the 5.5 because of the class-based rakshasas. If they had included flumphs I would have voted a six.
Sam
Henry
Autoexreginated
My group has played it for 4 months now, and still enjoys it. Even with a pre-designed limited story arc I built in, there is still plenty of open room that should I wish to pick it back up later on, I could do so. I've actually had one player who prefers this to any other D&D setting he's tried (Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms thus far). Past that, I'll just echo Mouseferatu's sentiments exactly. It fits together quite well, and offers so many story avenues I feel like I'd be able to adventure in it for years if it were my only choice.
MoogleEmpMog
First Post
I was initially very impressed by Eberron for the same reasons many seem to hate it: techno-magic, an apparent complete break with Tolkienesque fantasy, and a (more popular here) WW1-influenced setting.
The incorporation of "everything core" into the setting was the first off-putting element. The core is, at best, a toolbox and at worst a mess. As "D&D," it's at least tolerable because I did once enjoy some of the sacred cows. As a new setting, it gave me fits.
The constant disavowal of technofantasy, steampunk and anything smacking of them was the next step in my lowering opinion. Keith Baker never played a Final Fantasy, and he wants you to know it. Okaaaay. One would think WotC would want to deny a lead designer's ignorance of one of the most influential fantasy series of the past decade, not tout that ignorance. Keith is a great designer and he seems like a great guy, and I wager playing in his original Eberron campaign would be a great experience, but either he or WotC (or both) have some very definite and, in my view, very unfortunate ideas about what is acceptable in a D&D world.
Finally, comparing the core books for Eberron and the Iron Kingdoms made me wince for Eberron. The latter, despite insisting on its own appelation ("Full Metal Fantasy"), presumably out of fear of anti-steampunk sentiment, is a beautiful, cohesive and original setting. Eberron, for all its good points, looks generic, if not anemic, in comparison. Warforged and changelings are interesting in isolation, as are dragonmarks, but are they as interesting as steamjacks, viciously hostile religions, the pain of healing and infernals? No.
The Iron Kingdoms book is hampered by quite possibly the worst crunch I've seen in years - crunch that appears to not even WANT to follow d20 conventions for functions that are by no means original, when it even works - and I'd hesitate to reccomend it, but its flavor is spectacular. Eberron, on the other hand, has some painfully elegant crunch: action points, the artificer class (despite its intense power), some of its races and feats, and basically all the PrCs except Dragonmark Heir, and that only in very specific conditions.
In the end, I just can't get past WotC's desire to straddle the fence on technofantasy: at once they wanted to appeal to a new generation of gamers who appreciate new forms of fantasy (and those of past generations who share that appreciation), but their apparent terror at releasing a setting that dares to offend the sensibilities of those who can't accept this variety seems to have crippled the effort.
In the end, I think Eberron would have been better if either WotC had either stared down the old skool and reminded them that they represent only a single market that a company is entitled to target, or if they'd gone whole-hog with a traditional fantasy setting.
Overall, I'd give it a six.
The incorporation of "everything core" into the setting was the first off-putting element. The core is, at best, a toolbox and at worst a mess. As "D&D," it's at least tolerable because I did once enjoy some of the sacred cows. As a new setting, it gave me fits.
The constant disavowal of technofantasy, steampunk and anything smacking of them was the next step in my lowering opinion. Keith Baker never played a Final Fantasy, and he wants you to know it. Okaaaay. One would think WotC would want to deny a lead designer's ignorance of one of the most influential fantasy series of the past decade, not tout that ignorance. Keith is a great designer and he seems like a great guy, and I wager playing in his original Eberron campaign would be a great experience, but either he or WotC (or both) have some very definite and, in my view, very unfortunate ideas about what is acceptable in a D&D world.
Finally, comparing the core books for Eberron and the Iron Kingdoms made me wince for Eberron. The latter, despite insisting on its own appelation ("Full Metal Fantasy"), presumably out of fear of anti-steampunk sentiment, is a beautiful, cohesive and original setting. Eberron, for all its good points, looks generic, if not anemic, in comparison. Warforged and changelings are interesting in isolation, as are dragonmarks, but are they as interesting as steamjacks, viciously hostile religions, the pain of healing and infernals? No.
The Iron Kingdoms book is hampered by quite possibly the worst crunch I've seen in years - crunch that appears to not even WANT to follow d20 conventions for functions that are by no means original, when it even works - and I'd hesitate to reccomend it, but its flavor is spectacular. Eberron, on the other hand, has some painfully elegant crunch: action points, the artificer class (despite its intense power), some of its races and feats, and basically all the PrCs except Dragonmark Heir, and that only in very specific conditions.
In the end, I just can't get past WotC's desire to straddle the fence on technofantasy: at once they wanted to appeal to a new generation of gamers who appreciate new forms of fantasy (and those of past generations who share that appreciation), but their apparent terror at releasing a setting that dares to offend the sensibilities of those who can't accept this variety seems to have crippled the effort.
In the end, I think Eberron would have been better if either WotC had either stared down the old skool and reminded them that they represent only a single market that a company is entitled to target, or if they'd gone whole-hog with a traditional fantasy setting.
Overall, I'd give it a six.
Desdichado
Hero
I like it better than any official D&D setting. It's still not as good as Iron Kingdoms, but it's the best setting done by TSR/WotC, IMO.
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