Infernal Teddy
Explorer
I'd say Sharn: City of Towers ist a must. Five Nations is good if you want extra detail on the big nations, and the Player's Guide has to be the best handout for players ever 
New to Eberron
- Thread starter sirwmholder
- Start date
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
It doesn't look like anybody's mentioned the novels yet, and there are some really good ones. Like everything in Eberron, they're not canon. They're something much better than that - thoroughly inspirational!
Tales of the Last War is an excellent one to start with. It's an anthology of short stories that take place during the Last War, so it makes for a conveniently bite-sized starting place. A few of the stories are about the protagonists of some of the full-length novels. Mouseferatu wrote a particularly good short in Tales.
The Dragon Below trilogy is seriously fantastic. Cool characters, good writing, and a hum-dinger of a story. It starts with The Binding Stone. Recommended without reservation or qualification.
The Dreaming Dark trilogy is also quite good, and it's written by Keith Baker. The first of the series, City of Towers, ought to be mandatory reading for anybody who wants to play a game in Eberron. It's easily my favourite of the Eberron novels that I've read so far.
-blarg
Tales of the Last War is an excellent one to start with. It's an anthology of short stories that take place during the Last War, so it makes for a conveniently bite-sized starting place. A few of the stories are about the protagonists of some of the full-length novels. Mouseferatu wrote a particularly good short in Tales.
The Dragon Below trilogy is seriously fantastic. Cool characters, good writing, and a hum-dinger of a story. It starts with The Binding Stone. Recommended without reservation or qualification.
The Dreaming Dark trilogy is also quite good, and it's written by Keith Baker. The first of the series, City of Towers, ought to be mandatory reading for anybody who wants to play a game in Eberron. It's easily my favourite of the Eberron novels that I've read so far.
-blarg
sirwmholder
First Post
Thanks so much!
Looks like I'm going to have a fair amount of reading to do
. I've added the Explorer's Handbook and Sharn: City of Towers to Glyfair's list above. Doug, thanks for the tips I'll definately keep that in mind.
Again thanks to everyone for taking time to offer guidance,
William Holder
Looks like I'm going to have a fair amount of reading to do
. I've added the Explorer's Handbook and Sharn: City of Towers to Glyfair's list above. Doug, thanks for the tips I'll definately keep that in mind.
This just sold me!blargney the second said:
Again thanks to everyone for taking time to offer guidance,
William Holder
Keefe the Thief
Hero
Sharn - CoT is really the 2nd Campaign Setting Book for Eberron, because the introductory chapter has so many hints, prices, ideas and other cool bits. I wish every world had a City book like S-CoT.
Sharn: CoT is a must buy.
For fluff, I'd recommend Faiths of Eberron (does an excellent job of fleshing out religion in the campaign setting, especially the Sovereign Host) and Five Nations (while some might consider some of its contents a retread of material from the ECS, I think it's worth it for the 'Five things that everyone from X knows' sidebars alone. Also, while not fluff, I love the Bone Knight and Phantom Dragoon PrCs). Also also, read the hell out of the Dragonshard web articles; they are fantastic.
I'd recommend fluff before crunch, but if you're looking for a bit of the latter after you're sufficiently fluffed out, I'd recommend Dragonmarked; it has a good amount of fluff, but the extra options given that the feats give to 'marked characters are superb. I'm particularly fond of the added material regarding Aberrant marks. The crunch in Races of Eberron is also great, but aside from the magnificent Kalashtar chapter, the fluff ranges from mediocre (Warforged, Shifters) to terrible (Changelings - just ignore that entire chapter).
Novel-wise, I don't read much gaming fiction as a rule, but I really enjoyed the Dreaming Dark trilogy, particularly the first book (which has an excellent glossary in the back). I'm tempted to look into the Binding Stone trilogy based on the consistently strong accolades it has received here and other places.
You may also want to check out the Eberron forum on the WotC boards; while the signal to noise ratio fluctuates pretty wildly, Keith Baker posts there quite frequently - it's a terrific resource to have available!
For fluff, I'd recommend Faiths of Eberron (does an excellent job of fleshing out religion in the campaign setting, especially the Sovereign Host) and Five Nations (while some might consider some of its contents a retread of material from the ECS, I think it's worth it for the 'Five things that everyone from X knows' sidebars alone. Also, while not fluff, I love the Bone Knight and Phantom Dragoon PrCs). Also also, read the hell out of the Dragonshard web articles; they are fantastic.
I'd recommend fluff before crunch, but if you're looking for a bit of the latter after you're sufficiently fluffed out, I'd recommend Dragonmarked; it has a good amount of fluff, but the extra options given that the feats give to 'marked characters are superb. I'm particularly fond of the added material regarding Aberrant marks. The crunch in Races of Eberron is also great, but aside from the magnificent Kalashtar chapter, the fluff ranges from mediocre (Warforged, Shifters) to terrible (Changelings - just ignore that entire chapter).
Novel-wise, I don't read much gaming fiction as a rule, but I really enjoyed the Dreaming Dark trilogy, particularly the first book (which has an excellent glossary in the back). I'm tempted to look into the Binding Stone trilogy based on the consistently strong accolades it has received here and other places.
You may also want to check out the Eberron forum on the WotC boards; while the signal to noise ratio fluctuates pretty wildly, Keith Baker posts there quite frequently - it's a terrific resource to have available!
Moggthegob
First Post
the thing about Eberron ot remember, its more cinematic than you usual game, let you players do things that arent in the rules, charge an action point if you feel its outrageous.
Dragonmarks are easy, its essential a mark of the highest nobility, it costs a feat, grant one SLA and you can only take if you are the ppropriate race and 95% of the time if you are associated with the appropriate Dragonmarked house. Aberrant marks are corruption of regular marks and found in mixed bloods or sometimes randomly in people, tho it is a sign of almost certain doom due to paranoia regarding abberrant marks. Also, a member of a dragonmarked house witha dragonmark has the right to refer to himself as ________ d',(insert family name of house,i.e. Orien)
Dragonmarks are easy, its essential a mark of the highest nobility, it costs a feat, grant one SLA and you can only take if you are the ppropriate race and 95% of the time if you are associated with the appropriate Dragonmarked house. Aberrant marks are corruption of regular marks and found in mixed bloods or sometimes randomly in people, tho it is a sign of almost certain doom due to paranoia regarding abberrant marks. Also, a member of a dragonmarked house witha dragonmark has the right to refer to himself as ________ d',(insert family name of house,i.e. Orien)
blargney the second
blargney the minute's son
Some of the older novels can be hard to find in bookstores, so I ended up picking up a few at a time on Amazon.
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