Irda Ranger said:
That's the simulationists' problem with this new Raise Dead rule. It basically says that "Raise Dead works for world-people relevant to the current story arc, but not for anyone else." That "doesn't work" because to a simulationist everyone has their own story arc. From within the game there shouldn't be any way to tell the difference between an NPC and a PC. Now there is.
First, I would like to point out (again) that far too much is being made of my comment. What I said
was not a direct quote of the rules. The word "destiny" is not, in fact, used in the description of raise dead - and it's not my place to give the actual description. Raise dead was used as an example of a greater point as to why I think 4E works well for Eberron.
And part of that reason is because, quite simply, in Eberron there IS a difference between an NPC and a PC. There always has been, and one clearly enshrined by the rules: Action points. One of the basic principles of Eberron is that there is something remarkable about the PCs - something that DOES set them apart from the common masses. To me, I compare the Fellowship of the Ring to the Rohirrim. In the Rohirrim, you have soldiers who have spent their entire lives hunting orcs every day. And yet, somehow, they aren't as tough or amazing as Legolas, Gimli, or Aragorn. They're good at what they do - but they aren't the heroes. Eberron has always been based on the assumption that if the story was a novel or a movie, you'd be the main character. As some others have said, in a way it's more mythological than anything else; you're Hercules or Perseus, someone who will do remarkable things... whether you're changing the fate of the world, or simply solving crimes in the depths of Sharn. You may decide to be Sam Spade instead of Batman, but in time, you'll still end up being one of the best inquisitives of the age.
So in THAT way, Eberron is entirely and intentionally unrealistic. It's right there in "Ten Things You Should Know About Eberron" - the PCs are heroes, and action points are one clear, mechanical sign of this. If you want a setting where Uncle Owen could have been just as cool as Luke Skywalker if HE'D gone with Ben instead of staying on the farm, Eberron isn't really the place for you - and hey, I respect that.
Beyond this, however, Eberron is a setting in which I want the impact of magic to be taken to its logical conclusion. So once you set the heroic PCs aside, we have tried to bring realism to the world. Which is why magical healing is an industry. And that comes to the problem. Early in this thread, someone said "As far as I'm concerned, resurrection is so rare that it's not a problem." But in Eberron, in theory, it's not - because of House Jorasco's altars of resurrection. It's a service, just like
cure disease. However, in my opinion, the history and culture of the world does not accurately take the impact of such a service into account. It's there because PCs need it to be there, because they die alot - but we don't see its impact in the death of Aeren, of Jarot, even Erandis d'Vol. And in a world where the afterlife is bleak, the keys to immortality should make House Jorasco one of the most influential forces on the planet - far more so than we've shown so far. What king would dare challenge the keepers of life?
So: first and foremost, to those saying "Well, what's 'destiny' mean, anyway?" - 4E doesn't use that term.
I used that term in saying that I like what 4E has done because it fits the fact that heroes in Eberron ARE supposed to be touched by destiny... however you want to read that. So that already is going to be something you'll hate if you want Uncle Owen and Luke, Aragorn and the random Rohirrim to all have the same potential; but it's part of Eberron, and if you hate it, I doubt you're playing Eberron. My point in that original post is that Eberron is a world in which heroes ARE special, and in which magic has a logical and institutionalized place in society - and the current version of
raise dead does a better job of bridging the gap between those two things.