Sell me on Eberron

Charwoman Gene

Adventurer
Okay, I am gearing up to start a new campaign and my interest is piqued to give Eberron a whirl. I'm looking to hear some feedback on the setting. I am NOT interested in the standard "Robots and Trains" complaints, but more feedback on what makes an eberron campaign different from a "standard" D&D campaign. Specific criticisms are encouraged.

I'd also like feedback on supplements.
Are there any "Must Have" Supplements? Can I make a good use of the system with just the Setting Book?
 

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Charwoman Gene said:
Okay, I am gearing up to start a new campaign and my interest is piqued to give Eberron a whirl. I'm looking to hear some feedback on the setting. I am NOT interested in the standard "Robots and Trains" complaints, but more feedback on what makes an eberron campaign different from a "standard" D&D campaign. Specific criticisms are encouraged.

I'd also like feedback on supplements.
Are there any "Must Have" Supplements? Can I make a good use of the system with just the Setting Book?

I think the major question you should ask yourself is whether you like pulp action in the tradition of Indiana Jones, Treasure Hunter, The Librarian, etc. If you do I think Eberron would appeal to you. I think it also appeals to the hard-boiled detective type of genre as well.

I would caution if your going into ito it for a true-noir feel or dark fantasy you might be a little dissapointed. These elemsnts are there but they definitely play second fiddle to the atmosphere and feel noted above.
 

The best thing I tell people about Eberron is that it turns the standard Tolkienesque D&D tropes on their heads and provides a new, fresh, modern (in the sense of modern vs. traditional) setting for D&D. Pretty much if you like pulp action, Eberron is the way to go because it has those tropes built-in from the start. If you're more a fan of traditional sword-and-sorcery, then Eberron might not be the best choice because it's a lot more pulpy than that.

I cannot give an opinion on the books, unfortunately. I've heard from a lot of reviews that most of the books aren't good and don't flow with what the campaign setting says about the world, so it confuses you.
 

Charwoman Gene said:
Okay, I am gearing up to start a new campaign and my interest is piqued to give Eberron a whirl. I'm looking to hear some feedback on the setting. I am NOT interested in the standard "Robots and Trains" complaints, but more feedback on what makes an eberron campaign different from a "standard" D&D campaign. Specific criticisms are encouraged.

I'd also like feedback on supplements.
Are there any "Must Have" Supplements? Can I make a good use of the system with just the Setting Book?
As others mentioned, Eberron is steeped in the traditions of Pulp stories. The Heroes are special, and only the main antagonists are on their level of competence (i.e., the vast majority of the world has levels in NPC classes, not PC).

Most high-level NPCs are adversaries to the PCs, not cavalry to be called. The PCs are the Protagonists of the world history.

None of the supplements released so far has advanced the world timeline. That's a DM prerogative.

You can run the setting with just the Campaign Setting, and it has adventure hooks coming out the wazoo. Of the supplements released so far, the best are the "toolkit" ones that give a DM tools to build their own version of Eberron: Secrets of X'endrik, Secrets of Sarlona and the Explorer Handbook. If you want more details of the main setting location, Sharn: City of Towers and Five Nations are good. Player's Guide to Eberron collects information from the Dragonshard articles and expands upon it (despite the name, there are quite a few DM-only parts of that book).
 


The poster-sized map comes with the Eberron DM Screen. Not a bad screen, and the map is worth it. ;)

Eberron is great if you do want something not-so-medieval feeling in your fantasy. Sure, longswords and knights are there, but so is inter-country commerce, espionage, "technology", and true cosmopolitan attitudes. The game certainly tries to have a cinematic quality to it, and if you enjoy larger-than-life villians, far-flung adventures in remote locals, and occasional noir-elements of mystery, its great.

Its the only setting I could run a Temple of Doom style adventure one week and the Third Man style the next...
 


Charwoman Gene said:
What is Eberron's Religion like?
Interestingly different. There are no deities who make their presence felt explicitly on Eberron, and depending upon their viewpoint on the origins of divine magic, a character in Eberron could conceivably be an atheist.

The main religion is the Sovereign Host, a pantheon of several deities who are generally worshipped as a group, though temples and clerics to individual Sovereigns exist.

The opposite side of that coin are the Dark Six, deities who are considered, by most civilised humanoids, to be evil and deadly, but who are commonly worshipped amongst monstrous races, who may see them rather differently.

The closest thing Eberron has to a deity one can point to and say "that's real" is the Silver Flame, which is worshipped most devoutly in the nation of Thrane. A lawful-good religion in structure, the Flame is dedicated to protecting civilised lands from the forces of evil (or at least, whatever they currently define as evil). The Flame has a physical presence in the capital city of Thrane, and even issues commands via the head of the church, the Keeper of the Flame, but it is not truly a deity - rather it is the embodiment of many celestial creatures who gave up their physical forms during an ancient battle.

The structure of religious organisations in Eberron differs from that in other settings somewhat. For one thing, the requirement that a cleric be within one step of their deity's alignment does not exist here - a corrupt or misguided cleric of the Silver Flame could easily be Chaotic Evil. Also, since NPCs generally have NPC classes (even the minority with PC classes will generally have NPC classes as well), there aren't as many clerics in these religions as you'd expect. A temple in a town or village might be staffed purely by Experts and Adepts, and even one in a major city might have only a handful of clerics.

Finally, religions in Eberron are not generally open for business. Clerics do not openly offer healing or resurrection as services for gold, instead reserving these for particularly devout or important members of their faith (and in the case if resurrection-type spells, only a handful of NPC clerics are sufficiently powerful to be able to perform such miracles). If you're clever, lucky and persistent, you might find a corrupt cleric who's prepared to offer such services as a sraight transaction - if not, you might be asked to perform some quest or task on behalf of the church in return for their assistance.
 

MarkB said:
Clerics do not openly offer healing or resurrection as services for gold, instead reserving these for particularly devout or important members of their faith (and in the case if resurrection-type spells, only a handful of NPC clerics are sufficiently powerful to be able to perform such miracles). If you're clever, lucky and persistent, you might find a corrupt cleric who's prepared to offer such services as a sraight transaction - if not, you might be asked to perform some quest or task on behalf of the church in return for their assistance.
You'd go to House Jorasco. They offer all healing, for a price.
 


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