Sell me on Eberron
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Merkuri
Explorer
victorysaber said:
Well, basically Eberron campaigns are designed to start two years after the end of the largest war that the continent has ever seen, known as the Last War. The Last War could easily be related to either of the World Wars, not because of anything specific that happened during the war but because basically every nation in the known world was involved. Alliances were made and broken many times over the hundred-year war, so there were no "axis and allies" groups as in WWII.
Personally, I think WWI is a better analogy simply because the whole aura of the setting is closer to 20s-30s than 50s-60s.
One thing that I feel is unique to Eberron that no one has mentioned yet is the alignment system. It's a much "softer" system than that standard D&D system. There is no assumed alignment for any monsters. You could have a LG red dragon and a CE silver. The humanoid races have alignment tendencies, but you can't assume that every hobgoblin is LE from birth. Even the NPC's tend to take advantage of this: You could have a LE Preist of the LG deity the Silver Flame. to all appearances, he's LG and he BELIEVES he is LG, but the actions he takes to forward the goals of the church are still evil.
It's this softer take on the alignment system, and the whole post WW1 feel of the world, that really hooked me.
It's this softer take on the alignment system, and the whole post WW1 feel of the world, that really hooked me.
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
I'm writing this reply without having read the thread!
The reason that I like Eberron is pretty simple. It takes the familiar elements of Dungeons & Dragons and puts them in a non-traditional context which is more in line with contemporary trends in and attitudes towards the fantasy genre.
The politics of the setting, for instance, are much closer to those of Europe after the First World War than they are to those of the standard quasi-medieval fantasy setting. There are agitators for democratic rule in the most progressive kingdom, for instance, and an entire culture of dispossessed refugees who can never return to their annihilated homeland.
The races of the setting take the most basic traits as described in the rules and use them in a completely different way - elves, for instance, are not nature-loving forest-dwelling Übermenschen, but they are a long-lived, magically-inclined, martially-skilled people as the rules describe them. With a few exceptions, each race exists in more than one culture, as well - to again use the elves as an example, there are jungle-dwelling elves who preserve their ancestors as deathless and look to them collectively as a gestalt deity which guides their culture, there are horse-riding warrior elves who seek to embody their ancestors' great spirits by emulating their heroic deeds and who carved themselves out a nation during the Last War by treachery and ferocity, and there are urban elves who are completely assimilated to the major nations of the continent of Khorvaire and consider themselves "Brelish" or "Aundarian" as much as they are "elves".
The magic of the setting is best described as "widespread, but not powerful". Eberron's level of "technology" is roughly equivalent to that of the real world during the Industrial Revolution, but rather than being powered by clockwork or steam, it's all powered by magic. There are airships and trains powered by bound elementals, a magical telegraph system, towers built impossibly tall because their city stands in an area metaphysically "close" to the plane of flight and the sky, and an adventuring class (the artificer) which focuses on constructing temporary and permanent magic items rather than on casting spells. For all this, though, there are few high-level characters of any stripe, including spellcasters, and the orientation of much of the most powerful magical effects is practical rather than adventurous, and requires the contribution of dozens, if not hundreds, of artificers and other spellcasters - building an airship is not the sort of thing a wizard can do in her spare time!
The other aspect of Eberron's widespread magical "technology" is that the majority of it is in the hands of the dragonmarked houses, family dynasties within the "common races" (i.e. those found in the Player's Handbook, as opposed to those native to the setting). Each dragonmark grants those who bear it certain minor magical abilities, but the real power of the dragonmarked houses lies in the way they've developed various magical items in order to enhance and amplify the power of their marks. These powers and items enable the houses to operate virtual monopolies in various areas of commerce linked to the powers of their mark, and (in the case of House Cannith, the human dynasty with the Mark of Making) has enabled them to (admittedly inadvertently) create an entire race of sentient, living constructs.
Getting back to the tone and attitude of Eberron - it's intended to be more like a fantasy version of The Maltese Falcon, or a D&D-fantasy version of the Indiana Jones films - intrigue, two-fisted action, and other pulp and noir tropes combine with the familiar ideas of heroic fantasy to provide an alternative to the traditional, pseudo-medieval Tolkienesque settings with which D&D has traditionally had the most success (the Forgotten Realms being the canonical example).
I have the feeling that Eberron will be more successful than other non-traditional settings - Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Ravenloft - simply because, at its heart, it's still D&D the way it's always been played. You can have the same basic kinds of adventures that you have in Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, but with a more modern, less traditional feel and more twists and turns along the way. This means that there's at least the appearance of more variety and familiarity than there is in a setting where you're flying around space in a sailing ship, or trying to survive in a desert wasteland, or running around metaphysical worlds of belief.
The reason that I like Eberron is pretty simple. It takes the familiar elements of Dungeons & Dragons and puts them in a non-traditional context which is more in line with contemporary trends in and attitudes towards the fantasy genre.
The politics of the setting, for instance, are much closer to those of Europe after the First World War than they are to those of the standard quasi-medieval fantasy setting. There are agitators for democratic rule in the most progressive kingdom, for instance, and an entire culture of dispossessed refugees who can never return to their annihilated homeland.
The races of the setting take the most basic traits as described in the rules and use them in a completely different way - elves, for instance, are not nature-loving forest-dwelling Übermenschen, but they are a long-lived, magically-inclined, martially-skilled people as the rules describe them. With a few exceptions, each race exists in more than one culture, as well - to again use the elves as an example, there are jungle-dwelling elves who preserve their ancestors as deathless and look to them collectively as a gestalt deity which guides their culture, there are horse-riding warrior elves who seek to embody their ancestors' great spirits by emulating their heroic deeds and who carved themselves out a nation during the Last War by treachery and ferocity, and there are urban elves who are completely assimilated to the major nations of the continent of Khorvaire and consider themselves "Brelish" or "Aundarian" as much as they are "elves".
The magic of the setting is best described as "widespread, but not powerful". Eberron's level of "technology" is roughly equivalent to that of the real world during the Industrial Revolution, but rather than being powered by clockwork or steam, it's all powered by magic. There are airships and trains powered by bound elementals, a magical telegraph system, towers built impossibly tall because their city stands in an area metaphysically "close" to the plane of flight and the sky, and an adventuring class (the artificer) which focuses on constructing temporary and permanent magic items rather than on casting spells. For all this, though, there are few high-level characters of any stripe, including spellcasters, and the orientation of much of the most powerful magical effects is practical rather than adventurous, and requires the contribution of dozens, if not hundreds, of artificers and other spellcasters - building an airship is not the sort of thing a wizard can do in her spare time!
The other aspect of Eberron's widespread magical "technology" is that the majority of it is in the hands of the dragonmarked houses, family dynasties within the "common races" (i.e. those found in the Player's Handbook, as opposed to those native to the setting). Each dragonmark grants those who bear it certain minor magical abilities, but the real power of the dragonmarked houses lies in the way they've developed various magical items in order to enhance and amplify the power of their marks. These powers and items enable the houses to operate virtual monopolies in various areas of commerce linked to the powers of their mark, and (in the case of House Cannith, the human dynasty with the Mark of Making) has enabled them to (admittedly inadvertently) create an entire race of sentient, living constructs.
Getting back to the tone and attitude of Eberron - it's intended to be more like a fantasy version of The Maltese Falcon, or a D&D-fantasy version of the Indiana Jones films - intrigue, two-fisted action, and other pulp and noir tropes combine with the familiar ideas of heroic fantasy to provide an alternative to the traditional, pseudo-medieval Tolkienesque settings with which D&D has traditionally had the most success (the Forgotten Realms being the canonical example).
I have the feeling that Eberron will be more successful than other non-traditional settings - Planescape, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Ravenloft - simply because, at its heart, it's still D&D the way it's always been played. You can have the same basic kinds of adventures that you have in Greyhawk or the Forgotten Realms, but with a more modern, less traditional feel and more twists and turns along the way. This means that there's at least the appearance of more variety and familiarity than there is in a setting where you're flying around space in a sailing ship, or trying to survive in a desert wasteland, or running around metaphysical worlds of belief.
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
Point of order: the Valenar elves are actually from the Tairnadal culture, which shares the island of Aerenal with the Aereni culture (though, obviously, many if not most of the Tairnadal have gone to seek a way to honour their ancestors in Valenar).Solarious said:
The point about religion is really important, as far as I'm concerned. Since the gods, if they exist, cannot be directly contacted, and since clerics are not required to remain within the boundaries of their religion's own alignment (if, and that's a big if, they genuinely believe that they're faithful to it, even if an outside observer would say they've strayed bigtime), there is a lot of room for disagreement, heresy, schism, and corruption within every faith.
There are also some great, if very small, syncretic sects, such as the warrior-cult which reveres Dol Arrah (goddess of honour and sacrifice), Dol Dorn (god of martial prowess and strength), both deities of the pantheon called the Sovereign Host, and the Mockery (god of treachery and dishonourable combat) equally, even though the latter is a member of the Dark Six and reviled by most followers of the Sovereign Host, because the ideas these three martial deities represent all have their place in warfare.
Wraith Form
Explorer
In good conscience, I can't sell you on it.
There are parts of it that are cool, especially the intrigue and some of the nifty races, but it tries to shoehorn everything under the sun into a mish-mash of conflicting tropes and genres.
Eberron just doesn't blow wind up my skirt.
There are parts of it that are cool, especially the intrigue and some of the nifty races, but it tries to shoehorn everything under the sun into a mish-mash of conflicting tropes and genres.
Eberron just doesn't blow wind up my skirt.
Solarious
Explorer
Close enough. The Tairnadal are divided into a couple of subcultural groups themselves: the Valaes Tairn are the glory hounds, and make up the majority of the Tairnadal. The Silaes Tairn want to reclaim Xen'drik (improbable, for the most part), while the Draleus Tairn want to wipe out the dragons of Argonnessan (not happening, to put it frankly).mhacdebhandia said:
Speaking of which, Dragons don't lie around in caves with their hoards exposed waiting to be plundered by the local dragonslayers in Eberron. They've carved out their own continental nation which they keep isolated from all others and spend their time on their own pursuits and goals: mostly studying the Draconic Prophecy, not revealing themselves lightly to the lesser races (typically anything not a True Dragon), and generally meddling with the direction of fate in the most mysterious and profound ways.
WayneLigon
Adventurer
I started an Eberron campaign three weeks ago. I have all the books save for the Sarlona one (just picked up Eyes of the Lich Queen today; looks very good after the first skim-through), and I've read chunks from most of them by now.
Best supplements
Sharn, which really should be named 'Eberron Campaign Guide II' since it has a lot of details about daily life in it (including the list of holidays and festivals).
Dragonmarked
So far the main thing I like about Eberron is the fact that most of your npc's are topping out in the mid to low single digit levels, and usually have some NPC class levels mixed in there. Once you're hitting 5-8th level, you're a novel-level character and people are going to be sitting up and taking notice of your exploits.
Best supplements
Sharn, which really should be named 'Eberron Campaign Guide II' since it has a lot of details about daily life in it (including the list of holidays and festivals).
Dragonmarked
So far the main thing I like about Eberron is the fact that most of your npc's are topping out in the mid to low single digit levels, and usually have some NPC class levels mixed in there. Once you're hitting 5-8th level, you're a novel-level character and people are going to be sitting up and taking notice of your exploits.
Klaus
First Post
Oh, and check out Keith Baker's site www.bossythecow.com for more eberron goodness. For instance, he designed an NPC to answer the question "Where do awesome weapons come from". He's a Thrane dwarf fighter 2/magewright 16 (iirc). Despite the fact that he's extremely high-level, his spells and skills are focused on making weapons. He can easily make +4 Flaming Burst swords... if you can convince him to (and because of the trauma of the Last War, he's turned his back on weaponsmithing). And Sharn:City of Towers has the world's best baker, a female elf Commoner 17!
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