Sharn?

Nightfall said:
Eh. It's still no Bluffside, Freeport or even Hollowfaust. Now there's some FUN towns! ;) But that's just me.

But sounds a bit like Penance with its layers, wards and the sky train ;).
 

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I have only had a chance to skim sections of the Sharn book, but I think it is fantastic. There are a ton of adventure ideas and plot hooks sprinkled throughout. It screams "Use me!"

The art was generally excellent, too, especially the two-page picture that was used on the cover. I took a look at that and said, "That's what I want my Eberron campaign to be."

Starman
 

fafhrd said:
I'm keen on someday convincing my players to try Eberron and I'm equally keen on getting and using Sharn. Your comments point to the source of my one hesitation. Do you feel swamped by the abundance of material? Do you need to flip through the book every couple of minutes to describe the new district the PCs are travelling through? I feel my memory is my limiting factor in breathing life into a setting and if the locations aren't so distinct as to be indelible then I can see page turning problems arising.

The material on the different sectors isn't overdetailed. If you made little notes (or used bookmarks) for where the players are going, it'd work fine. Most of the time you'll be skipping from one sector to the other without worrying about what's in between. Placing the different elevations togethor isn't a horrible way to do it, since you can change elevations as quick as changing wards.

They have times for traveling across wards and such, as well as prices for houses and hookers, so it's got a lot of little details for a campaign. The actual "atmosphere" stuff isn't too strict.
 

Pants said:
The manifest zone to Syrania, its location at the mouth of the Dagger River, and its proximity to Xen'Drik are what make the location important.

I'm not even sure when the manifest zone was noticed. The location at the mouth doesn't really make a difference for me, because it's a HORRIBLE port! Moonwatch is actually at ground level, though it's a bit to the West. Heck, it's not like the river goes anywhere.

It's closeness to Xen'drik is also a bit overstated IMO, since it's not really much closer than any other location. It's the closest major city, but if there was another major city nearby, they could claim the same.
 

fafhrd said:
I'm keen on someday convincing my players to try Eberron and I'm equally keen on getting and using Sharn. Your comments point to the source of my one hesitation. Do you feel swamped by the abundance of material? Do you need to flip through the book every couple of minutes to describe the new district the PCs are travelling through? I feel my memory is my limiting factor in breathing life into a setting and if the locations aren't so distinct as to be indelible then I can see page turning problems arising.
Think of each district as a village or small town. Sometimes, your players won't need to leave a particular district to find what they want. Other times, if they do travel to another district, it would be like travelling from one village to another, without the tedious overland travel.

The transition is basically (on a horizontal plane) "You reach the edge of (insert district name here) and cross the bridge to (insert district name here)." Then use the brief descriptions in the book to give them a feel for the new district, and you're done.

For vertical travel, it's the same except the method of transition varies (ramps, elevators or skycoach).

I like the fact that the book gives you enough description to relate the flavor of the district to the players, yet doesn't bog you down with a lot of unneeded color and detail. You don't have to read several long paragraphs to the players to set the scene.
 

Vocenoctum said:
I'm not even sure when the manifest zone was noticed. The location at the mouth doesn't really make a difference for me, because it's a HORRIBLE port! Moonwatch is actually at ground level, though it's a bit to the West. Heck, it's not like the river goes anywhere.
Point taken. :D
Oh well.

It's closeness to Xen'drik is also a bit overstated IMO, since it's not really much closer than any other location. It's the closest major city, but if there was another major city nearby, they could claim the same.
Actually, I do believe it is the closest point in Khorvaire to Xen'Drik.
 

I know our third attemp at Eberron will be in Sharn. I'm looking forward to it. I like the idea of the magically created tall city. After playing Earthdawn for all those years, skyscraper type buildings feel like a fantasy world to me now.
 

I do not own the book, but your comments so far remind me of New Crobuzon from China Mievilles superb Novel "Perdido Street Station".
If Sharn is like this City I am definitely buying it.
 

Sharn is a great book. And for all the crunch-hatahs out there, it falls VERY squarely in the "fluff" category, with really not much crunch at all.

It's probably the most detailed city book I've seen, but still leaves plenty of room to flesh things out. There's a wide variety of stuff for PCs to do, from investigating murders to participating in the Race of the Eight Winds to exploring the ancient ruins beneath the city in a typical dungeon-crawl. There's plenty of political intrigue, too. Heck, there's even a lich nearby. You can run an entire campaign without the PCs even leaving the city.

One of my players (who plays a druid) is very interested in setting up parks in Lower Dura to increase the area's social class, and will probably end up going for a spot on the City Council as a result. I never had anyone suggest such a thing in any of the Realms games I ran.

Plus it has a table for random corpses. :cool:

My one complaint is that some of the maps are...lacking. That and they didn't include the Cannith Alchemist prestige class. Otherwise, it's a darned amazing book, with a lot of information shoved into its pages.
 

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