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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 3842810" data-attributes="member: 40177">For a little while, I got in on a game with Blargney and a few of his friends.  It was a pretty fun setting, even though really, we weren't doing anything "Ground-breaking" that couldn't be done outside normal D&D.  All that being said, it was a great campaign, and the focus on high action scenes written into the rules means that a lot of final scenes are going to be a lot more chaotic and crazy than they sometimes are in normal D&D.After the campaign fizzled, I kept my interest in Eberron.  When my own STAP campaign ran dry (around the 7th episode, I think... we just dropped it as a unanimous decision), we talked about our next campaign, and I guess I presented Eberron well, because that's what was voted on!Our first session is in a few days.  And, to show you what Eberron's capable of, I'll give you an idea of my rough campaign outline:the PCs are in the city of Karlakton (a city overrun by doomsday cults and revolutionaries, with the gray mists of the undead-filled mournland just across the river), for a variety of reasons.  One PC was sent by his dragonmarked house to keep an eye/assist a Master Inquisitive, one PC learned that there was money to be made in Karlakton, our warforged is trying to find a few of her friends from the last war who have recently gone missing, and our druid is interested in studying the mournland.  The main enemies are the revolutionaries (who, after their craziness, eventually call the king of Karnn to call in the national armies, which consist mainly of undead), the cult-like Blood of Vol, and a coalition of renegade House Cannith (the house of making) and House Jorasco (the house of healing) intent on creating a "New and improved" form of warforged.  It's gonna be a lot of fun.But, to cut things short:THINGS I LIKE ABOUT EBERRON:1)  Dragonmarked houses and social-based PrCs (such as the Dragonmark Heir and the Master Inquisitive) make non-combat adventures much more of a possibility.2)  Dragonmarks in general are just plain COOL.  If I ever get a chance to play in another Eberron game, I'll be playing a Dragonmarked character.3)  The Last War is a great campaign event, and one thing I did when we created characters was have every player discuss what they did (and how they feel about) the Last War.  One note, though - don't think of the Last War as WW2.  The analogy doesn't really fit.  Really, the Last War is more similar, historically, to the end of WW1 - considering the sense of despression and unease that followed.    4)  Psionics are integrated into the setting.  While I don't like psionics, I *do* like how they don't feel "tacked on" in Eberron. (I actually got rid of them in my eberron, which means I have to rework large tracts of the setting)5) Using action points is fun!  (note:  I recommend doing what Blargney does in his games;  use the "Players roll all the dice" variant, along with the active defense bonus rule, where monsters have a static attack number, and players roll their armour class to defeat the monster's attack.  The reasoning behind this is, players can then use action points to actually *dodge* blows.  Which is good)6)  The monsters in the ECS are all cool.  How rare is that?  (P.S. Living Spells rock!)THINGS I DON'T LIKE1)  Religion - I don't like any of the Eberron religions, really - they just don't stick out to me.  I kind of like the Church of the Silver Flame, but they're still just so-so.  Really, it seems like playing a cleric in Eberron isn't that common.  I haven't seen too many.2) Focus on Sharn - any adventure you buy is going to mention Sharn at least once or twice.  There's a lot outside of Sharn, and it does sort of annoy me just how often people want to make it the centre of their campaign (as an example, look at the Eberron Play-By-Posts:  I think fully half of our adventures are set entirely in Sharn!).3)  Scale and Populations - the map scales are messed up, making the twelve nations HUGE.  Even Mr. Baker himself has admitted it was a mess-up with the art department.  I haven't figured out how I'm going to reduce the scale in my own games, but it will be done.  Population figures could use some boosting, too, to more "Industrial Europe" figures, as opposed to the by-the-books, based off medieval era D&D population numbers.  Sharn should have a million people in it!Kalashtar - they just annoy me.  Sorry.Finally, one last thing - if you're interested in Eberron, but can't get a group or something, I highly recommend you check out ENWorld's <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forumdisplay.php?f=299" target="_blank">Living Eberron</a>, of which I am one of the game judges.  It's a play-by-post forum where you use the same character from adventure to adventure.  And it's a lot of fun (even if my main PC right now is bleeding out of his ears!)  It is, obviously, focused on Eberron, and it gives you an idea of how Eberron games differ from usual D&D games.</blockquote>

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