Turning Eberron into a Barsoom-like world?

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I do, however, have a point of inspiration:

Adventure! D20 might be the perfect fit. It would certainly fit the Extreme Explorer element of Eberron better than most.

There's another pulp D20 out there called Forbidden Kingdoms but I think Adventure!'s recieved the more favorable reviews.

 

[Turanil]

Hmm, yeah, I just don't find D20 Modern to be very compelling. Adventure! D20 might be the perfect fit.

Perhaps a bit more info would help, how are you planning on making it Barsoomy exactly?

I don't know the Adventure! D20 game, so I cannot tell. However, my idea was to make the game something else than D&D, so it begins with removing D&D rules and races (dwarves, elves, halflings, who are definitively Tolkienesque to me, and really don't fit in Eberron as far as my taste is concerned), and replace it with d20 Modern or Adventure! D20 if you prefer.

Now, when I say "barsoomy", it's a way to explain a different type of setting where a guy from 1950's Earth comes to a world of fantasy/sci-fi with swords and ray guns, and a strange ancient technology that looks almost magical. In dungeon #101, there was a small mini-setting called Iron Lords of Jupiter that adapted d20 Modern to such a kind of barsoomy setting (called "Planetary Romance"). However, at 31 pages, it's rather short on info for making a full fledged setting. My idea, would have been to expand and flesh this setting in using Eberron.

As such, I would use all the crunch (new feats, new advanced classes, techno-weapons and devices, etc.) of ILoJ into Eberron. Conversely, no more D&D classes and rules in Eberron. Then, I would probably turn the Artificer into an advanced-class. Lastly, I would probably get rid of spellcasting (or would use very rare FX spellcasters from d20 Modern), but would replace them with psionic-users (using Xpsi, or Restless Dreams: A Guide to Modern Psionics which is d20 Modern Xpsi). Then, I would adapt the fluff and races from Eberron with that of ILoJ: Marikons and veths would be the dominant races, replacing humans in Eberron; all the Eberron specific races (warforged, etc.) would also exist there, as normally in Eberron. But humans would be a minority captured from Earth, and often living as slaves; while dwarves, elves, halfings, etc. (all the PHB races) would NOT exist. Dragonmarked would be restricted to marikons and veths. Otherwise, all magical trains and flying boats and the like would be explained in fantasy technological terms as in ILoJ; and along swords, people would be using ray-guns and the like.

As for campaigning, some PCs would be humans brought to that world as suggested in ILoJ. They would thus be total foreigners in a strange world, and that in itself would add to the peculiar ambiance.

 

[Turanil]

My only problem with this idea, is players who already know about Eberron and have played or DMed in it. I think they wouldn't get the ambiance. It would be much easier to convey the different ambince with players who don't know (or just vaguely) Eberron yet. Because my main concern would be: it's not D&D, it's something else (call it "Planetary Romance" or "Barsoom-like World").

 

[mhacdebhandia]

What I don't get is this: why use the Eberron setting? Why not just take what you like - warforged, artificers, skyships - and put it in an original world?

 

[Turanil]

What I don't get is this: why use the Eberron setting? Why not just take what you like - warforged, artificers, skyships - and put it in an original world?

Because Eberron is fully developped, with lot of books and nice cartography and art, etc. I like Iron Lords of Jupiters, but at 31 pages (most of them being rules) it's rather scarce on setting info. Also note that this thread was more wondering than anything else. But I plan to run a Pulp-Planetary-Romance (Barsoomy) campaign when I get my copy of Slavelords of Cydonia, and want a setting for that. Since Eberron is full of interesting stuff, I wondered if it would be worth using it albeit altered as explained above.

However, maybe GURPS Planet of Adventures would do the trick well, but it's for GURPS not d20 and has much less supplements. On the other hand, I much like Eberron... when stripped of D&D. I don't like Eberron being D&D, it tastes like Ice-Cream with Ketchup to me (anybody using this as a sig.?? ); turning it into a Barsoomy-pulpy-d20-Modern would make it more like Ice-Cream with Chocolate as far as I am concerned.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

I don't like Eberron being D&D, it tastes like Ice-Cream with Ketchup to me

That statement is among the least-comprehensible I've ever encountered - not for the simile, but for the opinion.

To me, Eberron feels more like the current version of D&D than any D&D setting ever could - it was designed for it.

 

[Turanil]

That statement is among the least-comprehensible I've ever encountered - not for the simile, but for the opinion.

I don't like the current dungeonpunk style. In fact I hate it. For me D&D is about knights and wizards in Greyhawk, or something inspired from Tolkien and King Arthur. Now, I also like other genres: in fact I much like the Cyberpunk genre, but only in OGL Cybernet and similar stuff. As such, I hate halfling paladins-bards with a trenchcoat, a katana, and an attitude. I can play a halfling bard in Greyhawk no problem (I already did and quite enjoyed it); I would love to play a sort of justiciar with a trenchcoat, a katana, and big guns in a OGL Cybernet game, no problem; but when it comes to mixing the two genres I simply hate it. This is what I call "Ice Cream wit Ketchup". Ice Cream is good, Ketchup is good, but adding Ketchup onto Ice-cream tastes awful to me. So, this is my metaphor for adding dungeonpunk style and pulp-technology to D&D staples (Tolkien races, wizards, knights in shiny armor, etc.). But to everyone his tastes of course.

To me, Eberron feels more like the current version of D&D than any D&D setting ever could - it was designed for it.

Well, I perfectly know that Eberron was specifically designed for D&D 3.5, and it is probably perfect for that dungeonpunk style of D&D 3.5. However, if I had to choose a D&D 3.5 setting, I would rather opt for Valus (the old school type of setting I like for D&D), or better, would run a Legends of the Dark Ages campaign. Now, since I intend to run a "planetary-romance-barsoomy" campaign (with Grim Tales and Slavelords of Cydonia), I want an appropriate setting. I could wait for d20 Mars or purchase GURPS Planet of Adventures, or even create a homebrew (but don't want to). But then, it looks like to me that Eberron (albeit sleightly modified as proposed earlier) would do the trick fairly well. I would just remove the D&D aspect, using a set of rules and premises that suit better my idea of what this setting should be.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Oh, so what you mean is, "I don't like Eberron because it's not a world you would have found in a previous edition of D&D."

Okay then.

 

[Wayside]

Oh, so what you mean is, "I don't like Eberron because it's not a world you would have found in a previous edition of D&D."

Okay then.

That would be a silly reason not to like Eberron. What he actually said was that Eberron mixes styles which, in his opinion, simply do not mix well.

 

[Buttercup]

That would be a silly reason not to like Eberron. What he actually said was that Eberron mixes styles which, in his opinion, simply do not mix well.

And this might be what I don't like about the setting too. I hadn't been able to put my finger on it, exactly. And now that Turanil has mentioned it, removing the elves, dwarves, gnomes & halflings seems like such an easy and obvious fix! I think this might just be the fix that will make me break down and actually buy Eberron. Never mind that I need another setting like I need a hole in the head.

So hmm. Eberron as Barsoom. I like it! I don't think I would use the d20 modern classes though. Perhaps I'd just use a sub-set of the core classes. Fighter, Rogue, Wizard, Bard and then add in Artificer and a psionic class or two. Maybe a scout class.