As most of us are no doubt aware, Wizard’s current setting publication model comprises of a player’s guide, a DM’s reference and a single adventure, repeated annually. It’s a straightforward approach, intended to offer breadth of choice without requiring the enormous buy in that the decades-old monoliths of previous editions insisted on.
Yet as I flicked through the Player’s Guide to Eberron I found myself asking the kind of basic, nuts and bolts questions that any self-respecting introductory book should answer. What does the lightning rail actually look like? Or an elemental carriage? What are the limits of magical technology and how does its use impact on daily life? Beyond that were a host of more detailed queries unlikely to be answered under the two volume format.
My solution was to go online, where I eventually ended up ordering a pile of 3.x books. Doing so led to the realisation that a detail orientated GM like myself is virtually required to adopt the literature of an earlier edition if he wants to properly explore a world published under the current one. As someone who had very little interest in 3.x the sense of irony I felt regarding my situation was pronounced.
Now, whilst I have no doubt that the Eberron Campaign Guide will be as comprehensive a book as it can be, the lack of further planned support means it will be a broad-brush treatment only. Great for some, not so good for others. Ideally I’d like to see supplemental material appearing via the DDI, perhaps as a series of lengthy articles featuring modular, downloadable content that complements and expands upon the published material. The one-setting-per-year embargo could still be enforced, with the next annual release heralding the end of Setting X's run as it makes way for Setting Y's monthly support.
In short, I’d like to see Wizards adopt a model that accomodates the subset of their userbase whom desire a fuller realisation of their worlds.
Yet as I flicked through the Player’s Guide to Eberron I found myself asking the kind of basic, nuts and bolts questions that any self-respecting introductory book should answer. What does the lightning rail actually look like? Or an elemental carriage? What are the limits of magical technology and how does its use impact on daily life? Beyond that were a host of more detailed queries unlikely to be answered under the two volume format.
My solution was to go online, where I eventually ended up ordering a pile of 3.x books. Doing so led to the realisation that a detail orientated GM like myself is virtually required to adopt the literature of an earlier edition if he wants to properly explore a world published under the current one. As someone who had very little interest in 3.x the sense of irony I felt regarding my situation was pronounced.
Now, whilst I have no doubt that the Eberron Campaign Guide will be as comprehensive a book as it can be, the lack of further planned support means it will be a broad-brush treatment only. Great for some, not so good for others. Ideally I’d like to see supplemental material appearing via the DDI, perhaps as a series of lengthy articles featuring modular, downloadable content that complements and expands upon the published material. The one-setting-per-year embargo could still be enforced, with the next annual release heralding the end of Setting X's run as it makes way for Setting Y's monthly support.
In short, I’d like to see Wizards adopt a model that accomodates the subset of their userbase whom desire a fuller realisation of their worlds.
