what makes Eberron different

[Belen]

For one thing, it is magic-tech.

Now, it seems to be well done magic-tech. But it is magic-tech. So if you do not want magic-tech, keep that in mind.

It is funny that fan-boys (not always a bad thing, just a descriptive term) have been railing that anyone calling Eberron magic-tech are ill-informed. And then I open my copy (that I received for Father's Day) and there in the first few pages are at least three separate places where Eberron is given a completely function defintion of magic-tech.

Page 7: "Magic is built into the very fabric of the setting. It pervades and influences everyday life. It provides certain comforts and conveniences unknown in either the modern world or and world of medieval fantasy."

Page 9: "The setting supposes a world that developed not through the advance of science, but by the mastery of arcane magic." (A virtual exact defintion of magic-tech) And a few sentences later: "A working class of minor mages uses spells to provide energy and other necessities in towns and cities. Advances in magic item creation have led to everything from self-propelled farming implements to sentient, free-willed constructs."

Page 29: "In Eberron, magic is almost technology."

So, I don't know if the anti-"Eberron is magic-tech" people were ill-informed about Eberron or about what magic-tech is. But, seeing the book for myself, it is beyond question that they were the ones who were ill-informed.

Another thing about Eberron is that it seems to have a distinct direction to it. Not certain if that is the right way to put it or not. As others have described, it has a lot of WWI through Cold War type plot and background to it. And the setting does tend to push towards pulp style games. But I do not see it as enhancing pulp play so much as making other types of play be against the grain. You can do standard fare stuff, no doubt. But I can drop pulp, Indiana Jones, etc style adventure into the Realms no sweat. I guess it does not seem to me that it shines a spot light on pulp so much as it just dims the light on everything else. The Realms (with all the issues that it DOES have) seems a much better blank slate setting to me.

Now, with all that negative, I do think it seems to be rather well done. If having your hand forced a little in terms of the type of plot does not bother you (or this is simply the kind of plot that you always want anyway). And, using a magic-tech setting appeals to you. Then, by all means, buy this setting. And it may be that this is exactly the kind of thing that will help expand D&D. We will see. For me personally, it goes in the wrong direction.

For me, I think that Eberron was written with an eye towards running a Living Campaign. It has a lot of conflict, set "regions", and definite ability for the RPGA to craft a core storyline as they do with Living Greyhawk.

This will not harm non-RPGA people at all, but it is a turn off to me.

There are some cool concepts and material that I plan on mining for my homebrew, but I doubt I could ever run an Eberron campaign, especially with stuff like action points built into the game.

I could be wrong, but other than the magitech feel, I get a real sense that the world is meant to be used as a MMORPG, and it is written with that as a core dynamic.

Dave

 

[Desdichado]

It is funny that fan-boys (not always a bad thing, just a descriptive term) have been railing that anyone calling Eberron magic-tech are ill-informed. And then I open my copy (that I received for Father's Day) and there in the first few pages are at least three separate places where Eberron is given a completely function defintion of magic-tech.

See, I don't even remember anyone doing that.

Although at least now that it's out there's no more ill-informed railing against the setting for being steampunk...

 

[~Johnny~]

Johnny- I have to take almost everything you say with a SUV-sized grain of salt. It'd be different if you ever said anything different, but you always feel the need to praise or jump in to defend Eberron on every thread.

I can't deny that, and you probably should take things with a grain of salt. Here's the thing: I like Eberron. I didn't like it when I first read about it, but once I learned a substantial amount about it from Keith Baker, I was pretty sure I'd like it. I had high expectations when I read the book, and they were almost totally met. So yeah, I'm an Eberron fanboy, but I'm an Eberron fanboy because the setting won me over and brought me back to D&D. I don't think Eberron is for everybody, and there's a side of me that would sooner play a low-magic game like Mongoose's excellent Conan RPG ...or just keep playing my Star Wars campaign. But I like Eberron, and I like Keith Baker, and I'm perhaps still a bit overdefensive from the times that everything said about Eberron was over-the-top bile. Sorry if that's the case. If you'd like to suggest an appropriate disclaimer for me to put in my sig, I'm all for it!

Byron, I wasn't trying to argue against your latest invocation of the term "magic-tech;" I was just trying to explain the mindset of people who disagreed with the use of that term before Eberron's release. I think there were definitely some people who went too far in saying things like "Eberron's not magitech!" and "Eberron isn't high-magic!" I may have been one of those people, but "magitech" and "high-magic" are loaded, somewhat relative terms. I don't know if you and I have chatted in the past, but I can say that my goal was never to deny the huge role that magic plays in Eberron; I was just trying to keep people from thinking that the setting would be full of magic cars and enchanted factories. Even Keith, who obviously knew exactly what would be in the campaign setting book, more often downplayed the magitech stuff than emphasized it. But he certainly didn't deny its existence, and I hope I didn't either.

Anyway, I like Gargoyle's description of magic as a commodity. I think that's a very concise way to put it. It may be worth mentioning that while arcane magic has been commodified, the designers have made an effort to make divine magic less of a commodity.

Byron, I was arguing with the idea that plots in Eberron are more limited than in the Forgotten Realms. I still think the setting's conducive to a wealth of plot ideas. On the other hand, when I reviewed the setting for RPG.net, one of my criticisms was that the book put perhaps too much emphasis on political adventures in spite of the fact that more straightforward adventuring opportunities are implicit in the setting. (I also put a disclaimer stating my status as an Eberron fanboy, so rest easy, Dave.) I also definitely see your point about any sort of massive conflict disrupting the political balance that's a big part of the setting. If you're planning on sticking to whatever continuity or metaplot comes from WotC over the next few years, it doesn't really work to have all the power groups band together. Then again, any official campaign world tends to put a damper on earth-shattering adventures. In Eberron, if you wanted, say, the plane of dreams to become coterminous again, you'd probably have to play it as something that briefly unites the nations, then have them all split up afterward to restore teh status quo.

 

[Narfellus]

eberron

Eberon is NOT different: it is old ideas that have been around for years, coddled together, repackage with new art and sold as "something completely different." Marketing-wise, this is fine for WoTC. They are as business that needs to make money, and the only way to do that is to inspire loyalty and excitement in the gaming community. Every year you have a new generation of gamers, starting from age EIGHT to TEN probably, to whom everything is new beans. To older gamers like me, lightning railroads and psionics and no gods are nothing but quibbles from other settings imported into YET another one. I'm not bashing Eberron, i'm sure a lot of thought and talent went into it, but to me it's just another reincarnation of the Forgotten Realms with even higher magic, oh yeah, and some psionics and dinosaurs and metal machines. We'll see how the movie turns out. Maybe if we're lucky it will be as good as the first D&D flick!

 

[skippy_the_witch]

I will admit that I really like Eberron, but have no intention of ever playing in or running this campaign world. I own the book, which I bought for the primary reason of the Artificer class and all the "magic-tech", or as I prefer to call it, technomagic. This is the first big publisher campaign that I have ever seen to have done technomagic, or even magic, right. Most versions of "magic as technology" do it "magic or etheric energy powering strange machines". THAT IS NOT TECHNOMAGIC. That is magic enhancing technology. Technomagic is where magic REPLACES technology.

Now, naturally, basic engineering means that you do not quit using such simple tools as levers, gears, whatever in any device. And you can develope some very sophisticated items and techniques that are relatively simple. Look at all of the special substances and alloys available in most D&D worlds. They are as strong and light as modern high tech alloys, yet through the use of magic, can be made by the town blacksmith (admittedly, said blacksmith is likely to being highly skilled). Or the eternal torch rather than a flash light. I can name a bunch of example where even the most vanilla D&D game uses magic to substitute for technology.

The difference about Eberron is it is the first high magic game to say "Magic is everywhere, and is used by even the common people for EVERYDAY TASKS." That is the point where you begin to have technomagic. As an earlier post suggested, Eberron really is an analog to the Post WWI era, with trains (lightning rail), telegraphs/telephone stations (House Sivis speaking stones), dirigibles (air ships), etc. I just prefer to play a more advanced form of technomagical society -- what Eberron is likely to develope into in the next 100-200 years, the sort of things you can find in ARSENAL and FACTORY for Perpetrated Press. The one things I was missing for my homebrew was a Technomancer, a wizard that specializes in the building, repairing, and general creation of technomagical devices. And with very minor modification (mostly in the Craft Magic Item bonus feats given -- no technomancer would ever learn how to Craft Wand, he would instead learn Craft Tecnmagical Firearm), I now do not have to reinvent the wheel, just add a new set of hubcaps.

skippy
The GM of The Cursed Earth

 

[Charles Dunwoody]

Eberron is changing how I look at D&D. For twenty years I've created worlds with hexes and had the PCs mapping it one by one. A lot of fun, but I got in a rut.

Eberron comes along and encourages rapid travel. Quick, dramatic fights. Patrons who call on the heroes to act and who may act against or for the heroes.

Now all those things can be done in other settings. But Eberron encourages (action points) and rewards (dragon marks, setting specific prestige classes) heroes who play hard but can play nice with others. Adventurers really fit in Eberron, because Eberron needs heroes.

Eberron isn't necessarily better than Ravenloft or Planescape or Greyhawk. It is simply well done, up to date with 3.5, and compatible with the core rules. Eberron is another option for DMs with ten month old babies who don't have time to make whole worlds anymore and don't want to bother with 3.0 to 3.5 conversions.

Most importantly to me, it looks like fun. Heroes who are the stars of the story adventuring against a backdrop of demon haunted ruins, racing lightning rails, and soaring airships and forming bonds with a variety of interesting people and organizations.

 

[WizarDru]

If you want to slay monsters, head to Droaam or Xen'drik. Piracy? Lhazaar welcomes you, as do the southern seas near Sharn. Horror? There are opportunities in the Mournland, in Karrnath, and in any manifest zone linked to Mabar, the plane of endless night. Prefer to frolic in the forest with fairies? Head to the Eldeen Reaches. I could go on.

Well, cut it out, darn it all. I won't be buying the book until tomorrow, and you making it sound better and better by the moment is killing me.

 

[dravot]

Well, cut it out, darn it all. I won't be buying the book until tomorrow, and you making it sound better and better by the moment is killing me.

*taunts WizarDru with more Eberron info via email, and then whistles innocently *

 

[~Johnny~]

I could be wrong, but other than the magitech feel, I get a real sense that the world is meant to be used as a MMORPG, and it is written with that as a core dynamic.

Take this with an SUV-sized grain of salt, but I think your theory's a bit off the mark. There is indeed an Eberron-based online Eberron RPG in the works, but they've basically taken a generic D&D game and dropped it into one of the most open-ended areas of Eberron: the lost continent of Xen'drik. It sounds like they're doing some cool things to take advantage of the setting now, but early descriptions and concept art suggest that it didn't actually start as an Eberron-specific game.

Of course, if you don't trust me, take it from Keith Baker:

I myself know practically nothing about the MMORPG, and hey, I created the world. The online game is being matched to where it best fits into the world, not the other way around. As it turns out, there is a place in the world that is well suited to this; but that is a convenient coincidence.

For more of Keith's comments on D&D Online, click here.