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Message: <blockquote data-quote="~Johnny~" data-source="post: 1618028" data-attributes="member: 16493">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 <a href="http://www.coveworld.net/eberron/world.html#arcane" target="_blank">downplayed</a> 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.</blockquote>

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