What Would Your Eberron CRPG Feature?

[Victim]

I'd definitely set any CRPG in Khorvaire, since it's the part of the settting that actually has a setting. Characters should be able to ally with a number of different factions such as the DM houses. I'd like to see a more interesting dialogue system than branching tree selections, the ability to set some kind of modifying attitude might be nice. It would also prevent stuff like "1. [Bluff] X. 2. [Truth] X" which wastes some space, and keeps people from lying most of the time.

A strategy game in the Last War might be cool too.

 

[Kaodi]

The Only Kind Of Eberron RTS We Need Is...

Eberron: Total War

You start out in control of one of the five nations after Jarot's death, and you duke it out for one hundred years.

 

[Kaodi]

From The Everchanging Mind Of Me

Once again, in my fine tradition of cyclical enthusiasm, I am returning to thoughts of Khorvaire.

Now, I am thinking of a plot where a great dragon armed with a few convoluted pieces of the Draconic Prophecy is going to try and take out, say, Droaam. I was initially thinking of one of the Five Nations, but moments ago it occured to me that it may seem more interesting if the whole idea is to wipe out a nation that many civilized peoples may want to see wiped out. And the players mission and story is focused around trying to find out why they shouldn't allow it to happen.
In addition, a story in Droaam has many, many monsters already built in, and allows one to explore what their society is like. According to what we know about the Daughters of Sora Kell, they may be able to defeat the dragon, but they can't defeat the prophecy, and Teraza knows that they are powerless to enact countermeasures, because they cannot force the conditions needed to avert disaster.
At the high end, perhaps the dragon is not the final enemy, as perhaps it is the servants of one of the Rakshasa Rajahs that have somehow manipulated it using an ancient tool from the Age of Demons that allowed them to keep the dragons ignorant and in servitude to them.
Maybe an Orb of Dragonkind, but a more original eldritch machine would be in order.
As for the party, I was thinking about the suggestion of the return to the old six member party, but I think I would reduce it to two or thee startings characters, and the rest recruitable. I might even but in some sort of relationship mechanic between the three player made characters, with different bonuses and penalties related to if they are friends, rival, spouses, siblings or even parent and child. This would also heavily affect what side plots and quests were available, as well as some of the dialogue.

 

[Kaodi]

Because it came up in another thread, and I refuse to believe it will never happen, I am using thread necromancy to raise this thread, again, from the depths of obscurity.

Now of course, I am thinking that a different, film noir kind of RPG would be suitable, with the quest only journal replaced by a fact/note book, swarms of forgettable enemies replaced by meaningful world interaction, with fewer but more memorable combats. And a villain that put the " d " back into " evil " (not to be confused with a type of outsider).

 

[Kaodi]

Something else, I think I would also try a strategy similar to Stardock's. No anti-piracy software or anything like that, no CD required to play, just have to make a member account and use the password in order to update and download bonus content. Make a good game and let people play it. Seems to have worked for them so far.

Also, maybe look at the episodic content model that SiN and Half-Life are using, though I'm not really a big fan of that idea...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I'd like to see flashbacks to the Last War - what the PCs and their important contacts were up to on the Day a Nation Died.

The Auld Grump

 

[Kaodi]

For a game set in Khorvaire, that would be pretty cool, though it would require a lot of thought as to how to intelligently pull it off for the players character so that is wasn't just the same thing no matter what race and class and background you have.

I think I have perhaps come up with a idea that could make for a suitable mega adventure or game, but it revolves around Sarlona. Involves a rogue Inspired seer (not to be mistaken for a nice Inspired seer), a hefty Eberron dragonshard and an ancient Syrkarn scrying/divination device. Probably be more likely to see light of day as a mega adventure, so I'm going to have to keep working on trying to find a winning idea for a Khorvairian CRPG...

In any case, I keep bringing back this thread in the hopes to spark some discussion. For instance, if you're still paying attention, with another half a year behind us, do you still think that a real Eberron RPG would present too big a risk after Dragonshard and DDO, Steel_Wind?

 

[Kaodi]

Hmmm... Eberron: The Fervent Season.

A game set against the background of a planar conjunction with Fernia, with fire and heat, lack of water and shade, and plots involving a sect of Onatar and the prakhtu of one of the Rakshasa Rajahs as a strong over or sub-plot. Would span the tropical belt of Khorvaire, from Breland to the Talenta Plains. I would include a lot of ecology on species adapted to the planar cycle (including many examples on new, unique monsters), which I think would give a more fulfilling experience to druid and ranger lovers, instead of just the tacked on touchy feely aspects clichés of D&D nature found in a lot of games.

 

[Kaodi]

I Used To Title All Of My Posts

Once again, I raise thee from the ashes, thread of mine, to divine the nature of an epic Eberron computer roleplaying game.

Since the last time I posted, there has of course been a rather significant development in the world of Dungeons & Dragons: the announcement of 4th Edition. This creates some interesting problems, or maybe opportunities, for an Eberron CRPG.

The first thing I can say perhaps is that in my unexpert opinion, it would be radically awesome if it were possible to launch a 4e Eberron CRPG right around the time of the release of the ECS, PHB II, DMG II and MM II. You would have a double whammy of a game that used both the new Eberron setting rules AND the new Psionics power source (and possibly the others as well, depending on what they are). However, a year and a half is probably an insufficient development cycle for a worthwhile game, especially when many of the rules have not been fully developed yet.

If you had a game with all of those things, I would think about basing it in Q'barra, the Endworld Mountains and the Blade Desert, featuring the swamps, the ruins from the Age of Demons, maybe the Dragon Graveyard and the Inspired ambassadors...

A more familiar location though would perhaps go for Aundair, the Eldeen Reaches and the Demon Wastes. This might be more ideal because you would have something for more of the classes. Almost every PBH class and probably many of the PHB II classes would have something interesting to do here.

Artwise, perhaps I would do something like take the artistic impressions of Wayne Reynolds and combine it with the approach of WarCraft and StarCraft games: clean, smooth, colourful graphics that are perhaps somewhat unrealistic but nevertheless very aesthetic.

In any case, I think the new 4e rules may work exceptionally well with a computer game, since most of your abilities will be useable in every combat. You could have more resource management in terms of holding back the big guns for the appropriate encounters because you cannot count on being able to rest anywhere. If there is less Christmas Tree effect going on, it also means that you won't need oodles of high level randomized treasure, and that distribution can make much more sense.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Personally, I'd rather see a sequel to ToEE, set in Greyhawk. I love that game (and have had very few problems with it).

But I'd buy an Eberron game if it used the same engine in a heartbeat.