Why are you looking forward (or not looking forward) to Eberron?

[Ashrem Bayle]

Can you, either in your own terms or quotes from Keith or WotC, ellaborate on this?

Let me see....

The potential for political intrigue is certainly one of the elements of the setting. The situation is very unstable and everyone is looking for an edge. At least one nation is specified as frequently violating the terms of the treaty, and border incidents and skirmishes are undoubtedly still a common occurance. The rulers of the nations and their outlooks on the situation will be discussed in the CSB. So you'll have all the material to play with.

That is indeed the goal. While I'd still probably say "swashbuckling action" and "dark fantasy" over "pulp/noir" (just to move a little farther away from the image of Gondor Jones fighting the Nazi orcs), the world has groups suited to both styles of play. Pulp traditionally is more black and white, and there are some heroic and villainous forces that are just that. But noir is all about layers and intrigue. The Silver Flame has is purehearted crusaders, but it also has its darker side, not to mention the feuds with other forces within Eberron.

Well, obviously The Maltese Falcon has already been mentioned – though the point there is more tone than anything else, with the level of intrigue, mystery, and backstabbing that goes on, and the hero being a man of questionable morals himself. Alexandre Dumas definitely fits the flavor of the world. If you consider Lovecraft non-fantasy (it's certainly a different style of fantasy than Lord of the Rings), he's in there. Edgar Rice Burroughs. I'm a big fan of Philip K. Dick, though I wouldn't say he's a major influence on Eberron.

Also, see here if you haven't already.

 

[Numion]

Put it this way. Everything I have heard leads me to believe that Eberron will be a mechanical world. It is crunchland to the extreme. Eberron feels like a place where crunch is the cake, lightly frosted with story.

Somehow this doesn't jive with the claim that you're very familiar with the world. All RPG products are showcased by mechanics.

Trailers to most movies just show the explosions and some one-liners. But only when you've seen the movie you know the plot and the characters personalities. The fluff. Which you think this setting won't have much.

But this is the internet and it's our god-given right to judge things beforehand, I know, but claiming to judge the whole product instead of the previews is BS.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Actually BelenUmeria, I'd like to know why you have this opinion. Why do you think Eberron will be more "crunchy" than...lets say... Forgotten Realms?

So far, the previews, IMHO, have shown a wonderful mix of crunch and role-playing material.

 

[tsadkiel]

Here are some quotes from Kieth that refer to this very thing:

Not quite this very thing . . . Keith is talking about meta-plot, while I'm talking about something else. Let me give an example, and I'm afraid the details are going to be a bit vague, since the example refers to books I got rid of years ago.

Back when the very first Forgotten Realms boxed set came out, I ran a Realms campaign. Something about the boxed set's very brief description of Chessenta inspired me - they mentioned city states, hedonism, a few other brief details. So I made Chessenta a part of my game, and since I didn't have much to go on, I lifted details from other sources, along with a few ideas of my own, and my Chessenta looked like a cross between Renaissance Italy and a version of Rio where it was Carnivale every day. It was cool, and my players and I had fun.

Eventually, I picked up a copy of Old Empires, and immediately turned to the section on Chessenta, only to discover that Chessenta is basically ancient Greece with the names changed. Now I know I could have just ignored Old Empires - for that game I did ignore Old Empires, though I used it in other games since it is a cool book. But at that point I was subtracting from the setting. I don't want to subtract from the settings I use, I want to add to them, because adding is more fun. If that makes any sense.

Now Eberron, IIRC, is going to cover the entire planet, rather than just one area of one continent. Obviously the core book will be very vague about things, with other supplements filling in the gaps later. But that still cuts down on my wiggle room; with the world that developed, I won't even have blank spaces on the map to drop in Mindshadows or Nyambe or whatever.

So I wish Eberron well. I'm sure I'll be picking up particular Eberron books to steal things from; I know I'll be picking up the April Dragon because I really like the Warforged. But Eberron will not be my campaign world.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Oh, I see what you mean and I see your problem. Your problem really has a simple answer: Just say that your version of Eberron overwrites WOTC's.

Of course, many people don't like that, and I understand.

BTW, if you like darker settings, you might give Midnight a try if you haven't already. It is very open in the way that you seem to like.

 

[tsadkiel]

Oh, I see what you mean and I see your problem. Your problem really has a simple answer: Just say that your version of Eberron overwrites WOTC's.

That's what I've done in the past; nowadays, I'd rather just use a setting where I know it won't be an issue, and steal from the super-detailed ones.

 

[BryonD]

Let me see....

Thank You.


It appears "WotC and Keith say it will be" is the answer.


I've been playing in games with inter-nation strife, multi-dimensional organizations and "intrigue, mystery and back-stabbing" for many years now.
So I still fail to see anything that gives Eberron any special claim here.

 

[Stone Dog]

Now Eberron, IIRC, is going to cover the entire planet, rather than just one area of one continent. Obviously the core book will be very vague about things, with other supplements filling in the gaps later. But that still cuts down on my wiggle room; with the world that developed, I won't even have blank spaces on the map to drop in Mindshadows or Nyambe or whatever.

The feeling I get from what has been said is that Eberron is focusing on Khorvaire, which is only one continent, and not even filling that up entirely.

There is at least one more continent, Sarlona, that you could easily use for mindshadows stuff since that is a psionic intensive culture.

I have heard that even though the new D&D online game is set in Eberron, it has nothing to do with Khorvaire, so that is another area.

Then there is the Xen'Drik. a vast jungle area that is practically unknown. Who knows what you could drop in there!

I understand your concerns, but I think that the more that is being revealed the more questions there are. I do hope that there isn't a glut of information on everything like the realms has though. it would be nice for them to keep blank spots on the map like a good pulpy adventure should have.

 

[Numion]

I've been playing in games with inter-nation strife, multi-dimensional organizations and "intrigue, mystery and back-stabbing" for many years now.
So I still fail to see anything that gives Eberron any special claim here.

So, WotC bombed $100000+ on stuff that everyone's seen already? I wouldn't bet on it.

Despite the claims, all anyone of has seen thus far have been a few pages from a 300+ page book. I could take the same amount of pages from both Midnight and Forgotten Realms setting books and make justified claims similar to yours, that neither setting is notably different from each other or could offer anything new when compared.

How about an opposing question: could there possibly be a setting that included all the pieces you've seen thus far of Eberron, that was something completely fresh? Awfully many people claim that Eberron can not be fresh based on those few pieces.

Midnight did just that, BTW. Mostly by fluff created a completely 'different' D&D setting from a normal low-magic D&D setting. I think we should give the Eberron fluff a chance to see how it really shapes the setting in to a whole.

 

[Ashrem Bayle]

Thank You.

It appears "WotC and Keith say it will be" is the answer.

I've been playing in games with inter-nation strife, multi-dimensional organizations and "intrigue, mystery and back-stabbing" for many years now.
So I still fail to see anything that gives Eberron any special claim here.

You're right. You can put intrigue and backstabbing in any campaign. Eberron however, has the stage already set. From the preview material, I get the impression that the scales of peace (on both a local and international scale) are balanced ever so carefully. It want take much to ignite political conflict and the PCs are sure to be in the middle of it.

Take Greyhawk for instance. Sure, you can work political intrigue into it. But it isn't designed with that in mind. Therefore, it'd be a bit more work than it would be in Eberron where, as I said before, the stage is already set.

I see it like this. Greyhawk is a recently cleaned table. To build a intrigue based campaign, you have to bring all the cards to the table and assemble them yourself. The table is already there, and thats great, but you're going to have to work to build your house of cards.

Eberron on the other hand is like a table with a house of cards already sitting on it. If you want conflict, you just nudge the table a bit and chaos insues. But then, you can also have the option to wipe the table clean and build your own house of cards.

Call me lazy, but I like the hard part done for me. Thats why I shell out my $40.