Why is Eberron being pushed so hard?

[buzz]

I'm sure there's plenty of great OGL products, but not all of us have local gaming stores or eons to pore through books that, for the most part, are as bad as, say, the Complete Divine. Borders hasn't shown me anything all that impressive from the 3rd party groups. The only game that has even sounded interesting outside of WotC is "Midnight", but they don't have the bloody thing in any of the bookstores I have access to.

The simple fact that you are posting on a Web messageboard demonstrates that you have access to every single RPG that has ever been published, not to mention a wealth of resources (reviews, previews, messageboards) to use in making a decision about what to purchase.

I'm not sure why your choosing not to take advantage of any of these resources shold imply anything about the OGL/d20 market as a whole. There are products out there that suit your needs. Vote with your dollar and buy them instead of Eberron.

 

[buzz]

[Eberron is] like My Little Pony; it's made for kids, but there's a creepy number of adults that make it their main form of entertainment.

I take it back. This is definitely the silliest statement I've seen on this thread. It's borderline offensive.

 

[buzz]

Those thousands of years of history described in the book? That's the title crawl. That's over. Time for your story.

/joins the applause

 

[buzz]

Why would i be playing in a world who's kitchen-sinkism and lack of believability pisses me off?

The more relevant question is probably: Why do you continue to post in a thread about a setting that you obviously despise and with which you want nothing to do?

Better yet: Why does your disliking Eberron mean that it's in any way flawed? Why doesn't it simply mean it's not your cup of tea, and that people who do enjoy it are not necessarily 14-year-old powergaming PS2 zombies?

Buzz (who loves Eberron, is 34, and last played video games when Pac-Man was cutting-edge)

 

[Ranger REG]

I prefer to think of it as a "Serpinomicon", much like the 2e Draconomicon which was, in a technical sense, for FR, but applied easily to another setting.

At least WotC have the wisdom to make 3e Draconomicon part of the core line.

As for the Saurials, that's just due to WotC's DVDism. There always has to be some bloody director's cut out there so they can get you near their advertising, even if there's absolutely no reason to exclude it from the main product.

Yeah, but why offer a "director's cut" for free? It makes the Serpent Kingdom book less appealing to me.

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Buzz (who loves Eberron, is 34, and last played video games when Pac-Man was cutting-edge)

RIGHT ON BROTHER!
(cept i'm 21)

 

[BrooklynKnight]

Thank you, no. Why would i be playing in a world who's kitchen-sinkism and lack of believability pisses me off?

If you want me, I'll be playing Midnight. I imagine more than a few people on this list will be out there with me.

Nisarg

Alright, thats fine.

If you dont like Eberron, by all means do not play. But do not relentlessly attack the setting in an attempt to ruin it for those that DO enjoy it, or in an attempt to convince others to why you feel its bad. You have your opinion. You've stated it. Fine, Be done with it and move on. You Enjoy Midnight, and we'll enjoy Eberron.

And some will enjoy both.

 

[Nisarg]

The more relevant question is probably: Why do you continue to post in a thread about a setting that you obviously despise and with which you want nothing to do?

Maybe because people keep responding to my postings and asking me questions or making statements that demand a response.

Better yet: Why does your disliking Eberron mean that it's in any way flawed? Why doesn't it simply mean it's not your cup of tea, and that people who do enjoy it are not necessarily 14-year-old powergaming PS2 zombies?

Its not nescessarily flawed for YOU. if you don't mind Kitchen-sinkism, if you don't have the kind of humanities background I do where Eberron's social unbelievability would bug you, then go nuts. Some people really enjoy kitchen-sinkism, I'm probably in a serious minority on that count.

For most people, Medieval does just mean "kings and swords" and that's enough.

As I've said, I hope for WoTC's sake that Eberron is a hit, and that its multiple-personality issue is something that wins more fans than it loses.

Nisarg

 

[Belegbeth]

I'm curious as to your definition of "classic fantasy", then.

Authors: Tolkien, Leiber, Howard, Vance, et al. In recent years, IMO, R.R. Martin could probably be added, as well as Gene Wolf.

(Of TSR/WotC settings, Greyhawk is probably the closest to a "classic fantasy" setting, at least the Gygaxian version. Still a bit too "over-the-top" in terms of magic IMO.)

 

[Hellcow]

Its not nescessarily flawed for YOU. if you don't mind Kitchen-sinkism...

Interesting. This is a general question, not specifically directed at Nisarg (so as not to keep forcing him to come back into the conversation about a setting he hates). But my question is this:

Is Eberron really more of a kitchen sink than any of WotC's other major settings?

If you own the XPH and like psionics, would you as a DM not allow a player to use psionics simply because there's no nation or race where psionics are prevelant?

Do you look at the Monster Manual -- a core book -- and say "It's too bad I can't use this creature, since it has no defined place in Greyhawk?"

In my mind, D&D has ALWAYS been a kitchen sink: because it's always supposed to have been a place where every monster, every spell, and yes, psionics, could be found. Heck, in Planescape anything could be found. The goal with Eberron was not to say "Throw everything in the books into one big heap" -- but rather to create a world where you could find a logical place for the things you wanted to use. Psionics have always been in D&D -- but now your psionic character has backstory you and your DM can draw on. The monster that you want to use that just doesn't make any sense in the world could have been created by the Mourning, while the culture you want to use but that you can't place in Khorvaire (because it should have a major impact on any nearby human nation) can be found in Xen'drik.

As I said in the other thread, the point of Eberron is not to say that everything in D&D IS in Eberron; it's that everything in the core books could be in Eberron, if you want it to be. How is this any more "kitchen sinky" than most of the other WotC settings?

The answer may be "It's not, but all WotC settings are too kitchen sinky". That may be true. But the point of the core books is to give a DM a basic set of tools to work with; WotC wanted a setting where the DM could use all of those tools. If you want a world that is going to invalidate significant sections of the core/SRD material, I'd advise you to look to third-party publishers.