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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nisarg" data-source="post: 1697305" data-attributes="member: 19893">Well, I would say it cannot be all of those things. And certainly not at once.Swashbuckling is a product of the late renaissance, its atmosphere is very different than either the grim and grittiness of a low medieval or the arthurian nobility of a high medieval setting.While there is some overlap between swashbuckling and pulp heroes, there is also a strong difference between the two. Pulp heros tends to be about two-fisted action, "wierd tales", etc. lacking almost all of the finesse and charm of swashbuckling in the classice sense.By "WWI angst" I didn't mean "angst" in the White Wolf sense, just the kind of nihilism and uncertainty, and the sense of the end of conficdence in institutionality, gods, and absolutisms that you saw in our culture after the great war. This especially is COMPLETELY opposite to medievalism, which is all about ABSOLUTE faith in the institutions of God and King, and a completely defined world view.  You cannot be doing something that requires renaissance culture ("swashbuckling") in a medieval world. You cannot be doing something that requires the birth of post-modernism (post-WWI noir) in a renaissance or a medieval world.What I am saying is that Eberron's terrible mistake was trying to be too much.  If it wanted to be Swashbuckling, it should have had an early modern culture, not still be stuck in the barbarism of the middle ages.  If it wanted to be Edwardian, then go all out with the magic-as-tech and create a basically modern industrial culture (which doesn't mean the kingdoms would have to act like 20th century america, or victorian england, they just COULDN'T be "medieval").Instead, Eberron tried to be all three, and succeeds in being none.No, I wasn't saying that. I did say that I could see how this would appeal to other people. People who aren't 14 or powergamers. One group I know it won't appeal to are people who like their setting's social structure to make sense, which is a shame because that was one of the things people kept saying was going to be Eberron's great strengths, and thus something I was hopeful about.Instead, "making sense" gets defined as meaning "they use magic as technology".  Well, yes, which would seem to create a believable world if you know NOTHING about humanities. But by creating a world of magic=tech without creating a non-medieval world, they have AUTOMATICALLY created a world which makes no cultural/historical sense.Eberron cannot be medieval and make sense.Nisarg</blockquote>

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