WotC setting search winner - Eberron

[Upper_Krust]

Hi all!

I looked at the photos and read the scant details at Gaming Report and was amazed at some of the downright rude; pessimistic and ignorant comments that followed.

I must say I was shocked and disappointed that ENWorlds discussion continued in a similar fashion from some quarters.

I hope Keith Bakers comments have gone some way to alleviate the rampant misguided speculation.

From what little we have been told about the setting I am certainly interested to see more. I also think the look of the teaser material is great; thats something I hope they continue with for the core rulebooks (obviously with standardized text and so forth for the main body of information).

Keep your chin up Keith. Don't let the b*****ds get you down. He who laughs last...

 

[Wisdom Penalty]

Everything thing U.K. just said.

W.P.

 

[jasamcarl]

Okay, this makes no sense to me in the context of what we're discussing. Variety within the bounds of a genre and blatantly breaking the assumptions of a genre are two different things. Stretching to gunpowder is one thing (and arguably genre-supportive because it gives pirates their canons, swashbucklers their pistols and tinkers something to blow up, so long as it's kept not too widespread); to trains is another.

Where do FR and GH veer from swords & sorcery fantasy in a widespread manner, jasamcarl? Neither of them have anything nearly as challenging as a train except in the cracks and certainly not widespread (Murlynd's six-shooters maybe, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks definitely...FR's tanks in one corner of the world that then got completely ignored another). The nearest widespread comparable use is in Dragonlance with it's Tinker Gnomes and their anachronistic inventions such as TV analogues, but such inventions are kept in check because they're largely impractical and expensive, almost never work, are played for laughs, and are largely considered a rather lame part of that setting.

My point is that inconsistincies of any type do not matter. FR and GH were only used as examples of bottom up world building which have unintuitive geography, cultural mixes, etc that are explicitly justified within the text, unlike the pseudo-historical bs you will find in a top-down setting such as KoK.

As to 'genre' consistency, my point was simply that once fantasy became predictable and cliche to the point where you can call upon some standard of 'realism', its no longer fantasy, but just a nerdy pulp excercise.

 

[NickTheLemming]

Pull your tongue out of your cheek, troll!

I've you're just a lurker, I apologize. But you've only got 11 prior posts, and your name suggests that you are, in fact, mocking those who, in their lemming like way, have jumped on the anti-Eberron bandwagon.

Nope, I've used the name Nick the Lemming for about 5-6 years now. Check google for newsgroup posts under the name, or if you have any new Earthdawn stuff or Eden prods stuff (latest Con X or the Hack! cardgame), you should find me under playtesters. I just haven't bothered to post here much before. There are certainly other fora where I have been more prolific (See the Harn board in particular, where I'm one of the mods), and email lists in yahoo groups (I'm also a co-mod in the Fading Suns list). No apologies needed though, and no harm done.

To others who've been talking about "it's magic, that explains everything", then please consider this situation: If everyone in the setting drove cars, carried cell phones, flew in planes, had computers, had travelled into space and landed on the moon, watched tv incessantly, and did everything else that we do today, but the writer of the setting said that it was magic rather than electricity that powered everything in tiny cells, would you say that you were in a setting with mediaeval level tech, or a modern day setting with a twist?

Nick the Lemming

 

[NickTheLemming]

Re: Damn that lame PR!

Yeah, to bad that that lame PR has only generated seven pages of comment in this thread, two in another, a lot of (offensive and aggressive, unfortunately) chatter on GamingReport and at least one four pager on RPG.net.

My mind reels at thought of the effect good PR would have!

Cheers!

M.

Considering how much of the comment has been very negative, I'm not sure about that being a good thing, the phrase about all publicity etc noywithstanding. Let's face it, if you opened up a restaurant and on the opening night got massive reviews everywhere aying how crap it was, you wouldn't be saying how great your PR is, would you?

Nick the Lemming

 

[drnuncheon]

To others who've been talking about "it's magic, that explains everything", then please consider this situation: If everyone in the setting drove cars, carried cell phones, flew in planes, had computers, had travelled into space and landed on the moon, watched tv incessantly, and did everything else that we do today, but the writer of the setting said that it was magic rather than electricity that powered everything in tiny cells, would you say that you were in a setting with mediaeval level tech, or a modern day setting with a twist?

On the other hand...

If you reach the moon in a carriage borne aloft by mighty eagles, if your wizards summon spirits that perform their arcane calculations for them, if you fly in mighty galleons borne aloft by powerful spells, if the evil wizard contacts his henchmen through images in crystal spheres...

...then you're pretty obviously in a fantasy setting, aren't you? Even if they're performing the same functions as the Apollo program, computers, airplanes, and cell phones, they're doing it in a way that is distinctly magical.

Of course, this is getting even more ridiculous as a comparison, since we've seen no evidence of cars, computers, TV, space travel, or cell phones in the new setting. But hey, since when do facts matter? I'm beginning to doubt that you even looked at the promo material, since you've been completely wrong about it in the past.

For some reason it doesn't surprise me to learn that you're a Harniac, since this setting appears to be about as different from Harn in its concept and base assumptions as you can get - and for some reason a lot of Harn fans get very defensive about their setting.

J

 

[WanderingMonster]

I think this thread has ceased being productive. Maybe we could all show some restraint and let it die before it (inevitably) gets shut down. I had some ideas pertaining to the concept of Eberron, but I'll sit on them for a day until things get less personal.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Saw the little hand out.

Looked it over.

Not enough information.

Will save comments until book is out.

 

[NickTheLemming]

On the other hand...

If you reach the moon in a carriage borne aloft by mighty eagles, if your wizards summon spirits that perform their arcane calculations for them, if you fly in mighty galleons borne aloft by powerful spells, if the evil wizard contacts his henchmen through images in crystal spheres...

If all of that happened, then I wouldn't have any problem. If however the TV looked like a TV, the cell phone looked like a cell phone, the hover train looked like a hover train....

Of course, this is getting even more ridiculous as a comparison, since we've seen no evidence of cars, computers, TV, space travel, or cell phones in the new setting. But hey, since when do facts matter? I'm beginning to doubt that you even looked at the promo material, since you've been completely wrong about it in the past.

I never claimed that there were cell phones etc - I was using a reductio ad absurdum to show my point. And since I've told people on here and on other fora where to go to see the piccies, the reports etc, so say that I haven't looked at them myself is a little stupid, isn't it?

For some reason it doesn't surprise me to learn that you're a Harniac, since this setting appears to be about as different from Harn in its concept and base assumptions as you can get - and for some reason a lot of Harn fans get very defensive about their setting.

J

Why should I be defensive about Harn? It's a great setting, and cerainly nothing to be defensive about. Why would you pick that one game out though, and ignore my mention of Earthdawn, Fading Suns, Conspiracy X, Hack!, or even some of the other games I have and play - Star Wars, Runequest, Deadlands, Cthulhu, Shatterzone, Atlantean Trilogy, Sovereign Stone, Blood Shadows (Just looking at one pile near me here). Most of these settings are also as far from Harn as you can get, but strangely I don't appear to be dissing them, now do I? Or are you just trolling?

Nick the Lemming

 

[Myconid Sage]

Well I think Eberron is split into two groups, the love it or the hate it camps. Not a lot in between! Me, I'll stick to my boring and predictible FR and Greyhawk's pseudo Medieval feel. Because to me that is what DnD is. Eberron is not what I think of as DnD. Perhaps people would have been more warm to it if it didn't have the DnD label?