WotC setting search winner - Eberron

[Pants]

Until I see more information, I'm dismissing this one as a piece of piss-poor world-building with little or no attempt at verisimlitude. This means that I can't suspend my disbelief, so the setting fails as a work of fiction. Genre doesn't matter.

Whatever floats your boat I guess.

The prerequisities for a civilization possessed of Industrial Age technology require that a lot of people that would otherwise be available in the creation or looting of dungeons be tied up in the acquisition of the scientific knowledge necessary to make that technology appear, the mass-production of that technology to all corners of said civilization, the acquistion of the raw materials needed to make this civilization run, the distribution of said materials needed to fuel it or the protection of any of that from enemies domestic and foreign.

That's what Dwarves are for

We're looking more at the Spycraft gameplay paradigm than the D&D paradigm right now, and that isn't what D&D players want out of D&D.

Do you know all the D&D players out there?

The application of previous historical and scientific education in this context--in terms of believable world-building--coupled with the application of the known facts of the business of the hobby--and how it compares to related media--led me to this conclusion.

Ah, I see, you're just guessing.

 

[Emiricol]

Doesn't the article quite clearly say this is not steampunk? Magical Industry is not steampunk. Lots of typical and frankly fairly pathetic knee-jerk reactions on this thread; latching onto words that don't even seem to describe the setting, and denouncing the setting because of it.

That's 'cause it sounds friggin stupid

 

[Angcuru]

That's 'cause it sounds friggin stupid

*Agrees*

 

[Christian Walker]

That's 'cause it sounds friggin stupid

Hey! Don't be so quick to dismiss this.

What if the dinosaurs are like the ones from that TV show Dinosaurs? Now that would be cool.

"Not the mama!"

 

[2d6]

Hey! Don't be so quick to dismiss this.

What if the dinosaurs are like the ones from that TV show Dinosaurs? Now that would be cool.

"Not the mama!"

and they could be like this -

 

[Gargoyle]

Edit: James, you were there; what's your impression on how accurate and well-written the Gaming Report article is? That's not a WotC press release; it's an article written by a GR reporter. You can't blame WotC for any crappiness in the writing (you can blame WotC for any crappiness in the actual seminar, of course).

The gamingreport.com guy and other press members received a document from WOTC with info that wasn't given out to anyone else during the seminar. The slide show didn't mention action points, for instance, and they didn't talk about them. My conclusion is that some of the bullet points in the gamingreport.com report was from the press release they were handed by WOTC, or from questions they asked after the seminar. I think they just passed on what they got for the most part, but I don't know what info he received, so I don't know if he did a good job reporting it or not. It could be WOTC's writing, or something mangled by gamingreport.

I doubt gamingreport misrepresented anything but it seems weird to me that WOTC downplayed the role of dinosaurs during the seminar, yet there is a bullet about lost world creatures. It also seems strange that the slide show's statements about it being a "swashbuckling dark world" were not in the handout or the report. The "dark" part seems to have been only in the slides, but seemed significant to me.

My opinion is that WOTC shouldn't have unveiled the setting until they had more information that they could release. This is a very large campaign world in its infancy. Why have a Q&A seminar when you can't answer most of the questions?

The handout btw is ok, but not big enough to give you a good feel for the world either. It's concept art sketches with a few notes from an NPC. The concept art is pretty good. There is a "lightning train" and an airship powered by an elemental ring. The concept art during the slide show ranged from the relatively mundane like a minotaur with some extra horns and ridges to the "wow what is that?". Some of the creatures and places looked particularly original and cool.

My impression of the world is that it is going to be an attempt to defy classification. They claimed that Keith's submission was not like any of the other 11,000. If they can pull off a combination of a world that is both swashbuckling and dark, with detailed social structures and new magic systems to support a high magic world, I think it will be successful and fun. But we'll see. They'll have to present it better in the future.

 

[Pants]

and they could be like this -

I'd play in the setting if I got to kill these!

 

[Jody Butt]

Hmm...let's see...do I want

"Trains and Dinosaurs"

or

Dark Sun, Ravenloft, or Al Qadim


Tough choice.

What in the world was WotC thinking?

 

[JLXC]

I read the gaming report site, I think the setting sounds "kewl and rad", with much kiddie appeal, and will not work. It's just me, and I will change my opinion for better or worse as more info comes out.

At the least this new setting didn't grab any part of my interest.

 

[2d6]

I don't know. If this were a one-shot or something that was going to be a limited product, i.e. core book plus a couple suppliments, it would be one thing. I hope that this setting does not replace FR as the primary supported setting for DnD, that just doesn't sit well with me, and I don't care how you spin spin the steampunk/dino stuff. To me, D&D was always about killing stuff and taking it's loot, in a euro-centric medieval
fantasy setting. I dunno, call me old-fashioned.


[edit] to remove a comment I couldn't support.