WotC setting search winner - Eberron

[Corinth]

Why not? It's fantasy.

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.

I don't see anything in the entire teaser that gives this kind of impression. Actually, dungeons in this could be kind of cool. Empty, abandoned train stations and the like.

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. 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.

Again, I don't see how you can get this kind of impression from such little information.

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.

It's different so it sucks

It's not broken, so don't fix it.

 

[Kai Lord]

I've got no problem w/ Steampunk, but this type of thing as their new flagship setting for the D&D game?

This will no more be the "flagship D&D setting" than Dark Sun or Planescape was. Its too high concept. FR and Dragonlance will sell more, but depending on the presentation, Eberron could rocket from "novelty act" to "hella cool gaming experience."

Its definitely niche, but its a niche that sure as heck isn't filled by anything else right now, so why not?

I can't imagine it luring me away from Dragonlance as my primary game setting, but it could definitely fill the spot left vacant after Dark Sun's departure. FR fans will still get their FR books, and I look forward to holding DL in my hands, so if WOTC wants to throw something new into the pot I say more power to them. My curiousity is certainly peaked....

 

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

So, what was it, 18 months ago or so? WotC trots out this Setting Search jazz. I took one look and thought, "Medieval Fantasy? Hasn't WotC tapped that vein out enough? Not to mention all the D20 companies." But what the heck, thought I, I'll give it my best shot. Shoehorned an idea I'd been working on to fit this "medieval fantasy" hoodoo. All was said and done, I and my contemporaries thought it was pretty butt-kicking. It didn't make it through the first round. Oh well, says I, the winner must be pretty good.

Read the Morningstar write-up. Thought it was very cool, and stole many ideas for my homebrew. Thought to myself, the winning setting must be great.

Saw (and bought) Midnight. Loved it. Thought, the winner must be the best thing since sliced bread.

Now I see this...Eberron? Huh? Steampunk technology, and a bunch of weird non-standard races? Bloody dinosaurs? What in the wide world of sports does this have to do with the submission guidelines?

They should have seen what I wanted to send. This just chaps my hide. I don't care if this thing makes FR look like FATAL, I won't be buying this. Behold the power of spite!

 

[Aulayan]

I'd like to clear up one thing.

Midnight was not part of the setting search. Midnight was in development before the setting search was announced. It's the High Fantasy First-Ageish setting that FFG is releasing (either Morningstar or Dawnforge, I get the two confused easily) that they submitted to the setting search.

 

[rounser]

I didn't enter the setting search, so no sour grapes here, but it's beyond me how a setting which seems at first glance to difficult to summarise
(a) is going to sell, given that it's so cross-genre that you can't sum up the gist of it in a couple of sentences, and
(b) made it past the early stages of the competition where you had to be brief about the concept.

Maybe they're holding back the good bits. I mean, FR looks terrible summarised on paper too, but the devil's in the details (I think it was sold on those cool spellbook articles Ed used to write, which captured the atmosphere of the world).

 

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by Emiricol:

Wait... the friggin' amazing Midnight setting started out as a submission to this WotC thing?

Boy, turning THAT down for THIS is, at first glance, an unforgiveably stupid mistake.

Of course, the final product *could* be exciting and cool

Well, if that was true, then yes, it would have been the dumbest mistake WotC ever made. No other setting out there on the market today compares to Midnight, period. But Midnight wasn't sent in for the campaign contest. It was developed locally by a guy here named Jeff Barber, and I played in one of the Midnight games he ran in development.

The setting FFG submitted to WotC is called Dawnforge. According to the most recent Game Trade magazine:

"Enter the age of legendary heroes, legendary magic, and legendary power! Chosen as one of the 11 semi-finalists in WotC's setting search, Dawnforge is an exciting new campaign setting for the d20 system. This core book features detailed information on the setting's geography, history, legends, villians, heroes, monsters, and magic, and includes a full-color fold-out poster map of the Dawnforge world. Oct 2003."

This new WotC setting leaves me completely cold. I love dinos, but they seem thrown in just to be in the setting. Steampunk is really a rather silly idea IMO, and combining it all in this setting seems really gimmicky. Pass.

 

[rounser]

Also, no hint of who the heroes and villains are in this world? IIRC, the submissions seemed to stress that. Swashbucklers isn't much of a hint.

 

[jester47]

Well, with all the good press I might take a look at midnight.

Aaron.

 

[tmaaas]

I'm more than willing to wait until we get better and more accurate infomation about the setting before making a final judgment. In fact, I'm willing to wait until it comes out and then decide if I'm getting it or not based on actual reviews.

I suspect the setting will be much more than "dinosaurs and trains." From the reports from the folks at the seminar from GenCon, it seems that trains were mentioned as an example of "magical technology." Magical technology being the focus, trains just the example.

I hope they can actually pull this off. In standard D&D, magic is mostly for combat. I'd like to see a setting which more fully explored its ramifications into all aspects of society.

 

[Wombat]

Well, it isn't me. Testament and AU alone were worth a month of heat. And there have been some nice also rans.

Testify it!

Testament is fantastic and AU looks to be just as sweet!