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View Full Version : Eberron: I apologise!



fireinthedust
2006-12-31, 07:13 PM
I hereby take back all the horrible things I've said or thought about the Eberron setting. This includes thinking of it as a children's setting, perfunctory, etc., and WHY, YOU MAY ASK?

I now have an impressive collection of Eberron books: the CS, Secrets of Xen'drik, Explorer's handbook, Sharn: city of towers, and Five nations. Also the expanded psionics handbook, which rocks and makes the rest of the setting make sense!!! It's an awesome setting, the art is great, love it love it.

My question: what would you do with Eberron for a pbp campaign here on the boards?

I'd love to run something intrigue-based. Any suggestions?

Bears With Lasers
2006-12-31, 07:18 PM
I was in a very rockin' Eberron game where we were sky pirates. It eventually turned into saving the world from the Quori. My character, a drow mercenary, got to kick the Emperor of Riedra in the nuts. Along the way, we took down a crime syndicate in Sharn (so we could start smuggling our stolen goods in, they were opposed to imports), blew up a secret non-Cannith Forge in the Shadow Marches, started new fashions in Sharn high society, and convinced the Elders of Kalashtar to trap a living spell in a box for us to use as a weapon.

Frankly, I think "sky pirates!" is a great starting point for pretty much anything, but especially in Eberron.

Bryn
2006-12-31, 07:28 PM
I've only just obtained the Eberron Campaign Setting, and the amount of detail in the setting is amazing. I'm already about to run the Forgotten Forge (with a bit more detail thrown in to make it last a little longer), and I'm playing a Changling Beguiler in an upcoming RL game as well.
Anyhow, what books would everyone reccomend to increase my Eberron collection? I like airships, so the Explorers' Handbook might be a good choice, or perhaps Sharn:City of Towers. I also hear there is some good stuff for Changelings (specifically, a PrC mentioned in the Logic Ninja's guide) in Races of Eberron. All in all, I really don't know what is best.

Bears With Lasers
2006-12-31, 07:30 PM
Sharn can pretty much be a setting on its own, but is also great for visits.

Eberron is great for pulp-action Age-of-Exploration type stuff, but also darker identity-issues stuff (which all the Eberron-specific races have).

Nerd-o-rama
2006-12-31, 08:00 PM
Aha. I figured most of the people who disliked Eberron hadn't actually played it. To be fair, a lot of the advertising, even the word of mouth, makes it sound kinda silly. It's easy to generalize too much of the OMGcoolanddifferent stuff.

Kevka Palazzo
2006-12-31, 08:20 PM
Mmmmm.....Eberron.
*daydreams for the next ten minutes with glazed-over eyes*

Hmm? What? Crap! I was talking!

I have Faiths of and Magic of Eberron as well as Dragonmarked (which is great for the intrigue part, 'cause it details all the dragonmarked houses a lot more.)

I'm getting ready to run a 1-20 Eb. campaign myself. I assume some of it will include intrigue.

As cool as Sharn is, I kind of don't want to make it the first adventure setting. Rather, I want the adventure to end up in Sharn for a few of the middle-levels until the PCs get an airship and start kickin' it up in Xen'drik and Argonessen. Sarlona will be a high-level location that I haven't put much thought into because there's a book coming out about it.

I can't really help with intrigue because practically every major player in the setting has personal traits, hidden motives and various other odds and ends that lend themselves wonderfully to any intrigue story you could think of.

ImperiousLeader
2006-12-31, 08:24 PM
I love Eberron, it's my favourite campaign setting. I want to run an Age of Worms campaign in Eberron.

Zincorium
2006-12-31, 09:31 PM
Honestly, as much as I like the Eberron setting, my beef with it is that it's a very hard setting to get people into, there are a lot of reactionary players who are unable to separate liking classic D&D and unfairly ignoring everything else.

Eberron's greatest strength, IMO, is that it can encompass a virtually unlimited number of game styles, and is better if you have a mix of several. Black and white heroic tales mixed with the pure gray of urban noir, with a side of that sky pirate spiciness, all without even leaving a single city.

Kevka Palazzo
2006-12-31, 09:43 PM
Sharn: The Coruscant of Fantasy.

The Glyphstone
2006-12-31, 10:31 PM
But without the logistical and supply problems.

(Readers of Irregular Webcomic will understand.)

Thomas
2006-12-31, 10:36 PM
But without the logistical and supply problems.

And the heat issues. The planet would create so much waste heat it'd be literally boiling.

Kevka Palazzo
2006-12-31, 10:41 PM
And the heat issues. The planet would create so much waste heat it'd be literally boiling.

Shhhh....shhh, shhhh....shhhhh.


You're ruining my fantasy. Stop it.

Morty
2007-01-01, 09:18 AM
I never played Eberron, and I think it looks quite interesting and original, even though I don't particulary like mage-technology and the like. My DM however, curses every time I mention Eberron, so no chance. In fact, some of Eberron features that I read about here and there looks preety silly, especially if someone don't like mage-technology. I especially don't like concept of Warforged, but I'm still trying to learn more about it.

Beleriphon
2007-01-01, 09:32 AM
In fact, some of Eberron features that I read about here and there looks preety silly, especially if someone don't like mage-technology. I especially don't like concept of Warforged, but I'm still trying to learn more about it.

There is no magi-tech at all. Its basically what if somebody took a culture that has had magic for thousands of years and actually applied at a practical level to every day life. Thus the technology is that of a normal D&D campaign, but you can find all manner of magical contraptions, or spells more specifically, that work for the common man. Its not out of question for a farming community to pay a local druid circle to cast spells to ensure a good harvest. The term that I like to use is a wide magic setting. That being that low powered magic is commonly available if you have the coin.

Warforged are interesting in that they are created race. Originall built for war they have been given their freedom but have no idea what to do with it. I think part of the problem that people seem to have is that they treat them like magical robots, instead of like any other race. Nothing about warforge suggests that they don't have emotions the same as any other race, just that being constructed, and only having existed for 30 years at the most, makes it difficult for them to understand. If balance issues come up warforged are exceptionally well balanced as a race, in fact at high levels they may be considered slightly underpowered.

stainboy
2007-01-01, 09:33 AM
I ran a noir-ish game on this board a year or two back where the party were all private investigators in Sharn. Game kinda petered out, sad to say... my first time running pbp and I didn't have much idea how to keep it moving. Really liked the characters though.

Stephen_E
2007-01-01, 09:53 AM
Ebberon lends itself well to a Indiana Jones style campaign.

You're going out there finding Relics to bring back for Museums or Archeological Societies while racing treasure hunters or lackeys of Evil Empires (or you could be those treasure hunters or lackeys).

Anyone who's ever read Rider Haggard (author) or Boy's Own Adventure's (series of adventure tales published in England about a century ago) would have no problem with Ebberon plots along these lines.

Stephen

Beleriphon
2007-01-01, 10:03 AM
Ebberon lends itself well to a Indiana Jones style campaign.

You're going out there finding Relics to bring back for Museums or Archeological Societies while racing treasure hunters or lackeys of Evil Empires (or you could be those treasure hunters or lackeys).

Anyone who's ever read Rider Haggard (author) or Boy's Own Adventure's (series of adventure tales published in England about a century ago) would have no problem with Ebberon plots along these lines.

Stephen

Yep. Eberron is a diverse setting with built in aspects that cover every conceivable type of advenutre. My favourite with the Indiana Jones adventure is the lightning rail. You can actually do the red line on a map for travel, as a bonus you get the fun to fighting a top passenger cars as they zip through the pastoral country side. Two fisted punch ups for the win!

fireinthedust
2007-01-01, 07:12 PM
I recommend Five Nations. It's really opened up the setting even beyond the CS. Races of Eberron seems useful. Faiths of Eberron, though looks good, and I think I'll be buying the Riedra book when it comes out (that sounds awesome!), especially as I now own the expanded psionics handbook.

Secrets of Xen'drik is also great (well, written by Amber Scott, who writes stories for this website; huzzah for giantitp!), and works well with various Dragon magazine articles and the Explorer's handbook.

That Air Pirates game sounds awesome!!! It sounds like you all had a lot of fun.

Personally I want to run a game here on the boards. I want it to work like this: every character is affiliated with one of the nations or one of the Dragonmarked houses (Lyrandar is the one with airships).
*also* everyone would have a secret affiliation that may or may not conflict with the other PCs (like the Argentum, or the Dark Lanterns, etc.).

The PCs would have some kind of assignment from a neutral party, like Morgrave University or a private party; or they'd be trapped on an airship running on automatic. Then I'd let the PCs lead the way and determine the plot from there. It would need gung-ho players to be worth it, tho (and maybe a better DM than I am, y'know?)

Or maybe some other kind of James Bond, Cold War-type plot.

Only thing is that I'm off to England at the end of the month, and I don't know what posting availability will be like.

Cybren
2007-01-01, 07:37 PM
I never really liked eberron.
I love steampunk, I love pulp, I love kewl out-of-place tech.
But everytime i read eberron i just got sick.
Maybe i should give it a try before judging