Is Eberron succesful?

Gunslinger · May 24, 2007, 02:44:12 PM

Must of the 3.5 gaming I've done has been in the Eberron setting and I've enjoyed it. The DM who runs it says the secret is to run the setting like D&D meets Indiana Jones. I could see why the mixing of those two genres could turn people off though.

Koltar · May 24, 2007, 03:21:59 PM

Its successful enough that a regular customer bought THREE Eberron hardback books last night

Its his favorite setting - and he's been playing or DM-ing D&D since the 1970s.

- Ed C.

beejazz · May 24, 2007, 03:34:22 PM

Quote from: UmaSamaNow that I remember also Dragonshard, the D&D RTS game is also settled on Eberron.

RTS? I did not hear of this.

Sosthenes · May 24, 2007, 03:42:41 PM

Well, my RTS-addicted friend tells me it's really not that great...

RPGPundit · May 24, 2007, 04:40:38 PM

Quote from: SosthenesIt was a setting grown out of a contest, not some deep-seated re-orientation drive. You really think they had enormously high hopes for it?

Judging by their own statements and plans when Eberron came out, I would say yes. I would say, in fact, they had ridiculously high hopes that went well beyond what anyone reasonable would have expected.

RPGPundit

Sosthenes · May 24, 2007, 05:01:13 PM

Care to give some sources for that statement? Eberron is pretty successful, I doubt that someone thought it would become the biggest thing since Pokemon... How much more successful could a RPG setting get?

Bradford C. Walker · May 24, 2007, 05:17:46 PM

The Eberron-based MMO is shit, and barely has any presence. The RTS is shit and is now forgotten by most. The Realms has the successful PC/console titles.

beeber · May 24, 2007, 05:43:51 PM

Quote from: Gunslinger. . . run the setting like D&D meets Indiana Jones. I could see why the mixing of those two genres could turn people off though.

i want to like it, but that doesn't do "d&d" for me. and that's what my take on the setting is, as well.

love the wayne reynolds artwork for it, though.

as long as WotC keeps spitting out supplements, i guess one could consider it successful

Scale · May 24, 2007, 05:54:43 PM

It's as successful as I'd expect a pulp D&D setting put out by Wizards would be. Pulp gives designers hardons, but seems to leave the general gaming populace somewhat ambivalent, even when we're talking the flagship product of the entire industry.

UmaSama · May 25, 2007, 12:34:15 AM

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker...The Realms has the successful PC/console titles.

One of the main reasons for me entering this hobby were the Bioware/Black Isle titles from late 90's, and also 3DO's Might & Magic Saga.

Another thing: and please correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't WotC pay Keith Baker around 300k for the setting?
Because if they did pay that much for the setting it means they were hoping it to be ultra succesfull, I mean if not why would they pay such amount for it?

RPGPundit · May 25, 2007, 03:33:26 AM

Their idea was really that Eberron would be the new FR, like what FR was at its peak, and that the Eberron MMORPG would become the new definitive MMORPG that would take the online gaming world by storm, creating a new golden age of Wizards being the vanguard of both online and tabletop gaming plus a shitload of novels.

Umasama, where did you hear that 300k figure from??

RPGPundit

Pierce Inverarity · May 25, 2007, 03:39:58 AM

It was definitely at least 100K, and yes Eberron was clearly set up to be the successor to FR. But is there any reason to believe it didn't become that?

I mean, I hate it, and that is because yes, it's a WOTC pulp setting for D&D, with all that that entails. But, MMORPG or not, I thought the actual Eberron books sell like hot cakes? They have a massive presence in my LGS.

Sosthenes · May 25, 2007, 04:18:48 AM

It was 100k. And if I remember correctly, the MMORPG wasn't planned from the start. It's not like Hasbro bought a game company, it was the other way round, Turbine licensed the D&D property for a online game and thought the hot new setting might be worthwile, too.

The Forgotten Realms are an established setting with lots of non-RPG merchandise, especially the novels. If it's still selling okay, I don't see this as a failure of Eberron. WotC seems to have two settings that make money right now. I'd even wager a guess that we'll see some more settings return, considering what's happening recently.

J Arcane · May 25, 2007, 07:20:11 AM

Hasbro, however, DID own Hasbro Interactive, which was the company which held the rights to the Atari name, which was then sold to Infogrames who took the Atari name as their own moniker. They've been close buddies ever since, since because of that deal, Atari/Infogrames still has interactive rights to Hasbro's games, and with the death of Interplay and their loss of the D&D license, D&D became one of them.

Turbine was jsut the studio they hired to do the actual programming of the MMO. It's existence was purely in the hands of Hasbro and their buddies at Atari.

Sosthenes · May 25, 2007, 07:33:00 AM

True dat, but I always assumed that that's just about pure licensing synergy. Hey, we (Hasbro) need a share of that Mmmrpghargh market, don't we have some good stuff for that already in our portfolio?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I always thought that WotC still mostly mis-manages itself, with the occasional pointy-haired boss influence from the Hasbro suits. If there's a grand plan, it either doesn't work or really isn't that grand...