I'm asking this because I have yet to meet someone who likes it, everyone I ask tells me he doesn't and yet WotC keeps releasing new supplements for it, so that should mean it is succesful, but is it?
It's got some crappy supplements. Otherwise, yes.
Overall, it's a pretty decent setting. I've been tempted to run a game in it, but I decided to run Wilderlands instead.
-O
Eberron seems a half-way decent setting, especially if you go for kitchen-sink 3E. It's just not that exciting, if you'll ask me. Better than most of the Realms, but that's not really hard to do...
I just can't find a decent justification for running Eberron instead of some better alternatives. Especially in the magic-tech area, the Iron Kingdoms just reign supreme.
I particularly liked the Sharn book. Very interesting city, and also rather easy to transplant in another setting, unless it's low-magic sword & sorcery.
Yeah, Sharn is excellent, and easily exported to other settings.
On the whole I find Eberron to be conceptually brilliant, yet let down in a few places by ropey support. Although explicitly designed to accomodate the myriad variations and kinks of 3.5 it's easily run with other systems. I find Savage Worlds to be great fit, evoking as it does the pulpish, action-noir mentality the setting aims for.
As to it's popularity I have no idea. All I have to go on is various message boards, where it seems to be getting slightly less heat than it once did. That could due to the novelty wearing off, or maybe it's just been incorporated into mainstream D&D play in the same way the Realms has, and is therefore assumed as one of the default states of play rather than something worth commenting on.
Quote from: Sosthenes...I just can't find a decent justification for running Eberron instead of some better alternatives. Especially in the magic-tech area, the Iron Kingdoms just reign supreme...
Iron Kingdoms huh?
I'll check it out, ever since I played Arcanum of Steamworks & Magik Obscura I've been thinking about running some Fantasy/Tech game.
I thought Sharn was a cool supplement, but overall I do prefer Iron Kingdoms. I tend to pillage campaign settings for ideas, and on that note, it did OK for me.
Is it a success? I don't know. I mean, they keep releasing supplements for it, so I imagine it has a decent following--likely nothing like the Realms has, but that's just all conjecture. It'd be interesting to see if Eberron sales are where WoTC projected...
For me, our group DM ran all the Eberron modules that WOTC published, and once it was finished, I didnt think there was anything more to discover with Eberron.
Is that the reason why Keith Baker hasnt written anything new for it? Was it a case of a one good idea and not much else?
Quote from: LawbagIs that the reason why Keith Baker hasnt written anything new for it? Was it a case of a one good idea and not much else?
From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keith_Baker):
* Eberron Campaign Setting, w/ Bill Slavicsek and James Wyatt (June 2004, ISBN 0-7869-3276-7)
* Sharn: City of Towers, w/ James Wyatt (November 2004, ISBN 0-7869-3434-4)
* Races of Eberron, w/ Jesse Decker, Matthew Sernett, and Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel (April 2005, ISBN 0-7869-3658-4)
* Player's Guide to Eberron, w/ James Wyatt, Luke Johnson, and Stan! (January 2006, ISBN 0-7869-3912-5)
* Secrets of Xen'drik, w/ Jason Buhlman and Amber Scott (July 2006, ISBN 0-7869-3916-8)
* Dragonmarked, w/ Michelle Lyons and C.A. Suleiman (November 2006, ISBN 0-7869-3933-8)
* Secrets of Sarlona, w/ Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Glenn McDonald, and Chris Sims (February 2007, ISBN 0-7869-4037-9)
* Dragons of Eberron w/ Scott Fitzgerald Gray, Nicolas Logue, and Amber Scott (forthcoming October 2007, ISBN 978-0-7869-4154-4)
plus three half-way decent novels. Seems Keith is active enough...
I like Eberron. It's my favorite of the currently in print WotC settings.
I think the novels as a whole have been good for gaming novels.
I like Eberron a lot. I mean, I like my homebrew more, but if I were going to run a sustained non-me D&D game I would either run Eberron or Planescape.
Actually, probably Planescape, since I'm already familiar with all the little shit and I don't have any money. But, yeah, Eberron is ok with me.
Eberron is fantastic if you play in the setting the fiction details. If you try and make it be something it's not, or expect something different from it, it falls apart.
Eberron was NOWHERE NEAR the success that WoTC hoped it would be, or planned for, and thus they've massively scaled back their projected work for it, and have given up on the idea of Eberron replacing both the realms and Greyhawk as the "new default setting" or whatever.
But it clearly does still do ok enough that they can keep doing a few sourcebooks a year for it.
RPGPundit
It 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?
The output isn't bad. I haven't counted, but it's quite comparable to the FR publications, except novels of course. And they've got a MMORPG based on Eberron... It certainly went better than Chainmail ;)
Quote from: Sosthenes..And they've got a MMORPG based on Eberron...
Now that I remember also Dragonshard, the D&D RTS game is also settled on Eberron.
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.
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.
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.
Well, my RTS-addicted friend tells me it's really not that great...
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
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?
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.
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
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
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.
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...
Quote from: SosthenesTrue 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...
Well, I think in the case of DDO, it was probably pushed more by Atari than WotC. I'm sure Wizards/Hasbro saw it as potentially decent advertising for their own property, and also potential licensing revenue, sure, but Atari is going fucking broke right now.
NWN is their #1 title and has been for some time. The damn thing has sold like gangbusters thanks the massive modding and online community that developed around it.
So my guess is they pushed DDO, as well as an early release for NWN2, because they figured D&D was their hot ticket.
Only DDO was repetitive crap and butchered so as to barely resemble D&D, and NWN2, while a fun game, fucked up by making the toolset too complicated and the game itself notoriously hard to run.
Yeah, D&D CRPGS suffer from engine bloat. We haven't even mentioned the atrocious ToEE...
Personally, I'd really like to see a Torment-like game set in Eberron, using something like the KOTOR engine. So it would have large adventure elements, which can be filled nicely with noir elements. Bonus points would be given for including either Ron Pearlman or Mark Hamill ;)
Quote from: SosthenesYeah, D&D CRPGS suffer from engine bloat. We haven't even mentioned the atrocious ToEE...
Personally, I'd really like to see a Torment-like game set in Eberron, using something like the KOTOR engine. So it would have large adventure elements, which can be filled nicely with noir elements. Bonus points would be given for including either Ron Pearlman or Mark Hamill ;)
TOEE had a glorious engine. The problem was it was attached to a horrible, horrible game. If only Troika hadn't died and that engine with it, I think a really great game could've been evolved from that.
I've seldom encountered such a bug-ridden game. Whether the bugs came from the engine or the game scripting I don't know. Looked a little bit rushed to me, especially for a game where half the design work is already done.
Quote from: SosthenesI've seldom encountered such a bug-ridden game. Whether the bugs came from the engine or the game scripting I don't know. Looked a little bit rushed to me, especially for a game where half the design work is already done.
After all three patches, the game actually runs incredibly smoothly.
The only problem is it's one of the most shitfuckingly hard CRPGs ever made, and you'll be lucky to survive the moathouse, let alone get any further in the game. It was designed by probably the worst killer DM ever.
Plus the town stuff is incredibly awful, in part because the dialogue is uniformly dire in the extreme.
Okay, maybe I'll give it another try. I think I bought it 5 months after it came out and they had one patch (not helping much) and were about to release the second. So we're up to three now? Any thoughts about the "co8" mods?
Quote from: SosthenesOkay, maybe I'll give it another try. I think I bought it 5 months after it came out and they had one patch (not helping much) and were about to release the second. So we're up to three now? Any thoughts about the "co8" mods?
Version 3.0, yeah. Fileplanet or Filefront or any of the other big game file hosts should have them all.
I didn't try any of the mods, because there aren't really many out there, and because after wiping an ungodly number of times just on that first moathouse place, I got fed up, uninstalled the game, and deleted the disk image I had to clear space for games that didn't piss me off.
Quote from: J ArcaneI didn't try any of the mods, because there aren't really many out there, and because after wiping an ungodly number of times just on that first moathouse place, I got fed up, uninstalled the game, and deleted the disk image I had to clear space for games that didn't piss me off.
Yeah, that first battle in the moathouse is an exercise in frustration. I mean, how many times can you really repeatedly fireball a low-level group of adventurers before it gets old?
I eventually decided to cheat in character generation. IIRC, if you switched character generation methods, you could use your point-buy for stats
on top of your rolled stats.
I wanted to love that game because it was so faithful to 3.5... Ended up getting kinda bored.
-O
The only FR game I've played is Demon Stone on the PS2. The graphics were lovely but the gameplay was more restrictive than Pac Man. There was literally one path that you could follow throughout, and I ended up selling it on in disgust.
A pity, really, as the visuals were so close to the published 3.5 material that it really felt like I was adventuring in the Realms, albeit with the worst GM imaginable.
I loved TOEE.
...for awhile. I didn't have much trouble with the moathouse after the first TPK, because I did what any CRPG vet would do... I went and cleared out the town's talky quests, fetch quests, and so forth first, and did wandering encounters to level up. Then I went back.
TOEE had a glorious engine, I concur. I'd love to see that engine used again for 3.5 D&D games. I just want to, you know, see them finished.
Even with all three patches and the Co8 fan patches (which I think are completely necessary, since they fix more bugs and allow you to break the level cap... more on that shortly), the game was horribly bug-ridden. Certain abilities and feats just plain didn't work. My rogue was unable to pick special abilities when it came time, instead getting a mysterious "Skill Mastery" feat automatically that didn't allow selection of what skill I'd mastered, or even indicate what it was. The interface work was often atrocious. There's a serious lack of in-game help and documentation for the very rules-heavy 3.5. Want to know what a particular spell does mechanically by selecting it? Tough noogies.
Anyway, I managed to play through all the way to the bottom and ended up in this ass-tastic fight where the high priest summons an honest-to-gods DEMIGOD to wipe the floor with your party. I'm serious. A demi-god. And the game has a level-cap for your party of 10th level, no higher. So you've got a 10th level party fighting a demi-god and all of its cronies, and that's not even the end fight of the game. Fuck that noise. I only managed to win that one by playing through the fight about twenty times with my level-cap-removed party of about 15th level, and ganking the guy who summons the demi-god in a single round. Seriously, you let him last any longer and you're toast.
And then I deleted the fucking game because a scripting bug stopped me from doing the node quests (and continuing the game any further).
What a piece of shit. Such great potential, pissed all away.
wow--i was considering picking up a cheap copy, but that sounds like a fucking trainwreck! life it too short for bad games
Quote from: beeberwow--i was considering picking up a cheap copy, but that sounds like a fucking trainwreck! life it too short for bad games
Yes it is. I may be all gung-ho about trying new things, but one thing I am not gung-ho about is pushing through a game that sucks.
I'm late to this thread (as usual), but I'll throw a couple coppers in the pile:
I personally like the Eberron setting very much, although I'm not as big a fan of the novels -- just not my style of fiction, I guess. Judging by the replies thus far, I think you can safely say that you know quite a few people who like the setting, UmaSama.
I have not played D&D Online, but only because it's an MMORPG and I refuse to play subscription-based games. That said, if you look back at RPGs set in the Realms, some were good, some were astounding, and some sucked. Ultimately how good they were depended more on game design and story than the setting itself, IMO.