Quote from: Bradford C. Walker[My favorite thing in] D&D3.5: Eberron, once the implications of the design finally sunk into my head.

This comment in another thread struck my interest.  What I know about Eberron could fit on a small index card.  Aside from general bits about the setting (raptor-riding halflings, necromancer elves, warforged, etc.), the primary features of the world struck me as:

- A setting reminiscent of post-WWI Europe, complete with pseudo-technological magic.

- A not-to-my-taste hack of the Alignment system.

Those of you who are more familiar with Eberron, though, what are its selling points to you?

I like it because it's a kitchen sink setting that knows it's a kitchen sink setting. All the classes have a place, all the races have a place, and there's airships and golem PC's.

I'd play Ebberon if I wasn't constantly being asked to run my homebrew?

Quote from: Thanatos02I like it because it's a kitchen sink setting that knows it's a kitchen sink setting. All the classes have a place, all the races have a place, and there's airships and golem PC's.

Out of curiosity, what is the place of monks in Eberron?

Quote from: hgjsOut of curiosity, what is the place of monks in Eberron?

I'm pretty sure that monastic traditions are just more common, and they've got organizations devoted to various deities. If I remember right, they get some slightly different abilities depending on their order.

But I think their place is just to kung-fu people. Kind of like another martial order, ala clerics and paladins.

I like the Noir style setting, Airships, Warforged, Shifters, and the background/history of the setting. When I read through it about 10-12 possible campaign ideas came to mind without thought.

Overall my favorite of the 3.X WotC settings.

Sadly, it´s badly executed. A good DM could flatten the published gaffes, without the players even noticing.

The official modules do a great job at making the setting stupid & ridiculous, though.

I´m speaking as a warforged player of the official modules. They suck ass on the world exposition AND the adventure level.

Eberron is a lot of good ideas and bold strokes that fizzle out in execution. I'd recommend the core campaign setting book, the Player's Guide, and Magic of Eberron. Ignore everything else, and you should be fine.

LOTS of setting material, lots of excellent ideas and flavor, but at the end of the day, it is still the DM who has to make the choice of what to use, when, to make the whole thing work out for the session.

The base background of the CS is great. When you're done digesting it, I'd recommend to pick and choose among other sources if needed, according to the style(s) of games you actually want to run. Don't try to play everything at once. If you just let Eberron lead your adventure designs, you will end up with a great chaotic mishmash crap of a campaign.

As for the published adventures, the ideas are good in the hands of the right DM. The writing and encounter junctions are poor/railroading/suck ass across the board. The style concentrates on the "pulp" aspects of the setting rather than its "noir" component, and the pulp aspects are more "De Camp" than "RE Howard", if you get my drift...

Quote from: hgjsThose of you who are more familiar with Eberron, though, what are its selling points to you?

Pulp noir. Unfortunately, it doesn't do a good job of highlighting those aspects of the setting. If we ever get to play, I'll be sure to do that myself, however.

Seanchai

Quote from: hgjsThose of you who are more familiar with Eberron, though, what are its selling points to you?

It's trivial to make an Eberron game feel like a Final Fantasy game, and just as trivial to add the one this needed to really make it work: guns.

I like the rules bits. Until the artificer, item creation rules kinda sucked ass... especially if you used homebrewed xp systems. Or just decided level ups by fiat. But the artificer is cool for reals.

The warforged let people play as robots. That's just badass all by itself... although the "living construct" setting stuff kinda falls flat with me.

The shifters were okay, and changelings were an awesome concept that could use a slight power boost.

My favorite setting elements had to do with the cosmology. The far realms spinoff was well done, as was the realm of dreams and all. Love the quori.

It doesn't necessarily give a logical place for *every* class and monster, but by getting rid of any pretense that it had something to do with old europe, everything that would be out of place feels a little less silly. I don't know... it just feels less silly playing as a ninja if your coworker's a robot.

Anyway, I haven't played Eberron itself so much as a few post-Eberron homebrews equipped with the three original "Races" and four original "Complete" books (and expanded psionics). Also, none of my friends knew what the hell "pulp" was... we thought maybe it was something like the movie Pulp Fiction... so we ended up playing in a rather insanely violent and gonzo Sharn. Fun times were had.

Quote from: Bradford C. WalkerIt's trivial to make an Eberron game feel like a Final Fantasy game, and just as trivial to add the one this needed to really make it work: guns.

Thank you.

1. The rules and setting mesh well.
2. Aforementioned kitchen sink.
3. (Most important) it has a good explanation for why low-level adventurers can make a big difference!
Killing off nearly all high-level dudes in a 100-year war that just ended two years ago? Good move! Giving dragons and various other beefy monsters good reasons to avoid simply leveling the humanoid cities? EVEN BETTER!

Quote from: SettembriniSadly, it´s badly executed. A good DM could flatten the published gaffes, without the players even noticing.

I was a bit surprised to read Keith Baker's comment that, "In my opinion, the scale on the maps of Eberron is off by a factor of ten." and that his Khorvaire "is a much smaller place."

Quote from: John MorrowI was a bit surprised to read Keith Baker's comment that, "In my opinion, the scale on the maps of Eberron is off by a factor of ten." and that his Khorvaire "is a much smaller place."

Shrinking the size by a factor of ten would go a long way towards rectifying the demographics problem.