[3.5] Tips for Starting Eberron?

[Grizzy]

Hey everybody.

Basically, I'm the DM for three players, and after a discussion last week (currently running Tomb of Horrors :smallamused:), we decided that it would be fun to switch over to Eberron, especially since one of them prefers the Final Fantasy-style ambiance over the more middle-ages-y stuff you find in normal D&D. (And, being an engineer, he wants to play an Artificer.) The others think it sounds like a fun change too.

Problem is, I've never played or DM'd Eberron before, and I'm having a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around the whole... thing. I get the new mechanics, but the fluff--which is kind of the reason we're switching--is fairly complicated-seeming.

Basically, is there a good summary out there of how the world works in Eberron out there (Dragonborn house alliances, how trains/airships work, how all the new cosmology works, that sort of stuff)? And maybe a sample adventure that I could at least read through to get started on the right track? For some reason I'm just having a hard time with the campaign setting book.

(This stuff will also be useful to help explain it to my players--probably only one will want to read a whole setting book)

Thanks!

[Endarire]

There's a funny story behind it! (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/captainjarlot/)

[HunterOfJello]

Buy the Eberron Campaign Setting book. Read it from cover to cover and start the game off with the adventure in the back. The Forgotten Forge adventure is a good introduction to the Dragonmarked Houses, The Last War, Warforged, and Eberron in general.

You could also encourage your players to try out one of the Eberron races (Kalashtar, Shifters, Changelings, Warforged, etc.) and offer some starting off in-game incentives for well made backgrounds that use details from the Eberron setting.


There's a funny story behind it! (http://www.angelfire.com/dragon3/captainjarlot/)

Oh god, I've never seen this before. I've been running an Eberron campaign for the last year or so and this stuff is hilarious.

[Grizzy]

Wow, I did not notice that adventure in the back. That looks like it will help out a LOT.

Silly me. Thanks!

[hotel_papa]

I love Eberron. Seriously. There is a poster map of Khorvaire on the wall behind me... and I'm in my kitchen. (My wife loves it, too.)

I have all the books and have read them. I've run several successful campaigns in Eberron.

Message me if you want, I will give you my e-mail and gladly serve as a resource for your first forays into my beloved setting.

HP

[137beth]

Wow, I did not notice that adventure in the back. That looks like it will help out a LOT.

Silly me. Thanks!

There's also a series of three adventures that spring from the forgotten forge, they might help as well ...unless your players have preferences about which factions to side with (although I suppose if they are enemies of faction X, and a published adventure has them side with faction X, you could always work in the fact that they are going undercover:smallsmile:, that's one thing which is great about Eberron).

[GreyMantle]

I wrote up a little 4page "Player's Introduction to Eberron" when I started running my games there. I suspect there are a few personal interpretations that I've made, but I suspect it's still useful enough in general. I can PM or email it you, if you wish.

Also, I've found that the Artificer class is not always that interesting a class to play, especially at low levels. In the games I've run, players have really enjoyed using this alternative (http://www.tgdmb.com/viewtopic.php?t=50968). YMMV, obvz.

[Keld Denar]

Best Eberron game I was ever in? Started In Media Res with a HALO drop on modified soar-sleds over the Karnathi no-fly zone with a mission to rescue an allied operative that was captured and being interrogated. So pulpy, loved every second of it while it lasted.

[classy one]

Eberron is hands down the best campaign setting ever published. It scienticficly proven.
As has been stated, read the ECS from cover to cover (it's an easy read). I'd that doesn't wet your palate then maybe it isn't for (who are we kidding Eberron rocks). The published modules are great places to start rather forcing you to make up tour own plots, but a basic (sometimes even in dept) understanding of the world and it fractions are needed if you need to improvise.

If allyou want is a basic dungeon crawl type campaign, the continent of Xen'drik is one big dungeon waiting to be looted with little need for "plot". That being said, the book Secrets of Xen'drik has several adventures that are dungeon crawl in nature.

[GoatBoy]

Eberron is a great setting because you can start it off as a default "swords and sorcery" setting, and then go from there, letting a little bit of the uniqueness trickle in at a time.

You've got the Draconic Prophecy for world-shatting climaxes.

The Dragonmarked Houses provide intrigue and politics.

The Last War and the Five Nations also provide intrigue.

The trick is to just remember that you don't have to drink from the fire hose, and you can set aside any of the individual pieces of the campaign and focus on one until you've figured it out, and then introduce the next one. For example, it's best not to worry about the cosmology, the Prophecy, or the unexplored continents at first. You can begin with a little tiff between two Houses and still maintain the feel of the campaign.

Best of luck to you. I hope you enjoy Eberron as much as I do.

[Grizzy]

Thanks for everybody's everything! If anybody has further tips, beyond what I'd know from re-reading the ECS... well, in general, thanks a bundle!

[stainboy]

Vehicles:
The Lighting Rail and airships don't really replace oceangoing ships or walking or riding. The Lightning Rail only goes a few specific places and airships are too valuable to risk on mundane shipping runs. Airships were designed to be fantastically easy to crash or hijack, because fighting a berserk fire elemental on the deck of a crashing airship is awesome. The Explorer's Handbook spends about a third of the book on vehicles, with special attention to fighting on them or crashing them. It's a good read.

Since airships are easy to hijack, the PCs will get one eventually. Don't fight it.

Exploration is a major theme of the setting, and everything is spread out over a huge expanse of terrain. Eberron isn't like traditional D&D where you can spend your whole career 1-20 in Hommlet or Shadowdale. Expect adventures to require traveling halfway across a continent.

Artificer:
At first artificer looks like a gimped cleric. Then you spend a few hours reading their abilities, cross-referencing spell and item lists, and you realize they're the most powerful class in D&D. Then you realize that breaking the game as an artificer is too much work, and a player that determined to be disruptive would just play a wizard.

Anyway, read their abilities carefully. Especially Spell Trigger Item, Metamagic Trigger, and the weapon/armor infusions. And steer "casual" players away from the class. Doing anything on an artificer takes a lot of system mastery. They're designed for people with DMing experience who already know the spell lists and treasure tables.

[Grizzy]

Anyway, read their abilities carefully. Especially Spell Trigger Item, Metamagic Trigger, and the weapon/armor infusions.
As I read it, the Trigger/Completion things let you apply spontaneous metamagic to any scroll, wand, or ring (assuming you have the relevant feats and can if necessary make the skill check)--is that right?

These guys must be insanely powerful at higher levels. (Assuming you have enough in-game time to craft stuff.)

[Kobold Esq]

As I read it, the Trigger/Completion things let you apply spontaneous metamagic to any scroll, wand, or ring (assuming you have the relevant feats and can if necessary make the skill check)--is that right?

These guys must be insanely powerful at higher levels. (Assuming you have enough in-game time to craft stuff.)

Google "Blastificer"

[stainboy]

Yeah, that's what it does. I forgot to mention the Metamagic Item infusion though, which does kind of the same thing (but costs an action and an infusion slot rather than charges).

[sonofzeal]

These guys must be insanely powerful at higher levels. (Assuming you have enough in-game time to craft stuff.)
Assuming, yes. Also assuming you have enough assets coming in that you can afford it. An artificer with time and money on his hands can single-handedly blow through just about any encounter. However, doing so will rapidly deplete his money, and start infringing on his time to get those toys back (even with Dedicated Writes - which themselves cost money). Thus, playing an Artificer is a balancing act, between complete pwnage and complete bankruptcy. And they are incredibly sensitive to DMing. A generous or stingy DM tilts that balance way out of whack. Thus, Artificers can range from godly to pathetic, depending on how the DM handles loot and profiteering.


Anyway, here is the quote that, to me, defines artificers: "Nothing is impossible; what you want is merely expensive."