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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Is it possible to mix Eberron, Dragonmech and Iron Kingdoms in to a cohesive setting?



Ntrwdanon
2015-07-16, 02:09 AM
I have been spending a couple of weeks looking over different settings to make a campaign that I plan on starting up in the fall when classes start back up. I originally had the idea of making a steampunk campaign

When I started looking through setting I started with Eberron. When I got to look through that I found out that I enjoy many aspects of the setting but the setting is Magic essentially equals or is technology. I enjoy the fact that there are warforged and the ability to power a lot of the devices by binding elementals for things like Airships and street lanterns. its nowhere close to steam punk but I love the ideas of the setting and i would want to fuse it with other setting to have something closer to what I want to achieve

In the past two weeks Ive been looking at the Iron Kingdoms and Dragonmech settings Both settings are pretty cool with alot of steampunk elements. The dragonmech setting has Mechs that are powered by steam and that could also be powered by magic or clockwork or man-power with some of the classes able to harness steam such as power to do things like magic and to give magic ablites . While iron Kingdoms has Mechanika which is a fusion between magic and steam industrialization to create things such as steamjacks which are large magic/steam golems or to create enchanted weapons by fusing them with rune plates.

I love all of the ideas in the setting, and so I want to try and combine them to make a setting for my campaign, It would be closer to a mix between magic punk and steampunk My dilemmas are that I don't want one setting and its concepts to take too much influence. and i don't want to have elements that are redundant such as having Warforged and Steamjacks or having wands and guns or things like that (guns don't truly fit in eberron as opposed to iron kingdoms.)

also if it helps my campaign is run in pathfinder using its rules, I'm not opposed to using 3.5 DND for it.

MrNobody
2015-07-16, 03:24 PM
Ok, first thing i must admit is that i'm not really familiar with Dragonmech and Iron Kingdoms, but i took a quick glance to the wiki-page of both and had an idea to mix them with Eberron. It may not be accurate or completely coherent with the three settings but it could give you a starting point to build more.

Since i'm more familiar with Eberron, i'll use that world as a base, i'll add a lot from Dragonmech and a couple of things from I.K., like the entire "Mechanika" thing.
Ready? ok, lets go.

The setting takes place more ore less 400 years later the end of the 3.5 Eberron history (year 1400 YK), but to explain it we must make a jump back to world creation, when Syberis, Eberron and Khyber fought each other.

Everyone knows the story, but a details was left behind: at the end of the fight, just before being "hugged" by Eberron and imprisoned, Khyber laid an enormous egg containing Toruk, his son, that should have hatched and avenge him. Wise, Syberis noticed the egg, put it in stasis with his breath and pushed far in the void between the planes, believing it was lost forever.
It wasn't: unseen and too far for every kind of mortal and divine divination, the egg took a really large orbit around Eberron and began to spawn strange and powerful beings, Lunar Dragons on top.
When, at the end of their wars against Quori, the Giants pushed Dal Quor out of its orbit, a strange interaction caused the egg to leave its far circle and begin to approach the Material plane.


In 1200 YK the egg-Toruk is clearly visible in Eberron's sky like a moon and it has begun to hatch: huge pieces of eggshell have start falling on Eberron like a bombardment of meteors, follower by the Lunar Dragons, Toruk's foul heirs.

In the meantime, Eberron's society and tecnology have evolved. After a couple of centuries from the end of the Last War, things has changed a lot.
Cannith House has led a major "industrial revolution" that redefined the role of magic bringing it more close to "Mechanika" than regular magic. They also tried to build new Warforged without magic, and created the Tik'Toks. Warforged still exist but are really rare and usually aknowledged as great veterans and mentors.

The research for magic, though, made Canniths leave Khorvaire and move to Xen'drik. There the made colonies and cities, followed by goblinoid, ogre and trolls, initially used as mercenaries but that soon (too soon, maybe an unknown influence of the continent) evolved in more civilized races: ogrun, trollkin, and gobbers. Halflings also followed, but living in the mechanical cities built by gnomes became Coglings.
In Xen'drik, now completely colonized, the Cannith discovered ancient secrets about elemental binding and forges (which they built again for """experimental purposes""") and build up a sort of steam-magic-cracy.

Human and Dwarves without the resources and intelligence of the Cannith, weren't able to mix magic and technique and discovered steampower while magic lost its everyday purposes. Elves retired completely on Aerenal and developed a deeper link with magic and their Undying Court.

When Toruk's sons begin their attack, every race began building Mechs for defence: Humans and Dwarves build Man-Powered and Steam-Mechs, while Elves used the undead (read "undying") magic of their holy court to summon/build Undead Mechs.
Cannith, in Xen'drik, made an impressive work building Clockwork Mechs and entire cities mixing mechs construction with elemental binging and using the ancient forges to provide energy.

- A giant flying city-mech that uses thousand of air/fire elemental to stay in air;
- Like the above, but whale like and with water elemental to sail the seas;
- A better, animated, giant version of the Lightning Rail that goes around the continent - world (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k7rCTP-sOI)


And this is more or less what i thought: i hope it helps! :smallsmile:

Network
2015-07-16, 03:25 PM
I love all of the ideas in the setting, and so I want to try and combine them to make a setting for my campaign, It would be closer to a mix between magic punk and steampunk My dilemmas are that I don't want one setting and its concepts to take too much influence. and i don't want to have elements that are redundant such as having Warforged and Steamjacks or having wands and guns or things like that (guns don't truly fit in eberron as opposed to iron kingdoms.)

also if it helps my campaign is run in pathfinder using its rules, I'm not opposed to using 3.5 DND for it.
If you mix the settings, there is going to be at least some redundancy. The way machines work is one setting is very different from the way it works in the other two settings. In Eberron, magic and technology are mostly independent crafts, and the first happens to be used as fuel for the second. Contrast this with Iron Kingdoms, where steam engines are 100% magical. So if your campaign setting has access to both technologies, the amount of magic in each innovation is going to fluctuate greatly. Different devices with the same functions could differ only by whether their technology is more Eberron-like, or more like that of a different setting.

Warforged do not necessarily occupy the same function as steam jacks at all, for that matter. One is an artificial soldier with intelligence and a semblance of life, the other is an engine built to obey and protect it's maker. If anything, steam jacks are more like golems, while warforged are more like Iron Kingdoms' undead. Warforged titans, being giant robots (like steam jacks) with some intelligence (like warforged) are somewhere between the two.

I'd like to know what you would do with the non-steampunk elemens of each setting though. Will your setting include dragons? If it does, are they like standard D&D dragons or of the Iron Kingdoms variety (soulless necromancer reptiles that are not even real living creatures). Are undead the result of vancian magic or do they require the precise crafting of runes and artificial components like Iron Kingdoms' undead? What about deathlesses, if there are any? Are there other planes of existence, and if so how does the population view those that summon, subjugate, and/or make deals with creatures of these planes? Are there crazy people that want to destroy all magic, most magic, or certain specific forms of magic? I don't know much about dragonmech, so are there ideas you will take from there?

If it's for pathfinder then I think you may have a couple conversions to do, since I don't think any of the three settings had a pathfinder edition (certainly not Eberron, and Iron Kingdoms has its own system now so I don't know if they published any content for pathfinder). But of course, it can be done.

Ntrwdanon
2015-07-17, 11:18 PM
I like alot ideas that both of you guys had on ways to combine Eberron, Dragonmech and Iron Kingdoms.

To MrNobody - I like the idea of having Toruk from IK as an enormous egg laid by Kybher as a ways of getting revenge to later essentially being the moon that causes the problems with the lunar showers and dragons in dragon mech

I also think the branch in technology is cool as well. Having house Cannith advance with magic technology to the point that is similar to "mechanika " and having Humans and dwarfs that didn't have the access to resources to begin working with steam power is a cool concept. also the city ideas are cool.

to Network- I liked your distinctions between the Warforged and Steamjacks I'm still deciding what to do with the non-steampunk elements. In terms of the elements of magic i guess all of the areas would have various attitudes towards magic. some cites would swear by it as it would be a major way of life to day to day operations. some would be care enough to keep it and use it side by side with other technologies such as steam power. some people would be indifferent, I guess i would have some groups try and outlaw it or at least magic involving things such as necromancy or resurrection like the attitudes held in IK.

for the ideas on Dragons or Undead/Deathless I'm still deciding Dragons would exist in some capacity, probably closer to that of DnD dragons rather than the variety of iron kingdom.

I also liked the idea from IK of having varying ability modifications for humans in different regions so i would aslo implement that as well

For the ideas in dragonmech I would be taking the ideas of steam and clockwork technology, as well as having mechs that run on these powers. In dragonmech there is also the fact that the moon is closer to earth and because of this there shards of the moon that are hitting the earth and bringing with it stronger enemies that the planet is fighting against.

-again thank you guys for the ideas :)

Hanuman
2015-07-18, 03:58 AM
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?320298-My-Little-Gramarist-SCIENCE!-is-Magic-Gramarie-Discussion

Ntrwdanon
2015-07-18, 09:47 AM
^ That entire thread is cool. I like the base classes (especially the gramarist and the choosing of disciplines) and the style of the homebrew. I will be looking in to using elements from that :)