[4E] Ebberon

[TalonDemonKing]

Been seeing this sitting in the shelf of my friendly local gaming store, and I've been thinking about picking it up. Has anyone bought this yet?

I'm always hearing good things about Ebberon; so I might run a campaign or so. But hows the fluff for it? I know 4E and 3.5 have alot of issues... But is it worth picking it up? Or should I grab 3.5 editions instead?

[Greenish]

Don't know about 4e, but 3.5 Eberron books are by and large great reads, and it's my favourite published setting.

[TalonDemonKing]

Always hear that, but I've never experienced it for myself. Thats why I'm asking if I should grab the 4E or 3.5 books for better fluff-ness

[Warlawk]

My group never moved to 4E so I can't give any input on the quality of the 4E setting. 3E is fantastic though, I really like it a lot. Probably one of my favorite settings.

[Beleriphon]

Been seeing this sitting in the shelf of my friendly local gaming store, and I've been thinking about picking it up. Has anyone bought this yet?

I'm always hearing good things about Ebberon; so I might run a campaign or so. But hows the fluff for it? I know 4E and 3.5 have alot of issues... But is it worth picking it up? Or should I grab 3.5 editions instead?

The 4th Edition book if fine, it's virtually identical to the 3.5 version of the ECB (that would be Eberron Campaign Book). The only major differences: the Players book for 4E has some "errors" in it that account for not wanting players to know about certain secrets, and both the DM and Players books take into account rules changes and the fact that there are slightly different races in the PH1 and PH2 than in 3.5 (like how eldarin, tieflings and dragonborn are core races in the PH1).

4th Edition has two books though, so for breadth of fluff 3.5 is the way to go, but if you play 4th Edition getting the GM book and the Players book are good ideas and then you can grab the other books later. Sharn: City of Towers for example has little in the way of actual rules regarding Sharn, nut the ECB and the 4th Edition EPG and the ECG have about the same amount of info regarding Sharn, so it's a toss up to which rule set you like better.

Also, Dragonmarks work differently, the feats give powers that useful to different classes as opposed to a kind of overarching progressively more theme (they are still thematic mind). The reason is that NPCs can use the Dragonmarks however the DM needs them to, but for PCs the 3.5 Dragonmark feats weren't actually that good (for the most part) in terms of adventuring feats. Slight design change there, also any race can have any Dragonmark although the books do point out that a cross marked race would likely be the only one of it's kind in the world.

[LikeAD6]

The great thing about the 4e Eberron fluff is that it expands on that of 3.5 without rewriting. The eladrins and the feyspires were perfectly written in without disrupting the established lore, for example. The only issue I have with it is the Stillborn, a group of Aereni elves who become undead because they are impatient to achieve immortality, were renamed the Skullborn. It's a classic example of "If you whine about a name that could be misconstrued as offensive enough, it will be forced to change." The Stillborn are the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Eberron. People complained about them causing grief to mothers of stillborn children while overlooking the fact that they violate the natural order of life. Damn lobbyists.

[MeeposFire]

It is a good book to buy if you want the mechanics to play stuff out of the Eberron setting. If all you are looking for is fluff the 3.5 book edges it out (but just on fluff it can't help you make 4e characters). Like others have said unlike the Forgotten Realms book you can still use the fluff from all the 3.5 books with your 4e book so I recommend it if you want the mechanics on playing stuff like warforged, changelings, or the artificer class.

[WitchSlayer]

The setting is by and large unchanged, as others have said.

[RebelRogue]

There's way more 3.5 material and those books generally have a lot of interesting fluff, even if you play 4e. The 4e Campaign Setting books are great if you want to run a 4e game set in Eberron (obviously), but if you'd rather play a 3.5 game do so.

[Fox Box Socks]

4e Eberron stuff is fantastic.

I'm told that Keith Baker actually prefers to run Eberron in 4e than he does in 3e, if only because 4e emphasizes over the top cinematic whatnots a lot more than 3e does.

[Welknair]

Been seeing this sitting in the shelf of my friendly local gaming store, and I've been thinking about picking it up. Has anyone bought this yet?

I'm always hearing good things about Ebberon; so I might run a campaign or so. But hows the fluff for it? I know 4E and 3.5 have alot of issues... But is it worth picking it up? Or should I grab 3.5 editions instead?

This would really depend upon whether your playing 3.X or 4e.

[ShaggyMarco]

I would get the Eberron 4ed books, but if you are planning on running anything related to the last war or in Khorvaire, grab Forge of War and Five Nations: both of those books are great with minimal 3.5 rules.