The Eberron Campaign: Introduction
d20 Addict: Series 1: The Eberron Campaign
By GamingNews Editor T. Rob Brown
(Thursday, Feb. 24, 2006) INTRODUCTION...
Like many Dungeons & Dragons fans out there, I began playing back in the '80s with a group of friends from junior high school. We would play pretty much wherever we could find a place to play -- some of the best memories came from playing in a friend's basement or playing on a Boy Scouts overnight trip.
Most of us who have been playing that long have traversed the original scape of Blackmoor, journeyed the lands of Greyhawk, shared space with Elminster and Drizz't on Toril and its chief continent Faerun (Forgotten Realms), skimmed the mists of Ravenloft, darted through space in Spelljammer, avoided the Kender of Krynn (DragonLance), suffered the heated deserts of Dark Sun, and lamented the tortures of Planescape. We have journeyed the lands to and fro and as Bilbo Baggins said in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, we have gone, "There and back again."
Through all those grand adventures we have been guided by creators of these worlds: Dave Arneson (Blackmoor), Gary Gygax (Greyhawk), Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (DragonLance), and countless others. For most, we have come to treasure each and everyone of these worlds. For some, certain worlds have been hated or even despised for one reason or another.
Whether you have grown tired of the old worlds that we have journeyed so much in the past or if you're just looking for something new -- there is Eberron and its creator, Keith Baker.
If you're new to Eberron, it's quite an interesting place -- similar, yet also disimilar to the D&D worlds of old. For some, this is exactly what they've been searching for in a new world to explore. For others, it just isn't on their to-do list.
"What makes Eberron so special?" you might ask.
The world of Eberron combines the feel of traditional D&D with a sprinkling of steampunk, some action-adventure of the Indiana Jones variety, and a dab of the old gumshoe-style private investigator stories. You put all that together, stir in some gnomish contraptions, high magic, introduce technology -- but not as technology -- as magical enchantments, and an in-depth history of a war that completely reshaped the world, and you have a very unique place indeed.
Ever since its release in 2004, the Eberron campaign setting created by Keith Baker has become a big hit with D&D fans. It was the first campaign setting completely built using the 3.5 edition rules, it was Wizards of the Coast's (WOTC) elite choice from thousands of campaign settings submitted in a major campaign search, and is being fully supported by WOTC with frequent book releases, novels, and now two computer games (the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) D&D Online: Stormreach and the real-time strategy (RTS) game Dragonshard).
For some fans, the Eberron campaign setting is new and fresh -- for others, it is too disimilar to Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which older fans have come to love and cherish through the years. For those new to Eberron, it is a world that follows all the rules and traditions of D&D staples like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms but offers many new twists -- the chief, of which, are the warforged. Warforged are living constructs forged during a great war that spread across Eberron. Although they share some of the same traits with the monsters known as constructs, they are sentient and constructed differently so they do have critical locations and do not possess all the amazing abilities of a true construct. As a player race, a warforged can be great at most anything -- but they are excellent fighters and barbarians.
In addition to the warforged race, there are three other new player races introduced with the Eberron campaign setting: The shifter (lycanthrope descendant), changeling (doppleganger descendant), and kalashtar (human-alien hybrid race). Aside from the four new races, the game also introduces a new core player class: The artificer.
With the popularity of this new campaign setting, one of my many gaming groups decided it was time to adventure in this newer world...
By GamingNews Editor T. Rob Brown
(Thursday, Feb. 24, 2006) INTRODUCTION...
Like many Dungeons & Dragons fans out there, I began playing back in the '80s with a group of friends from junior high school. We would play pretty much wherever we could find a place to play -- some of the best memories came from playing in a friend's basement or playing on a Boy Scouts overnight trip.
Most of us who have been playing that long have traversed the original scape of Blackmoor, journeyed the lands of Greyhawk, shared space with Elminster and Drizz't on Toril and its chief continent Faerun (Forgotten Realms), skimmed the mists of Ravenloft, darted through space in Spelljammer, avoided the Kender of Krynn (DragonLance), suffered the heated deserts of Dark Sun, and lamented the tortures of Planescape. We have journeyed the lands to and fro and as Bilbo Baggins said in J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, we have gone, "There and back again."
Through all those grand adventures we have been guided by creators of these worlds: Dave Arneson (Blackmoor), Gary Gygax (Greyhawk), Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms), Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (DragonLance), and countless others. For most, we have come to treasure each and everyone of these worlds. For some, certain worlds have been hated or even despised for one reason or another.
Whether you have grown tired of the old worlds that we have journeyed so much in the past or if you're just looking for something new -- there is Eberron and its creator, Keith Baker.
If you're new to Eberron, it's quite an interesting place -- similar, yet also disimilar to the D&D worlds of old. For some, this is exactly what they've been searching for in a new world to explore. For others, it just isn't on their to-do list.
"What makes Eberron so special?" you might ask.
The world of Eberron combines the feel of traditional D&D with a sprinkling of steampunk, some action-adventure of the Indiana Jones variety, and a dab of the old gumshoe-style private investigator stories. You put all that together, stir in some gnomish contraptions, high magic, introduce technology -- but not as technology -- as magical enchantments, and an in-depth history of a war that completely reshaped the world, and you have a very unique place indeed.
Ever since its release in 2004, the Eberron campaign setting created by Keith Baker has become a big hit with D&D fans. It was the first campaign setting completely built using the 3.5 edition rules, it was Wizards of the Coast's (WOTC) elite choice from thousands of campaign settings submitted in a major campaign search, and is being fully supported by WOTC with frequent book releases, novels, and now two computer games (the massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) D&D Online: Stormreach and the real-time strategy (RTS) game Dragonshard).
For some fans, the Eberron campaign setting is new and fresh -- for others, it is too disimilar to Ed Greenwood's Forgotten Realms campaign setting, which older fans have come to love and cherish through the years. For those new to Eberron, it is a world that follows all the rules and traditions of D&D staples like Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms but offers many new twists -- the chief, of which, are the warforged. Warforged are living constructs forged during a great war that spread across Eberron. Although they share some of the same traits with the monsters known as constructs, they are sentient and constructed differently so they do have critical locations and do not possess all the amazing abilities of a true construct. As a player race, a warforged can be great at most anything -- but they are excellent fighters and barbarians.
In addition to the warforged race, there are three other new player races introduced with the Eberron campaign setting: The shifter (lycanthrope descendant), changeling (doppleganger descendant), and kalashtar (human-alien hybrid race). Aside from the four new races, the game also introduces a new core player class: The artificer.
With the popularity of this new campaign setting, one of my many gaming groups decided it was time to adventure in this newer world...
posted by Chokra Broodslayer | 3:34 AM
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