Troll Lord Games

Reaching back to the pulp roots of DnD with a little steampunk, psionics and kitchen sink thrown in, Eberron seems right for Crusading in.

It even has the feel of some of the homegrown games I've been in with graft and elemental binding. (The longest running old ed. DnD game I was in had "crystals" that you could interlock for temporary spells. The problem was that only the villian knew their secrets, the PC had to learn by trial and explosive error.)

The only challenge is tackling the Shifter and Dragon Marked races WotC used feats to show how these races can grow in power as they grow.

So for you. Do you love it or hate it?

Hate it. Call me old-school, or call me unbending, I just can't get into adding these elements (steampunk or what have you) into my fantasy games. If I want to play a game that has this type of sub-genre to it, I'll go with another RPG entirely. C&C/D&D is so ingrained in my consciousness as the defacto swords & sorcery game, that I can;t play it as anything else.

.........................................Omote

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I don't know much about it, other than what I've read, and that sounds like a mixed bag. "Pulp" is cool; I like pulp. I also like what I've heard about the relatively low levels for NPC leaders, etc. However, I'm not enthusiastic about steampunk, hot air ballons, trains, warforged, real-world socio-political analogues, shades-of-gray orcs, and such things. I haven't been impressed with WotC products in a long time, so I've steered clear of Eberron, and doubt that I'll be buying it.

The Wilderlands of High Fantasy is the right kind of setting, for me.

It's full of nice ideas, but too primitive technologically for the games I like to run. Whats available in my game would knock Eberron out of its battlebots.
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Liked it all the way up to the point where I discovered Iron Kingdoms, then I realized what I was really looking for.

Hate it. It has way too much political intrigue for my tastes. There isn't a single government or organization that doesn't have like 10 double-crossers in it. There are just so many twists that I think my players would just give up. Ever see a movie where you get sick of finding out the 'good' guy was really 'bad' and vice versa about a million times? I think that kind of drama works best when done sparingly. You can just about assume that anyone you talk to in Eberron is full of bs.

I dont really care about eberron. It's pretty well-rooted in 3.5e as written, so it has no appeal to me. I also should state that one of the main turnoffs for me about 3.x DnD is the way they 'punked everything. Dungeonpunk, Steampunk, etc. Don't like it.

Eberron is to pulp what d20 is to Amber Diceless.

I do not hate Eberron, but I do find it has next to nothing to offer me. The majority of ideas are not new to me, and the whole seems rather hodge-podge, with a sort of forced feel. The golem PCs is a huge turn-off, and the tech-magic makes little sense; I've seen it done better, where it actually has a purpose other than "oooo we have electro-trains!" Dragonmarks don't compel me, and I find the concept unoriginal.

Hate it.

Steam punk I wouldn't have really minded, but its not steampunk, its a bad, bad wannabe cool setting. Did not come across as pulp to me in the slightest.

Shifters were cool, so were the changelings. Hated the Warforged and the weird K race.

The political aspects were meh.

Just very little set well with me, and I bought it wanting to like it.

I go back and forth on the setting. On the whole I like it, and would play or run a game set in the world. I'm a settings junkie, though.

Eberron's fault, in my opinion (other than the core rulebook not having a fold-out map!), is that it tries to be too much at once. Too many genres. If I ever ran the thing, I'd have to compartmentalize things. I really like parts of it, but not others.

Indeed, the Dragonmarks create a real issue for anyone trying to funnel the setting into C&C. I've thought about it before, and the best I could suggest is to meld it with the skills system Gygax proposed in Yggsburgh.

Jyrdan Fairblade wrote:
Eberron's fault, in my opinion (other than the core rulebook not having a fold-out map!), is that it tries to be too much at once.

That sums it up pretty nicely and is probably its biggest fault.

I don't love or hate it. I have never been interested in it.

Never read it but the content I heard about did nothing for me.
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I dont love, nor do I hate it, I like it. The setting has some nice points, some things I can take others I cant, kind of like your salad bar.

Yeah, don't like it or hate it. Read some about it a few years back, and can't remember anything about it. With so many great campaign worlds available . . . Aihrde, Greyhawk, Wilderlands, Old World, Known World, Ravenloft, etc., I just don't see anything useful from Ebberon.
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Greyhawk and Airdhe have me pretty much content.
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I have actually been starting to use Aereth. I have enjoyed the first skimming read, will get down to business this weekend and read it more in depth.

I like elements of Eberron, but Im not sure I like the whole thing. Pulp fantasy is a weird genre anyway. I like the new races, the inclusion of psionics, and such. Im not sure I care for the setting in its entirety. Ive only played in Eberron twice, so I dont have a good feel for it yet.
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Quote:
The golem PCs is a huge turn-off, and the tech-magic makes little sense; I've seen it done better, where it actually has a purpose other than "oooo we have electro-trains!" Dragonmarks don't compel me, and I find the concept unoriginal.

QFT.

I bought the setting book with some excitement but found rapidly that it was not the right feel for me. I like some steampunk (and really liked Space 1889, for hybrid styles), but I don't like the "modern stuff transposed into a D&D setting".

So technically I 'hate' it, but I'm happy that others like it.

As Ptolemy said, Wilderlands rule.

G

For steampunk I hear wonders on Iron Kingdoms though.
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I'm a convert. I don't love Eberron, but I do like it, and I started out loathing it.

A lot of elements seem tacky and camp (warforged, dragonmarks), but I truly, madly, deeply appreciate the attempt at creating a setting which integrates the existence and use of magic, rather than being using magical template awkwardly laid over a mediaeval Earth setting.

I glanced at the first book when it was released, put it back on the shelf and moved on. I wouldn't say I hate it, but I have interest in it at all.
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Nifelhein wrote:
For steampunk I hear wonders on Iron Kingdoms though.

I own several IK books. Not only do I think it is great (which was a shock to me since I traditionally hate Steampunk), but I think it will blend very nicely with Erde.

serleran wrote:
Eberron is to pulp what d20 is to Amber Diceless.

I do not hate Eberron, but I do find it has next to nothing to offer me. The majority of ideas are not new to me, and the whole seems rather hodge-podge, with a sort of forced feel. The golem PCs is a huge turn-off, and the tech-magic makes little sense; I've seen it done better, where it actually has a purpose other than "oooo we have electro-trains!" Dragonmarks don't compel me, and I find the concept unoriginal.

Beyond IK, what other good steampunk RPGs are out there?

As for IK, I liked the setting but the rules needed some work. In 3.5 it would be a hassle, but I can see how in C&C most of it wouldn't really matter.

The best steampunk setting/game of all time is Castle Falkenstein. After that, I would suggest Masque of the Red Death AD&D2e, though its not really "punk."

serleran wrote:
The best steampunk setting/game of all time is Castle Falkenstein. After that, I would suggest Masque of the Red Death AD&D2e, though its not really "punk."

Ah. I was thinking d20 only.

But shame on me. My first game of 3.0 that I ran was a CF conversion with only the Player's Handbook.

If I want airships and stuff, I'll just rip off the old John Carter stuff. Now THERE is a C&C setting I'd kill to buy.
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Hate it.

Remember that one guy that would twist every rule possible to try and munchkin his character to unheard of levels without any regards to the setting or rules? remember when he tried to run a game and it was so monty haul it made you sad in your trousers? Thats the kind of guy that grew up and wrote eberron.

He wrote it and plays it between watching episodes of Dragon Ball Z. I honestly keep waiting for the monk prestige class SUPER SAYAN to be released. Thus my nameing 3.x Dungeons & Dragon Ball Z.

The reason Greyhawk seems to be magic draped over a medieval world would be that magic, while not super scarce is still not so common that your average peasant or farmer will ever encounter a mage or even see a magic item more than a hand full of times in his entire life, let alone flying airships and lightning rails that are so common one can buy passage on them.

And the races of eberron? robots.. yay! A role player can take a human fighter and make him interesting and useful. a rollplayer needs gimmicks.

For these reasons and more I have stuck with Greyhawk though I did like the older forgotten realms stuff and spent a few years with that. The grey boxed set IIRC.

You know, certain things from Eberron are kind of interesting. I'd like to take those, add it to Dragon Star, and convert ot C&C. But I've played the setting twice and players who were really into it started arguing over who would do/not do what.

I kind of agree with the concept of making magic rare usually makes if more 'special and fearsome'. If all this power is available to everyone, what fun is it to wield as a PC?