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First of all, I am something of a biased reviewer. Before the Eberron Campaign Setting's release, my opinion of the setting went from total disinterest to cautious optimism to anxious anticipation. The cause of my change in attitude was Keith Baker. In addition to being the original creator of Eberron and an integral member of the design team, Keith has been an outspoken voice on RPG community message boards. His passion for the setting sparked my interest, his gentlemanly responses to even the most strident criticism made me disposed to like him, and the hints he gave about the world of Eberron suggested that it was well thought out, incredibly diverse, and yet ultimately cohesive.
Which brings me to my second point: Eberron is excellent. Even if I hadn't been convinced that the world would be an exciting place, even if I hadn't started to build a fan site for the world before ever reading the book, I would have had the same excited and positive reaction to the campaign setting book. This is what I've been waiting for. This is the kind of book that got me playing RPGs in the first place. It's not perfect, but it's something that any D&D fan looking for a campaign setting should seriously consider.
In case you've missed the web previews, Dragon articles, and marketing efforts, Eberron is a 320-page campaign setting book detailing first full D&D campaign world created by Wizards of the Coast. It features new rules material, including a new base class, feats, prestige classes, spells, items, and monsters. The vast majority of the book, however, focuses on background information, history, adventure ideas, and tips on running a campaign set in Eberron. It's a triumph of fluff over crunch, something rare for recent D&D releases.
The Fluff
Eberron is a world of new frontiers, ancient history, exotic cultures, and powerful magic. The continent of Khorvaire, where most adventures will begin, is a massive country that has been fractured by the decades-long Last War. A peace treaty has been signed in the aftermath of a mysterious disaster that destroyed an entire nation, but the potential for conflict persists. As different power groups battle openly and covertly for supremacy, secret societies and extraplanar conquerors pose an insidious threat. Many hope to gain an advantage by locating powerful artifacts and information, hidden in the ruins of ancient demon, giant, and hobgoblin empires.
Eberron is a magic-rich world. The different planes of existence cycle in and out of contact with Eberron, facilitating extraplanar adventures at all levels of play. While divine magic is rare and miraculous, low-level arcane magic is an everyday part of the civilized world. "Magitech" exists, though in the form of augmented medieval or Renaissance technology rather than magical versions of more modern items. Airships, for example, take the form of sailing ships surrounded by rings of elemental energy rather than propeller-equipped dirigibles. A bourgeois class of nobles enjoys the benefit of dragonmarks, inherited feats granting spell-like abilities that are generally low-level but provide a significant economic impact. The dragonmarked houses provide services ranging from hospitals and banks to mercenaries and spies.
This results in a world that's more cosmopolitan than previous D&D campaign settings, making possible a wider array of adventures. Within one session, a group might face an urban mystery in the towering city of Sharn, raid a temple in the lost continent of Xen'drik, uncover a secret society in the kingdom of Karrnath, step through a fairy ring to the plane of Thelanis, and return for some political intrigue in the court of King Boranel. While Eberron is not necessarily more "advanced" than the Forgotten Realms, its political and economic complexity will impress DMs who enjoy running adventures with more detail than the average dungeon crawl.
Eberron is also made for D&D. Much in the same way that Greyhawk was created to take advantage of the original rules, and Forgotten Realms epitomized AD&D, Eberron is the perfect match for Third Edition D&D. While it provides four interesting new races, many of its exciting ideas come in the form of revitalized Player's Handbook races. Knowledge-obsessed gnomes, true-breeding half-orcs and half-elves, nomadic halflings, and ancestor-worshipping elves all provide interesting new approaches to familiar races. Familiar spells are applied to society in new ways. Every class is well placed in society, from veteran fighters to scholarly monks. Most importantly, there are more logical reasons to be an "adventurer" than in any campaign setting I've seen, from dragonshard prospector to Silver Flame evangelist to Cyran refugee.
All of this world information is presented in detail, with region-by-region breakdowns of important groups, individuals, cities, and sites. It doesn't slow itself down by statting out NPCs or towns, instead focusing on evocative overviews. Every single page of the "fluff" sections presents a dozen adventure hooks, some explicitly marked as such, other implicit in the descriptions. It's great information, presented in a first-rate manner.
The Crunch
The new rules material in the Eberron campaign setting book nicely complements the backstory and cultural information. The artificer, a base class focused on creating and using magic items, is wonderfully versatile and extremely flavorful. Prestige classes are kept to a minimum and tie directly into the campaign setting. The new races, including the golem-like warforged, introduce more options for players. New materials and magic items emphasize the degree to which magic is woven into the world. While the book spends more time discussing on how to place existing monsters, it includes several new creatures and introduces a new template.
Both from comments by the developers and from the content of the book itself, it's clear that Wizards of the Coast has spent considerable energy playtesting this new material. The warforged race, for example, is very powerful at low levels, but looks to be well balanced overall. The artificer can be effective in a number of ways, and certainly beats the bard at the jack-of-all-trades game, but will never achieve the specialized abilities of a fighter, rogue, or single-class spellcaster. Dragonmarks are fun and flavorful, but won't be chosen by many min-maxers. Overall, the material is balanced, flavorful, and world-appropriate. The optional rule of Action Points provides players with a temporary boost to simulate "giving it their all," which increases survival chances without simply boosting characters' power levels. Contrary to many initial expectations, the power level is average for third edition D&D, at or below the level of Forgotten Realms.
The crunch alone may be enough to convince some people to buy this book, if only to convince their DMs to let them play as a warforged artificer. However, anyone with their heart set on another campaign world should be aware that this book's emphasis is on world-specific background information.
The Whole Package
From cover to cover, this is a beautiful book. In keeping with some of the world's "modern" qualities, this book's production values bring D&D to the level of D20 Modern. A variety of artists portray the world's exotic inhabitants, many of which are new to D&D. Steve Prescott and Mark Tedin, two of the setting's original concept artists, seem to have a particularly strong understanding of the setting's look. Comic book-style chapter introductions reinforce the "pulp" feel.
Fragments of narrative text provide evocative peeks into the lives of typical Eberron adventures and are probably the book's best vehicle for conveying the tone of the setting. The included adventure is well-written, exciting, and starts players running in the pivotal city of Sharn.
It's all extremely high-quality and packed with value. At $40 for 320 pages, this is one of the most cost-effective D&D releases since the Third Edition core rulebooks. The text is tiny -- almost too small -- and every page is packed with content. Even as excited as I was for the setting, it took me a week of evenings to get through the entire book.
Criticisms
To some people, the sheer amount of information in this book may be overwhelming. It's not a book that most people will be able to read in one sitting, and the amount of detail to digest may turn off some new players. Opportunities for simple dungeon crawls abound in Eberron -- and are more well-integrated with the setting than in any D&D world I've seen -- but some players may finish the book thinking they have to fill their adventures with socio-political intrigue in order to run a campaign that's true to the spirit of the setting.
At the same time, the level of detail provided on certain subjects is occasionally a bit uneven. The Sovereign Host and Dark Six, the most widely revered pantheons in Khorvaire, receive only a couple of pages of description. Information on the dragonmarked houses, on the other hand, is so plentiful that it becomes slightly repetitive. The role of dragons is an intriguing topic that could have benefited from further explanation, in spite of the fact that most dragons live on a continent that isn't the focus of this book.
In spite of careful proofreading, a few errors exist, both in terms of copy editing and rules information. Again, this is relatively low given the amount of content in the book, but can be occasionally frustrating.
Frankly, though, there's not that much to criticize. If you prefer your D&D to stay as close to Tolkien as possible, or if low-magic campaigns are your preference, Eberron probably won't be for you. Those are questions of individual taste, however, and won't keep the majority of players from enjoying this well-conceived world.
Conclusion
Eberron is not flawless, but it's an extremely impressive release. In spite of the vast quantity of information available in this book, I get the sense that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I don't expect Eberron to take the world by storm overnight, but I think more and more players will be shifting to it over time. Above all else, Eberron is filled with mysteries and begging to be explored. I want to learn more, and I look forward to the published adventures coming later this year.
If you're happy in your current D&D campaign world, Eberron isn't going pose so radical a change that you need to play it. But if D&D has grown stale for you, or if you're looking to get into the game, or if you're just looking for something new, Eberron is waiting.
An Important Note
Due to a printing error, a number of copies of the Eberron campaign setting book were sent to retailers with missing pages or pagination errors. If you received a flawed copy, contact your retailer for a free replacement. Wizards of the Coast (or more specifically, the printer who botched the books) will provide these replacement copies at no cost to retailers, so don't let them refuse a return.
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