Eberron Review
A brief disclaimer: this is my
first product review on RPG.net,
and indeed my first game product review anywhere. My intention is to
illustrate aspects of the product without making overt value judgments,
but rather leaving it up to the reader to determine how useful the
product would be. I welcome
constructive criticism
so that I might improve on my reviewing skills in the future. If I
leave
something out that you feel is important for readers (and potential
buyers), I
encourage you to call attention to it. Also, this review is written
under the assumption that the reader is already familiar with the core
Dungeons & Dragons books. With that out of the way, I
shall begin.
Synopsis
The Eberron campaign setting book introduces the world of
Eberron as a magic-rich setting for Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, a
fantasy world where magic has developed into a science of
sorts. Instead of mechanical inventions to improve life and make a
profit, magical forces are harnessed.
Inventions such as trains, airships, and artificial people become
feasible, but physical, chemical, and mechanical inventions such as
steam engines, zeppelins, and firearms do not exist. While arcane magic
is relatively common, divine magic is more rare, because Eberron does
not have deities in the classic D&D sense - the existence of gods
is not proven, and religion is a matter of faith. The world supposedly
formed from three dragons which became the underworld (Khyber), the
surface world (Eberron), and the ring orbiting the world (Siberys).
Organizations called
"dragonmarked houses" control the international economy of the world.
The book claims that within Eberron, there is a place for everything in
the three core D&D books. It also encourages
use of the Expanded Psionics Handbook, though it is not necessary for
most campaigns. The intended mood is a mix of pulp and noir, the exact
ratio
dependent on your preferred campaign style.
Style
This is the section where I will express my opinion about
how the product strikes me and how eager I am to put it to use.
First Impressions
I have to admit I was immediately impressed with the book. It is
hefty (320 pages) without being intimidatingly large, and clearly it
was designed with much attention to detail. The title logo is exotic
but not specific to any particular cultural or aesthetic style, which
is a good start for the book. The title and the central picture of the
cover are glossy, which makes it stand out a bit. The design of the
rest of the cover resembles patterns and shapes in stone, recovered
from a lost civilization. Inside, the same pattern is shows as if it
were a rubber stamp applied to the top and bottom of each page. It is
subtle, but it keeps the pages from being to dull-looking.
Artwork
(For some examples of Eberron's art, click here
to see a gallery on Wizards.com.) Opening the book to random pages, one
can get an idea of
how the artists and designers envision the setting: rife with violence
and danger, home to marvelous vistas and dramatically different
locales. One thing I noticed early on was that there were several
artists utilizing slightly different artistic styles throughout the
book. I will compare this to another design choice: using the work of
only one artist (as in the now out-of-print Planescape
campaign setting). When introducing a completely new world, if all the
art is done in the same style, it gives the reader the impression that
the style is how the world really looks. In this case, with so many
artists' work included, it gives the impression that these are merely
the artists' interpretations of the setting, and none is necessarily
accurate to how the world really is. At this point, at the dawn of this
new line of books, I see this as a design mistake. The basic campaign
setting book is in a unique position to give a first-time reader a
distinct impression of the world, and by giving various impressions, it
does not immerse the reader as much as a consistent style would. One
thing readers will quickly notice is the pulp comic style full-page
illustrations that
accompany every new chapter. I found them very reminiscent of Mike
Mingola's Hellboy comics,
combining pulp adventure with fantasy and mythology, and I found the
quality of this work to be consistently good. Much of the rest of the
art is of the style you expect to see in D&D. One picture that does
not impress me at all is the picture of
the "extreme explorer" prestige class. It looks as if it were
lifted directly out of d20 Modern, and feels vaguely out of place in
this book. I must admit that there were a few pictures that did all the
selling necessary in my case: the warforged creation forge, the
lightning rail, and the airship, to be specific.
I found them so vivid
and evocative that I simply had to have this book as soon as I could.
They seemed as if they might have been inspired by the Final Fantasy
games, which have always impressed me with their art and imagery.
Overall, I was very impressed with the art in Eberron. It rarely (if
ever) clashes
with the picture the text paints, and it generally adds to the total
reading experience.
Layout and Organization
The quality of the layout is about what you would
expect from Wizards' recently published work. The
text itself is black on white paper, with none of the
black on "yellowed parchment" that drew complaints back when D&D3
was published. The text is arranged in two columns per page, which
works nicely. The book is organized
intuitively, with the players' rules in utilitarian order: races, then
classes, then feats and traits, then magic, then prestige classes. The
first six chapters (about a third of the book) focus on the rules,
leaving most of the remainder to focus on the setting. Near to the end,
however, the book goes back to rules, this time speaking to the DM
only, giving new magic items, monsters, and an adventure. At first it
seemed odd to drop the huge sections on regions and organizations in
between rules chapters, but now I understand the decision better. The
book includes a table of contents which splits each chapter into
subheadings, as well as a three-page alphabetized index. This may seem
standard, but after reading a few RPG supplements with a meager table
of contents and no index, I appreciate this much more. In general, the
book was very readable.
Writing
The writing is very clear, and very rarely left me
confused or wondering what a particular statement meant -- the
mysteries I encountered concerned pieces of the setting intentionally
left unknown (likely to be covered in future supplements). There are a
few typos in this printing, but I found them so rarely that I never
questioned the quality of the book in general. Otherwise, there is not
much to say about the writing in this book except that it is just as
clear as is necessary to explain points without becoming wordy.
Substance
I will now go chapter-by-chapter explaining what is
covered in the book, what looks useful, and what can be pulled out for
use in other settings.
Introduction
The book begins by explaining that it
is the end result of a contest held by Wizards of the Coast to
determine its next campaign setting. It also says in the first section
of the introduction that the publishers intend for DMs to be able to
lift elements of Eberron and place them into their own campaigns, in
addition to having the option of running a game in the established
Eberron world. It seems obvious that DMs would do this, but it is
refreshing to see that the publishers embrace the idea. There is a
sidebar in the introduction that shows a brief list of movies that
inspired and influenced the creation of Eberron, ranging from Casablanca to Pirates of the Caribbean. Movies
are a great way to put you in a certain kind of mood, so I am glad this
list is shown, though I wish it were longer and included more diverse
media such as books, comics, and video games. The chapter goes on to
introduce the setting itself, focusing mostly on the extensive use of
magic (allowing for some conveniences unknown in other fantasy
settings) and the effects of recent history (the ending of a
century-long "Last War" that left entire nations in ruins) on the
world. In an effort to better explain the setting, the book lists "ten
things you need to know" before jumping into a game. This section is
good and deserved to be included, but some of the entries seem
superfluous at best, for example: that the continent used to be ruled
by the alliance of "the Five Nations" is allegedly
something every player and DM needs to know, yet it is just a bit of
over-100-year-old history that doesn't seem to have much bearing on the
setting
as it stands. I cannot help but think the writers liked the number ten
and would not settle for eight or nine. The last paragraph of the
introduction alerts the reader that the next six paragraphs will be
rule intensive, and that if he or she would rather read in depth about
the setting itself, he or she should read chapters seven and eight
instead. It is a nice warning that would keep a more setting-oriented
reader from having to either plow through six rule-heavy chapters or
determine some other way where he or she should begin reading.
Character Races
The seven player character races that
appear in the Players Handbook are all present in Eberron, as well as
four new races. There a few (sometimes striking) aesthetic differences,
but the common races function mechanically the same as they do in the
PHB. Changelings, one of the
new races, are descendents of doppelgangers and humans, who have the
ability to change their physical appearance at will, granting them a
hefty bonus to Disguise checks. Another new race, the kalashtar, are relatively recent
arrivals to the world of Eberron (shown in
more detail here). They were originally extraplanar
entities (from the plane of dreams) that originally inhabited human
bodies to flee persecution, but now are a mortal race in their own
right, born into their bodies. They are natural diplomats and
telepaths, possessing minor psychic powers. These are explained in
the book, in case the reader does not have access to the Expanded
Psionics Handbook, though since I don't have that book, I will probably
remove them as a PC race. The third
new race, the shifters, are
descendents of lycanthropes and humans. Each shifter can tap his or her
animalistic power for a short amount of time, gaining abilities similar
to a barbarian rage, as well as a specific ability chosen during
character creation. Shifters also have access to feats to augment their
shifting ability, which I will cover later. The last new race, and
possibly the most controversial, is the warforged. These are living,
free-willed constructs, created in the final decades of the Last War to
be elite soldiers, and were recently acknowledged by authorities as
free people. They were built with tough plating on their bodies, and
thus have a natural armor bonus and deal lethal unarmed damage, but due
to this natural bulk, they cannot wear armor or wizard robes. However,
there are feats
they can take that function very similarly to armor, with armor check
penalties and all, except this armor cannot be removed, making it a
difficult choice for warforged players. They have some immunities
common to constructs for lack of flesh, blood, and
nervous systems, but are still vulnerable to critical hits and to any
effects that target wood, metal, or constructs. On the negative side,
warforged cannot heal naturally,
and healing spells only provide half their normal effect. While
warforged might seem overpowered to some, their significant
disadvantages will keep warforged players down-to-earth. If the
warforged still make you nervous, simply do not offer them as a PC
race. The end of this chapter gives short descriptions of various
regions, because nationality can be as important as race in Eberron.
Character Classes
The eleven classes presented in the PHB
are present in Eberron, and mostly function just as you would expect.
The class that sees the most change is the cleric. Clerics serve
churches, not gods directly. Since gods in Eberron are distant at best
(and non-existent at worst), clerics are not required to have any
particular alignment, as long as they stay on good terms with their
churches. This allows for good clerics in corrupt churches, or corrupt
clerics in good churches, adding shades of gray to the noir feel of the
setting. The actual source of a cleric's divine magic is debatable, and
certainly a touchy subject among the clergy. Eberron adds a new class
called the artificer, which is
a manipulator of fundamental magical energies. They can use most magic
items such as scroll and wands, and are expert crafters (at each level,
they have a "craft reserve" that can be spent in place of experience to
craft magic items). They also have magical abilities called
infusions (which function similarly to spells, but not identically),
which must be used on physical objects (including
warforged). For example, an artificer using a bull's strength infusion cannot
grant the infusion directly to a non-construct ally, but can use the
infusion on an item carried by the ally, such as his sword, temporarily
making it into a sword of bull's
strength. Artificers are also adept at healing warforged and
other
constructs. Artificers have several abilities common to rogues, so they
make a suitable replacement. Every class is given a one to two page
description of how members of that class get along in the world,
including a profile of one character as an example.
Heroic Characteristics
This chapter begins by introducing action points, which function
exactly as they do in Unearthed Arcana. For those not familiar with
action points, PCs are granted a small number at each level, and these
can be used to enhance d20 rolls by an additional d6 (higher level PCs
can roll multiple dice, and use the highest result) or to activate
certain abilities. Once spent, they are gone forever. Unspent action
points are lost when a PC gains a new level. This encourages players to
take riskier actions, enhancing the pulp feel during gameplay. The
chapter moves on to show new uses for some skills, and introduces new
feats. The vast majority of the feats are for specific classes or
nationalities, such as several which represent training by druidic
organizations. Dragonmarks are feats that only certain races can take
that represent hereditary membership in a dragonmarked house and
provide limited spell-like abilities. There are feats specifically for
shifters which improve their shifting abilities, and other feats for
warforged, representing improvements in their construction. Adamantite
Body, which can only be taken at 1st level, provides a strong bonus to
armor class and a DR 2/adamantite, with all the negative effects of
wearing heavy armor, and this armor cannot be removed. Improved
Fortification, which can be taken at any level, grants warforged
immunity to sneak attacks and critical hits, but that warforged can no
longer be healed by cure spells
(since warforged do not heal naturally in the first place, this comes
at quite a cost). Other feats relate to action points, such as raising
the number of action points gained at each new level, or improving on
the bonus granted by action points. After the feat section, the book
details the role of religion and the divine in Eberron. There are
several churches which worship various entities. The book makes clear
that deities are
distant, and might very well not exist at all, and atheism and
agnosticism are viable options for characters in Eberron.
Prestige Classes
Several of the prestige classes in this
book are based directly on organizations and forces at work
in the setting, and the rest of them are intriguing and balanced well
enough to warrant
inserting into other campaign settings (for the most part). The dragonmark heir
class applies to those who have power and influence within a
dragonmarked house, giving them increasingly powerful dragonmarks and
slightly more action points. The Eldeen
ranger class applies to rangers who seek out membership in any
one
of various the druidic organizations of the Eldeen Marches and gain
special
abilities based on which sect they decide to join. The exorcist of the Silver Flame class
is meant for clerics or paladins of the Silver Flame who wish to focus
on fighting supernatural evil. The extreme
explorer is the unfortunately-named class for bold, risk-taking
adventurers who want to make the most out of their action points. The heir of Siberys is a class that
represents people who express the rare dragonmark of Siberys. The master inquisitive class is meant
for detectives and investigators. The warforged
juggernaut is a class only available to warforged which allows
them to further embrace their construct nature and become much more
powerful as a result. The weretouched
master is a class only available to weretouched, which allows
them to make better use of their shifting abilities. There seem to be
balance issues depending on which animal a weretouched master can
become. A bear weretouched master, for example, gets +16 strength while
shifting. This is accurately derived from a brown bear's stats in the
Monster Manual, but it seems ridiculously overpowered compared to the
other animal choices.
Magic
This chapter details the role magic
plays in societies in Eberron, which is both extensive and pervasive.
There is an socio-economic subclass of professional spellcasters which
includes the dragonmarked, adepts, magewrights, and members of the
dragonmarked houses. Dragonmarked all
possess minor spell-like abilities, and the dragonmarked houses
dominate the economies of all nations and facilitate free trade between
them. Adepts (as they appear in the Dungeon Masters Guide) are
minor divine spellcasters who do day-to-day work for their church.
Magewrights are skilled workers who enhance their labor with minor
spells to be the best in their particular field. The result of this is
that minor magic items can be found everywhere in the world, adding
conveniences unknown in most medieval fantasy settings. Magical
long-distance communication, secure banking, and easier travel make
Eberron different from most other D&D campaigns. The chapter also
details the planar
cosmology of Eberron, which differs from both the default cosmology
found in
the DMG and the cosmology written for the Planescape campaign setting.
In Eberron, most of the planes
move in irregular orbits around the prime material, and planar
convergence can strongly affect magic and spellcasting. This gives the
DM more tools for coming up with interesting circumstances for
adventures. The
chapter also explains the roles of outsiders in Eberron, including new
rules for fiends possessing victims (or willing participants) and
characters channeling celestials. These rules are perfect for use in
other campaigns where you might want angels and demons to play a more
active but subtle role. The artificer infusion list is found in this
chapter, as well as a handful of new spells and cleric domains.
Artificers don't have the versatility of magical effects that a wizard
or cleric might, and certainly not the same power at higher levels, but
they make up for it with versatility of use.
Adventuring Equipment
This chapter includes five new weapons
(all exotic) and three new kinds of armor, which are wielded and worn
respectively by certain groups in Eberron. There are also new
grenade-like weapons, such as a liquid that becomes freezing cold when
exposed to the air, dealing cold damage. There is a chart detailing the
cost of various goods and services in Eberron, such as a hero's feast for you and ten
friends, or a warforged repair kit. One interesting item in this
section is a wizard's spellshard, which is a crystal that functions as
a spellbook that can hold twenty spells. It isn't made clear that
spellshards completely replace spellbooks in Eberron, so I get the
impression that spellshards are just an option to add flavor. There are
new riding animals, including four varieties of dinosaurs for small
characters to ride. There are also nine new special materials used by
different groups, such as bronzewood, a very hard wood which can be
made into armor that does not affect Hide checks in forests. These new
materials are not revolutionary, but do add flavor to particular
regional items.
Life In the World
The life section of the book is by far
the longest. It begins by explaining Eberron's systems of measuring
days, months, and years, then goes into detail about life in general in
Khorvaire, the continent that
is the focus of the book. Economics,
government, education, and travel are covered. It is explained that
Khorvaire is the only known place where Eberron dragonshards are found.
The bulk of this chapter is a detailed profile of each diverse
region in Khorvaire, explaining its history, geography, politics,
population and demographics, economics and exports, groups of power,
and adventure ideas. That last item is especially useful for the DM, as
one would imagine. The more populated and interesting regions receive
more
coverage (like Breland, a capitalist haven,
gets ten pages) while other regions receive less (the Mror Holds, a
primarily dwarf-populated mining region, gets only two). One region
that caught my attention is called the Mournlands. It used to be a
human nation, part of the Five Kingdoms, and the birthplace of the
warforged. It was destroyed in some merciless act (called the Day of
Mourning) at the end of the Last War, killing all mortals, and
hardening the ground in one area into a vast plateau of glass. Any
monsters found in the Mournlands are likely to be mutated by unknown
energy, and the dead do not decompose, so battlefields remain strewn
with corpses several years after the ending of the Last War. Somewhere
in the ruins of the once-great nation, a mysterious prophet is building
a cult of warforged with dreams of forging a nation of living
constructs. Concepts like this set my imagination reeling, and make me
eager to develop adventures for this setting. After the section on the
regions of Khorvaire, other continents are detailed, such as the
subcontinent of Aerenal, home
of the elves from before humans arrived in Khorvaire. The Aereni
practice ancestor worship and are masters of necromancy, preserving
their most honored elders and valiant soldier as undying, creatures
kept animated through positive energy. The continent of Argonnessen is the home of the
dragons, and the dragons do not welcome mortal visitors - the few who
venture to explore the continent never returned. Its shores are guarded
by human barbarian tribes. The book says little beyond this, but most
campaigns will have very little to do with Argonnessen, so I don't
mind. Sarlona is home to
Riedra, empire of the quori, the psionic
beings who drove the kalashtar from their home plane
from Dal Quor. They can only live on Eberron
by possessing willing humans. A small haven of
kalashtar, called Adar, is kept secret from their oppressors. A
brilliant
move on the part of the designers of Eberron, nearly all of Eberron's
psions are residents of this continent, so if you don't like psionics
or don't own the Expanded Psionics Handbook, simply downplay the
importance of Sarlona in your campaign and your players should respect
your wishes to leave it out. The last continent mentioned is mysterious
Xen'drik, is a continent
covered by jungle and the ruins of an ancient giant empire. It is home
to the drow tribes, and should be the focal point of campaigns
featuring exploration. Unfortunately, there is very little about the
continent in this book, but it will probably be covered in a supplement.
Organizations
This chapter details fifteen
organizations found in Eberron, plus information about all thirteen
dragonmarked houses. Most of these were your run-of-the-mill D&D
organizations, such as churches, secret societies, etc. One that struck
me was the
Library of Korranberg, the largest library in Khorvaire, and the
centerpiece of gnomish society. It is a university in its own right,
with
eight colleges striving for knowledge in different fields, always
hungry for new discoveries. I can
imagine an Indiana Jones-esque (or even a Lovecraftian) campaign making
good use of this library as a patron. However, it is not the only
university on the continent, and rivalries could fuel great adventures.
An Eberron Campaign
This chapter gives DM advice for
running a
campaign in Eberron. It has some general advice, but moves on to
special advice about how to capture the desired pulp/noir mood. It
talks about the use of recurring villains, and gives two examples with
complete statistics. The magewright NPC class is given a fully
explanation with statistics as well. This class could easily be used in
other settings that feature widespread magic use.
Magic Items
This chapter begins by detailing
dragonshards, the world's most valuable natural resource, which can be
utilized to create powerful magic items. They come in three distinct
types: Eberron shards (from the surface world, found only on Khorvaire
and Aerenal), Khyber shards (from the underworld, found everywhere, but
more commonly where there is volcanic activity), and Siberys shards
(from the sky, found only on the continent of Xen'drik and likely on
Argonnessen as well), and these three types are used for different
purposes. The chapter then briefly discusses magical forms of
transportation, including airships and lightning rail coaches. Next, it
details special warforged-only magic items, including "docent
components" which I would probably describe as an intelligent familiar.
These mysterious items can be found only in the ruins of Xen'drik, and
no one has been able to successfully create another one. I love this
idea, and I'll be sure to use it in my campaign. There is also a
page and a half dedicated to "wondrous locations", which are like
magical items but cannot be moved, such as a mystical observatory.
Monsters
There are 26 new monsters included, and four
new templates. One template, the "living spell", is actually a template
that is applied to spells to turn them into monsters. I think this
could be used very well to keep players on their toes. Most of these
monsters can be ported easily into any other setting.
The Forgotten Forge
There is an adventure for 1st level
PCs, but I'm not going to go into detail about it and risk spoiling it
for potential players, but I will say that it includes 11 possible
encounters (a good number for an adventure) and that it introduces
elements unique to Eberron, so it would be useful as a first adventure.
Index
There is a three-page, tightly-spaced index. I found it useful, and it
would certainly speed-up play.
Final Impressions
I have a lot of difficulty assigning number values to my
opinions, but I'll give it a shot. I give the book a 5 for style
because I found it very readable (as well as fun to read), nearly
every illustration helped me to better understand the setting, and it
is just dripping with cool.
Because of the quality of the writing, the options given to characters
of every race and class, and the sheer amount of good stuff covered, I
give it a 5 for substance as well, and leave it up to you to decide if
$39.95 is what you would pay for a 5/5-rated book (I was considering
giving it a 4 because of its price, but I can't fault the quality of
the book for that.) I had a lot of fun reading through this book, and I
think there are a lot of great ideas in it. A great many mysteries are
introduced in this book, and I get the impression that DMs are
encouraged to come up with their own answers. Partially because this is
a new setting uncluttered with years of additional supplements and
official fiction (Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, I'm looking your
way), and partially because of the freedom given to DMs, I feel like I
could introduce my own sweeping changes to the setting without
disrupting something sacred and untouchable. Creative DMs will
appreciate this very much, but DMs who rely on published adventures and
supplements might be turned off by the lack of answers, though they
might get them in future Eberron products. The setting also feels
cohesive, which is quite an accomplishment considering the diversity of
the world. The book retails for $39.95 which is simply far too much for
many people. I bought the book on Amazon.com
for $27, which is much more palatable. For that price, I was very
satisfied with my purchase.
If you are still undecided about Eberron or have other questions about
this book or my review, please email me at jakewaltier@gmail.com.
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Capsule Review
Jake Waltier
July 12, 2004
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)
Eberron is a high dosage of pulp/noir fantasy, and just might be your miracle cure for stale D&D campaigns. However, Eberron is not for everyone.
Jake Waltier has written 1 reviews, with average style of 5.00 and average substance of 5.00. This review has been read 10323 times. |
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In 7 reviews, average style rating is 4.14 and average substance rating is 4.14. |
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