Eberron Setting

[Nicholas Harrison]

Hey . . . . Like many players, I've been a bit reluctant to switch over to 4E. So, I'm still looking at 3.5E materials. And, I've been thinking about different campaign setting options for a Birthright-style game -- by Birthright-style, I mean players running realms and domains and such.

Anyway, I've glanced at the Eberron campaign setting. And, I've noticed that it's a pretty politically-oriented camapign setting. I've also come across some other domain-style rules in the d20 version of "Fields of Blood" put out by Eden Studios.

Has anyone else seen either of these materials and/or used them? And, are there any thoughts regarding gameplay or conversion into a domain-style system?

[AndrewTall]

Eberron 's dragonmarked houses have some similarities to bloodlines, so I've had a look at them, and I would think that the political commentary would allow domains to be created, but it is a very high-magic action-oriented setting in most of the material that I've read.


If mining Eberron for ideas rather than simply using it with a domain system:

The shifter class has great potential, I can see it as a great fit for Aduria, probably by descendants of Azrai's beast-men / other experiments who embrace their heritage. The race, for those unfamiliar, are minor lycanthropes who can take on aspects of the lycanthrope, buying enhanced abilities with feats - a very subtle magic for the setting.

Changelings could work as a beast-man race, or as offspring of a doppleganger-awnie, again for the unfamiliar, they are doppleganger-offspring with minor shapeshifting abilities.

Warforged could work as a karamhul approach to afterlife, they are a race of minor sentient constructs who can use feats to get better body parts.

The lack of psionics does suggest against the inspired and kalshtar races, however their underlying rationale - a dream reality which has been taken over by evil and nightmares and whose inhabitants now seek to dominate the waking world - does have resonance with the Shadow World.

Gnomes, of course, are utterly unacceptable in a BR setting :rolleyes:

The elves and the deathless always throws me - I always think of elf-types as symbolic of the vibrancy of life, so the whole undead-ancestor worship thing sounds strange, but perhaps in Tuar Annwn?

Some of the magic, with the practical bent, fit well with the Brecht. There are also some interesting takes on druids. The Artificer class however makes magic a bit too common for my taste, and that is an issue with the setting as a whole, the Princess Ark (fond memories!) leads me to accept the odd flying ship, but lightning rails feel incongruous unless you advance the setting into the late renaissance.

[irdeggman]

If you are trying to apply the BR domain level rules to the Eberron setting - it could work with some "tweaks".

If you are looking at BR as a setting - it can't work in the Eberron world.

Eberrron is designed around commercial magic and that it is common place - something that is in direct oppositin to the design criteria of BR, the setting.


But I love the Eberron setting as an entity.

[JakobLiar]

If that is the case, is there a similar way to take the information provided from the 'Conan'-verse and make a Conan-BR game? I don't mean Conan the RPG but just the Conan-verse.

[Caelcormac]

Try this map:

http://grimfinger.net/HWKingdomMaps/HyborianWarWallMap.jpg

[AndrewTall]

Although you have obvious issues with regency, the domain rules should work well enough in any setting.

All you need to tweak is the rules on who can become a regent and how they gain/accumulate regency.

You could for example make regency gains as for existing BR, but cap collection at leadership score, level+charisma mod, etc.

Source magic is a slight issue due to the high regency cost of casting spells, but it should be fixable.

[Rey]

And a little chop chop of the map.

[Caelcormac]

Depending on the Rule Set you use for your games:

1e (as an example) You could make the monarchs ability to collect regency based solely on an average of all of their ability scores (all six divided by 3 could give a solid base number); then add their level. So if they had all 12s for stats (on average) they would have a base score of 24, then add their level. Any combination you could make up really.

In any game in Hyboria I would suggest avoiding bloodlines and simply concern yourself with Regency. I would say Realm Magic would be the rarest of all because while Hyboria has LOTS of magic...you don't see it very often. And those capable of casting the really powerful spells (like Plagues and such) usually have some sort of magical Focus/Artifact to use in their casting.

[JakobLiar]

Try this map:

http://grimfinger.net/HWKingdomMaps/HyborianWarWallMap.jpg

*bows down in worship* THANK YOU! I've been looking for something like this for so long.

[Exile]

For another 3.x setting that might work, I've looked at Dawnforge as a potential for development of a game with a strong "Birthright" feel (particularly the realms of the Trueborn - where noble lineages are minorly magical and notoriously fractious, while also under threat from blood-tainted enemies).

I've also seriously considered a BR-style game set in the world of Midnight in the run-up to the Last War, giving players a chance to play a role in the run-up to the apocalypse....

As options for regency in a setting lack the blood of the gods as a conduit for belief, I've considered both doing away with it entirely (which has worked fairly well for a highly streamlined and rules-light game) and making the size of the RP pool dependent upon the status of the regent in question: provinces and holdings would boost status, but so would titles - so the rightful heir to a kingdom would have decent status from his true title, but so would the evil usurper from all the land he controls... but controlling land and title together would give more power than either grants on its own.