Post/Author/DateTime	Post
krlsrrll 07-19-07, 10:03 AM	Hi all I've been role-playing for nearly 20 years now, DM'ing for about half of that, and a couple of months ago I started a new Eberron campaign as a relaxed alternative to our main, Birthright one. For the next couple of months though it's gonna be the main whilst the next DM prepares his campaign so was wondering what techniques or tools people use to try and get across the 'Eberron Atmosphere'. I'm doing a unrestricted alignment, savage species based group in Droaam and thus far have made several hints with regards to political intrigue within several power groups the PC's have encountered. In addition they themselves are trying to raise their influence on a religious front as I've left it fairly free-willed for religious groups in Droaam. Any tips or ideas? Just trying to get an idea of what sort of style people DM by. Thanks in advance.
_Radagast_ 07-19-07, 10:27 AM	One thing I really try to do is break the "fantasy" mold by having my NPCs reflect characters that might be in a 1920s detective story rather than Lord of the Rings. I really try to bring that "pulp-noir" aspect to the foreground, and just use the "fantasy" as a backdrop.
mhacdebhandia 07-19-07, 07:55 PM	If you use music in your sessions, steer well clear of traditional fantasy-movie music. Nothing like the Lord of the Rings soundtrack should ever reach your ears. Instead, I've been looking at alternatives involving a lot of sharper strings and percussion. The soundtrack for my Eberron Savage Tide campaign involves, among other things, instrumental pieces from Firefly, Rome, Carnivale, and Battlestar Galactica.
Edymnion 07-19-07, 08:36 PM	Eberron combat should resemble a good sandwich. Lots of cheese and ham. It doesn't matter how cheesy the line, or how much you ham it up describing combat, it works. Don't just have somebody Charge into combat with the PCs, have them swing down on a rope. Mechanically, treat it as being identical to if they were running across the ground, but its much more Eberron to have them swing in waving their sword around before crashing into you.
Vorj 07-19-07, 09:54 PM	I like the idea of giving Eberron a Swashbulking sort of flavor, while mixing just a pinch or dash of pulp fiction atmosphere and then baking in a well planned out campaign.
Demangel 07-20-07, 01:02 AM	For me, it's mostly about the Pulp/fantasy Noir feeling... and I have never been a fan of buckling anyones swash, so I tend to leave that up to the PC's to bring to the table if they so desire it. The other element I like to bring to the fore is the Indiana Jones adventuring quality, the feeling of going somewhere new and unexplored, even if it's just around the corner from where the PC grew up. Eberron is also about mystery, more so than in any other setting, I feel you should never tell your PC's anything, and when you do let them know something, you give up the goods in small amounts always leaving mystery. I feel this is integral to the setting just by how many loose ends the setting intentionally leaves. I feel this isn't just to give DM's room to build stories into, but also meant to imply that there are some mysteries that should remain unsolved except as part of an epic climax. Lastly, when I'm in my darkest moods, I bring my love of H.P. Lovecraft to the fore, and lead the PC's on a romp through the nightmarish. My ten tricks: 1: All characters have an angle... That is, almost no one is a true "good guy." The dark hero is most at home in Eberron, the guy who feels guilt about the slaughter of innocents trying to find redemption, the prostitute who sold secrets to the enemy during the war trying to forget the faces of those she betrayed. Those few who ARE truly good, are rare, and serve to bring out just how gritty the rest of the world is... They are often disillusioned quickly and dramatically, or poetic in their defiance of the darkness all around them. 2: All mindscapes are moody, mysterious, or foreign. I thus stay away from the typical high fantasy style themes of farms and castles on hilltops overlooking idealistic rural farmlands. Sharn is a good example of grandeur taken to a melancholic extreme... This big enormous and utterly surreal cityscape, filled with Gotham city like fog, rain and ambiance muting it's epic architecture to make the city look at feel both at once oppressive, and limitless. 3: Nooks and crannies - It's not what the players SEE, its more often about what they DON'T see that really brings the setting to life. Standing on a bridge between towers in Sharn, peering over the edge and not seeing the ground below you, wondering whats going on below... KNOWING that below you stretching into the vast unknown beyond the fog is a vast multi-layered labyrinth of city, sewer, ruins and dungeons, of which you will never see more than a minuscule fraction of it... 4: Intrigue - It's never simple, oh it can appear simple, and indeed, there may be a simple solution (usually the wrong one). As I mentioned above, everyone has an Angle, and it's a rare thing that you can take anyone, or any thing at face value. 5: Morality is always a shade of gray - I urge my PC's to stay away from stereotypical heroes, Even the most righteous Paladin should have a dark side... a touch of bigotry, or overzealousness or some other conflicting element that makes staying good and lawful a constant struggle. Thus I try to keep my NPC's away from stereotypical vanilla villains. It's never as simple as just world domination the villain wants, or world demolition either. The villain should always be the kind of character that one or more PC's can relate to on some level. The Villain should be able to attempt to compare him/herself to one or more PC's and make a convincing argument during a RP oriented confrontation ala: "You would have done the same if you had been in my shoes!" 6: Romantic themes: I don't really mean love, or sex, I mean instead the romanticism one feels when they think of taking a long trip on a train to a foreign land to experience alien cultures. Try to never allow a trip on a lightning rail, or airship to become or feel trivial. Always encourage your PC's to feel a romantic sense of wonder whenever you can when dealing with travel. IE never just say - after 2 days ride via the Rail you end up in XYZ locale. Go to some length to describe the journey, illustrate the passing of geography, lavish the characters with opportunities to be self reflective - IE the melancholy veteran of the last war staring out the window looking more at their own reflection in the glass than at the scenery going by, daydreaming of brothers lost, or loves yet to be found. 7: The world is in pain, and the PC's are either part of the hope, or part of the problem. Do not let them ignore the fact that the world is recovering from a 100 year war that including the cataclysmic (nuclear holocaust level) destruction of the garden (the jewel) of the continent/kingdom. Everyone has suffered, and people continue to suffer. Nobody won, even those who profited have lost something. 8: The world should feel (to those sensitive to it) like it's living in the shadows of a prior age... The feeling that the current civilization is little more than a pale imitator at best of the cyclopean marvels of the prior ages... (Think planet of the apes). With talking monkeys everyone ignorant that they have built their civilization out of a much greater one that is much older. Using sharn as an example again, make note of the goblinoid architecture especially the lower one goes in their explorations the city. 9: BACKSTORY BACKSTORY BACKSTORY: Each PC should have a special connection to their past. More so IMHO than in FG or most other settings, the PC's backstory should be thoroughly role played by the PC and the DM. I recently made it a policy that no character can come into any game without having at least 1-3 solo (1v1) gaming sessions with me as DM running their origins. The more of a past you give your PC's the more #1 above will be possible for them, and the more connection they will feel to the setting. 10: Take your time and tell the story - Eberron is meant to be paced differently IMHO. It's not that you can't have great dungeon crawls... But instead of filling every chamber with an encounter, fill every chamber with ambiance and mystery and nooks and crannies. For combat I like to use either: 1: Fewer but more challenging encounters. (for the more slow paced sessions meant to be more about RP, exploration, and puzzle figuring). 2: Pit the PC's against dozens of mooks, with a handful of bruisers. That means, have the level 6 party face dozens of CR 1/2 mooks meant to be slaughtered by the bakers dozen (shows off the PC's power), then have them face a much more worthy foe/foes at the climax meant to truly challenge them. As part of pacing also consider leveling to be a way to control pacing. I tend to shy away from XP per encounter in Eberron, as the world is much lower in overall level than FG for example, reaching level 10 isn't something every PC should expect, or at least not expect quickly. Instead get more bang for your buck out of each level. Make getting that cleave feat a REAL accomplishment for the fighter by making it take a bit longer to level up. Bonus tips: 11: Lavish the PC's with mundane magic gear, but keep higher level magic gear a bit harder to get. That is, low level magic saturates society, but unlike other worlds, the good stuff is harder to get than usual. Just don't be too much a skin flint so as to gimp your PC's into being unable to face the encounters that require the good stuff to overcome... 12: Encourage your PC's to have a Schtick, or some special quality that further distances them from the norm of society. A special power, or ability, a witty catch phrase that grants them circumstance bonus during role play, a meaningful and unusual connection to some NPC or faction that gives them some benefit beyond what you would normally have as your generic adventurer type. Thus encourage your PC's to be unique, some examples include a PC with a mannerism, or scar, or tatoo, or special trait/perk/flaw that stands out. The malfunctioning warforged for example has become a cliche in many games, but it's a welcome one IMHO. The Duelist who seeks only to perfect their skill and carries (at level 1) a +3 great sword given to them by their teacher which they are seeking to master the use of. The Mage who was a miraculous survivor of the Day of Mourning and has a dark secret pertaining to a strange deformity which he/she keeps hidden at all times, but when revealed grants them a special but not always beneficial power of some kind (a finger that is made of stone and can turn any living thing it touches to stone if it fails some save or another, but each time it's used, it consumes more of their own body, eventually resulting in death or petrification). Ok, thats my lengthy treatise on Eberron... Sorry if it was a long read, but I hope it was a good one.
origianl3 07-20-07, 02:25 AM	/\ AWSOME! :eek: :D /\ I am using most (if not all) of your tips and tricks in all of my future Eberronian adventures. (Good thing I have one starting in a few weeks :) )
Toloran 07-20-07, 12:12 PM	1: All characters have an angle... That is, almost no one is a true "good guy." The dark hero is most at home in Eberron, the guy who feels guilt about the slaughter of innocents trying to find redemption, the prostitute who sold secrets to the enemy during the war trying to forget the faces of those she betrayed. Those few who ARE truly good, are rare, and serve to bring out just how gritty the rest of the world is... They are often disillusioned quickly and dramatically, or poetic in their defiance of the darkness all around them. The corollary to that is that there are few true "bad guys" either. A person can be forced (non-magically) to do evil acts and still not be evil. They can also truly believe that what they are doing isn't evil (until the PCs convince them otherwise =P). Another thing that brings out the pulpy feel of the setting is enemies that need to be stopped but you can't because of the situation. A good example of this is the villain "Kingpin" from the Spiderman Comics/Cartoon. He has a legitimate business and is a well known philanthropist. However, all that is a cover because he also is the head of all organized crime in New York. In Eberron, a villain like that would fit perfectly in to Sharn (or most other major cities, expecially Trollanport). Granted, your players could go out and kill/capture/defeat him but the town watch and the populace in generally would never support it and he would be released shortly there after and the players would get a bad reputation. Even worse, if they killed him, they themselves would now be criminals.
N3palm 07-20-07, 12:51 PM	^ Except for the obvious extraplanar monsters, thats true, nice example too.
krlsrrll 07-20-07, 01:50 PM	All these ideas are fantastic, 1 problem though is that the characters are generally neutral/evil so the 'good tinged with darkness' doesn't really work. Will work the other ideas in though, thanks alot.
Alex_ 07-20-07, 05:06 PM	It is worth noting that in Pulp, there's often the flat out Evil guy or the army of uncompromising evil where all members are just mindless pawns. Nazis, the Galactic Empire, and Evil cultists are common enemies, and in the vast majority of instance, they are evil through and through and simply cannot be reasoned or bargained with. Not everything in Eberron is black and white, but many things are. For those who don't live in moral ambiguity and compromises of idealsm, the challenged becomes, how do you remain true to your tennets without getting caught (if you're Evil) or when everyone else is fighting dirty (if you're Good) or when both urges pull at you (Neutral). Like how Captain Kirk always stands beside his principles, even when someone offers him power or suggests their ideas are better in society, while Spock managed to always contain his emotions (barring circumstance outside his control). Or how Obi Wan never fell to the Dark Side, even when captured by Count Dooku, even when the Republic and his own Padawan and best friend turned on him, while the Emporer was a heartless individual who never showed any love or compassion for anyone other than himself. Black and White still exists.
Charles Phipps 07-20-07, 05:44 PM	Moderism: To differentiate Eberron, it's alright to steal relatively modernized things. While they're magical and very different, don't be afraid to treat the Lightning rail as a Train or the Lightning Carts as a sort of floating automobile. Plus, fascism and other evils of the 1930s are quite real in Eberron.
_Radagast_ 07-21-07, 03:25 PM	Moderism: To differentiate Eberron, it's alright to steal relatively modernized things. While they're magical and very different, don't be afraid to treat the Lightning rail as a Train or the Lightning Carts as a sort of floating automobile. I use this technique A LOT. I think it also helps the players to grasp the world better in their own terms.
animus 07-21-07, 05:27 PM	Good stuff Demangel! Gives me lots to work with.
Demangel 07-22-07, 05:01 AM	Heheh that was my goal, give as many points as I could so that there would be tons of variety to draw on. Glad people liked them, and remember they are by no means set in stone, I am well aware that some campaigns require the spotlight to shine on different Eberronian themes than just fantasy noir. Also to clarify, maybe I shouldn't have said "NEVER" use XYZ, for example using a truly evil villain. But my point I think was that my preferred villain, is someone who makes you think. Someone who makes you analyze your own moral choices, your own ideals. While I only gave it as an example to use for good aligned PC's the same can work in reverse for evil PC's. The Evil villain: This guy should make the party question their own morality, either by seeing similarities to themselves in their enemy. Or because the villain somehow caused the PC's to violate, or nearly violate their own code of ethics and morality in the course of the campaign. The GOOD Nemesis: In this example the PC's are the "bad" guys. Here the villain isn't the villain, but a would be hero that is after the PC's for whatever reason. The Good villain could easily try to turn the bad players away from being evil, give them opportunities to redeem themselves, give up and have mercy shown to them, or face justice in a form other than just being hung for high crimes, justice that offers them a second chance at forgiveness. If your players are playing with any real feeling for their character, they will be thinking in character and be considering the chances for redemption seriously, and will be forced to choose, and decide why they chose what they chose. While many PC's will chose the evil path just to stay evil aligned, occasionally a PC will really grapple with the rationalization of the choice, and surprise you by coming up with a reason that makes their choice a legitimate one. In the real world, people rarely commit evil for evils sake, evil NPC's or evil PC's should rarely be any different different. Naturally supernatural villains might be the most common exception, with sociopaths (those with clinical mental issues) being another. A fiend for example might indeed be committing evil for evils sake. But a murderer who is collecting (read - making) corpses to give as an offering to a fiend in the hopes the fiend will raise his dead lover? A lover killed by the very people he is murdering? While his actions are evil... His is not committing evil for evils sake, at least not knowingly. He has rationalized that his own morality comes second to the one he loves. A choice many people can identify with as being a hard one to make if given the chance. Anyway, Glad people enjoyed my view of things :)
N3palm 07-22-07, 08:23 AM	Great posts Demangel. Really usefull, you should make a guide or something :P
Charles Phipps 07-22-07, 09:00 AM	For me, here's some simple tricks for understanding and using Eberron. 1. Eberron is the Magical 1930s: The Last War is equivalent to the First World War. It's left everyone more than a little shell shocked but people are starting to get back on with their lives. There's a lot of intrigue going on between the surviving nations, fears of rising fascism, and lots of crime. 2. It's D&D rules but not D&D STYLE: It's very much Anti-Tolkien/Moorcock style fantasy. People are motivated not by cosmic battles between good and evil but national loyalty. Monsters really are just a form of ethnicity in this world and people don't expect orcs to be evil. The world is not lawless and untamed for the most part either. For the most part, when there's a murder in town they call the cops not a wandering band of adventurers. 3. PCs are expected to be Exceptional from the Get Go: I always like to offer the option of starting at level 4 for PCs. Basically, they're already dangerous and skilled professionals in a world where almost everyone is 1st or 2nd level NPC classes. 4. Don't Be Afraid to go in Bizzare Directions: Eberron supports non-traditional adventures. For example, a Shadowrun style corporate espionage game can actually be accomplished in Eberron with the Dragonmarked houses serving as megacorporation's analogues. Ditto Robot themed adventures with Constructs (not necessarily warforged). The Aurrum can be SPECTRE with their plot to steal a massive magical bomb that can level an entire town. 5. Eberron can support slightly more mature play: The Fairy Tale quality of most settings tends to detract from realism. You can get over that but simply having backgrounds of newspapers talking about serial murder, sexual assault, and so on. Especially in Sharn, the street life of the land is pretty gritty. Lots of femme fatales are appropriate for characters. 6. Eberron is a "Worn" Universe: Like Star Wars really, Eberron is a place where everything should be described as weather beaten. I tend to use the Industrial revolution's London for a lot so the place is muddy, travellers, and players are often very often covered in mud or dirt. If everything not prepared for a grand ball looks like crap you'll have a better feel for Eberron as the Magi-Industrial setting. 7. Don't be Afraid to Cinematic Up the Action Sequences: Most of the enemies should be one shot, one kill. Use phrases like "knicked you, grazed you, and flesh wound' when describing large levels of combat with high level characters unless its obviously inhuman. Also, unlike in other campaigns, its better to insert environment into the games. Player characters should be encouraged to dispose of enemies by throwing them out of windows, knocking them over railing into boiling oil, and so on. Let them do it 'accidentally' a few times and they'll get the picture. 8. Differentiate the Weird-Mundane from the Weird-Weird: A Bugbear as your local Smith? Perfectly normal. Unlike in D&D though, a player character spots a Beholder his reaction should be "WHAT THE **** is that!?" 9. Player Characters tend to have real jobs: It's fun if you give them something to do inbetween going on mercenary missions even if its just "I sit back and play cards with however much money I had from the last adventure." 10. Don't be afraid to steal real world tropes: Don't make direct analogues but the occasional allusion to 1984 in Karrnath, to French Wine in Aundair, to ancient Roman virtue in galifar or so helps gives places a "familiar feel." Sort of like, again, Star Wars used familiar things in a changed context.
N3palm 07-22-07, 09:08 AM	And thank you too, very much.
Charles Phipps 07-23-07, 06:22 AM	Overall, I think everyone agrees that the Chief Appeals of Eberron boil down to this. 1. It's a great deal less Good vs. Evil than most D&D campaigns. 2. It steals liberally from genres not usually explored in D&D. 3. The "magic instead of technology" allows a lot of stuff that was previously only available (and misunderstood) in Mystara. 4. It's a pretty damn cynical and run down setting. If FR is Luke Skywalker, Eberron is Han Solo. 5. Plots are generated less by Monsters and more by people.
N3palm 07-23-07, 06:35 AM	If FR is Luke Skywalker, Eberron is Han Solo Great, great quote.
Sir Elton 07-24-07, 11:29 PM	I try to create a Hong Kong movie atmosphere.
Rekko 07-25-07, 05:33 PM	Watch the movies quoted in the Eberron books (Brotherhood of the Wolf, Casablanca, From Hell, The Maltese Falcon, The Mummy, The Name of the Rose, Pirates of the Caribbean, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sleepy Hollow). If you don't know one of these, the Internet Movie Data base (http://imdb.com/) is a great place to make searches, you can even search by movie type (hum... like pulp and noir). You could also search with Amazon and eBay, and it's an easy place to purchase them, for some are hard to find since they are older. A movie franchise I inspire my games a lot (since nothing is as it seems) is the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. The number of deals and pacts that are made in these (and specially the third) is just marvellous for your Eberron game. But the best tip I can give is that you have to "Live the Eberron way!" Rekko