Faerun vs. Eberron: Comparing and contrasting [Archive] - Wizards Community

Faerun vs. Eberron: Comparing and contrasting [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Charles Phipps
03-31-06, 04:23 AM A thread inspired by the one below, basically What are the Differences and what are the advantages one has over the other. I want to explain the two to a friend whom likes my FR games but is wary of Eberron.

As I posted before...

For me, in my Forgotten Realms games (I happily run both as you may find if you visit the Candlekeep forums---avoid the heroes and villains threads though) are different from my Eberron games because of the fundamental flavor of both worlds for me is drastically different. I admit that both tend to be influenced by the other but the differences are highlighted by the way I run them.

1. For me, Forgotten Realms is about being THE BIG HERO. The campaign setting is Hyborean in feel with maybe some Elric and Greek Myth thrown in. Realism is OUT the window in the fact that your players are expected to swagger next to 900 year old Archwizards and gods that visit you. I judge my games by cannon adventures and novels and even alittle more. You may go rescue a goddess from the Abyss in For Duty and Deity and you might kill Bane's son Xvim in Halls of the High King before slaying Bhaal in the Avatar Trilogy plus the other gods during the ToT.

Players should be irresitably sexy, tower over lesser men, and have songs sung about them. Gold and Wine will be plentiful as this is the days of HIGH ADVENTURE. This is the game where you fully can expect to meet a evil demon god like Orcus at the end of your robbery of the Tomb and Throw him down before carving your own kingdom from Bloodstone.

2. For me, Eberron is about being The Hero period. In Forgotten Realms everything is over the top while in Eberron, everything is muted so that the way that PCs stand out is that much more. If Forgotten Realms is Conan, Elric, and Merlin then Eberron is about Batman, Doc Savage, and the Rocketeer. Your characters are human beings first, vulnerable and square jawed at the same time. You may end up thwarting a Nazi invasion or recovering the Ark of the Covenant or defeating an alien invasion but that's because a mixture of your wits as well as skill rather than the raw badassness that's expected in other D&D.

For me also, the differences in STYLES of magic are considerable. In Forgotten Realms its much more "through magic, my will becomes reality" while in Eberron its much more that magic is a form of science...at least in the way I run the appearences of it.
DoveArrow
03-31-06, 07:48 PM A thread inspired by the one below, basically What are the Differences and what are the advantages one has over the other. I want to explain the two to a friend whom likes my FR games but is wary of Eberron.

I don't think there's a way to explain it if he's wary of it. I think he just has to experience it. It's a fascinating campaign setting, to be sure. However, I think that's the best way to bring someone into the fold. :)
ArcTan
04-01-06, 02:01 AM I like using comics as an example. Eberron is the Golden Age, when most superheroes lived in a single city where they were the only real superhero, they had to face gritty, real-life problems (criminals, mob bosses, gunrunners, etc.) and they had to do it using relatively realistic, gritty methods (lots of them carried sidearms, and when they didn't combat focused on WHACK! and THUD! and PUNCH-KAPOW!).

FR is, by contrast, the Silver Age, when superheroes tend to be conglomerated into huge world-spanning organizations (the Justice League, the X-Men/X-Factor/X-Calibur nonsense), your average hero (say, the Blue Beetle) played second fiddle to enormously powerful godlike heroes (Superman, Green Lantern, Dr. Strange, etc.) and stories repeatedly featured ridiculously enormous crossovers with huge splash pages full of godlike characters clashing in the chasms of infinite space, and everyone had magic spells, psionic powers, power rings, and massive energy blasts (THOCK! and THUD! were replaced by FTHOOOM! ZAPZAPZAPZAP! and KRAKLE-KABLAAAM!!!).

Both settings can be fun, but the Silver Age setting quickly becomes overburdened and unwieldy -- just *try* keeping track of all the crap that happened in DC before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. There's something purer about going back to the world of the Golden Age, when there was *one* set of heroes per setting and most battles took place on a level you could actually imagine.
stembolt
04-01-06, 05:27 PM The following are facts about FR:

Forgotten realms contains many errors of design. In a world building sense Faerun is rife with errors. Everything from uber NPCs to poorly executed BBEGs to the harpers.

Forgotten realms is a world shoehorned into the DnD rules. The world’s information is often at odd with the DnD game.

I mention these because I intend to ignore them. I will instead consider what the authors would like to imagine that FR should be like.

A stereotypical boring fantasy world. Dragons wizards and Orcs. They want to hurt people and you need to fight them. Ho Hum.

Eberron on the other hand is built on the principal of adventure. It was made to be fun to play in.

History has many layers.
Once warring nations poised in a cold war.
A land of adventure to explore.
Organizations at odds with each other.
Religions not based on black and white good and bad.

The list goes on and on.

Personally I find it insulting to compare the two worlds. Like comparing Glenfiddich to Zima.
johnkretzer
04-01-06, 06:13 PM I really don't like comparing campaign settings this way.
I personaly would ask your friend to trust you as a GM to run a fun game in any setting.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Charles Phipps 03-31-06, 04:23 AM	A thread inspired by the one below, basically What are the Differences and what are the advantages one has over the other. I want to explain the two to a friend whom likes my FR games but is wary of Eberron. As I posted before... For me, in my Forgotten Realms games (I happily run both as you may find if you visit the Candlekeep forums---avoid the heroes and villains threads though) are different from my Eberron games because of the fundamental flavor of both worlds for me is drastically different. I admit that both tend to be influenced by the other but the differences are highlighted by the way I run them. 1. For me, Forgotten Realms is about being THE BIG HERO. The campaign setting is Hyborean in feel with maybe some Elric and Greek Myth thrown in. Realism is OUT the window in the fact that your players are expected to swagger next to 900 year old Archwizards and gods that visit you. I judge my games by cannon adventures and novels and even alittle more. You may go rescue a goddess from the Abyss in For Duty and Deity and you might kill Bane's son Xvim in Halls of the High King before slaying Bhaal in the Avatar Trilogy plus the other gods during the ToT. Players should be irresitably sexy, tower over lesser men, and have songs sung about them. Gold and Wine will be plentiful as this is the days of HIGH ADVENTURE. This is the game where you fully can expect to meet a evil demon god like Orcus at the end of your robbery of the Tomb and Throw him down before carving your own kingdom from Bloodstone. 2. For me, Eberron is about being The Hero period. In Forgotten Realms everything is over the top while in Eberron, everything is muted so that the way that PCs stand out is that much more. If Forgotten Realms is Conan, Elric, and Merlin then Eberron is about Batman, Doc Savage, and the Rocketeer. Your characters are human beings first, vulnerable and square jawed at the same time. You may end up thwarting a Nazi invasion or recovering the Ark of the Covenant or defeating an alien invasion but that's because a mixture of your wits as well as skill rather than the raw badassness that's expected in other D&D. For me also, the differences in STYLES of magic are considerable. In Forgotten Realms its much more "through magic, my will becomes reality" while in Eberron its much more that magic is a form of science...at least in the way I run the appearences of it.
DoveArrow 03-31-06, 07:48 PM	A thread inspired by the one below, basically What are the Differences and what are the advantages one has over the other. I want to explain the two to a friend whom likes my FR games but is wary of Eberron. I don't think there's a way to explain it if he's wary of it. I think he just has to experience it. It's a fascinating campaign setting, to be sure. However, I think that's the best way to bring someone into the fold. :)
ArcTan 04-01-06, 02:01 AM	I like using comics as an example. Eberron is the Golden Age, when most superheroes lived in a single city where they were the only real superhero, they had to face gritty, real-life problems (criminals, mob bosses, gunrunners, etc.) and they had to do it using relatively realistic, gritty methods (lots of them carried sidearms, and when they didn't combat focused on WHACK! and THUD! and PUNCH-KAPOW!). FR is, by contrast, the Silver Age, when superheroes tend to be conglomerated into huge world-spanning organizations (the Justice League, the X-Men/X-Factor/X-Calibur nonsense), your average hero (say, the Blue Beetle) played second fiddle to enormously powerful godlike heroes (Superman, Green Lantern, Dr. Strange, etc.) and stories repeatedly featured ridiculously enormous crossovers with huge splash pages full of godlike characters clashing in the chasms of infinite space, and everyone had magic spells, psionic powers, power rings, and massive energy blasts (THOCK! and THUD! were replaced by FTHOOOM! ZAPZAPZAPZAP! and KRAKLE-KABLAAAM!!!). Both settings can be fun, but the Silver Age setting quickly becomes overburdened and unwieldy -- just try keeping track of all the crap that happened in DC before the Crisis on Infinite Earths. There's something purer about going back to the world of the Golden Age, when there was one set of heroes per setting and most battles took place on a level you could actually imagine.
stembolt 04-01-06, 05:27 PM	The following are facts about FR: Forgotten realms contains many errors of design. In a world building sense Faerun is rife with errors. Everything from uber NPCs to poorly executed BBEGs to the harpers. Forgotten realms is a world shoehorned into the DnD rules. The world’s information is often at odd with the DnD game. I mention these because I intend to ignore them. I will instead consider what the authors would like to imagine that FR should be like. A stereotypical boring fantasy world. Dragons wizards and Orcs. They want to hurt people and you need to fight them. Ho Hum. Eberron on the other hand is built on the principal of adventure. It was made to be fun to play in. History has many layers. Once warring nations poised in a cold war. A land of adventure to explore. Organizations at odds with each other. Religions not based on black and white good and bad. The list goes on and on. Personally I find it insulting to compare the two worlds. Like comparing Glenfiddich to Zima.
johnkretzer 04-01-06, 06:13 PM	I really don't like comparing campaign settings this way. I personaly would ask your friend to trust you as a GM to run a fun game in any setting.