Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Turrens 04-23-06, 06:16 PM	Hello all, I have had the ECS since it came out, but have never had a group willing to play. Well I finally got one. YAY. :). I am a semi experienced DM, and they are moderately experienced Players, but know absolutely nothing about ECS. I am somewhat interested in Sharn as a starting place, but really wan't to work them into the setting. I kinda have been thinking about trying a module, but have never run one before. and don't know any of the ebberon ones. Furthermore, our group has never adventured in a non homebrew world. I am making a big leap, and just want to find something solid to land on. :) I am somewhat interested in The DD but not really sure how to work something like that in... Do any of you experienced dm's know of any pitfalls or misunderstanding that are common to new groups? any thing I should be aware of? Any suggestions? I appreciate in advance any advice I receive.
PoeticJustice 04-23-06, 07:12 PM	Put yourself in the same mindset you would when you sell D&D to a non-gamer: Be gracious and confident in the excellence of what you're presenting. More tips: 1) Compile and distribute a list of the Dragonmarked Houses, their functions, and the race that runs the house. If a character needs healing, the issue is somewhat less thorny when they can look down and see "Healing, Magical: sold by the Jorasco family of Halflings" or perhaps Information, bought and sold by both the House Medani Half-Elves (info on people) and House Tharashk Half-Orcs and Humans (places and things) 2) Start in Sharn. Because Sharn is cool and screams "You ain't in Toril, anymore!" Others will argue that Sharn is a bit much to simply jump into. At this point, you gotta work to keep your audience engaged. The visual depictions of Sharn can do just that. After a session or two in the City of Towers, your players will be comfortable with Eberron. There will be growing pains, but they're worth it. 3) Run the Forgotten Forge. Even if you hate modules. Even you don't want to run the others in the series. Forgotten Forge is an excellent depiction of Eberron and is immensely entertaining. If the Bloody Bridge and the Rat's Market encounters don't absolutely nail Eberron, nothing does. 4) Have reasonable expectations It took my 5 man group 6 months, but by God, everyone of 'em bought the Campaign setting. A few even read City of Towers, Keith Baker's novel. You're not going to get a awesome reaction the first few times things get complicated, but keep things moving and keep it fun, and things'll work out. You may have to sacrifice a little bit of Eberron to make things work. For example, my player's killed Vol in session 7, something I was not prepared for. A lucky crit killed off one of my PCs in session 6, but a priestly acquaintance vouched for her resurrection, and thus all was well. Good luck in your upcoming game!
SokenzanMarauder 04-23-06, 07:24 PM	2) Start in Sharn. Because Sharn is cool and screams "You ain't in Toril, anymore!" Others will argue that Sharn is a bit much to simply jump into. At this point, you gotta work to keep your audience engaged. The visual depictions of Sharn can do just that. After a session or two in the City of Towers, your players will be comfortable with Eberron. There will be growing pains, but they're worth it. 3) Run the Forgotten Forge. Even if you hate modules. Even you don't want to run the others in the series. Forgotten Forge is an excellent depiction of Eberron and is immensely entertaining. If the Bloody Bridge and the Rat's Market encounters don't absolutely nail Eberron, nothing does. PoeticJustice just hit the nail directly on the head with those two alone. I just (see: 3 hours ago) ran my first Eberron campaign with those exact specs and it was TOTALLY AWESOME!!! Player loved it too. -Gene
Turrens 04-23-06, 07:36 PM	Put yourself in the same mindset you would when you sell D&D to a non-gamer: Be gracious and confident in the excellence of what you're presenting. More tips: 1) Compile and distribute a list of the Dragonmarked Houses, their functions, and the race that runs the house. If a character needs healing, the issue is somewhat less thorny when they can look down and see "Healing, Magical: sold by the Jorasco family of Halflings" or perhaps Information, bought and sold by both the House Medani Half-Elves (info on people) and House Tharashk Half-Orcs and Humans (places and things) Wow, That's a great Idea. I love it. I might even try to do more like that little cheat sheets so to speak. 2) Start in Sharn. Because Sharn is cool and screams "You ain't in Toril, anymore!" Others will argue that Sharn is a bit much to simply jump into. At this point, you gotta work to keep your audience engaged. The visual depictions of Sharn can do just that. After a session or two in the City of Towers, your players will be comfortable with Eberron. There will be growing pains, but they're worth it. I have had a burning desire to be in the city of towers since I read about it. I am reading up onit as we speak. Admittedly, it's a bit daunting, it's very,very big. My players will have no previous experience with anything remotely similiar. I think thatbefore Sharn the biggest city in any game we ever played was a one time stop in the city of brass on the Elemental plane of fire,only there for like 6 hours.... I am thinking I am (at first) going to be a bit wordy as I describe the towers, hopefully wowing them and making them realize this game is going to be unlike anything they have played in before. So, advice taken, Sharn it is. I am not sure how to emphasize the differences. Thinking rooftop battles and skycoach chases but not really familiar with the mechanics of how to make that happen. 3) Run the Forgotten Forge. Even if you hate modules. Even you don't want to run the others in the series. Forgotten Forge is an excellent depiction of Eberron and is immensely entertaining. If the Bloody Bridge and the Rat's Market encounters don't absolutely nail Eberron, nothing does. Really? I am expecting at least two of my players to pick up an ECS and they will probably read that,or already have. Also like I said, I have never run a module before. I am a very free flowing-seat of the pants DM. I am afraid of slowing the game down with crossreferencing pages and descriptions.... Maybe it's an irrational fear. (I just read up on those two encounters..... I like.... Maybe I will try.) 4) Have reasonable expectations It took my 5 man group 6 months, but by God, everyone of 'em bought the Campaign setting. A few even read City of Towers, Keith Baker's novel. You're not going to get a awesome reaction the first few times things get complicated, but keep things moving and keep it fun, and things'll work out. Ok, I was hoping to both ease them in to the setting, and Blow them away at the same time.... I know, tall order. I know that one was so excited hearing about psionics and the religion rules that he went out today and bought an ECS. (We have never had psionics involved in a game, and religion has allways been VERY overbearing ALA Forgotten Realms.) I am going to try to keep things moving. To be honest, that is my biggest fear. I want a fast paced exciting adventure, I would hate for it to get bogged down by looking up the native flora and fauna of the region were in. Not sure if that is going to be a problem or not. You may have to sacrifice a little bit of Eberron to make things work. For example, my player's killed Vol in session 7, something I was not prepared for. A lucky crit killed off one of my PCs in session 6, but a priestly acquaintance vouched for her resurrection, and thus all was well. Oh man, Session 7...... WOW. I am willing to change things, I just want to keep it mostly as an ebberon feel. Good luck in your upcoming game! Thanks, and thanks for all the advice. I would love to hear other suggestions onthese topics, and anything else that might trip up new groups. Like that whole killing VOL thing.....Ekkk
PoeticJustice 04-23-06, 10:40 PM	Guidelines for rooftop battles are found in the DMG. I am unsure where, but I think it's in the Urban section the Environment chapter. Skycoaches are a lot of fun, but harder to pull off. I would do it in a narrow area of the lower city, the towers in which would form a rough path they would more or less have to take, but would also allow reinforcments to jump off of nearby balconies onto either coach. You could also do cool stuff where the airships are ramming one another into the sides of towers, sending sparks of showers everywhere, knocking the unwary into a lava pit below. If you're going to add anything to the cheat sheet, I suggest the following 1) The name and specialty of each God (Balinor, God of Beasts and the Hunt. Olladra, Lady of the Feast and Luck. The Silver Flame, Holy Crusaders) 2) The uses for Action Points. 90% of any other information is narrow enough to only be used sparingly and can be explained quickly in-game. If you add too much to the sheet, the player's won't read it. I also find that a list of curses gets the interested. Having a Warforged who calls humanoids "meatbags" is fun for everyone, I say! On Vol... I let her die. Most of her worshippers don't even know her, so not a lot changed when her underling took over. Kaius invited them visit, and then things went to hell when the Lords of Dust began sacrificing Wyrmlings to their rajahs and pinning it on the party. It wasn't as big a deal as I thought it would be.
DoveArrow 04-24-06, 11:55 AM	In addition to the Eberron Campaign Setting, read all of the dragonshards (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/archeb/ds). They are all highly entertaining, informative articles, and they help give you a better sense of the world. They're also nice to send to players when they're playing a race or member of a faction that one of the dragonshards deals with.
SQuigley316 04-24-06, 03:31 PM	Put yourself in the same mindset you would when you sell D&D to a non-gamer: Be gracious and confident in the excellence of what you're presenting. More tips: 1) Compile and distribute a list of the Dragonmarked Houses, their functions, and the race that runs the house. If a character needs healing, the issue is somewhat less thorny when they can look down and see "Healing, Magical: sold by the Jorasco family of Halflings" or perhaps Information, bought and sold by both the House Medani Half-Elves (info on people) and House Tharashk Half-Orcs and Humans (places and things) 2) Start in Sharn. Because Sharn is cool and screams "You ain't in Toril, anymore!" Others will argue that Sharn is a bit much to simply jump into. At this point, you gotta work to keep your audience engaged. The visual depictions of Sharn can do just that. After a session or two in the City of Towers, your players will be comfortable with Eberron. There will be growing pains, but they're worth it. If you want to spice up your presentation a bit if you have any artistic or computer abilities and really hook your PC's present them information like this and other info you want to get out to them with their own copy of the Sharn Inquisitive. Give them something to sink their teeth into and really immerse them in the whole Eberron world.
Grey_Mage 04-25-06, 02:09 AM	Also... for best experiance Ive found start them off at either level one or two. That way they dont start out as super heroes of any kind... and have a chance to see the place from the "groud up".
Raun 04-26-06, 08:10 PM	My suggestion is to go with the area you feel most strongly aligned with. After reading Keith's books (City of Towers and Shatterlands), I personally feel a very strong affinity towards Sharn and Xen'drik. I found a copy of the Sharn Source Book, and I've been using that to frame my campaign. For me, here's a couple of things I found to be helpful. 1. Make sure the PCs have a logical reason to hang out together. If the PCs are all so different that they don't get along, it's going to make your job that much harder. The one I used (and it got my players into things) was the refugees from a distant Breland village that was torn apart by the war. Everyone got some basic "military" supplies, but nothing fancy. They go to Sharn to...well...find themselves. Works out pretty neatly. The possibilities are pretty much endless thanks to Eberron's fairly open setting. 2. Details, details, details! Make sure you have them. Have note cards with varous descriptions of locations, NPCs and events. It's alot easier than having to improv the whole thing. 3. Try to make your NPCs, espically the villans, have realistic goals in mind. Nothing can ruin a campaign worse than a NPC that wants to take over the world for no real reason. Now, if you have a powerful changling who wants to take over a crime syndicate...that's something altogether more intersting. Most people want a roof over their head, food on the table and reasonable safety in life. The more an NPC goes over those, the better their reason. Flesh them out too, give them a proper back story. 4. Don't let alignment ruin a good game! Once way back when, in 2ed, I was a LG paladin who went overboard as a moral psycho. Needless to say, he was killed off pretty quickly. Alignment should be a general moral guide, but by no means, a hard code for a characters behavior. 5. Finally, use Action points! Your PCs have them, so use them! One thing that really sets eberron apart is the pulp action quality. Get desriptive. I will even encourage PCs to get descriptive and creative in their actions by giving them a bonus (no more than +3/per combat encounter). DnD should be fun, both you and your players have to do some work and put in some creative energy for it. Good luck =) Hopefully you'll find these helpful.
The Necromancer King 04-27-06, 09:01 AM	Alright. I'm going to deviate a bit from the normative pattern here. I tend to do that. A lot. Put the books down. Put away the pencils and papers. Forget, for a moment, that you are trying to plan for your first session of Eberron. Take a deep breath. Now I want you to imagine a titanic air battle. Airships soaring this way and that leaving trails of fire and cloudy vapor. Imagine men and women fighting, swinging, flying, with the grace and style of acrobats. Imagine a cunning man in business robes standing at the prow of a ship high above it all. His hood is up; all you can see is the smile that plays on his lips. Yes, his dark masters will be most pleased. The scene disolves. We're on top of a speeding train, careening nearly out of control across tracks made of lightening; electricity hums and crackles, just close enough to make the hair on the back of your arms stand on end. The warforged, a hulking mass of wood and metal, lunges at you, the cruel axe that ends his arm barely missing your head. Or did it? Warmth spreads across your cheek where the axe cut you before the salt sting registers. No one has ever cut your face before. Ever. You're not scared, not anymore. Now you're angry. The scene disolves. People throng in the lower streets of the City of Towers while, high above, bridges span impossibly tall structures of stone and mortar. Goblins and kobolds are here in abundance. They're not the hostile, evil creatures the books make them out to be. They look worn down, lives of simple labour weighing their shoulders until all the fight is out of them. They live among the broken bricks and tattered homes of Oldkeep, a sector for the desolate and poor. Some have turned to crime, yes. But how many just to feed their children? A troll pushes past you, a broad red scarf tied around his upper arm. He glares down, at you, sharp teeth bared in a horrifying snarl. "Best not to bother with those types," says the horrendously fat goblin beside you. "Daask don't much like the prettier folk in Sharn." "Couldn't have guessed," you say. "Suppose you're looking for work like the rest of them," the goblin says. You really look at him for the first time; fat he may be, but there's a glimmer in his eye that denies joviality; half mischief, half malice. "I might be," you admit. "Then there's a halfling wants to meet with you," he says. "And Master Boromar tends to get as he wants. Make it up. That's my advice. Take all of the stuff that brought you to this setting in the first place, all of the ideas that got you interested, and from there, make it up. Make it interesting, make it visual, make it fun, and make it up. Don't worry about every detail in the books just yet. Get a feel for the tone. Get a handle on the attitude. This is just your first session, not a whole campaign. Play a couple of times before you get serious with it. And between sessions, read. You don't have to memorize anything, but look for stuff about the world that catches your interest and find ways to incorporate it. By the time you're ready to sit down and make a serious campaign in the world (could be a session or two, could be a bunch) you'll have enough of the setting down that you can be comfortable running it. And I can't stress this point enough: don't be afraid to bungle it all up. If you DO bungle it up, start over next session. Or talk to your players about what what you got "wrong" (which is so subjective, because if you like it better your way, then by all means keep using it), and how you're going to deal with it. My two favorite means of dealing with big screwups are 1) Incorporate it, and 2) Retroactive continuity. When you incorporate, you take what you've done, and your group will consider that "right" from now on. If what you did worked for you, you should absolutely keep using it. If it didn't work for you, though, retroactive continuity lets you describe, in basics, what "really" happened, and you and your group choose to forget the original version in favor of the new. As an example of each. When my players first met their patron, I had just gotten the Sharn sourcebook. So I decided to draw from it, and make Costar (a member of the Boromar clan), their immediate superior. But I made him a halfling, and a member of the Boromar family to boot; he's really a gnome a being pressured to fix the Daask problem under threat of death. My players like the "Kostar Boromar" character enough that we just went with it. From that point forward, no one has questioned his validity in the game, or made comparison to his previous Gnomish self. But when we went to Xen'Drik I knew nothing about Drow. At all. I've never used them before (in Eberron or any other campaign), so I basically made it up as I went along. It turned into an interesting session with the players meeting and befriending the present matron of a small tribe who were protecting a Siberys shard field. They were brought to the tribe by a pair of hunters out catching game for the family, and quickly made a bunch of friends and charmed their way through the harder part of the scenario (people trying to steal the shards before the players could get them). When it was all said and done, I got a chance to look at what Drow really are in Eberron. And despite the fact that the session went smoothly, we all thought that the book version was way cooler than the one I came up with, and we completely dismissed my version of the drow. So while they know the mission was a success, and they got the shards away from the horribly paranoid militantly secretive drow, all of the details about that session were tossed. Hope this helps. It's how I got into Eberron. Jump in with both feet, and don't be afraid to get wet.
PoeticJustice 04-27-06, 02:53 PM	I recently hooked a group of five into playing D&D using a method similar to TNK's method. It should be said, though, that the same tricks don't work on vets and newbs alike. If you homebrew a session, have at least three encounters you can spring on them. Note that these need not be combat just something that'll take time to resolve. Use the intervening time toplot the rest of the adventure. Lots of pulp is a no-brainer, but don't forget those lists I mentioned at the top of the thread: it's their first time in Eberron, they'll need all the help they can get.
Rekko 04-29-06, 04:04 PM	To add my two coppers to all that's been said, I will remind you that it is your campaing after all. No Wotc employee will come to your house to see if you stuck with the base line. What's in the books are base guidelines to create your own version of Eberron. If every Eberron DM blend in their style and their ideas to their Eberron game, then we will have a bunch of homebrewed settings that came from the base setting which is Eberron. Moreover, there are many holes to be filled by the DMs in an Eberron game. The Mourning, the Mournland, the Lord of Blades, Vol and the mark of Death, Warforged origines, links between Shifters and Lycanthropes, Psionics, The Prophecy, the planes and specially Dal Quor and Xoriat, Xen'drik, etc. Remember, the ECS and other supplements are only a few locations, a few NPCs, a few adventure ideas, a few things to get you started and lunched in the Eberron world. I am a role-player and a movie-lover and a big Eberron fan. I play in a friend's homebrew setting and unfortunatly, I have no time to DM an Eberron game (Well I have started one, but got problems with my group and a load of schoolwork to be done before D&D...) Hope it helps Rekko
Turrens 05-01-06, 03:59 PM	Thanks for all the advice. I have decided that I am going to run the Forgotten Forge.... Kinda... I am going to adlib a bit, mainly add some more dialoge to the baroness due to a player being a dragonmarked artificer of house cannith. I am going to set her up as a bit more friendly to the players so hopefully they will earn a patron with a bit of good RP. I am probably then going to use that as a springboard to earn the animosity of the lord of blades agents and hopefully draw them into some other groups sites. Unfortunately I only have 3 players at first. may be a couple of sessions until the fourth is free. Any suggestions on how to modify the encounters to help a group of 3 make it? Mainly I am worried about the Steel gaurdians-Saber fight. and the shifter rouge ambush. My party consists of all lvl 1 chars, a human house cannith dragonmarked Artificer, A human monk, and an elven cleric. I fear a lack of offensive power. :) thanks all.
Rekko 05-01-06, 10:36 PM	Add an NPC, make him die... or not. Rekko
Mind Flayer Monk 05-02-06, 03:25 AM	Well what I've learned so far *I found Eberron overwhelming in it's body of knowledge and scope at first* We started, dropped it and then came back after a little while after I had played in a few Mark of Heroes adventures at Gencon and got a little better feel for how to make it work. 1. Pick one area to start in for the first few levels and only a few of the dragonmarked houses, and gradually introduce more elements later. Read the area you start in a few times over. I find 5 nations to be a great value purchase. 2. I don't recommend Sharn, it's a huge place and brings together too many Eberron core elements too fast. You end up explaining alot of Eberron elements more than playing the game. However, Sharn is fantastic after you get 10+ sessions under your belt. I recommend areas with high concentrations of humans. Thrane is a good choice because it is easy to cross over to for many standard DnD players. Kaarnath is a good choice as well (mainly humans, elves and dwarves). 3. Sidekicks work well in Eberron. Goblins or kobolds as somewhat trustworthy allies that provide info to the party work well. 4. Build story arcs based on one unique Eberron element. Instead of adventures, use sets of 3 adventures and pick one element of Eberron and highlight it. For example your element: Shifters-build a few adventures around shifters, evil shifters vs good shifters, an old friend of a PC turns out to be a shifter and so on. Or artificers, warforged, Cyrean Refugees, Quori Shards, House Lyrander. In essence, stick to one thing and expand on it. This will help keep an air of exploration, mystery and accomplishment (not overwhelm your PCs) 5. If your party does not have a unique Eberron class or race, add one as an npc from time to time. 6. Harrowing escapes Make sure your sidekick or NPC says those famous lines "Flee for your lives" Thats whats worked for me, most of it I learned from my first failed attempt at an Eberron campaign and the great lesson I learned from a RPGA DM that loved Eberron and did a top notch job at Gencon (thank you to that DM)