Post/Author/DateTime	Post
demonic_dante 06-09-06, 05:29 PM	I'm making a campaign where I will use many rules from d20 modern and classic D&D (in the Eberron setting of course). I was wondering what plot points I should reveal to the players (kaius III, inspired, warforged army ect.). By reveal I mean build into the history, so a couple years ago kaius was discovered to be a vampire, or the warforged started LW2, ect. What do you think?
Kreistor1 06-09-06, 05:33 PM	Too many possibilities. Everything is reasonable. I'd suggest sitting down with the timeline and pressing it forward, causing big events as you like them to happen.
demonic_dante 06-16-06, 07:28 PM	I had a great idea recently. I always intended to have a second last war (so that the game keeps the tense political thingy), so this is what happened Kaius was discovered and Thrane began it's religious campaign. Other countries joined the fray and it evolved into a massive war as conflicts arise and all that. Fantastic discoveries are made because of the need for technology in the war (guns, new transport, communication ect.). Warforged were stripped of their rights and were drafted; most rebelled and joined the master of metal [or some other warforged leader name] (because the Lord of Blades was killed). Later warforged are given proper rights and are given Cyre as their own country (it still remains mostly wild but there are some controlled areas). Land has been re-divided and borders are totally different. Concerning the Inspired, it is a rare conspiracy theory that they are all possesed because some were discovered publically but it was assumed to be a solitary incident. During LW2 the dragonmarked houses were forced to take sides, because of this many of the houses are economically weaker. Dragonmarks have also spread to all of the main races (even warforged). The mark of Death is still gone but is close to returning. Argonnessen and Aerenal are common trading partners and are much more travelled (still not too much though). I can't think of anything else right now but I'm sure I will eventually. what do you think? The ramblings of Demonic_Dante
demonic_dante 06-16-06, 07:29 PM	reserved for new stuff
Meddros 06-16-06, 07:40 PM	Now how far in the future are you talking? Really far like they have real tech stuff from the future game you are refuring to or just like maybe 100 years or so further. You have so much room to move around there that I have to agree with Kreistor1 and say you should really look over the map and the time line. I have several things in the works but would rather not post them here as I have a few players who have been spying on my posts as of late.
demonic_dante 06-16-06, 07:59 PM	Now how far in the future are you talking? Really far like they have real tech stuff from the future game you are refuring to or just like maybe 100 years or so further. Really far, like guns, cell phones, cars, and computers far. but no space travel or anything like that. I have several things in the works but would rather not post them here as I have a few players who have been spying on my posts as of late. Are you doing a futuristic eberron as well? Anyways I just need random ideas. I can make them into plot points trust me. All that second last war stuff came from an idea I had to give the warforged a country. In all honesty though I have forgotten about a good number of the conspiracies and I am to lazy to read through the book again.
Siran Dunmorgan 06-17-06, 12:55 AM	The truly terrible thing about a lot of medieval conspiracies is that by the time the come to fruition in the modern world, they may no longer be relevant. So the time of the Lords of Dust is at hand! What difference does it make to people who are basically pencil-pushing wage slaves? Are these people actually going to be worse off as slaves (or food) for the fiends? By the time you reach modern technology, you've also reached modern apathy. Four hundred years in the future, no one will care that the Silver Flame is failing. Four hundred years from now, Vol will still be plotting to restore her bloodline, but to what? To whom? To whom will it be relevant? Sure, the dragons and the Undying Court will still be there: the dragon civilization pre-dates humanity coming down from the trees. But will they be relevant? Will it matter to the average inhabitant of Khorvaire or Sarlona—or Xen'drik, by then? The average inhabitant of Starilaskur will get up out of bed, shower, shave, dress, throw down breakfast, and commute to work. Transportation is a public service provided by the Municipality of Starilaskur, with the generous cooperation of Orien Transport Services, LLC. At work, they'll assemble parts, or shuffle papers from one side of their desk to another, never really paying attention, just…doing the work, because that's what you have to do to get home in the evenings. Weekends at the ball-park with the kids; they're in school, most days, growing up to be just like mom and dad, learning the same lessons by rote from teachers who always seem vaguely annoyed that they're not somewhere else, doing something else. No one cares if the Rajahs are free. At least, that'd be interesting. But no. They're not. They're safely sealed in Khyber and the Demon Wastes. Some people maintain the Flame, and make sure that happens. No one has ever really met anyone who does that, but they're there. There are stories, from a while ago, about people who used to worship the old gods, the Sovereigns, but no one really does that anymore, except—sort of—as a social event. There are movies—mostly from the big studios, like Thuranni Bros.—historical fiction sometimes, like the martial arts films that were popular a few years ago, about ancient evils, shock horror about the daelkyr and the dolgaunts, but no one's heard from the daelkyr in centuries, if they still exist. Sure, the mind flayers were supposed to have been their servants, but most illithids do their best to live down that reputation. Sometimes, one goes off its medication and goes nuts, but that's always something that happens a city or two over, and not to anyone anyone knows. Down in Xen'drik, things are coming along nicely. Sure, there's a lot of unrest from time to time, but when they're not buying weapons, they're buying grain and fertilizer, and they're always buying wholesale goods that Cannith Mercantile Industries can't unload in Sharn or Korth. There's still some tribal violence, but they're working their way toward stable democracies and modern economies as fast as they can. Seren used to be trouble, but nowadays, they're just some quaint islands and faraway beaches. A few people save up enough to vacation there, every once in a while, and of course, the Seren casinos are legendary among the "jet set." Argonnessen is still there, and the dragons, but they're just old fogies; stories of their power to rend the world are pretty clearly just that: stories. Vol watches, and plots in silence, but never seems to do anything. The Lords of Dust play out their petty games of power in the Demon Wastes, and occasionally meddle in the politics of Khorvaire, but an election here and a scandal there never amounts to much. The Aurum still exists, as a kind of social network; they help distribute wealth from nation to nation, but they've long since discovered that they amass more wealth from the status quo than from unrest. There're a few paladins around, troublemakers, mostly. The churches are still there, but mostly irrelevant, more interested in renting out the temple hall for bake sales than preaching the Sovereigns. Intelligent undead who represented a threat once were suppressed or imprisoned years ago; Deneith Worldwide still has a few personnel on 'undead watch' but no more than a few. Everyone's in the same work-a-day boat; it may be a little harder for your necropolitan buddy, and the warforged guy down the block, because for them, it'll never end. So get up, go to school or work, watch the news, watch the movie-of-the-week, and crash. Then get up and do it again. Buy what CMI tells you, or what the hot Phiarlans are wearing this season. Grow up, have kids—have grandkids—make a pithy comment or two, and make an end of it. That's life in the modern world. —Siran Dunmorgan
demonic_dante 06-17-06, 01:40 PM	True, kinda, but this is a game. It is the fact that this is a game that allows people to go past things like everything you said and have fun. I do respect the fact that your response was well written and very truthful; I do not however respect the fact that your response adds very little if anything to the thread and you have been of no help to me whatsoever. The ramblings of Demonic_Dante
Siran Dunmorgan 06-17-06, 06:43 PM	True, kinda, but this is a game. It is the fact that this is a game that allows people to go past things like everything you said and have fun. I do respect the fact that your response was well written and very truthful; I do not however respect the fact that your response adds very little if anything to the thread and you have been of no help to me whatsoever. The ramblings of Demonic_Dante Gotcha! Where in that account do you hear of the continued irrelevance of the quori threat? You don't. And that's just how the masters of Dal Quor like it. You hear about people being told to have irrelevant lives, then go home and dream. You hear about people who should be training the next generations of leaders being taught by teachers "who always seem vaguely annoyed that they're not somewhere else, doing something else." Because they should be: they should be teaching their kids to dream, and be free. But there aren't any dreams, because dreams go to feed the Devourer of Dreams. Player Characters in that world are the ones who break free of the world to which the quori have led them. Maybe they find the dream-spheres the giants used in Xen'drik, to conceal their dreams. Maybe they stumble across a connection to a demi-plane to which they can direct their dreaming, instead of Dal Quor. And that's when the battle begins, against the hidden masters in whom no one any longer believes. Break free. Find your own dreams. —Siran Dunmorgan P.S. For inspiration, look to They Live, The Matrix, and Barbara Hambly's incomparable Knight of the Demon Queen.
demonic_dante 06-17-06, 11:40 PM	Wow, If I did that I would have to choose which one of my players could be the "one". Thats just not fair. Very nice adaption though. Good job, you have mad me laugh; I now appreciate your responses fully. Can someone please list the conspiricies in eberron for me? that would be helpful.
RedRobe 06-19-06, 10:56 AM	On the flip side of the "mundane reality" posted by Sir Dunmorgan, think about what life is like in Eberron to the non-adventurer in the "Current Timeline" of Eberron. Normal people still live their daily lives, working, playing, surviving, being happy or unhappy with how their lives are going to varying degrees. That wouldn't change in a futuristic vision of the world. You can still have your adventurers and heroes, they're the ones who encounter the conspiracies, various intrigues, and mortal danger on a daily basis. Normal people don't have to deal with these kinds of things...they're just not equipped to handle it. That's why the game doesn't focus on the mundane, it focuses on the extraordinary. The extraordinary happens in our world, we just aren't the ones who experience it first hand. We're too busy with the important job of making the world turn for the majority by working our 8-5 jobs, and buying our fast food, and filling our tanks with gasoline. "Normalcy" has a nobility all its own. People wouldn't be able to get the goods and services they need to survive without other people doing the jobs that make them available. The farmers, the doctors, the police, the firefighters, the mothers and fathers. They're heroes too. *steps off soapbox* Anyway, to get back to my point. You can find many "futuristic" storylines by looking at the headlines in the newspapers and on TV. Then adapt away.
Naudachu 06-19-06, 02:47 PM	This is great stuff. I may have to try this after my current campaign. Along with political developments, you may want to think of the technological, Eberron-style. There would be modern equivalencies, but built on the technology of magic. Here are some ideas: Elemental bound cars - a cheaper method of elemental binding has been discovered, one the common man can afford - elementals are bound for a temporary duration (say 1 week), after which they return safely to their home plane - elementals are bound at elemental binding stations where they are available in a pump - fire elementals are conjured, trapped in tanks and delivered to the individual binding stations - Zilargo had an early corner on the market and represents the largest fire elemental companies, but the knowledge eventually spread (by Phiarlan/Thuranni spies) - other sources for fuel are being considered and developed (but kept quiet by the Trust) Magic essence currency - an economy based on gold was left long ago - artificers have created magic essence credit sticks which hold an amount of charges - when you "charge" something some of the magic essence is culled from your credit stick Personal speaking stone - a revolution came when an affordable speaking stone appeared in every house - These speaking stones, the size of phone at first, became smaller over time to become portable - Of course these devices must be "charged" also with each use Dedicated wright computer - an early artificer inventor created these at first to keep track of his expenses, but they quickly became popular with merchants - Cannith discovered a process of miniaturizing (shrink spell) and mass producing these - These were phased out when Cannith was allowed access to Aerenal, here they experimented with the Daanvi manifest zone - Over time they were able to recreate small Daanvi manifest zones in their dedicated wright computers enhancing them a hundredfold Daanvi web - Experiments combining the now tiny sending stones with the revolutionary dedicated wright computers soon created a world wide web of information - scrolls can be bought and printed in the privacy of your home - food can be ordered and transported to your house
demonic_dante 06-20-06, 05:50 PM	Nice stuff. I was thinking though, how much would cars be useful in a city like sharn, then it hit me. Go really futuristic and have modified reverse gravity spells on certain areas of certain buildings, allowing travel vertically. The temporary elemental can be used for guns as well; "The Cannith Cannon holds 15 elemental bullets, simply insert the clip hear and fire away" Water elementals bound to an entirely enclosed ship = sub New alchemical substances make new explosives :devil: I've also decided to make argonnesson is much more political, and trade with it common, however the silver flame began a campaign against the deathless of Aerenal and relations right now are very poor.
poisondusk 06-21-06, 07:17 AM	EBERRON! One 'B', two 'R's! GAH!
Lord_dBellatoria 06-21-06, 11:56 AM	Cool ideas. It fills like that there will be another "Last War" especially since that the general vibe of Eberron is similar to the post WWI era. One thing though, I wouldn't use the term Last War II. It doesn't work and looking at our own history, it's likely that the Last War would be rechristened. Such as WWI. While it was happening it was called the Great War. Plus other nations had different names for WWII like the Great Patriotic War (Soviet Union). I'd recommend renaming the Last War something like the Galifar War or the Crown War and if the 2nd Last War is Eberron-wide then perhaps call it the Great War or something on those lines.
demonic_dante 06-21-06, 12:13 PM	EBERRON! One 'B', two 'R's! GAH! Wow don't I feel stupid. Lord_dBellatoria you are very right. I think I will go with crown war, and great war. Great war works really well because it's actually a couple of wars in one (first nations, then mark, then Aerenal). I have decided to add mage blades (light sabers). They will pretty much be beams of energy from bound elementals (red light saber = fire elemental bound). I'm changing some visual things, like guns are rested on your fore-arm and the trigger is near the front of the gun. I have added a continent of my own making. House Cannith will be broken into several different houses (because they would be way to powerful otherwise). I am adding a deity to the dark six (now dark seven). I also plan to have a Cardinal of the silver flame infected with lycanthropy. The ramblings of Demonic_Dante
demonic_dante 06-23-06, 10:24 AM	bump :bump:
Kreistor1 06-23-06, 01:42 PM	Technologically, I would suggest a lot of the technological secrets of 998 will get outed. One of the great truths of science is that once one person has discovered how to make something work, a lot of other people seeing ti work will realize how to make it themselves. Let's take China pottery as an example. Europe couldn't get enough of it. So smart people in Europe started trying to duplicate it. It took years, but a few decades of advancements saw European pottery exceeding the quality of Chinese pottery. They never did perfectly replicate Chinese pottery because it took a kind of clay not available in Europe, but they found a better clay, because they had a reason to look and knew it could be found. So, knowing that the gnomes can bind these elementals reveals that they can be bound, so people will work on the solution. If they don't find the same solution, they will find another, and it may even be better. Elemental vessels, Warforged, Valenar Horses, etc. -- all the secrets should in time become duplicated by others and available to all. The Last War saw, over 100 years of battle, very little loss in territory by the Five Nations to each other. They lost pieces to indepence initiatives, but of the surviving Four, only Aundair lost any territory they cared about to Thrane. I don't know how much the Next War would change that. It's entirely personal opinion, and it may depend on when it starts. You're focusing on Kaius being outed as a vampire. Don't forget that much of Karrnath is still Blood of Vol and wouldn't mind that so much. They'd mind that he was working against the Blood of Vol. You could "out" him, have the Blood of Vol restore the true Kaius 3 to the throne, reveal him to be a fanatic Blood of Vol believer, start killing his own people to feed the war machine, and ironically have the Karrnathi patriots restore Kaius 1 to the throne in a coup. This would put Kaius 1 back on the throne as a legitimate ruler. Kaius 3's motivations don't have to actually be evil. He can be honestly concerned for the state of his people, even though he himself is a vampire. Karrnath is in a terrible position in terms of trying to win the war. Of all the four, it has the longest supply lines for any serious incursions. It has serious internal spiritual/religious issues that could divide it in the next war. Talenta is a useless backwater that would only grind away troops on a place they can't hold (similar to Spain killing more French in the Wo1812 than the Russians), so Karrnath has one choice to attack -- Thrane. Attacking Breland makes for a terrible shape of land to try and defend... Karrnath must take Thrane before moving on to any other of the civilized four. That makes KArrnath somewhat predictable and that is a bad thing for any army. Breland is sandwiched in between two monstrous regions.Droaam is strengthening in terms of organization, making it an up and coming threat. Darguun is capable of replacing war losses much faster than other nations. They are natural allies, which could see Breland losing a lot of territory during the next war. Overall, Breland has the smallest borders with the other big four making it probably the safest from the real war; however, Breland has come out the strongest, so may be the most likely to commit to involving itself early. But, if the leadership recognizes the rising threat of Droaam, it may just not even get involved at all to ensure it doesn't get squished. Thrane is horribly positioned, and likely to be steamrolled from all sides. The big three could easily start the war by ending the biggest threat to the Galifaran political structure -- a theocratic state is a serious threat to monarchies. It sets a bad precedent to allow a nation to overthrow its nobility and replace it with an oligarchy/theocracy. The big three could easily unite behind the banner of restoration of the rightful political leadership of Thrane, and conveniently carve it up amoungst themselves. Each of them could assign only 40% of their forces to the effort, easily overwhelming the Thranish numbers, and pull a Germany-Russia type pact for the division of Thrane as they did Poland, all while maintaining 60% troops to defend agaisnt betrayal or opportunism on the part of lesser nations. Anyway, I expect Thrane to get stomped just from its horrible, defenseless position in the midst of all the big guns. It's got too many borders to defend against too many powerful threats. I expect the intelligence services of each of the big Three to know exactly why the Silver Flame itself should not be disrupted, so I do expect the Church itself to survive, just its political influence to dissolve and return to purely spiritual influence. Aundair is, although weaker, safer than the others. Its border with Breland is small (choking the supply train) and a burnt earth policy eats the Brelish armies alive given the terrain Anything from Droaam has a nasty mountain range to cross (more likely to head into Breland). The Eldeen Reaches have enough trouble with the Demon Waste, and they don't currently have serious political reason to attack Aundair if Aundair leaves well enough alone. Aundair could sit pretty and play defense waiting for the others to duke it out, leaving them with a lot of injured opponents to clean up. Attacking Aundair is hard for anyone except Thrane, but Thrane has two big boys poised to sweep it aside if it ever got so brazen. If Aundair were to smarten up and send troops to the Eldeen to support the defense against the Demon Waste, they'd make an ally out of someone that hates them really only for a betrayal they had no choice about. Mend bridges and the Eldeen will forgive. So, smart money is on Aundair, IMO. They're the only nation with good positioning to avoid the brunt of the war while being able to chew into neighbouring territories nearer the end.
Warforged Goblin 06-23-06, 09:21 PM	One quick question: What about the warforged and aging? Are you going to have some old, epic level 'forged fighter talking about "Back in my day, we had RINGS to bind our elementals..."
Lord_dBellatoria 06-26-06, 11:26 AM	Here's something I've been contemplating adding to my campaign. A group of citizens of Thaliost have decided that they want an election to determine their own future. Either as part of Thrane, Aundair, or as a sovereign nation. A faction within House Orien decides that a independent Thaliost would be a perfect buffer-state for the rebuilding of the White Arch. They begin supplying the independence movement with arms and gold. Either a peaceful election, guerrilla warfare, or an out right war for independence can insue. This could make an interesting historical variant with Thaliost being important to the welfare of Aundair, Thrane, and Karrnath. The Republic of Thaliost as I envision for my own campaign is a quasi-fascist state that has more power than its size would normally allow, due to the high tariffs imposed on goods passing through on the lightning rail, yet still making it cheaper to ship goods by rail rather than airship or watership. In a future roughly resembling our world, cars travelling to or from Karrnath would have to pass through Thaliost unless a tunnel is built under Scions to Thronehold and then to Thrane, but I see a problem with Thrane wanting a direct link to Karrnath. It be like the worries about invading European armies marching through the Chunnel into Britain.
ArcTan 06-27-06, 03:43 AM	Wow, If I did that I would have to choose which one of my players could be the "one". Thats just not fair. Very nice adaption though. Good job, you have mad me laugh; I now appreciate your responses fully. Can someone please list the conspiricies in eberron for me? that would be helpful. Who says that there has to be One One? Even in the Matrix Neo was only more powerful than the other redpills, but he wasn't unique in his ability to see the truth about the world he lived in and fight against it -- in fact he had to be *shown* that truth by a whole supporting cast in the first movie.