Post/Author/DateTime	Post
yossarius 03-12-07, 12:17 PM	Thus far, I've been trying to run Eberron "as written," if for no other reason than I've never done that before. With previous settings, I've always used what I wanted and disgarded the rest. Eberron's been the first setting I've run where I didn't feel the need to negate something that was in a sourcebook. But, my players own some of these books, too. They do a decent job of seperating player and character knowledge. Still, it's hard to keep what you know from effecting your character's decisions in the game. So, I want to start a new story arc soon, where some major facet of life in Eberron is different than how it is published. I thought about a FR-like "Time of Troubles," but immediately discounted it as a bad idea. I'm still brainstorming on the idea. In the meantime, I was just curious how other groups have deviated from the published material.
Lady Morn 03-12-07, 01:50 PM	The differences between our Eberron and the official version is almost a sourcebook by itself! :D To be honest, I wouldn't categorize us as having strayed. As we create characters and adventure in this world, it is a constant necessity to also create fluff and details to fill the vacancies that WotC has yet to fill. This has created the situation where from the moment the ECS was released, WotC was relegated to being a Johnny-come-lately. Compounding things is the fact that due to marketing and philosophical restraints, WotC's Eberron carrys the same heroic fantasy slant which characterizes the other, more traditional settings. A slant, we believe, runs counter in many ways to Eberron's tone and influences. There's also an argument to made for sheer lack of knowledge base as well; you can't expect Lawrence Block or Alan Furst from game designers whose reading habits begin and end with David Gemmell. :P In short, we pour our tastes and knowledge into our Eberron to make it as honest to its potential as possible. And, when WotC puts out a sourcebook, we take what's compatible and/or inspirational, then dump the rest. ;) Hope that helps! :D
Hopeless 03-12-07, 05:00 PM	Thus far, I've been trying to run Eberron "as written," if for no other reason than I've never done that before. With previous settings, I've always used what I wanted and disgarded the rest. Eberron's been the first setting I've run where I didn't feel the need to negate something that was in a sourcebook. In the meantime, I was just curious how other groups have deviated from the published material. I've been seriously considering altering one facet greatly, namely magic. When the Mourning happened instead of effecting Cyre it effected EVERYWHERE... true Cyre was ravaged and left a wasteland pretty much like a nuclear bomb had gone off and anyone traversing its interior is slowly succumbing to an illness that varies in many ways but one common effect is mutation and the only race believed immune are the warforged BUT they're wrong... Everywhere else magic was negated, Sharn's manifest zone was reversed or negated entirely the destruction was widespread where magic had been used and abused they backfired on the populace. It became a new dark age however a discovery brought about a great change over Khorvaire, artificers long considered mere tinkerers of magic were proven to not actually tinker with magic at all, their gift for their speciality was actually a new form of magic one called "science" and it was uneffected by the cataclysm. This allowed the five nations to recover and a treaty was drawn and signed by various dignataries however Cyre's surviving population were ignored and only Breland showed them any kindness as either the other nations blamed them for the disaster or sought answers to what had been unleashed. Two years have passed and whilst thanks to the artficers and the dragonmarked houses (also uneffected a fact they don't talk about although the unmarked wonder at what they've discovered) Khorvaire is recovering, even Sharn's manifest zone has been restored but the world has been sundered and the great forces each nation wielded hs been drastically weakened as a result of both the Last War and Cyre's destruction... Magic still exists but nowhere near its previous level, artificers can replicate what mighty archmages and hierophants alone could accomplish before but something vital has been lost and the only hope for this shattered world lies in the hands of a new era of heroes and quite possibly an answer to the greatest mystery of all, what caused the Mourning? Wht do you think?
goblin_pride 03-12-07, 08:06 PM	I haven't so much strayed from the material but elaborated on something that was mentioned briefly in the ECS. I put the highland raiders mentioned briefly in the ECS as harassing Orien shipping in the Dhakaani remnant tribe I added, using them to provoke Haruuc to march his army out of their holdings. Other than that, I pretty much use everything as written.
Darth Syntax 03-12-07, 10:05 PM	Most of the 'deviations' I and my very tiny group have together made to the setting fall into two major categories. 1. Later official contradiction of already self-developed fluff 2. Intentional complication of history, culture, religion, language, and the like For example, Cardinal Krozen is quite different in my world that his official version in 5N. I envisioned him as a paranoid, wizened old man of about 65 who spent his whole life as a member of an extremely Orthodox order and rarely (if ever) left the religious-political environment of Flamekeep. My Krozen probably would have a very difficult time defending himself in a physical fight (although he is an excellent archer, it's mostly a sport to him), has never personally killed anyone, and is just far more a theologian than a holy warrior. Thus he will remain. I have (as goblin_pride and others can fully attest) tried my damned to make the history and culture of Eberron more complex, confusing, and well 'messy' than it is presented in the very brief outline in the ECS. One such complication was the removal of Common from the game entirely, and the introduction of various regional languages and dialects which (I think) adds a sense of 'realism' to the world. Religion too has suffered from the combined force of my minuscule groups musings. The idea of a single Host religion rubs me the wrong way, mostly because polytheistic religions tend to resemble more a related group of customs and practices rather than a single monolithic whole. So, taking our cues of Hellenic and Hellenistic religion along with a healthy dose of Hindusim, Egyptian religions, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and gnostic practices, we have suceeded in really complicating the religious traditions of the world. For one, the Unified Host (that is the form discussed in the ECS and FOE) is not the most popular of religions, very few put their real faith in it, seeing it more as a kind of Civic Religion. Instead most people tend to draw their real faith from one of the many local religious traditions which the Unified Host (rather like the official Roman religion) draws from, but often waters down and sanitizes. The Unified Host is the religion of the public sphere, of civic festivals, and so long as one's private or local religion still pays lip service to the UH, all is well. There are the Arric religions of the west, which place heavy emphasis on the primacy of Dol Arrah and are heavily dualistic in character. The Church of the Silver Flame is, in fact, an outgrowth of a particular collection of Arric traditions. (For those of you playing along at home, the Arric religions are loose analogues to ancient Iranian religion and early Mazdasim and the Church is a rough analogue to Sassanid Zoroastrianism). There are also a number of mystery cults, such as the Esoteric Order of Aureon, which revere a single god, or small group, over all the others. The Triadism of Karrnath (worship of the War Triad of Dol Arrah, Dol Dorn, and the Mockery, The Nature Triad of Arawai, Balinor, and The Devourer, and so forth) is another 'local' religious tradition that has actual devotees, most Karrnathi 'Host' followers are Triadists of one sort or another. Now all of these disparate traditions are 'Host' religions and they spring from a common source, but they are not unified in dogma, in practice, or really in much of anything. Hey, making the world messier is great fun.
Romulus LoneWolf 03-12-07, 10:09 PM	Minor details here and there for me.. For starters, me and my fellow players are furries at heart, So I've tinkered with the idea of making Shifters into animal-like humanoids, with traits based on their Shifter Types. Recently, I've started a new campaign with my players making level 1 characters as recent recruits of the Adventurers' Guild, a Deneith-controlled guild which serves mostly as an employment agency for adventurers looking for work; clients present themselves to the guild, mention their problem and how much they'll pay for it, and the guild puts them in contact with adventurers capable of helping them. The adventurers themselves pay their guild dues in exchange for the services provided. I'm also considering adding magical Mecha and smokepowder firearms..
Kinger 03-12-07, 10:09 PM	I haven't strayed much, but I HAVE put in a lot of things not mentioned in the source material. So far, my PCs have not really had much to do with the Lord of Blades or the Emerald Claw, and the Dreaming Dark have not been touched on at all (or haven't they?). I've retooled a few NPCs from published material (ie Karg the Ogre Scholar in S:CoT was given a charisma higher than 4), and I sent my PCs on an alternate adventure path following the Forgotten Forge (during which they fought a Warforged Artificer instead of that rogue and shifters in the sewer). Current plot-threads of interest pursued my PCs: Discover and thwart the plans of a giant, stationary construct creature known as the Machine God, a divinatory device devised by mad Cannith creators during the Last War. After destroying the Machine God (they think) and fleeing its layer in dramatic fashion (lava chasing them down a hallway and everything) our PCs have since encountered it again, though this time in a pocket dimension of its own creation. Though defeated it was not destroyed, and it's likely the mad orb of liquid glass and light will be around again some time. Investigate an unearthed tomb in the Cogs, sent by Morgrave. Local Dhakaani-wannabe crime lord Hobgob objects. Is slain by PCs in street in front of populace. Sparks goblin riot. Khyber's Gate is now even less hospitable. PCs don't know it yet, but the Hobgob has been made a local saint of sorts, and a new Dhakaani regime has taken over the hearts and minds of much of the goblinoid populace of Sharn. Recover mysterious package for Lady E. Unsure of contents, but in process of fetching it in standard Fed-Ex fashion they pick up the wrong breifcase by mistake. Pursued by House Tarkanen until they trade it with the fellow who picked up theirs in a similar mistake. Trade concludes with the Edge of the Sky encounter I won an UnCon contest with, in which the restaurant the PCs use to make the trade is sabotaged and plummets from Skyway, the PCs and their foes still inside. Get the hell out of Sharn until the situation cools down. The Watch is looking for the PCs, intent on pinning the aforementioned plummeting building on them. Lady E suggests a "holiday" and off our heroes go. Lightning Rail train gets diverted due to line damage ahead, and ends up in the isolated mining town of Crow's Hearth. Wouldn'tchaknowit, a Cultist of the Dragon Below has converted the whole place into a macabre breeding ground for his new aberrant minions (which are suspiciously like the Head Crabs of Half-Life fame), and our heroes can't escape this Ravenholme-esque village of horrors without the Lightning Reins their new BBEG friend nicked from the Rail. So, there you have it. Not so much straying as side-stepping.
Kreistor2 03-12-07, 11:45 PM	Major changes. Valenar came about differently. The Blood of Vol is organized differently. Lots of classic elements of eberron have little presence in my games, and minor elements are played up.
cancerousmango 03-13-07, 12:47 AM	Constant straying. And they killed that one hag.
Daydreamer 03-13-07, 01:22 AM	Eberron is more 'open' than other realms, in that even the official RAW do not answer many significant questions and leave it up to the dm. Many different dms could all give interpretations to this information that would be in keeping with all that is officially known even though there could be many explanations. IF this is what you mean by straying, then yes ive strayed. I resolve issues the Raw doesnt, but i dont contradict the RAw.
Kensan_Oni 03-13-07, 01:54 AM	I need to ask a question. What does RAW mean?
Darth Syntax 03-13-07, 02:13 AM	RAW stands for Rules As Written.
yossarius 03-13-07, 10:14 AM	Let me explain what I mean by straying from the published material. With my group, we haven't done any major adventuring in Thrane, although a couple of PCs and NPCs have been from there. The general opinion the players have gotton about the country is that the govenment is a benevolent theocratic dictatorship, which to me is in keeping with the written info about Thrane (although admittedly somewhat oversimplified). There may be individual priests that are corrupt, but overall the Church has the peoples' best interests (as they interprut them) in mind. But one of my ideas was to set the new story arc in Thrane, but have it be vastly different from the published material. Not geographically, but more like the political atmosphere, and the common man's relationship to the Church, etc. It may turn out that all the rumors their other PCs have hear were totally false. In a nutshell, I was thinking about adapting George Orwell's 1984 to be set in Thrane. That's what I mean by deviating from the published material. Not just sliding some cool stuff into a gap created by the material, but deciding that some major part of the material is simply not true, and exists only in the PCs (and by extension, the players') misconceptions.
goblin_pride 03-13-07, 10:28 AM	That's what I mean by deviating from the published material. Not just sliding some cool stuff into a gap created by the material, but deciding that some major part of the material is simply not true, and exists only in the PCs (and by extension, the players') misconceptions. I did that with the Kalkor and Marguul in Darguun. By making them allied with one of the Dhakaani factions it adds a layer of intrigue behind their raiding Orien caravans headed for Rhukaan Draal. I realize it's not much, but that's the extent of my variation from the canon. I suppose you could say that I buggered up that whole "agnostic" thing as well. I gave the Dhakaani religion, but I made it personal rather than state-sponsored. The philosophy of the Dhakaani won a place in the history of the empire and religion became more of an outcast, living on the fringes of the society, but the old gods are still worshipped to a degree in the remnant.
Darth Syntax 03-13-07, 03:54 PM	Perhaps one of my largest deviations is in reference to the Lord of Blades. There is a greater than 75% chance that there is no Lord of Blades, and never was. He is a myth, a carefully constructed piece of anti-warforged propaganda designed to make people fear them, and to drive them off to their doom in the Mournland. Their is an approximate 23% chance that the Lord of Blades is real, but is not a single entity. Rather it is more of an umbrella term for the leaders of the Warforged Nationalist movement. There is a 2% chance that the LoB is more or less as he shows up in the books.
Epicweaver 03-13-07, 04:10 PM	Thus far, I've been trying to run Eberron "as written," if for no other reason than I've never done that before. With previous settings, I've always used what I wanted and disgarded the rest. Eberron's been the first setting I've run where I didn't feel the need to negate something that was in a sourcebook. But, my players own some of these books, too. They do a decent job of seperating player and character knowledge. Still, it's hard to keep what you know from effecting your character's decisions in the game. So, I want to start a new story arc soon, where some major facet of life in Eberron is different than how it is published. I thought about a FR-like "Time of Troubles," but immediately discounted it as a bad idea. I'm still brainstorming on the idea. In the meantime, I was just curious how other groups have deviated from the published material. Meh... I started my current campaign in Outlands... which I don't even think exists in published Eberron... Also I think I've fiddled a great deal with the layout of Xen'drik (where the party went after escaping from Outlands)... but I guess that's okay considering it's a chaotic place.
DarthMidget 03-13-07, 05:23 PM	Uh, I have increased all the population figures by a factor of 10. I just think they are too low in RAW.
mhacdebhandia 03-13-07, 05:40 PM	The one change I definitely make is back to Keith Baker's original vision: the Blood of Vol is the majority religion of Karrnath. Now this means that Kaius III has disestablished the Blood of Vol as the national religion, but he has not proposed an alternative national religion in its place. He justifies the move as "recognising the increasing diversity of Karrnath in the modern era", and he's beginning the patient process of instituting social equality for those who worship the Sovereign Host, at least among the upper classes. In Karrnath, then, the Blood of Vol has lost a significant amount of temporal power but retains its spiritual primacy over the population. Accordingly, the hierarchy is learning to wield its influence through the people, rather than the government. This is all relatively independent of Erandis d'Vol's own machinations, which are turned to greater purposes than merely overthrowing Kaius III. The Order of the Emerald Claw paints itself as a religious nativist organisation, arguing that the Blood of Vol is the true faith of true Karrnathis and that the worship of the Sovereign Host is a vile foreign custom - an argument strengthened, of course, by the official theological position of the Blood of Vol that the Host are as evil and malicious towards the mortal races as are the Dark Six. Their acts of terrorism within Karrnath are generally xenophobic in character, directed against temples of the Host and other symbols of foreign influence. Then again, most of these actions serve some other purpose, even if it's only to act as a smokescreen or diversion from the Order's meaningful activities on Erandis d'Vol's behalf.
Darth Syntax 03-13-07, 06:00 PM	Ah yes, the population thing, it very much old hat around here, and I often forget that many of us have altered the populations. I also generally tend to follow the factor of 10 rule in regards to medium sized population centers, but for metropoli I tend to multiply by a factor of 10-25 (so as to create the proper population density). Sharn, for example now has about 5 million people, which better serves my image of the city being perpetually crowded, cramped, and busy. Small villages and the like often receive a smaller population multiplier.
Darth Syntax 03-13-07, 09:01 PM	The Order of the Emerald Claw paints itself as a religious nativist organisation, arguing that the Blood of Vol is the true faith of true Karrnathis and that the worship of the Sovereign Host is a vile foreign custom - an argument strengthened, of course, by the official theological position of the Blood of Vol that the Host are as evil and malicious towards the mortal races as are the Dark Six. Their acts of terrorism within Karrnath are generally xenophobic in character, directed against temples of the Host and other symbols of foreign influence. Then again, most of these actions serve some other purpose, even if it's only to act as a smokescreen or diversion from the Order's meaningful activities on Erandis d'Vol's behalf. The one internal problem I can see with this view is the idea of the Host being a foreign influence on Karrnath. Host worship seems to have been part and parcel of the Galifaran state; a state that is of Karrnathi origin. Now, this isn't to say that the Blood isn't strong in Karrnath (I can't see it being popular in many other places myself), but it is the foreign religion, having been brought in comparatively recently, and being of elven origin.
Splendide 03-13-07, 09:23 PM	My Trolanport is quite different. * The `flooded streets' part aren't flooded streets, the buildings float. There was never viable land there to begin with...these buildings were built as addons to the three long jetties that extend from the centre of Trolanport to service ships. * Secondly, a large part of the city is in tunnels carved into a cliff face. It looks a bit Monaco-like from the shore. * Thirdly, the tower of the Triumvirate that `towers over Trolanport' is in fact also carved into the cliff face with an add-on at the top of the cliffface, so while it looms over Trolanport when viewed from the sea, when people approach it from land they only see the top bit and don't think its too impressive...until they reach the cliff and see the sprawl of platforms, floating buildings and boats below. * I added a Brelish quarter, which is atop the cliff face. Most of the consulates and other official outposts are up there...all the industrial work is done off the jetties or the east bank, and most residential is inside the tunnels below. Oh, also gnomes invented crossbows, and you get the best crossbows from Zolanberg because they're such boring perfectionists over there (this last part may be Trolanport bias). Oh, and House Tharashk are heavily represented in Zilargo by the Velocine family of gnomes. The Velocines were the gnomes who `discovered' the Mark of Finding and over generations, most of the administrative work of the house across Khorvaire has been done by Velocines.
The_Robot 03-13-07, 09:40 PM	The one change I definitely make is back to Keith Baker's original vision: the Blood of Vol is the majority religion of Karrnath. Now this means that Kaius III has disestablished the Blood of Vol as the national religion, but he has not proposed an alternative national religion in its place. He justifies the move as "recognising the increasing diversity of Karrnath in the modern era", and he's beginning the patient process of instituting social equality for those who worship the Sovereign Host, at least among the upper classes. In Karrnath, then, the Blood of Vol has lost a significant amount of temporal power but retains its spiritual primacy over the population. Accordingly, the hierarchy is learning to wield its influence through the people, rather than the government. This is all relatively independent of Erandis d'Vol's own machinations, which are turned to greater purposes than merely overthrowing Kaius III. The Order of the Emerald Claw paints itself as a religious nativist organisation, arguing that the Blood of Vol is the true faith of true Karrnathis and that the worship of the Sovereign Host is a vile foreign custom - an argument strengthened, of course, by the official theological position of the Blood of Vol that the Host are as evil and malicious towards the mortal races as are the Dark Six. Their acts of terrorism within Karrnath are generally xenophobic in character, directed against temples of the Host and other symbols of foreign influence. Then again, most of these actions serve some other purpose, even if it's only to act as a smokescreen or diversion from the Order's meaningful activities on Erandis d'Vol's behalf. i like this, consider this *yoinked* in addition, i have some vauge ideas that may bring about the overthrow of King Kaius (i don't have 5 Nations with me at the moment, so remembering all the names and specifics is difficult). i'd like to find a way for Karrnath to become more power hungry than it already is, and i think something involving the above ideas about the Emerald Claw might prove useful... so far, i've been playing the published adventures and, besides ramping up the difficulty for a larger group of players who are also quite crafty and at least two of them are power-gamers (this is my first experience running a campaign ever), there have been some minor changes here and there. for instance i took Viorr out of Whispers of the Vampire's Blade and replaced him with my Fox Mulder/Splinter Cell agent/Wolverine (in the sense that he is under a permanent Fey enchantment that gives him a quick healing ability and makes him more or less immortal, he is the number one secret agent in Breland and the foremost authority on all things supernatural in the Citadel) agent NPC, Aton Thorne. the ultimate epilogue of the Forgotten Forge arc will change some things in Eberron (see below)... In a nutshell, I was thinking about adapting George Orwell's 1984 to be set in Thrane. -my biggest change is a plot that could well end up meaning an Orwellian like Thrane...behind the following cut is a lengthy description of how i have already changed the Church, and how it will affect my players and the world of Eberron i am creating. (Dan G, if you are reading this, stop now.) Darth_Syntax mentioned that in his Eberron Cardinal Krozen is a devout follower of the Flame, but not a holy crusader at all, and that he rarely if ever leaves Flamekeep. in my Eberron Krozen is portrayed more or less as written, execpt that he is the secret leader of the followers of the voice who worship the demon inside the Silver Flame. he hasn't always been this way, he was once the devout holy crusader he is pictured as in 5 Nations, but the Rakshasa Raja bound within the flame has been slowly curropting him. and now he is now totally under the demon's command. additionally, most of the Diet of Cardinals are followers of Krozen and cultists to the Rajah. they are slowly and quietly working to assassinate Jalea Daran, current Keeper of The Flame and install one of their own as the next Keeper so they can hold more power in Thrane, basically leading to what yossarius was saying about an Orwellian Thrane (a Thrane that will also want to expand its influence and the "Light of the Flame," most likely starting with their long time enemies Karrnath). while she has always suspected that Krozen and many of the members of the Diet of Cardinals were not as devout as they could be, and that she was disliked by many of them, Jalea did not become fully aware that they were all possessed by the powers of the demon until the warforged paladin, Church accidently overheard Krozen talking to one of his Cardinal followers and informed Jaela of the heresy (Church has an interesting backstory since Thrane still usually views all warforged as slaves). Church was the first of several agents that Jaela has installed outside the church to fight on her behalf, and the behalf of the Silver Flame (Tira Miron herself advised Jaela to take these actions as a plea for help dealing with the Rajah who was quickly gaining power within his prison in the Flame). these agents are all officially excommunicated members of the church, and most were members of The Order of the Templars. while they are known to the public as outcasts and heretics, the members of this secret order, called The Order of The Cleansing Flame, lead solitary lives outside the church structure and are all deeply devouted to the Silver Flame. it can be a painful and hard exsistance since they are hated inside the church and can not do anything that might jeprodize thier cover, such as ever enter a Silver Flame temple (which means they can't go to mass) or show any signs of their faith in view of the public at all. they work individually or in very small groups (never more than between 3 and 5) to bring about the end of any and all curroption within the church. the ultimate goal is to cleanse the Diet of Cardinals of all of those who are demon worshiping heretics, but while they are at it, they also attempt to do away with the un-devout, such as those priests who take bribes for forgivenesses, deal with curropt business leaders, crime bosses or political leaders, and any other member of the church who secretly (or not so secretly as the case may be in a place like Sharn) do evil while in the robes of Silver Flame. Jaela doesn't give any member of the Cleansing Flame direct orders, since doing this invites unwelcome attention from the Diet. once they are chosen by Jaela (or somehow find out about the curroption in another way and prove thier faith to Jaela), she tells them all about the Order of the Cleansing Flame and gives them her bleasing to join if they wish. once they do, they are allowed to work in secret as they choose to help the Order, either as paladins and warriors against the curroption or as spies for the Order. the Order secretly moves against all those un-devout while attempting to gain as much information about the Rakshasa trapped within the flame and the cult surrounding it as they can. they wait for the day that they recieve some sign from Jaela or the Flame itself to move directly against Krozen and his cult. the PCs have met Church once, very briefly. in an adventure i wasn't running, i played as him (shortly before coming up with his backstory and thus, all of the above). the adventure was meant to give the PCs reasons for being in Sharn and why they were all together so we could start the Forgotten Forge adventure the next session. in this first adventure the PCs were hired by a House Thuranni Shadow agent, posing as a rebellious young House Phiarlan heir who was a reporter for the Sharn Inquisitive, to help her investigate (and eventually assassinate) a Thranish diplomat who was a curropt member of the Church of the Silver Flame. as it turned out, Church and the PCs were lied to, the man was innocent and they murdered him and an entire squad of Thranish military troops the very day the Thranish Embassy was to hold an important summit between Breland and Thrane. so far this has only meant that the PCs have had a run-in with an overly obvious accusing government official from Thrane who filled them in on the details of the on-going investigation and relationship between Thrane and Breland, and that Aryndee, the House Thuranni Shadow agent from the "who kicks in the door," encounters in WotVB, had another reason to be after them besides gathering info on Lucan and the Soul Blade. obviously the murder will have a huge effect on the political situation between Breland and Thrane as well. after we have wrapped up the published adventures (half way through WotVB right now), i plan on re-introducing Church, and his monk-in-arms Brother Erastus and having the PCs join the fight against Cardinal Krozen and his followers. to do this i'm thinking of having the PCs hired by the Sharn City Guard to help them locate a serial killer. it would be a good change of pace, from the combat heavy published adventures, to an adventure filled with investigation and intrique and a chance for some real roleplaying. the serial-killer will end up being a Silver Flame priest that Church was also hunting. in the climax, Church and the PCs will confront and most likely kill him, and Church will come clean about his involvement with the Order, and plead for the PCs to help him since he can't shake the feeling that the moment of truth is soon at hand! if/when the PCs succeed in killing or turning Krozen, the Rakshasa will break free from its prison and murder Jaela. at this point, the PCs, with the aid of both Chruch and Erastus, will have to defeat the demon. obviously, this would competely cleanse the Flame, as the remaining souls would be Tira Miron and the Coatal who sacrificed themselves to trap this demon in the first place. i haven't decided if this will physically change the Flame or not yet. the fallout of all of this would be that a new Keeper be installed, and an interem secular government would be set up in Thrane while the Diet seeks to replace all of its dead or excommunicated members (i picture a civil war in the church between the devout and the heretics leading to many deaths, requiring a complete restructure or rebirth of the church). the new Keeper (probably Church in secret with Brother Erastus taking the public "figure head" roll) would choose to let this interem government remain and Thrane would become a secular nation. the church and its members will probably come out of this even stronger and more faithful than ever, since Tira, the Coatal, the Flame and its many devouted heroes rose up to defend the church against a powerful evil force. however, without the power of the Church, the new weakened government may prove an easy target for a power hungry Karrnath to sink its teeth into (see above)...heheheh. -after the PCs finish Grasp of the Emerald Claw, it will become public knowledge (due mostly to the fact that the PCs have been being followed by House Thuranni and House Phiarlan) that Merrix d'Cannith has been secretly attempting to retrieve ancient artifacts to further his experiments with warforged, and that Lady Elaydren d'Cannith of Cannith West has been helping him. once that happens, the PCs will have to lay low, Merrix will be offically stripped of his power, and control of Cannith South will be split between Cannith East and West. Merrix and Lady E. will become outlaws, and the PCs might escape judgement due to some outside help from the Citadel (this depends on a few things that have yet to happen however). shortly after this Zorlan d'Cannith of Cannith East will die under mysterious circumstances and House Cannith will finally be reunited under Jorlanna d'Cannith. Merrix may be angered that he no longer has a position of power within the house, but he is more than happy to lay low for a while and continue on with his work in secret. -The Illithids are extra-terrestrial and not extra-planar. i figure that the Quori and Daelkyr are enough extra-planar badity. plus, adding some aliens might allow me to add a touch of spelljammer or have fun with the actual physical world of the moons of Eberron (and thus, the Planes as well.) -oh, and King Boranel will probably die eventually too, thus throwing Breland into civil war and creating a very rocky sitution for all of the 5 Nations as they pick sides. think World War I, except instead of two nations suddenly going to war, its one nation fighting with itself and the other nations must decide which power within Breland is worth backing.
Korhal IV 03-14-07, 01:01 AM	I added Elminster.
syndalis 03-14-07, 01:25 AM	I have created a MASSIVE conspiracy which united many of the dragonmarked houses in a multi-nation coup to usurp the surviving members of the ir'Wyrnarn line, and forge a united Khorvaire under capitalistic principals. Talk about a major deviation!
goblin_pride 03-14-07, 01:30 AM	Perhaps one of my largest deviations is in reference to the Lord of Blades. I'm yoinking this for my own game, Darth. An excellent idea.
Darth Syntax 03-14-07, 01:40 AM	Hey, what can I say? I like a good conspiracy. Fluff change X: there are no 'dragon gods' in my version of the world and no reference to names such as Tiamat. The dragons generally are non-theistic, holding that the Prophesy is the only great cosmic force worth contemplating, which might make them more akin to pantheists or something of that nature. Any mortal reference to dragon gods is the result of a mistranslation of a title that is far more like 'great philosopher' than 'god'. In a related story, dragons rarely show themselves in their natural form and there are less than 13 people on Khorvaire who have ever even seen a dragon. The dragons are really more like mythic beings to mortals, everyone knows the stories, but few know anything that resembles the truth. -- Splendide, how are the buildings of Trolanport kept afloat? I am intrigued. However, I'm a Korranberg chap myself.
goblin_pride 03-14-07, 01:50 AM	Splendide, how are the buildings of Trolanport kept afloat? I am intrigued. However, I'm a Korranberg chap myself. It's a seaport town, the buildings are built onto and around the Docks and jetties. As the dockworks move out farther into the sea, the older buildings of wood are replaced by sturdier stone and concrete* buildings and foundations. Other buildings could be held aloft by elementals or built onto boathull foundations. *one of the wonders of the ancient Dhakaani empire in my game was the invention of concrete. As a result of the Zil conflict with the Dhakaani over much of their history, they also know the secret of concrete so the Zil can build out into the bays around their ports without the need for massive stoneworks and quarries. Naturally the Zil dress the facings of their construction heavily so that it doesn't take on the muted gray color associated with the featureless appearance of Dhakaani ruins.
Splendide 03-14-07, 01:51 AM	Made of wood, with soarwood floats underneath the bigger ones, same deal with the walkways between them. They're basically big houseboats. Also there's a gnome-made reef outside the bay to flatten out the waves At the outer points of the jetties, they're required to be moveable so that the ships undergoing repairs/construction can come in and out at the tides.
Darth Syntax 03-14-07, 02:10 AM	Thankyou sir. I was seeing Trolanport has being a series of artificial islands, canals, boat houses, and the like. I like the reef idea, it might also serve as a decent sea wall.
mhacdebhandia 03-14-07, 08:21 PM	The one internal problem I can see with this view is the idea of the Host being a foreign influence on Karrnath. Host worship seems to have been part and parcel of the Galifaran state; a state that is of Karrnathi origin. Now, this isn't to say that the Blood isn't strong in Karrnath (I can't see it being popular in many other places myself), but it is the foreign religion, having been brought in comparatively recently, and being of elven origin. It doesn't have to be true for the Order of the Emerald Claw to believe and preach it, though. Yes, humanity brought the Sovereign Host to Khorvaire from the Sarlonan nation of Pyrine. Yes, the faith of the Sovereign Host has always been strong in Galifar, and Galifar grew out of Karrnath. The Order of the Emerald Claw might argue, however, that the Blood of Vol is the faith of true Karrnathis, where Karrnath and Karrnathi identity are constructed as separate from and even, to an extent, opposed to historical Galifar and Galifaran identity. I think of the Order of the Emerald Claw as presenting a Karrnathi-chauvinist face to the world - the blood of Karrnath is strong, and other nations will always be lesser while they remain yoked to the monstrous Sovereigns.
mhacdebhandia 03-14-07, 08:36 PM	in addition, i have some vauge ideas that may bring about the overthrow of King Kaius (i don't have 5 Nations with me at the moment, so remembering all the names and specifics is difficult). i'd like to find a way for Karrnath to become more power hungry than it already is, and i think something involving the above ideas about the Emerald Claw might prove useful... It's trivially easy. So the Order of the Emerald Claw proclaims that the Blood of Vol is the faith of all true Karrnathis - and look, King Kaius III has disavowed the faith and all but placed his neck under the yoke of the Sovereign Host. How can a Vassal be King? If the majority of his subjects are loyal to the Blood of Vol, Kaius faces insurrection and civil war if he goes too far in distancing himself from the faith - yet he knows, all too well, towards which greater purposes the hierarchy strives, and at whose command. He must strike a delicate balance between freeing Karrnath from the darker influences of the Blood of Vol and alienating the faith and its common adherents entirely. I envision Kaius as a fairly pragmatic individual. He desires peace, and he knows that oppression of the Vassal minority within his nation will only harm his cause with Breland and Aundair. In fact, despite his personally excellent reasons to dislike and fear the Church of the Silver Flame (I mean, the church deposed his family in Thrane and he's a vampire!), I think Kaius would eventually try to better the lot of the Purified within Karrnath as well.
Daydreamer 03-15-07, 09:20 AM	AS i understand it, there is a strong suggestion within the campaing book that the 'real' kiaus is located in a prison in the lhazzar principalities. one could 'overthrow him' by freeing the real leader, this would actually be a way to potentially revolutionize the whole country, depending on what sort of man this dignity was. This isnt completely official, but the suggestion that is so, is quite strong.
mhacdebhandia 03-15-07, 09:25 AM	AS i understand it, there is a strong suggestion within the campaing book that the 'real' kiaus is located in a prison in the lhazzar principalities. Absolutely - Prisoner Deep Fourteen in Dreadhold could well be the real Kaius III. On the other hand, in my altered version of Karrnath, the majority of the people being faithful members of the Blood of Vol could well mean that they would accept - or could be convinced to accept - Kaius I openly on the throne in his true identity. After all, why would someone who believes that the undead are champions in the struggle against death object to such a figure of reverence as king? If his being (un)dead doesn't faze them, then he certainly has a prior claim to the throne as Kaius III's grandfather!
Daydreamer 03-15-07, 09:32 AM	it depends on how it would pan out. They may be upset at his treachery more than at his being an undead. the blood of vol i suspect isnt as dominant a faith there as the host in breland, or the flame in thrane. I got the impression that maybe only 70% of the ppl worship it, or less. I know how it was in the past, but now that things are open again.
mhacdebhandia 03-17-07, 07:29 AM	Well, what I'm talking about is my version of Karrnath, where the Blood of Vol is the dominant faith - now, the Blood doesn't rule a theocracy as the Church of the Silver Flame does in Thrane, but on the other hand it's also much more than the Silver Flame's seven hundred years old and has a correspondingly greater association with "Karrnathness". I agree with you that Kaius's lying about his identity would be considered a more serious problem than his being undead - in fact, I think his being a champion of the faith would add to his lustre as king. He would have to work hard to convince his subjects that he concealed his true identity because Karrnath was at war when he came to the throne as Kaius III, and he didn't want a succession crisis tearing the kingdom apart.
Darth Syntax 03-19-07, 01:35 AM	I am always a little surprised by the subtle anti-Kaius (or at any rate the Kaius-as-villain) sentiment that pops up. Kaius is the only monarch in the post-Galifaran world that I would even begin to trust. Boronel might be a decent man, but he is a weak king and has little taste for politics. Aurala seems too vain and focused on a kind of golden-age ideology. Only Kaius seems to have the will to really deal with the political realities of the current state of things, and we all know he is unafraid to get his hands dirty. -- I would like to report that this morning marked the complete removal of kobolds from my Eberron. Neither I nor my player (and co-DM) have made use of them nor do we have any plans to do so in the future. As they have no historical impact on the world they served no purpose. Their passing was not mourned.
Ramses III 03-19-07, 04:10 AM	I also use the BoV as the primary religion of Karrnath. Beyond that, I haven't really changed anything from canon. All of my NPCs have been of my own construction; I haven't used any of the ones from the books yet. Also not a major change but just an addition, I have the Order of the Emerald Claw largely under the control of one Karrnathi noble family, who seek to posit themselves as Kaius's rivals for control of the country.
KieKeN 03-19-07, 09:43 AM	The only thing that we changed are the traveling speeds and costs of the lightning rail and elemental vessals. Lightning rail is a little faster an a lot cheaper, (no more paying thousands of gp just to get to sharn). And airships are a lot faster than normal water ships. oh, and i added some mass-undead-creation related artifacts for vol to exploit. Probably in some misguided attempt to make herself a god, qonquer all of khovaire/araneal and make everybody undead & immortal.
Bingo 04-17-07, 10:01 PM	I turned Karnnath into one great big Ravenloft and Aundair into a magicocracy with Aurela as the chief of the ruling wizard's council. Thrane is a fascist theocracy with racism and everything, except the grand majority of the population of the nation are Khorovar- half-elves are seen, as natives of Khorvaire, as having a natural link to the spirit of the Flame (Mira paladin, or whoever, was, of course, a half-elf), and so, of natural and therefore superior morality. Elves and Humans are seen as almost as good, the others as pretty **** poor (with, you guessed it, shifters as the scum). I had fun making things a little darker for some nations. I feel a little unimaginative for Thrane (ho hum religious totalitarianism) but is was so much fun I couldn't resist. I liked the ideas of great Flame banners hanging from all the buildings. I haven't figured out what to do with Breland yet. Leaving a Victorian type nation would be ok- one sane nation at least, but I was tempted to make it dominated by huge corporations (Dragonmarked Houses) a la cyberpunk. Anyway, what I am really interested in is your shorthand ideas on how to imagine Breland or other nations, such as Zilargo or the Mror Holds. Thanks!
Daydreamer 04-18-07, 05:03 AM	published fluff is god. i try to never stray if i can avoid it.
davethebrave371 04-18-07, 12:30 PM	published fluff is god. i try to never stray if i can avoid it. Good thing you don't play FR or Greyhawk.
Deekin 04-18-07, 04:47 PM	As my DM said last session If the people who deveoped Eberron could see what I have done with the setting, they would slap me. We are currently in year 1008. Major Changes Olien- the big tree druid, was burned down by the Daughters of Sora Kell, who were in turn slain by the Guild of Heros. Eldeen Reaches have be reabsorbed by Aundier. The current set of PCs are trying to figure out an ancient prophecy that details who will become the next ruler of Korhvare, and fight the great darkness that will rise from Xen'drik. There are 12 options, and the PCs Think they have IDed most of them, and eliminated 2 or 3 of them. Jaela Daran is turning Flamekeep into an airship to Fly the Silver Flame to Xendrik to renforce another silver flame. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.
hecknoshow 04-30-07, 09:26 AM	I've made two changes so far, 1st, The drow in xendrik worship a shapeshifter god named Balkan,who is lycanthropic in nature(as is most of the priesthood) 2nd, I've added mecha although they are rare and not accesable to the pc's until higher level(not sure this was the best idea I've ever had)
The Ubbergeek 04-30-07, 11:58 AM	Good thing you don't play FR or Greyhawk. They have great material. ;)
davethebrave371 04-30-07, 10:50 PM	They have great material. ;) There are more conflicting statements between two FR or GH sources than between the works of de Sade and Jack Chick. And 3rd edition's "let's invalidate all previous novels (which are considered canon) which used the Great Wheel without really offering an explanation, not even a lame RSE" just put icing on why those realms are, in fact, forgotten by most fans.
Evilmonster 05-01-07, 12:48 AM	Lets see, Vol is a vampire and made Kaius a vampire in the usual way. (Really, what’s a lich gonna do with all that blood sent her way anyway?) The Blood of Vol, back way before the house of Vol, created the first vampires and vampires have always been the "noble" line of undeath. Powerful clerics of the Blood were turned into mummies, and that's where most of the world's undead mummies come from. The rites and spells needed to make both mummies and vampires have long been lost with the fall of the House of Vol. When the common people think of either they think of elfs, most not making the distinction between the deathless and mummy priests. Most people just don't know what the elfs are up to on their island nation, but are dame sure those savage, death worshiping foreigners are up to no good. So there's a lot of tension between the mainland and the island. The Reaches are pretty much the Scottish Highlands as far as feel, tone and appearance. Kilts for everyone! Everyone, regardless of which religion they follow, are concerned with what the “fair folk” are up to and lay both good and bad fortune at their feet. Eldritch consoles have recently been invented that let people operate many “techno-magical” devices (such as airships and the lifts in Sharn) with out needing to concentrate or contact the elemental within. I see these as huge devices (at least the more complex ones) which have runes, leylines and arcane symbols etched into bronze sheets which are broken or completed by adjusting dials and pushing buttons. Fine control is all but impossible, so you can’t safely land an air ship with on no matter how good you are at it, so it’s still a wonderful idea to have a dragonmarked pilot on hand, but he doesn’t need to be at the heel all the time. Drow are just dark skinned elfs with no inherent magical power. In fact, they don’t have much grasp of arcane magic at all. Xendrik was only discovered 1 year before the campaign began in is a huge mystery with all sorts of wild rumor and legends associated but almost no real fact. There’s more, but this post has already run way longer than I intended.
davethebrave371 06-04-07, 11:49 AM	In my game, a Karrnathi PC (a Marshal) who was not only a noble, but also a Lord-Colonel in the army and (by the time of the audience) Inner Circle Rekkenmark member has provided extensive information and evidence about Dal Quor, the Quori (of the Age of Giants and the current Age), Rierdra/Sarlona/Adar, the Chosen/Inspired and the kalashtar to King Kaius. The Royal Eyes and the Dark Lanterns are, in published fluff, the top 2 intelligence orgs in Khorvaire (with the possibility of Cyre having been up there, but it's never made clear). Thrane's org is detailed in 5N, but Karrnath's is basically not worth mention, as the Emerald Claw did a lot of that, and so they have lagged behind as (likely) the worst since Karrnath booted them. However, in my game, since that revelation, there has been a covert buildup of a second org devoted to psionics. Officially, since the audience with Kaius (and a plan formulated by the Lord-Colonel and the kalashtar PC that they presented to Kaius), the kalashtar are being persecuted, and the Regent and the King have offered their ears to the Inspired ambassador to Karrnath. For all intents and purposes, it seems as though Karrnath is a foothold for the Inspired. The kalashtar communities in Karrnath are, by and large, unaware of this as being a plan, so they fight back realistically against the Inspired, adding more fuel to the fire to call them terrorists, etc. The old Karrnathi intelligence org has been purposely allowed to be compromised by Rierdran agents and mind seeds, but the second (and secret) intelligence organization Karrnath is running is fully aware of all these infiltrations, and maintains both psionic and magical watch on Karrnath's primary intelligence organization. From a mechanical standpoint (and related to the above), I'm not sure if this is a deviation or not, but I don't use the Magic-Psionics Transparency that is standard in the XPH and CPsi. I utilize the "Psionics Are Different" variant, but allow them to interact to a limited degree through a detect psionics spell one level higher than the detect magic spell and a detect magic power one level higher than the detect psionics power. I think (not sure, don't have my books with me as I'm not at home) that the detect thing is standard for "Psioncs Are Different" and I wouldn't be surprised if the variant was core in Eberron...though I'd be equally unsurprised if the core psionics was core. I'm sure there's more I just haven't thought of yet...but those are the major things. Kaius is aware (and extremely paranoid when the kalashtar informed him that the conflicts with eventually led to a unified Sarlona under the Inspired began with the various monarchs and generals and leaders having nightmares and getting paranoid, which is exactly what happened to his father) of the Inspired and Dal Quor and the Dreaming Dark, and the connections between them all, and my psionics are different from magic. Oh, and despite all the interaction with Morganna and Kaius, they still don't know he's a vampire! :D Well, the players do. But the characters don't (and they're very good role players, so knowing setting secrets is a non-issue in my group).
Kalanth 06-05-07, 10:28 AM	I strayed away by adding Gunpowder and Cannons to ships (both air and sea). Sure, there are magewright cannons out there, and who doesn't love a fireball or lightning bolt streaking through the sky and destroying the enemy? But for those ship captains that coulld not afford those tools, the cannons do just fine.
mhacdebhandia 06-05-07, 07:24 PM	I am always a little surprised by the subtle anti-Kaius (or at any rate the Kaius-as-villain) sentiment that pops up. Kaius is the only monarch in the post-Galifaran world that I would even begin to trust. I think the best use of Kaius is as a tragic hero. He really does want peace and order for Karrnath, and by extension the rest of Khorvaire (lest a war even between two distant nations destabilise Karrnath in some way), but at the same time he has been compromised by his enemies (i.e. Vol, her inner circle, and the Order of the Emerald Claw) and has to lead a dangerous double life. If I ran a game centered around Kaius, the PCs would probably end up helping him break the grip of Vol over Karrnath (Vol herself, not the outer religion - as I said upthread, it's the majority Karrnathi faith in my Eberron) and then have to deal with a vampire king who has no secret enemy to occupy his attention. Who knows how Kaius might behave once the big threat to his nation has been silenced?
davethebrave371 06-08-07, 01:28 PM	My players' characters see Kaius as a just, kind and fair man, who knows when to take action and when to watch and plan from the shadows. I find that alignment aside, Kaius tends to evoke a measure of respect in players if you play him right.
Phobos 06-08-07, 02:56 PM	I do not believe in RAW. The sourcebooks are simply guidelines to assit me on creating a world from the ideas given. So, yes, I'd say we've strayed some...
davethebrave371 06-08-07, 03:35 PM	I do not believe in RAW. The sourcebooks are simply guidelines to assit me on creating a world from the ideas given. So, yes, I'd say we've strayed some... And, re: the thread title, how have you?
OctaviusIII 06-08-07, 08:08 PM	Well, I've established a kind of "good-guy" warforged nation in the Mournlands as part of my backstory. They're a pseudo-democracy like Iran, just militaristic instead of religious. (Also, I tweaked the government a bit to keep the kind of power feedback-loop that happens in Iran from happening here.) They're allied with the Druids of the Broken Path to clean up pockets of Mournland and have established a thriving town of refugees with enough open land to grow food for the fleshed residents. They're currently locked in an epic struggle with the Lord of Blades. I'm a warforged warlock with a Siberys Mark of Passage whose spirit was knocked into a newly-created body after I died. The knocking was done by demons that wanted to use me as an agent of evil, but the coatl that gave me the Mark "redeemed" me. The experience gave me my powers as a warlock (used to be a fighter). Mist elves stole creation magic from the giants and are trying to shepherd the recreation of the world. Coincidentally, one of the players is the Aspect of Destruction and will be doing the destroying part of the recreating. He'd be broken if he didn't roleplay the class so well. Speaking of which, the Dreaming Dark have managed to use him to open a rift to Dal Quor, which is currently being held off by an Elan and a Great Wyrm. Oh! And the Mark of Death has reappeared, along with the 13th moon. It's 25 years in the "future", Zilargo has been divided between Darguun and Breland, Sharn is turning into 1980s New York (a corrupt Deneith is doing city watch and uses Inevitables to track down offenders.) I think that's about it.
cykotek 06-09-07, 09:22 AM	Perhaps the biggest deviation I've made in my game so far is in regards to the Traveler. I've decided that, at heart, he used to be the 13th Daelkyr lord (in keeping with the 12+1 style of things). As he is the +1, he no longer concerns himself with engineering creatures or worlds, but has instead moved on to more ephemeral canvases for his work. He sculpts societies. The stories of meeting the Traveler on some lonely crossroads, to be given a gift, or told a story, or what have you is merely him gently nudging things in his desired direction. But, as in any grand working, things can go wrong, or the masterpiece may doesn't satisfy, so he begins again. Each new age is the Traveler beginning anew, trying to perfect his creation through mortal agents. The current age is coming to a close due to the outside influences of extraplanar entities interfering (I haven't decided whether the gates of Hell will open, the "true" Daelkyr return, the Quori reopen a gate, or what exactly the threat is, but the game is still young). Each time an age turns, the Traveler has, at the root, a single agent with which to begin things anew, the Traveler's Eternal Hero. While the bodies of the Hero change, the soul is always the same, carrying knowledge from past incarnations. The Traveler is restricted, like the other gods, in his ability to directly take part, so others have to do things like empower the Hero. Here enters the players to dance to the incredibly vague instructions left to them by history and the Draconic Prophecy (a tool of the Gods to the original caretakers of the world, though they have forgotten that, since hijacked by the Traveler for his own ends). And since I leave the Prophecy widely open to interpretation, there's lots of wiggle room for the players to find their own solutions, and have a chance to drive the bus, so to speak.
davethebrave371 06-09-07, 01:29 PM	That's a really interesting interpretation. I don't think I'd use it in my game, but I'd sure love playing in a game that uses it. It sounds really intriguing.
the_Conqueror_Worm 06-09-07, 06:01 PM	Like a lot of people here, I made the Blood of Vol the dominant religion in Karrnath. This has the effect of making the use of undead troops more acceptable to the general populous than it would be if the Host or Silver Flame were the primary faith. Indeed, making war heroes into the intelligent Karrnathi skeletons and zombies would become both a nationalist and religious honour. It also it allows for an expanded popular base for the Emerald Claw, whom I'm fond of using even divorced from the Lich-Queen herself. Kaius, whom several people seem to treat quite positively, is a ruthless authoritarian. His reaction to the Last War was akin to Hobbes reaction to the English Civil War. To stave of all this chaos and death, Khorvaire needs is an absolute sovereign to maintain order by means of overwhelming force. Karrnath is under Martial law, and had Kaius had his way, the whole of Khorvaire would be too. He considers himself the only one fit to rule, based on his own strength as a leader, but also his immortality. While he'd have to fake his own death someday, whoever replaced him would be little more than a puppet of his own choosing, so succession would never result in the sort of disputes that started the Last War. It wasn't until had not only become clear to him that victory was impossible, but that the war was beginning to undermine his ability to deal adequately with domestic threats to his rule, such as the Emerald Claw and some increasingly ambitious warlords, that Kaius began suing for peace in earnest. Though I didn't particularly regard this as a significant deviation, it seemed worth mentioning as it seems to contrast sharply with other impressions of Kaius. Edit: This isn't to say that Kaius is some brutal monster with a jack-boot on the throat of his people, or that he doesn't want some reforms that would benefit the general populous. His primary concern is order, on which he believes the common good, depends and that he considers himself the only one capable of maintaining that order reliably, and he's willing to do some deeply unpleasant things because he's convinced that the alternative is far worse. I suppose my biggest deviation is the creation of the Iron Legion, which is an organization of nationalist Warforged that don't embrace the genocidal extremism of the Lord of Blades, and indeed seek to oppose him. The Legion began as a company of warforged under Bulwark (who had not only become a trusted advisor to Boranel, but a general in all but title), proudly bearing the standard of the King who promised them freedom. As the war progressed the Legion developed a reputation, not only as a frighteningly powerful force on the battlefield, but as a symbol of the promise of liberation for the warforged. So, the legion began to attract defectors, independent minded warforged from the other nations and a large number of Cyran warforged who felt at a loss for purpose after the mourning. Bulwark seized on this, and began to build a network of contacts and allies throughout the warforged of all nations. Eventually he had organized a plan for a mass defection, at a key battle where forces from all nations would have been present, which woud not only have brought Breland victory in that battle, but shifted the balance of power enough that could have won the war and guaranteed the freedom of warforged throughout Khorvaire, had Boranel been willing to keep fightingt (or so Bulwark and the Legion were convinced). But the battle was never fought. The Treaty of Thronehold was signed, before any of the troops had been moved into place, and so the would-be defectors never had the support they needed from the Legion to escape their current masters, and the legion is disbanded as a formal military unit. So, the membership of the Legion find their fellow warforged condemned to slavery in Karrnath and Thrane, while in Aundair and Breland, they find they're feared and shunned by most and that the equality they fought so hard for is often scarcely worth the paper it's written on. So, there is now a pervasive sense of betrayal among many warforged, and most of the Legion come to think that the only way to be free is to build a society of their own. So, in my Eberron, the Lord of Blades and his followers are an extremist splinter group from these newly born warforged nationalists, and talk of the "great betrayal" put to good use in his propaganda. The Iron Legion name now refers not only to the members of the actual military unit, but the warforged who were/are their collaborators and allies as well. It's a large group of angry, militant, warforged with extensive military experience and a distinctly nationalist bent. Though generally centred in Breland (particularly in Sharn, where my pc's were conveniently based) it has members and sympathisers throughout Khorvaire. The disappearance of Bulwark has left them disorganized, and though the Legion is beginning to cope it's activity is limited to acting as "shadow-rail," opportunistically smuggling warforged out of Thrane and Karrnath where they can. The seeming inaction has lead to frustration and pressure to do something, anything, concrete and a slow bleeding off of the Legions membership has begun, both to disillusionment and, more troubling, to the Lord of Blades.
naturax 06-14-07, 07:02 AM	- Aerenal has absolutely no contact with Khorvaire and as a rule no one currently alive on the continent has ever seen a live elf. Valenar, previously inhabited by mostly human citizens of Cyre, was suddenly and brutally annexed by Aerenal days before The Mourning (and many do not think this was a co-incidence). All attempts to communicate with the elves have failed utterly. Half-elves are, obviously, completely unheard of. Substitute “human” for “half-elf” in any description of House Lyrandar or House Medani. Houses Phiarlan and Thuranni do not exist. All other canonically elven or half-even NPCs are human in my game. - Warforged are badly discriminated against everywhere, even in Breland. The Keeper of the Flame has declared that warforged do not have their own souls and warforged in Karrnath are literally treated as slaves. At least in Breland the government pretends to follow the Thronehold Accords with regards to warforged rights, but lately Councilor Nolan has gained enormous public support for his bill. - Changelings do not exist, period. The enigmatic criminal syndicate known as the Tyrants is rumored to be run by doppelgangers but no one has been able to confirm this. If doppelgangers do indeed exist they are masters at convincing everyone otherwise. - The Sharn Inquisitive serves to maintain the status quo and to voice the opinions of those in power. For example, much of the recent hatred and discrimination against the warforged is a direct result of venomous anti-warforged editorials published regularly in the Sharn Inquisitive.
OctaviusIII 06-15-07, 03:38 AM	Naturax's world sounds much more dark - not something I'd necessarily like to play on an epic scale, but I'd love to play it in a goons-for-hire game. Eberron Shadowrun!
the_Conqueror_Worm 06-15-07, 05:08 PM	- Warforged are badly discriminated against everywhere, even in Breland. The Keeper of the Flame has declared that warforged do not have their own souls and warforged in Karrnath are literally treated as slaves ... This is an idea I embraced as well, which is why the Iron Legion group I described in my previous post exists. It also makes the Lord of Blades seem, well, not sympathetic, but less overtly crazy when he claims that warforged and the meatbags couldn't never live in peace. Though, in my campaign I treated Sharn, and other major cities as more tolerant, assuming they hadn't born the brunt of any major fighting during the war, since I had a first time players choose to play a warforged artificer and didn't want to stifle his attempts to develop his character through actual interaction by putting him in a situation where pretty much everyone is going to react negatively, regardless of what he did. Unfortunately, it wound up being the case that the players only really went to places where they were isolated by wilderness, or in a place metropolitan enough to be reasonably tolerant, so the discrimination didn't come up much during play. - Changelings do not exist, period. I actually went the opposite route, and took out Doppelgangers. Mostly because they fit more easily into the standard system for making NPC's, and being generally less powerful, I can toss them in a little more freely than I might with a Doppelganger. I made changelings quite rare, so most people actually don't know they exist as anything more than rumours, urban legends, and boogey-men and if there's an organised group like the Tyrants, they're competent enough that even if the group itself were discovered, no one is going to know that that the organisation is made up of changelings. - The Sharn Inquisitive serves to maintain the status quo and to voice the opinions of those in power. This is basically the case in my game as well, not just for the Inquisitive but for all papers, though I didn't really give it any conscious thought. Papers are owned and operated by the upper classes, so it makes sense that the interests and opinions typically reflected are going to be those of that upper class. Not that it's an active propaganda outlet, but it keeps a fairly narrow range of public debate which in turn establishes what sorts of opinions are generally considered acceptable and reasonable in society at large. Of course, during the Last War every government worthy of the name had their Ministry of Information (or equivalent body) pulling the strings of the press. Naturax's world sounds much more dark - not something I'd necessarily like to play on an epic scale, but I'd love to play it in a goons-for-hire game. Eberron Shadowrun! I can't speak for Naturax obviously, but "Eberron Shadowrun" isn't a bad description at all of what I was going for. I was running my players through the series of adventures that begins with Forgotten Forge, so they really were just mercenaries. Hell, the players even self-identified that way. But, like most Shadowrun games I've played, the hired-gun bit was only temporary, a way to plant seeds for plots more centred on the characters themselves and their relationship with the wider world. Unfortunately, I ended my run before I could bring any of them to fruition.
Phobos 06-18-07, 09:13 PM	One of our players asked why Shifters had to be human. After much debate, we made the change that any playable base race that could be effected by Lycanthropy, could produce a shifter line. In order to compensate, we combine the original racial traits and the shifter, non-cumlative. For example: Dwarf: +2 con, -2 cha Shifter: -2 cha, +2 dex, -2 int Shifter Dwarf: +2 con, +2 dex, -2 cha, -2 int EDIT: Here are the others for FYI sake: Shifter Elf: +2 dex, -2 con, -2 cha, -2 int Shifter Half-Elf: -2 cha, +2 dex, -2 int Shifter Half-Orc: +2 str, -2 int, -2 cha, +2 dex We also wipe some agreed apon racial bonus of the original race during shift, such as skill bonuses, and racial bonues. Normally this is never in question as most folks don't shift, then try to work on a craft. For example, a dwarven shifter goes from darkvision to low light on shift. They lose their +2 stonecutting search check, apprasal check, craft check and stability. It is an odd combination on some, but the players prefer to play shifters as an affliction on an original race.
davethebrave371 06-19-07, 09:49 AM	One of our players asked why Shifters had to be human. After much debate, we made the change that any playable base race that could be effected by Lycanthropy, could produce a shifter line. In order to compensate, we combine the original racial traits and the shifter, non-cumlative. For example: Dwarf: +2 con, -2 cha Shifter: -2 cha, +2 dex, -2 int Shifter Dwarf: +2 con, +2 dex, -2 cha, -2 int EDIT: Here are the others for FYI sake: Shifter Elf: +2 dex, -2 con, -2 cha, -2 int Shifter Half-Elf: -2 cha, +2 dex, -2 int Shifter Half-Orc: +2 str, -2 int, -2 cha, +2 dex We also wipe some agreed apon racial bonus of the original race during shift, such as skill bonuses, and racial bonues. Normally this is never in question as most folks don't shift, then try to work on a craft. For example, a dwarven shifter goes from darkvision to low light on shift. They lose their +2 stonecutting search check, apprasal check, craft check and stability. It is an odd combination on some, but the players prefer to play shifters as an affliction on an original race. I actually like that idea, and a similar one for changelings'd make sense too...only I'd completely eliminate everything except ability scores from the "original" strain, and make them far more rare than the "human" versions. Why would they retain their stonecutting, etc after thousands of years as shifters and changelings? I'd let them keep the ability score bonuses for sure, but I think any "racial traits" are pretty much moot. But I do like the idea!
Phobos 06-19-07, 10:00 AM	Good point. I guess when we came up with the idea it was more along the lines of: "during the shift, more of the animal nature takes over than the core race" and thus the loss of use of some core racial abilities. However, when unshifted, they were still mostly (dwarf, elf, etc). As my son said, "he's like the hulk dad, he's still a scientist when he's normal."
davethebrave371 06-19-07, 06:59 PM	Good point. I guess when we came up with the idea it was more along the lines of: "during the shift, more of the animal nature takes over than the core race" and thus the loss of use of some core racial abilities. However, when unshifted, they were still mostly (dwarf, elf, etc). As my son said, "he's like the hulk dad, he's still a scientist when he's normal." Hahaha! That's good. I guess my point mainly stems from regular shifters not retaining the bonus feat and extra skill points of humans.
Lord_Madrigan 06-20-07, 02:16 AM	Changes i might make for a possable Ebberon Game The survivors of cyre gathered in stomhold after the mourning and are starting New Cyre. Since Cyre was locked out of the Treaty of Thronehold they are not bound to any of it's imposed Limitations. Cannith south is a major supporter of New Cyre and Merrix is in the prosess of Constructing a new Enclave in stormhold. A yet to Be Identified Faction staged a Massive Break out in Dreadhold. a full third of the "residents" escaped, most of them from the stone ward. That it for Now, I might think of more later.
naturax 06-20-07, 06:40 AM	I actually went the opposite route, and took out Doppelgangers. Mostly because they fit more easily into the standard system for making NPC's, and being generally less powerful, I can toss them in a little more freely than I might with a Doppelganger. I made changelings quite rare, so most people actually don't know they exist as anything more than rumours, urban legends, and boogey-men and if there's an organised group like the Tyrants, they're competent enough that even if the group itself were discovered, no one is going to know that that the organisation is made up of changelings. That is a really good way to go too. Basically I felt that if the existence of changelings was common knowledge then no one would trust anyone, ever. The entire world would have to have some complicated system of passwords or identification papers to be presented constantly and I didn't want to have to bother with that in my game.
DwarfPcfan 06-20-07, 09:50 AM	I tend to stick or change Fluff as the campaign demands (in other words unless a campaign is set into the same storyline as another, we simply revert to ECS from there) The longest campaign I ever ran was from level 3 to 10 (slow level up, very slow). The campaign was never finished because of problems with our schedules etc. However the game had several deviations from core eberrons: 1-My main villain was an Ultroloth wizard from Savarath who had invented an eldritch machine capable of stealing dragonmarks and granting them to any flesh born individual (meaning warforged were excluded), that scarier part was that he was himself carrier of a greater mark of the Sentinel (whom he'D stolen long ago from a Deneith heir) 2-the dragonmarked houses had more power then the ECS claimed, they could subtly manipulate goverments and public opinion thanks to massive ressources 3- To help player introduction I molded the nations of Eberron even closer to real world cultures. Karnath became much closer to Russian under the Tsars and the Kingdoms of Kiev. Breland became closer to Victorian England, Thrane absorbed traits from Rome, the Holy Roman Empire of Germany, Saudi Arabia. Aundair became a state similar to France, Venice and Italy during the Renaissance. Zilargo took definite Ottoman traits. The Mror Holds became a much like Japan and Strangely Scotland and Ireland during the later periods (as in clans fighting under warlords for supremacy, blood feuds, etc) 4-Dragonmarks were even rarer. 5-Warforged suffer significant rascism at large (a large number of people did'nt even consider warforged alive) That's just a few of the top of my head