Post/Author/DateTime	Post
lonewolf 03-06-07, 03:03 PM	Hi there! My groups old D&D campaign is coming to its end and I´ve volunteered to DM the next campaign, which I want to set in Eberron. None of the other players are familiar with the setting yet and they´ve asked to find a ingame reason why they dont need to read up on it before the campaign starts, but rather explore the setting while their characters do. At the moment I have two ideas how that could be possible: - All of the characters suffer from amnesia the moment the campaign starts. - All of the characters originate from the same really secluded village somewhere and never left it before the campaign starts. I´d rather stay away from the first idea because it was used by the other DM in the campaign were playing right now, which leaves the second. But finding a really secluded village with a good explanation why there are all the races the players might wanna play(which ones that are isnt sure yet) isnt as easy as it sounds. The one idea I was using right now is having them all come from Sarlona, perhaps from a small village that the Inspired ignored in the forging of Riedra. Unfortunately I couldnt get my hands on Secrets of Sarlona yet, but eitherway Im looking for a few ideas from you guys.
Nerdicus 03-06-07, 03:16 PM	You could have them from an unmentioned smaller continent and they were part of a large fleet of ships that were going across the sea to an undiscovered land for some special reason(Long term Plot hook here) but due to a huge storm at sea their ship was seperated from the other ships and they ended up in Q,barra(Great exploritory starting point) and need to figure out where they are. Use the original staring point where all the characters are from as your standard DnD fantasy setting with all the core races and shifters, Changers, Kalashtar but obvioucly no warforged. That way if someone really wants to be a warforged you hand them book and say, "Read up then." I have been running a solo game that uses this idea for someone who didn't know much about the setting yet as a means for they and their character to learn about Khorvaire together. And it's working fairly well. I also am running a different solo game with someone new to Eberron who is playing a citu goblin who grew up in the sewers of Lower Dura in Sharn and until the game started had never made it outside of Malleon's Gate. He too is learning about the setting with his character and that one is going really well. But yeah, the stranded on a strange land one seems to me to be the easiest for a group to be a part of.
Hopeless 03-06-07, 03:18 PM	Hi there! My groups old D&D campaign is coming to its end and I´ve volunteered to DM the next campaign, which I want to set in Eberron. None of the other players are familiar with the setting yet and they´ve asked to find a ingame reason why they dont need to read up on it before the campaign starts, but rather explore the setting while their characters do. At the moment I have two ideas how that could be possible: - All of the characters suffer from amnesia the moment the campaign starts. - All of the characters originate from the same really secluded village somewhere and never left it before the campaign starts. I´d rather stay away from the first idea because it was used by the other DM in the campaign were playing right now, which leaves the second. But finding a really secluded village with a good explanation why there are all the races the players might wanna play(which ones that are isnt sure yet) isnt as easy as it sounds. The one idea I was using right now is having them all come from Sarlona, perhaps from a small village that the Inspired ignored in the forging of Riedra. Unfortunately I couldnt get my hands on Secrets of Sarlona yet, but eitherway Im looking for a few ideas from you guys. Perhaps the first season should deal with them trying to cope with the fact their entire village has actually been moved by some freak accident and has ended up say for example in the Eldeen Reaches and their group has been assigned to explore and investigate to make sure the village is safe. The problem is if they hve amnesia how are they supposed to know what they can do? Are you planning on make them start at 0th level? You could reveal near the end of the first season that they were mindwiped for a reason and that they're not from somewhere else but actually survivors of some hideous awful event and the revelation is that they are a prison camp for villains who are irredeemably bad but can't be executed for some reason and the twist is that they're the only hope to save Khorvaire from something far worse! Remember just because they're not evil aligned doesn't mean they're not guilty... it could be they were sentenced there by the really evil person and as far as the world is concerned they're dead... so what happens when the world finds out they're still alive?
AntiSean 03-06-07, 03:54 PM	You may want to start the campaign in a small village near the Mournlands. Each of the characters either wandered out of the mists or were recovered from battlefields within the Mournlands by salvage teams. They were all in Cyre when the Mourning took place, but were rendered unconscious/placed in a statis effect by the event. This allows for them to have differing backgrounds as soldiers from the armies of different nations if you/they so choose. What event triggers their awakening, is it removal from the Mournlands itself, an event that takes place when their unconscious bodies are brought together, a visit from a mysterious stranger? Who else wakes up at the same time as they do? What are the connections? It mixes up the old 'amnesia' trope a bit, but still allows you plenty of hooks to hang plot threads on.
Splendide 03-06-07, 05:24 PM	Seren barbarians on a fishing trip. Big storms, landed on the Brelish coast.
The_Robot 03-06-07, 07:33 PM	You may want to start the campaign in a small village near the Mournlands. Each of the characters either wandered out of the mists or were recovered from battlefields within the Mournlands by salvage teams. They were all in Cyre when the Mourning took place, but were rendered unconscious/placed in a statis effect by the event. This allows for them to have differing backgrounds as soldiers from the armies of different nations if you/they so choose. What event triggers their awakening, is it removal from the Mournlands itself, an event that takes place when their unconscious bodies are brought together, a visit from a mysterious stranger? Who else wakes up at the same time as they do? What are the connections? It mixes up the old 'amnesia' trope a bit, but still allows you plenty of hooks to hang plot threads on. i was going to suggest that exact same thing, but you've put it way better than i ever could! as a an aside, you could pull from Hitchhiker's Guide, and have some group interested in the destruction of Cyre (Cannith, maybe?) attempt to probe their uncouncious for clues! also...the whole "remote village" or "unmentioned continent" thing is kind of a stretch for me...you'd think in such a magic heavy world like Eberron, what with it's Elemental-Powered ships and airships, that every corner of the world would already be explored (or in the process of exploration in the case of Xen'drik) and that anyone living in a remote region would have been effected at least to some extent by world events, no? plus, like in the example of the Seren barbarians, having all the characters come from the same village kind of cuts the fun out of character creation if you force everyone to be from the same area. even if that's the only restriction, you would think that any village that has a sizeable collection of mutliple races (enough to create PCs of however many different races) would have had to be somewhat exposed to the world, unless you also gave them the restriction of being all one race...the only benefit to this method that i can see is a very deep backstory between players, characters coming from such a small, remote area are bound to know one another and have already created some kind of relationship. that could make for interesting roleplaying, especially if they are just discovering the outside world. hmmmm...kind of killed my whole argument there at the end. woops. but, i guess really that idea only works if you have a group of really skilled roleplayers. that would never work in my game! a few of my players would probably do a great job, but the two or three other ones would totally find a way to ruin it i'm sure. i still like the Mournland idea better...adds mystery. which, is never a bad thing in Eberron!
Shady314 03-07-07, 04:19 AM	Hi there! My groups old D&D campaign is coming to its end and I´ve volunteered to DM the next campaign, which I want to set in Eberron. None of the other players are familiar with the setting yet and they´ve asked to find a ingame reason why they dont need to read up on it before the campaign starts, but rather explore the setting while their characters do. At the moment I have two ideas how that could be possible: - All of the characters suffer from amnesia the moment the campaign starts. - All of the characters originate from the same really secluded village somewhere and never left it before the campaign starts. I´d rather stay away from the first idea because it was used by the other DM in the campaign were playing right now, which leaves the second. But finding a really secluded village with a good explanation why there are all the races the players might wanna play(which ones that are isnt sure yet) isnt as easy as it sounds. The one idea I was using right now is having them all come from Sarlona, perhaps from a small village that the Inspired ignored in the forging of Riedra. Unfortunately I couldnt get my hands on Secrets of Sarlona yet, but eitherway Im looking for a few ideas from you guys. I may be missing something but I've never required players to know everything about the setting before they play characters. That'd take away a lot of fun and leads to them knowing things like Kaius' whole secret history. Just because the players don't know anything doesn't mean the characters need to literally know nothing. Even if you start in the most secluded village ever you will know SOMETHING. There's two simple metagame ways to handle this without trying to force an ingame explanation. Type up a simple single page primer of very basic knowledge they should know. You live on the continent of Khorvaire, a major conflict known as the Last War just ended etc. that's all a player/character needs to know. The second solution can be done in conjunction with this. Use those knowledge skills. When the characters encounter something make them roll appropriate checks and tell each person what he or she knows. They always knew it but it never came up before. Of course many things won't even require checks. Also it'd be a good idea to make sure your NPCs slip in a little exposition from time to time. If an NPC wants to talk about Boranel don't have him talk about "the old bear" or just say Boranel have him expound a bit on "Boranel the very old Monarch of Breland." And of course the PCs characters should always be asking questions. If you absolutely must have them literally know nothing they could be escaped slaves from Darguun. Born and raised there with no education but now escaped. Of course even then they'd know a little about Darguun.
Melvin the Mediocre 03-07-07, 10:28 AM	Perhaps the Inspired had an experimental monolith erected in a remote location in the Shadow Marches, Eldeen Reaches, or Q'bara. This monolith gave them complete mental control over a small nearby village. When a heroic Kalastar comes to the rescue, he manages to destroy the monolith and resulting explosion of psionic energy kills him and severely cripples the secret overlord. Now the PC's, like the whole town, feel as if they are awakening from a dream. Perhaps from time to time they have flashes of insight into their former lives, but those real memories of their childhood seem wispy and dream like. You could even start the campaign slightly before the monolith is destroyed giving the campaign start a sort of Matrix feel and see how deep that rabbit hole goes…
DarthMidget 03-07-07, 10:44 AM	I ran an Eberron campaign in which the PCs all started off on a small, uncharted island to the east of Q'barra. The island was populated by disparate refugees from the Last War who wanted nothing more to do with Khorvaire. This is where the PCs were born and grew up. As their parents hated the Last War, and what Galifar had become there was little talk about the Old Continent. That was until some raiders showed up, and slaughtered the PCs' families! Thus the adventure began...
Lancer2010 03-07-07, 11:24 AM	Maybe start the campaign as them finishing off a dungeon, but when they reach for the prize and FLASH! They're transported elsewhere, with no memories of who they are, younger, and only a memory of what they can do, and the feeling that they can trust the people around them. If you go with the season thing that Hopeless suggested, then reveal their memory of the item at the end of season one, then season 2 could be them looking for it again in order to restore their memories. Throw in family members, and old friends who say, "Jeez, I knew a guy who looked just like you when he was younger." Maybe family and friends will assume that they're illiegitimate kids of your PC's?
lonewolf 03-07-07, 02:03 PM	Thanks for your input! I ran an Eberron campaign in which the PCs all started off on a small, uncharted island to the east of Q'barra. The island was populated by disparate refugees from the Last War who wanted nothing more to do with Khorvaire. This is where the PCs were born and grew up. As their parents hated the Last War, and what Galifar had become there was little talk about the Old Continent. That was until some raiders showed up, and slaughtered the PCs' families! Thus the adventure began... I think this is the idea I like most, except the raider part. Has anyone other good ideas why the heroes are forced to leave the island?
Lancer2010 03-07-07, 02:08 PM	Thanks for your input! I think this is the idea I like most, except the raider part. Has anyone other good ideas why the heroes are forced to leave the island? Well, easiest way would be that they were forced. Maybe the local shaman or priest said they had a bad fortune about them and exiled them to save the island. This hook would raise the question, are they actually cursed, or did the guy just had a vendetta against them? If they go back to the island, will they unintentionally bring some kind of doom back with them? If so, how, disease, evil spirit, the party's main enemy? The other option is they were teleported accidentally. Maybe they walked into an ancient Gatekeeper spell ring that was used to quickly transport their forces from site to site during the Daelkyr attacks. Maybe a powerful but inept spellcaster showed up on the island, recalculated, warped back out, and messed up again and brought the players with him.
Hopeless 03-07-07, 03:27 PM	Thanks for your input! I think this is the idea I like most, except the raider part. Has anyone other good ideas why the heroes are forced to leave the island? Hold on a minute! What if their original bodies died and their essence was trapped? Trapped in what seems like an idyllic village they were suddenly returned however their time trapped has erased much of their previous lives and their bodies are not what they remember. As far as they're concerned the only possible answer is that they have been exiled for reasons unknown and the world they've arrived in is one they have no memory of and the only hope they have for an answer lies somewhere OUT there...
DarthMidget 03-07-07, 07:41 PM	Thanks for your input! No problem. I think this is the idea I like most, except the raider part. Has anyone other good ideas why the heroes are forced to leave the island? Well they could just up and decide to leave. A small village on a generally uninhabited island would be a pretty boring place for people in their late teens & early twenties! ;)
Setherial 03-14-07, 08:10 AM	I don't see why the characters your players play can't know the world just because your players don't. My players don't know all that much about Eberron but their characters do. When well known facts come up like the Last War, the Houses, Nobility, Religeon I just explain to my players, very short very simple, what is commen knowledge and this they can then use. If they have ranks in knowledge X they can even roll to check if their character knows more about certain stuff. This way they learn about the world from their characters as well as from travelling it. This, you all have amnesia has been beaten to death while it wasn't a good idea to use from the start. A far bigger problem is players who do know everything about a campaign setting and constantly nag that things are not as is written. Luckily I don't have difficult players and they know there is a world of difference between what they think they know and what their character knows. If their character has never seen a goblin they don't know what a goblin is. They might have heard tales of green skinned war like humanoids living far away in Darguun but when actually facing one they wouldn't know the difference between a Hobgoblin chainmaster and a goblin schoolgirl.
goblin_pride 03-14-07, 09:49 AM	If their character has never seen a goblin they don't know what a goblin is. They might have heard tales of green skinned war like humanoids living far away in Darguun but when actually facing one they wouldn't know the difference between a Hobgoblin chainmaster and a goblin schoolgirl. The plaid, pleated skirts are a dead giveaway. I wish the Hobgobs would quit wearing those already, it gets mighty windy in Darguun and that just makes being three feet tall that much more of a handicap.
Lancer2010 03-14-07, 10:19 AM	The plaid, pleated skirts are a dead giveaway. I wish the Hobgobs would quit wearing those already, it gets mighty windy in Darguun and that just makes being three feet tall that much more of a handicap. Why? Why do I read this boards while I'm in class? Some things it just takes a lot of effort not to laugh at.
goblin_pride 03-14-07, 10:58 AM	Why? Why do I read this boards while I'm in class? Some things it just takes a lot of effort not to laugh at. Sorry, didn't mean to cause you such discomfort. Although I have to wonder if you missed the point of all those "stay in school" messages you were bombarded with in your youth. I know they don't mention it, but it takes a bit more than just being there to make it worthwhile.
cancerousmango 03-14-07, 08:20 PM	Just use this to intro the players. I've heard slim to no complaints. (http://www.megaupload.com/%3Fd%3D9RGR16NQ)
cancerousmango 03-14-07, 08:22 PM	- All of the characters suffer from amnesia the moment the campaign starts. - All of the characters originate from the same really secluded village somewhere and never left it before the campaign starts. The amnesia idea sucks. I like the village one. It's servicable. Have them be from a backwater, like The Eldeen Reaches or Q'Barra, and have some extenuating circumstance force them into the larger world. Don't destroy the village, that's such a cliche.
Daydreamer 03-15-07, 10:04 AM	Sarlona really would be perfect, the evil rulers there are completely oppressive and actually quaruntine forieng civilizations. They are completely isolationist-so very little would be known about the outside world too residents. This might be too much baggage however. Another option is that some small communities of immigrants from Sarlona have set up in plays like Breland-these communities would perhaps not be completely ignorant of the surrouding world, but mostly so, and they would be reasonbly isonlationist. (it is worth noting these communities would NOT be run by the quori in all likelyhood it would be immigrants tryin gto get away from that). the pcs would probably know a little bit, but not much of the surrounding world. Pcs from the Eldeen reaches might know a good deal about the world of the druids, but little of the rest of the world. If your willing to push this further, some good barbarian sects exist in the demon wastes and hunt demons, they know only of the ancient evils but like literally nothing of the surrounding world-perhaps some of them (they have paladins clerics wizards 2) have explored the greator world. those are some possibilities. Qbarra works as well.
Jimmifett 03-15-07, 04:28 PM	IType up a simple single page primer of very basic knowledge they should know. You live on the continent of Khorvaire, a major conflict known as the Last War just ended etc. that's all a player/character needs to know. I thought that there was both a dragonshard article and Player's Guide to Eberron specifically for this
bertman4 03-15-07, 04:48 PM	How can your players and characters know nothing? How are they even going to pick a race to play? I would rethink your assumptions. That said, if they all play non-warforged, you could say that they all are descendants of those who fled Eberron during the Lycanthropic Purge (832YK to about 880YK) by the Silver Flame. A recent Lamannia manifest zone has allowed the curious descendants to enter Eberron. They could be shifters (most likely) or any of the other races that existed during 832. Non-shifters could have been family members (husbands, wives, etc.) of shifters who decided to flee with them. Or they could be descendants of others who became trapped on Lamannia. It might be possible to introduce some ECL+ races, such as Genasi (elemental descendants), to the campaign. Bertman
Shady314 03-15-07, 09:04 PM	I thought that there was both a dragonshard article and Player's Guide to Eberron specifically for this Did you mean "So it begins"... or "What do you know?"... all the dragonshards have given us good info on Eberron but are aimed at DMs. PGtE is an entire book and he said his players don't want to read any of the books. Plus PGtE is a horrid Player's Guide anyways. I'm talking about a quick one page of the most basic relevant information a citizen of Khorvaire would know. Names of the nations on the continent and what the DM houses are etc.
Egosponge 03-27-07, 03:52 PM	In a campaign I recently ran, I had the players (a third level halfling rogue and a second level catfolk bard(+1 ECL)) start off in a guildhall, being addressed by a guild officer as initiates. The officer started off by welcoming them, and giving their initiation task. The party's task was to go north from the city of Sharn to the villiage of Woodhelm and investigate goblin raids. The villiage was a small farming villiage a couple days north, though on the actual Eberron map, 1000 miles...but I felt free to change the rules. As with the changing of the map, I changed the write ups of the goblins. I made two kinds, a 3rd level goblin rogue, and a 3rd level goblin fighter. I rolled stats, gave them skills and feats, and used those as the basic goblin character. I had the players reroll one 1 from each ability they rolled for, and gave them a seventh roll, which would then take place of the previously lowest stat. The party of two arrived at the town, though on the way robbing a caravan of its belongings....which was completely unexpected..., and they stayed at the inn, which was paid for by the guild, and ate, which was paid for out of their own pocket. The halfling stuck some catnip into the catfolk's food, and for 1d4(3) hours later, the catfolk was high, granting him +1 on spot, -1 on concentration, +1 on AC, -1 to attack. After eating, the party went to the town's church, which was a church of the Silver Flame. There, they got debriefed, and given some Tablets of Cure Light Wounds, a variant I made up that made healing a move action that didn't provoke an attack of opportunity. The tablets were paid for by the guild, again as part of the whole initiation thingy... They waited there till nightfall, for the goblin raiding party, 4 goblins, and then attacked. They killed three of them, and left one alive (unconscious), and after the battle, they took the one left to the church for healing and interrogation. They found out where the goblins were stationed at (an abandoned fortress 30 minutes out of town, to the west) and that a Hobgoblin was their leader, through tyrrany of course. The Hobgoblin who I named Rhahk'zor...(what? it was a last minute name!). was again a customized character, a total CR of 5. He was a 1st level barbarian, 2nd level fighter with 3 18s (strength, dexterity, and constitution). He had a feat that gave him and additional +2 strength, at the expense of a -2 AC, and he wielded a golioth great hammer, which did 1d12+8. needless to say, the boss fight was going to be difficult. back to the story though... The goblin that the party interrogated wasn't there by choice, and decided that he was going to help them fight and kill the Hobgoblin. The goblin was named Rin, he was a fighter who used a scythe. I played him as a PC (keep in mind you cannot metagame think while using a PC while being the DM...it's tempting, I know.). The party cleared the castle's outside patroll groups (3 sets of 3 goblins...a rogue and 2 fighters) . After doing that, they went inside, and cleared its floors and rooms. It had a main floor, a basement, and an upstairs (the upstairs was where the Hobgoblin was at, along with the treasury). After fighting all the baddies, the party went up to fight the big man, along with 2 fighters. This battle was challenging...very challenging. The party almost wiped 2 or 3 times here, a couple lucky rolls saved the day...or the night...(at this time, it was about 5:00 IRL). And now for the treasury! the treasury had 6 chests, 3 were empty, and 3 had either one weapon, one armor, or 1 ring. The weapon and armor were custom rolled for each character. The Hobgoblin had nothing on him except a book that he was reading...A Manual of Wild Talent. The book worked just like a manual of health, or gainful exercise, it would be a useless book once it was read. Upon completion of reading, the book would grant the character the Wildtalent feat, and 2 power points. After all was said and done, the party gained enough Exp to level and then some. The bard took a level in fighter, took two weapon fighting and is working on becomming a lasher (prestige class from 3.0 that focuses on using whips/whip daggers) and the rogue continued in rogue and later is going into thief acrobat. The NPC might go into psychic warrior if neither of the characters want the book. To avoid overpowering, I'm going to change the feat Psionic Strike to deal 1d6 instead of 2d6, and the Greater Psionic Strike will do 2d6 instead of 4d6. The next step in the campaign is that the characters will go back to Sharn, rest up, and then get contracted to head over to the Half Orc area...I think it's called the Shadow Marches...but i'm not sure. Either way, it's going to have more of an Oriental feel to it, which is perfect since i've been trying to find a way to use my Oriental Adventures book...because I haven't been able to find anything that allows use of Samurai, Ninja, or Shugenja. I'm not sure what's going to happen over there yet, maybe something to do with Oni spirits... who knows. but yeah, I know this is long-winded...but you can feel free to use any of my ideas that i've written down for anything you wish.