Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Naicin 03-21-05, 07:54 PM	I play Dragonlance but i want to also run a second setting, im not sure wether to choose from forgotten realms or eberron or just run them both, i would like though your thoughts on forgotten realms and eberron.
BrianCritchley 03-21-05, 08:32 PM	depends what your looking for in a setting really, FR I suspect would be easy to.. adapt to.
Lord Karsus 03-21-05, 10:17 PM	Why Forgotten Realms? Good question...I'll give you just a few "perks" of the Realms... (1) Epic History -The Forgotten Realms have, I feel, the most drawn out and interesting history, more so than other WotC campaign settings. In the early days, there were great empires of Yuan-Ti, Elves, Dragons, Dwarves, and even Humans. Many, many relics of lost ages lie all around the world. (2) Gods/Goddesses -The FR Deities are just plain great. For one thing, there are a lot to choose from. They all, for the most part, have well developed and interesting personalities. They suffer internal and external conflicts and seem Human-like (or Elf-like or Dwarf-like...) (3) Great Characters -I don't care what anyone else says. The Forgotten Realms have the best characters. No one is immortal, and each has their own faults. Personalities range the gamut, from the comical (I feel) Malik, Chosen of Cyric, to the cold and calculating Gromph Baenre, from the famous Drizzt Do'Urden to the Greatest Arcanist, Lord Karsus of Netheril. (4) Plots -Many many plots swirl around Faerun. Recently, Lolth has gone silent, and the Netherese Enclave of Shade has returned to the Material Plane. In the past, Gods have been stripped of their power, dark organizations have had bloody power struggles and mad wizards have even stolen the power of the Gods themselves. Overall, should you run a FR campaign, I think you would be greatly pleased...
Shemeska the Marauder 03-22-05, 01:34 AM	Could always go 3e Planescape and not have to choose between either. Pick both. http://arcanofox.foxpaws.net/shemmysmile.gif If I had to pick one though, I'd pick FR. I adore the world.
Meta_FR_DM 03-22-05, 03:02 AM	I would pick Eberron. It's a huge setting (bigger than the current published Realms) but with much, much less a developed area (in terms of sourcebooks written about it) than the Forgotten Realms. This means you have plenty of open space to work from scratch on; you can find the general theme for an area several hundred square miles in size and then do whatever the heck you want to it. On the other hand if you prefer well developed settings, you just can't get any better than the Forgotten Realms. Having a bunch of still-useful second edition Realms products available for download for free (on Wizard's website) doesn't hurt either. Dave -who likes them both- M.
Misrani Karaquazian 03-22-05, 05:01 AM	Well, there's still some pretty undeveloped areas in the Realms as well. Not much has been written on the Border Kingdoms, for instance, and there's a lot of territoy there. Even some places like the Shining South which have material on them leave plenty of room for people to do what they like. Plus there's the advantage of flexibility, going from a well-known area like Waterdeep or the Dales into someplace less know, like Murghom or Tashalar. If you get tired of the familar, go to the unkown and vice versa. Also, I feel the Realms offers a good baalnce in having a setting with legendary, powerful characters, yet the players still feel like they can leave their mark.
rob4 03-22-05, 10:22 AM	It just depends on what you're going for. FR is closer to what you're probably used to with Dragonlance, so if you're looking for something easy to adjust to, that's probably the way to go. If you're looking for more of a change of pace, then go for Eberron.
Naicin 03-22-05, 03:23 PM	i really dont think that eberron is bigger than forgotten realms, i think forgotten realms is the biggest setting compared to them both and the biggest one i have ever seen.
Zevox 03-22-05, 03:30 PM	It's a huge setting (bigger than the current published Realms) but with much, much less a developed area (in terms of sourcebooks written about it) than the Forgotten Realms. This means you have plenty of open space to work from scratch on; you can find the general theme for an area several hundred square miles in size and then do whatever the heck you want to it. Are you certain? Take another look at the world map in FRCS. Now, I'll grant you that I've never seen a map for Eberron, but theres entire continents worth of space that is currently unknown in the realms, along with several continents that have little more info on them than just names (comparatively at least). Plus Faerun alone is no small place by any measure. I'll admit that its entirely possible that you're right, but it just sounds hard to swallow for me. Zevox
Meta_FR_DM 03-22-05, 08:47 PM	Obviously both Game Settings are huge. There's no denying that. But if we look at the current amount of Third Edition material published for the entirety of both worlds, we see that Eberron has a leg up as far as details go for all its continents. Whereas the Realms has about one half of one super-continent covered in exacting detail, and little else. If Naicin wants to use the older 2E stuff, he can include Zhakara and Kara Tur and Maztica. But in my opinion all that 'earth-equivalent-by-region-material' combined just isn't as good as Eberron's four large continents, which are all tied together with a common history that was developed precisely to not be an echo of Earth-like civilizations. And it's at least 3/4's of the way undetailed, meaning Naicin can go in any direction he wants without needing to worry about his player's predisposed opinions of what "should" be there or having to re-write published lore to suit his campaign. Dave M.
Rezel Darkbane 03-22-05, 08:53 PM	I would suggest reading some of the novels to get a feel for Eberron. I think there are at least 2 on the market right now. I just finished The City of Towers and was less than impressed.
Nightsinger 03-23-05, 07:00 AM	I would suggest reading some of the novels to get a feel for Eberron. I think there are at least 2 on the market right now. I just finished The City of Towers and was less than impressed. On a related note: I have just finished reading an xerpt of "Marked for Death", one of the Eberron novels. It made me scan through the sourcebooks available, and so far the only thing that peaked my interest was the "Living Spell" template. Everything else just seems so...watered down. No offence meant to Matt Forbeck (author), but I perfer some meat with my meals... Singer
BrianCritchley 03-23-05, 09:43 AM	But in my opinion all that 'earth-equivalent-by-region-material' combined just isn't as good as Eberron's four large continents, which are all tied together with a common history that was developed precisely to not be an echo of Earth-like civilizations. I've said it before of other settings and I'll say it again here. anyone who figures that the regions in FR are just earth equivilants displays a lack of true understanding of the subtalties, and the depth of the realms and does NOT give the writers credit.
Lashan 03-23-05, 03:05 PM	I would agree with Meta_FR_DM. Do you want a lot of undefined areas to change things around as much as you want? Or do you want a lot of depth, history, and local color already created for you? If you want a game world that you can still monkey with and add in cities or countries with little fuss, then try Eberron. It's still new and getting it's feet wet. If you want a game world that has a lot of detail in types of beers, different cultures, detail on the religions, etc, then try FR. You can play at any point in the FR history and can easily ignore any event that you don't like, but there is a lot of material to go through. I find that life is very busy and I don't have time to come up with a lot of material. There are many FREE download products that have not just names of taverns, but a fair amount of detail as to what those taverns are like and price lists for what they serve. This is immensly handy for a DM who is always asked odd questions by the party (So, do they have any dwarven ale here?). Sure, there are areas of FR that aren't detailed and you can still change things around pretty easily, but if you LIKE the openness of a game world, then you might be happier with Eberron.
WizO_BigSister 03-23-05, 05:19 PM	Please people remember you aren't allowed to get into literary criticisms on these forums. It's fine to refer to a novel as a source of information, but it isn't fine to get into how well a novel is written or how good the author is. Thanks.
WizO_BigSister 03-23-05, 05:21 PM	I've said it before of other settings and I'll say it again here. anyone who figures that the regions in FR are just earth equivilants displays a lack of true understanding of the subtalties, and the depth of the realms and does NOT give the writers credit. I'll add to this ... with one or two exceptions, the game designers have actually asked people not to try and match FR region to Earth region and/or period in history as it just leads to a narrow and distorted idea of what Faerun regions are actually like.
Meta_FR_DM 03-25-05, 02:14 AM	I've said it before on other forums and I'll say it again here. anyone who figures that taking factual generalizations about FR out of context in order to make judgements about another person's gaming knowledge displays a lack of true understanding of the subtalties, and the depth of that person so judged and does NOT give them credit. Dave –who’s thinking about retaining legal council if this keeps up– M.
WizO_BigSister 03-25-05, 08:28 AM	May I make a request? Please if you see a generalised comment realting to a hypothetical group of people don't take it as a personal insult. This applies to comments on both sides of a debate. *Sprinkles loads of Fairy Dust Of Sweetness And Light™ over the thread* Now I'll return you to the discussion about the pros and cons of The Forgotten Realms and Eberron
Lord Karsus 03-28-05, 12:04 AM	I've said it before of other settings and I'll say it again here. anyone who figures that the regions in FR are just earth equivilants displays a lack of true understanding of the subtalties, and the depth of the realms and does NOT give the writers credit. Well, yes, all of the FR's are original creations, Except for Mulhorand. The Imaskari abducted them, and it is safe to say, because of the similarities, from Egypt (Handy too, to explain where their civilization disappeared to). Much of their culture is Egyptian (Religion/Architexture), but much of it is original too, since they adapted to Faerûn and became a people of their own.
Meta_FR_DM 03-28-05, 03:36 AM	...if you see a generalised comment realting to a hypothetical group of people don't take it as a personal insult. So if you qoute someone, you're not talking about them or to them, just hypothetical versions of them? Sure, whatever. :rolleyes: Another advantage to Eberron over the Realms is that when you come to the Eberron Forums your less likely to have your head handed to you by setting fanboys and the WizOs who back them up. Dave M.
SammasterT 03-28-05, 10:28 AM	Well, lets see .... I know FR fairly well, don't know Eberon well at all, and have a passing famliarity with Dragonlance and Greyhawk. Personally, I don't need a world to play in. Im a DnD fan, not an Eberron fan or a FR fan. Okay, okay I am an FR fan, but not an evangelical FR canon thumping zealot. I'm Anglo-Saxon afterall, and embrace the God-given rule of precedent and the primacy of locality. I like to be inspired by the real world, and not being from Alpha Centuri, really see no other source of inspiration. All worlds will reflect real world Earth culture/s to some degree. Star Trek stands as a perfect example of how "vastly different" species, are in fact little more than characatures (sp?) of human beings, qualities, and cultures. FR has alot of Real World parallels, enough to lay out the red carpet for people to draw comparisons. At the same time however, it is unique unto itself, filled with elements and evolutions that simply are not present in earth history and seem really strange from that pov. Anyway, if I was to DM a second campaign I might want something different from my primary campaign. So, Eberron is different. Its also precision tunbed for 3.5 ed, the Flagship, for whatever thats worth. If I would rather stick with the more familar, then, as a DM of Dragonlance, I would probably go FR.
Lord Karsus 03-28-05, 09:54 PM	Another reason for the Forgotten Realms over Eberron is the level of detail that the Realms have. Check out this (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=401061) forum, which is on Elven words used in the Realms. The level of detail is amazing. From having done so (too) much research about the subject, this shows how the Realms have meticulous detail behind all of their ideas. I am not saying Eberron does not...I've never played it, and truthfully, never will. The Forgotten Realms have almost twenty years of thought behind them, which spurs vivid details about all aspects of life on Toril.
SCMrks 03-29-05, 11:08 AM	When I was planning my current 3.5 campaign I also considered both FR and Eberron. I bought the Eberron book and read it a few times before I picked which world to set the campaign in. Eberron had alot of different ideas. For instance, I liked the Lords of the Dust as enemies for my players and I liked how gnomes were more scholarly and less annoying pranksters. But Eberron had other ideas I did not like such as the elves venerate a form of undeath and even tattoo themselves to look like a corpse, or the elves are blood thirsty warriors who want to fight everyone whereas the orcs are the druids who saved the world, and the availability of magical technology and living constructs gave me more of a Star Wars feel then Lord of the Rings. I found it easier to use what I liked from Eberron in a FR campaign then to change what I didn't like in an Eberron campaign. The two worlds have two different feels to them and to pick which world to use just decide what kind of feel you want to play in.
DollNamedSanity 04-22-05, 03:08 PM	From what I hear (and am glad to hear), most of the fanfare has been amied at FR. I am a very big fan of FR and also do not know too much about Eberron, which I think is the main point. Eberron is still a VERY new edition to the D&D family, it has not yet been given the chance to branch out and create a flavor all it's own. Given a few years and a couple new authors I wonder what this thread will look like later on down the line. My guess would be a lot more bloody.
Rouge123 04-30-05, 05:04 PM	well, i'd have to say for one (i just purchased the campaigne setting today and i haven't gotten a chance to use it yet i still have to read up on it more) but what drew me in was the major magical aspect. Everything from runes to being able to create portals to different planes. and being able to play as a drow or a half elemental (i forget what their called). It's a real differenc from standard dnd. :dice:
Another Gnome 04-30-05, 05:46 PM	I like Eberron - not that I've ever looked at the stuff, but since its release there's been far less complaining about Forgotten Realms having too much magic everywhere. :D
Preternatural 04-30-05, 06:58 PM	Yeah, it's just changed to complaining about the amount of high and powerful magic in the Realms and how Eberron utilizes magic in a more logical way.
DollNamedSanity 04-30-05, 10:14 PM	Does anybody remember the alternate plane rules in 2e which had tables for the amount of magic and the amount of technology in the world (where if you went to a world of low technology your weapons would lose their masterworking because the metalworking hadn't advanced that far?) Eberron kinda reminds me of that. A world with high magic and pretty high technology.
Another Gnome 05-01-05, 03:50 AM	Yeah, it's just changed to complaining about the amount of high and powerful magic in the Realms That's when you throw Epic Level Handbook at them and escape the scene. Eberron utilizes magic in a more logical way. This I'm unable to comment on. However, when they first talked about Eberron at the WotC site, it sounded like the new kid in town would become the new "dump" setting (as FR was under TSR) where anything goes, which is the perfect opportunity to do a spring cleaning in the Realms and shake off some of the aspects of the setting dragging behind in the past. As far as I'm concerned, the new cosmology should be just the beginning! :evillaugh
Thig 05-01-05, 12:46 PM	A COMPLETE de-rail of the current train of thought: Go to Ravenloft. All you need to buy is one Gazetteer - whichever one contains the domain of your choice - and play there. Small, easy to try out new ideas in, and if your characters blow the world up? That domain goes boom. No harm, no foul, as far as your established campaign is concerned.
Preternatural 05-01-05, 03:56 PM	That's when you throw Epic Level Handbook at them and escape the scene. This I'm unable to comment on. However, when they first talked about Eberron at the WotC site, it sounded like the new kid in town would become the new "dump" setting (as FR was under TSR) where anything goes, which is the perfect opportunity to do a spring cleaning in the Realms and shake off some of the aspects of the setting dragging behind in the past. As far as I'm concerned, the new cosmology should be just the beginning! :evillaugh Yeah, Eberron seems like it would be better at absorbing all the random ideas the company comes up with. It was designed to accommodate everything and anything that WotC puts out for D&D. I would love to see some great upheavel reshape the Realms, into something more along the lines of what Ed Greenwood originally envisioned perhaps. Some of the Realms are great, original and work really well together, and we can see Ed's hand in that, as well as the creativity of the multitude of other designers. But from these boards and other sources we can see that TSR tossed a few 'new' things into the Realms, and some of them don't quite mesh too well. The resurgence of the Imaskari, or the Sarruhk or even Ao clapping his hands and saying "Let it be!" could cut away some of the "other" stuff and give us a leaner, meaner Realms. I vote for which ever group or being was originally envisioned as being the biggest, baddest #%$& in the Realms. Of course this will probably never happen, and will likely divide the FR community into two, those who love it and those who hate the loss of some elements developed over 20 years of history.
Zedharutiathais 05-03-05, 10:27 PM	A COMPLETE de-rail of the current train of thought: Go to Ravenloft. All you need to buy is one Gazetteer - whichever one contains the domain of your choice - and play there. Small, easy to try out new ideas in, and if your characters blow the world up? That domain goes boom. No harm, no foul, as far as your established campaign is concerned. Or you could just take the next step and jump into a CoC game. ;) I recently bought the Eberron campaign setting. . .it reminds me in many ways of the D&D movie that came out a few years ago. I'm reserving judgement. . .but, c'mon. . .you SAW the movie.
DollNamedSanity 05-03-05, 10:33 PM	I'm sure somewhere along the line there has been some weave-ins of different game worlds with FR, things from GreyHawk (Mordakeinen spells), Dragonlance and the like. I wonder what will happen when things (inevitably?) start to bleed over to and from Eberron. I don't suspect any major changes: any world bleedover has never had major changes, but a story about a Warforged in Faerun might make an interesting bit. (Is he a half-golem? Did the Ruathim originally make the warforged and it bled over to Eberron from Faerun?) Just a thought.
Jacilla 05-04-05, 01:49 AM	Eberron vs FR? I run two campaigns, one in Eberron and one in FR and what I've noticed is that while the two are vastly different in a lot of ways if you want, you can ignore a lot of the more outlandish aspects of Eberron and it becomes very similar to FR when it first came out. If you want to stick to a strictly medieval setting FR is probably your best bet. If you want to explore floating cities, airships, magical railroads and guns then Eberron is the place for you. As for the new races in Eberron, game mechanics and other such stuff. If those are all that appeal to you they can easily be transported to any setting, including FR.
Derren S. 05-04-05, 02:37 AM	Eberron has no guns as far as I know, but FR has them.
Alac Luin 05-04-05, 12:12 PM	Nope, no guns in Eberron. Just for the record, the person starting this thread (Naicin) has decided on his campaign setting (Iron Kingdom) But please, feel free to discus if you wish, someone else may find it helpful. :)