Books I own (or will soon own):
* PHB1-2
* Martial Power
* Adventurer's Vault
* Monster Manual 1-2
* DMG
* Secrets of Xen'drik
* City of Stormreach
I can afford to buy 2 books. I'm fairly certain I want to get Five Nations (it will help me ensure each district of Stormreach sufficiently mirrors the culture of the people who live in it), but I'm a bit unsure as to the second book I should buy. Here are the books I'm considering:
* Arcane Power
* Manual of the Planes (find out more about the core-plains so I can use that information for the Eberron ones).
* Open Grave (undead are easy to stick pretty much anywhere).
* Draconomicon: Chromatic Dragons (this provides information on the core-dragons but how much use is that for Eberron dragons? Is it also setting-appropriate to throw the lower-level monsters at the players as bad-guys in a Xen'drik campaign?)
* Dragonmarked
* Sharn: City of Towers (I don't think this is going to be immediately useful when I only have 1 adventure set in the city).
* Faiths of Eberron
So any recommendations? I know everyone has a favourite book they absolutely love, but I'm more interested in what book you think might be more useful for my campaign (which I realise is fairly vague at this stage. For more information on it you can find my posts in this thread which has more detail. Although ignore everything mentioned in the first post before the players reach Xen'drik. I've since revised the hook based on feedback from here).
Is there a book I've overlooked that will actually be more useful for me then Five Nations? Are any of the 4th ed books useful to me?
Honestly though, I'm going with "save your money and get the 4e Eberron Player's Guide" next month.
For running a Xen'drik campaign, the Secrets of Xen'drik book is enough as it has a very detailed description of Stormreach. If your campaign is going to focus on the city of Stormreach and less on jungle exploration then the City of Stormreach book might be a worthwhile investment.
Do your players expect a lot of PC options? If not, then you might consider postponing purchase of Player's Handbook 2, Martial Power, Arcane Power, Divine Power and Adventurer's Vault.
Do you have tiles and minis? If not, a cheap alternative is the 4E Basic game box as it has a few tiles and monster counters. 4E does not run well without minis/counters and a battlegrid.
Why not wait til June and July and buy the 4th ed Eberron books?
Of course I'm buying those. These books are in addition to them ;) Sorry I didn't make that clear.
If not, then you might consider postponing purchase of Player's Handbook 2, Martial Power, Arcane Power, Divine Power and Adventurer's Vault.
I've already got 3 of those books as I mentioned in my first post.
Do you have tiles and minis? If not, a cheap alternative is the 4E Basic game box as it has a few tiles and monster counters. 4E does not run well without minis/counters and a battlegrid.
I'm fairly happy with my supplies in this regard.
I would go for Dragons of Eberron. It has a lot of background material and nice plot hooks and dragon NPCs for you to use in your campaign.
How useful would it be with me only having access to MM1 and MM2 monster stats? Would it be worth my while to get the Draconomicon? If so in which order? Get the monster stats first or the fluff?
How useful would it be with me only having access to MM1 and MM2 monster stats? Would it be worth my while to get the Draconomicon? If so in which order? Get the monster stats first or the fluff?
With MM1 and MM2, you already have a wide swath of dragon statblocks - sure, the Draconomicon fleshes that out some, adding new alternate powers and a few new colors of dragon, but MM1-2 should have enough content (and it's easily modifiable) to work with the fluff in Dragons of Eberron. I'd recommend the fluff first.
Sharn: City of Towers has gotten me the most mileage out of all the books. It's chock full of amazing NPCs, organizations, hooks, etc... Even if you spend one adventure there, it's a great book to have and will help you make Sharn come to life.
I could not agree more. Sharn: City of Tower is by far the best Eberron sourcebook out there and quite possible one of the best 3rd edition books at all. Every single page I read gave me ideas for campaigns or adventures in addition to making the city feel real and lived-in. Top notch work from Wyatt and Hellcow.
How useful would it be with me only having access to MM1 and MM2 monster stats? Would it be worth my while to get the Draconomicon? If so in which order? Get the monster stats first or the fluff?
As the above poster remarked the stats in MMs are more than enough. Actually it might be much more interesting to use dragons and The Chamber as NPCs in some major plotline than as adversaries (or possibly both..).
Are you going to go to Argonnessen(SP?)? It's great for fluff, but not much else if you aren't going there.
Faiths of Eberron is great if you have PC's who like to actually play clerics, it lists rituals, gives holy days and really develops the religious flavor of the gods of Eberron. Again its not necessary, but great fun for fluff.
Explorer's Guide to Eberron: This isn't a fan favorite, but i like it. It has several pre-made adventure locations -- including a few in X'endrik and a lot of travel items stated out, like the price of the lightning rail between Aundair and Thrane. Again it depends on where you are adventuring.
Five nations and Forge of War: Both are great history/fluff books, but since you're playing in X'endrik the application is limited.
have to leave, so I'll leave off there, hope that helps.
Explorer's Guide to Eberron: This isn't a fan favorite, but i like it. It has several pre-made adventure locations -- including a few in X'endrik and a lot of travel items stated out, like the price of the lightning rail between Aundair and Thrane. Again it depends on where you are adventuring.
I had forgotten about that. It's true, that it's not applicable in all campaigns but I am certainly glad I have it. It clears up a lot of questions I didn't get answered elsewhere and the locations are nice.
if you plan on playing in Eberron for any amount of time, get SHARN:City of Towers. As others have mentioned this is one of the best campaign sourcebooks out there, seriously. What this book really brings is the flavor of the world to life.
Okay, I was thinking of buying Five Nations so I could get the culture of the 5 Nations to help better represent the NPCs from those countries within Xen'drik.
But considering everyone keeps mentioning Sharn, I thought I'd ask how can Sharn be more useful to me then Five Nations? Looking at the Table of Contents, Chapter 1 and 2 are entirely on Sharn itself. Chapter 4 is on the laws which aren't applicable to Stormreach at all. With Chapters 6 and 7 on crunch so of minimal use in a 4th ed game.
If y'all think I'd be better off with Sharn instead of Five nations I'll pick up Sharn. I'm just a bit confused as to how it can be better for me
Thanks again. You've definitely set me thinking as to which book I should get. Although I'm still a bit unsure on how Sharn can be useful to me.
Okay, I was thinking of buying Five Nations so I could get the culture of the 5 Nations to help better represent the NPCs from those countries within Xen'drik.
But considering everyone keeps mentioning Sharn, I thought I'd ask how can Sharn be more useful to me then Five Nations? Looking at the Table of Contents, Chapter 1 and 2 are entirely on Sharn itself. Chapter 4 is on the laws which aren't applicable to Stormreach at all. With Chapters 6 and 7 on crunch so of minimal use in a 4th ed game.
If y'all think I'd be better off with Sharn instead of Five nations I'll pick up Sharn. I'm just a bit confused as to how it can be better for me
Five nations is a great book, Sharn is probably the second best 3.5 book printed in any line (first being the ECS, third IMO is either XPH or book of nine swords, but thats neither here nor there.)
The reason you should get sharn now for your ongoing campaign that will barely touch on the city? - well its got a large number of plot hooks, many which can spill over to stormreach, it is the book that is best at showing how a large city in Eberron is like, it has great information on all nations, power groups and races (almost) of Khorviere and how they interact with each other when placed together in small confines. - So basically not much that will help you directly with your campaign, much that will help a lot tangentially.
Plus it may inspire you to run out of Sharn, and that's a lot of fun
Five nations is a great book, Sharn is probably the second best 3.5 book printed in any line (first being the ECS, third IMO is either XPH or book of nine swords, but thats neither here nor there.)
The reason you should get sharn now for your ongoing campaign that will barely touch on the city? - well its got a large number of plot hooks, many which can spill over to stormreach, it is the book that is best at showing how a large city in Eberron is like, it has great information on all nations, power groups and races (almost) of Khorviere and how they interact with each other when placed together in small confines. - So basically not much that will help you directly with your campaign, much that will help a lot tangentially.
Plus it may inspire you to run out of Sharn, and that's a lot of fun
I think City of Stormreach would be more relevant to how people interact with each other, since Stormreach is where his game will be. Sharn: City of Towers is not really necessary. As great a book as it is, it's not very suitable for his campaign. He needs more info on Xen'drik.
If you plan on doing more in Xen'Drik, I'd recommend Dragons of Eberron. There's a whole section on Dragons in Xen'drik. which goes into the history of the continent as far back as the Age of Demons. Coupled with Secrets of Xen'drik, you'd then own more or less every source of information on that continent.
If your more worried about Stormreach itself, however, instead of just using it as a launching point for adventuers in the continent's interior, then Five Nations might be your best bet. I didn't find the book particularly interesting though.
I think City of Stormreach would be more relevant to how people interact with each other, since Stormreach is where his game will be. Sharn: City of Towers is not really necessary. As great a book as it is, it's not very suitable for his campaign. He needs more info on Xen'drik.
If you plan on doing more in Xen'Drik, I'd recommend Dragons of Eberron. There's a whole section on Dragons in Xen'drik. which goes into the history of the continent as far back as the Age of Demons. Coupled with Secrets of Xen'drik, you'd then own more or less every source of information on that continent.
If your more worried about Stormreach itself, however, instead of just using it as a launching point for adventuers in the continent's interior, then Five Nations might be your best bet. I didn't find the book particularly interesting though.
Sure city of Stormreach is a more important book for running stormreach, and luckily he already has the book!
I myself was never grabbed by Dragons of Eberron much at all, and would recommend most other eberron books first (other than magic of eberron since it's mostly crunch and little in the setting detail)
Don't get me wrong, I love City of Towers. But the main reason why it's so awesome is that it goes into such minute detail of the titular city. It's completely useless for Stormreach. If you're suggesting it for day-to-day information, then he already has that information for the specific city he's going to run most of his game in through City of Stormreach.
It would make more sense to focus on Xen'drik or Stormreach itself, not some city he's not interested in at all.
Show
* Delera Omaren and plots and ties with House Deneith and House Cannith.
* Breland and the pro-monarchy movement.
* House Jorasco and Iriakan's efforts.
* House Lyrandar and its current efforts outside of Stormreach.
* The Shrouds and Jolan Tankran.
The Shrouds and Jolan Tankran fit too perfectly with my opening adventure to not use them. The pro-monarchy movement also sounds interesting along with Delera Omaren.
Based on wanting to tie these in more seamlessly with my campaign and also based on all the posts made in this thread, I've decided to expand the Sharn portion of my campaign from lasting 1 adventure to having about 5 levels worth of content. I'll be doing this hopefully so I can set up House Cannith South as a patron for the players. That way when they do reach Stormreach they'll have a better reason to be approached by Delera Omaren and Lady Rusila.
* Breland and the pro-monarchy movement.
* House Jorasco and Iriakan's efforts.
* House Lyrandar and its current efforts outside of Stormreach.
* The Shrouds and Jolan Tankran.
The Shrouds and Jolan Tankran fit too perfectly with my opening adventure to not use them. The pro-monarchy movement also sounds interesting along with Delera Omaren.
Based on wanting to tie these in more seamlessly with my campaign and also based on all the posts made in this thread, I've decided to expand the Sharn portion of my campaign from lasting 1 adventure to having about 5 levels worth of content. I'll be doing this hopefully so I can set up House Cannith South as a patron for the players. That way when they do reach Stormreach they'll have a better reason to be approached by Delera Omaren and Lady Rusila.
(It really is an amazing book, but I was just objecting to fitting a square shaped peg into a round hole.)
I understood and appreciated that a lot. Although the more I read the more ideas I get to put in my campaign so while a week ago I might have wanted to get my players to Xen'drik ASAP, today I want to explore Khorvaire a bit so I can work on plots related to Breland in Xen'drik ;) Who knows what I'll read tomorrow that will inspire me ;)
Since you've decided on Sharn I'll keep my comments just to seeing how it could help your campaign.
* Merrix and Cannith South -- big write up in the book so he gives some depth to your back story
* House Deneith's relationship with Stormreach's sister city in X'endrik with the colorful sails -- not an overt relationship by any means, but it provides a ton of great plot devices.
* Dark Lanterns -- It gives more information on the kings secret service, which if you're going for covert ops, spy information they would make either great foils or aids to the PC's.
* Morgrave University -- Just enough back ground fluff for the PC's to help motivate them into going into X'endrik
* Wayfinder's Guild -- again more information on a PC reason to go to X'endrik, lots of great info
* There is a House of Orien teleportation station from Sharn. It could be useful for details.
The really most useful thing about Sharn is that it is the location where the PC's normally leave to X'endrik and will return to most often when they come back to the mainland.
Have a great campaign!