However, once I'd written four expeditionary dispatches on Valenar, it was time to turn to another place that hasn't seen much love - Droaam. Thus the Mordain articles and the upcoming Graywall piece. In a weird convergence, a 4E Eberron game I'm in right now involves a gnoll ranger who wants to prove himself worthy to join the Valaes Tairn (don't see it happening, but it's entertaining enough).
I'm afraid my current novel doesn't have anything to do with Valenar or Droaam, but it deals with ANOTHER of my favorite aspects of Eberron that hasn't gotten much love (less than the Valenar, actually).
But hey, more will come in time!
I'm afraid my current novel doesn't have anything to do with Valenar or Droaam, but it deals with ANOTHER of my favorite aspects of Eberron that hasn't gotten much love (less than the Valenar, actually).
Please let it be Talenta Halflings or Orcs (Shadow Marches and/or Mror Holds)!
even though i'm a usually a purist with the vaelas tairn and all, good look mr.gnoll. he'll need it.but i guess i just still have alot of questions... in your defense, i never stop askin' the hows and whys. when not so often.... anyway can't wait for the new book!
P.S. the talenta halflings rock too! in my last 3.5 game i used them the parties psion snickered, until the ranger was laid low.
P.S. the talenta halflings rock too! in my last 3.5 game i used them the parties psion snickered, until the ranger was laid low.
The other players in the first Eberron game I played in thought my paltry little goblin PC was going to be useless in a fight until I started showing them how to coordinate. Halflings are just the same. It's not a matter of size or strength, it's how you use what you have. Just ask any of my players*.
*I actually had one throw up his hands and leave the room after I mentioned that the ranger of the group saw kobold tracks.
Actually, I like how the Valenar are working out in the setting. You don't need a novel. Just some players playing them. :D
I love the Valenar. Next to the Dhakaani they're one of the best things about the setting. The Elves as a screaming horde of bloodthirsty horsemen? Yes, please. Eberron is one of the best settings I've seen in years and I've been playing for decades.
Give me my empire-building goblins, the screaming horde of elves and the tree-hugging orc druids and I am one very happy camper. Don't misunderstand me, I love the whole setting, but the rest all pales compared to these.
the goblins are realy cool here too, i always used them as villians in my own campaigns and in eberron the are even better. i like their culture and history and the angles they can be used in the five nations... four nations
(poor cyre she was so beautiful once) i try to play up their minority status and their dream of a grand and distant history!the valenar i make as militant as possible without gettin' the PC's in a war against the whole nation (my well meaning brother doesn't no when to back down so i have to manage the elves and him). while still keepin' with thier "elven" side, songs, dance, and excellent craftsmenship. so it all war and horse and history bent. oh and stealthy, my elves are usually very sneaky, if their not just riding down weaker foes.
That's why we need more explicit diversity in D&D books - gaming is too "white" a hobby as it is!
How so?
i think what mhacdebhandia means is alot of characters in the games are lets say, monotone, not the gamers themselves.
Oh, it's an artwork gripe. I suppose I can understand it.
It's both an artwork gripe and a playerbase gripe - most gamers are white, and I think at least part of that is because the overwhelming majority of gaming artwork depicts white people. Especially in a non-historical setting like Eberron, there's no reason for everyone to be white . . . so I'd like to see more diversity in the art.
This. Although Eberron was pretty diverse in 3.5 to begin with.
Loli-pope for 4E ECS!
-Joni
) than the artwork, though that does have effect it. we kinda tend toward different recreational outlets. it's really kinda complicated (like most things human).. . . so I'd like to see more diversity in the art.
So would I. I'd prefer to see more Native American faces in the artwork, but that probably won't happen either. It's a bit much to ask that every possible ethnic type be represented in the artwork, I understand that.
For the most part, the artwork seems to follow a general historical pattern. We see Greek-looking people in artwork that shows Greek-looking architecture. I'm perfectly fine with that. I am rather satisfied that alot of the primative, savage and non-civilized people are also depicted with the same ethnicities in the artwork instead of immediately switching to the ethnicities that are generally regarded as backwards and uncivilized. It would be highly insulting to see people of my own ethnicity only in artwork depicting bloodthirsty savages.