Now, here's some of the stuff I want to focus on:
* Players are Heroes: Sure, Eberron has alot of shades of gray, but that doesnt prevent anyone from beign heroic. Plus, I can always throw the Lord of Dust or the Daelkyr at higher levels. Those guys/girl/things are clearly 100% evil.
* Heroes are Badass: In my old D&D campaign, it was common to run into a city guard who had five level in fighter. That is not the case in Eberron, and I really want to use this idea to its full potential, allowing the characters to stand out more from NPC.
* Heroes can change the world: Sure, its not Exalted, but at some point players will probably alter something in the setting. Since Eberron has so far avoided a restricting metaplot, its fairly easy for me to go in any direction.
* Pushing things too far, getting away with it, and going even further: Last two campaign felt somewhat bland in term of action, for various reasons. Old D&D was simply my first attempt at a full-fledged campaign and was simply bad. Call of Cthulu was all about making the character as flawed and human as I could. One monster and it was a potential TPK. This time, im going away from this. I will try to out-do myself! Every single important encounter should be cooler than the next. Action Points can help achieve this. Basically, I want an action-packed campaign where the players really stand out. Also, Eberron is fueled by the rule of cool. Magitek androids? Halflings on dinosaurs? Bring it on!
Villains: Choices, choices! I can't decide what my main villain would be? Blood of Vol? Lord of Dust? Daelkyr? I was thinking making early adventures stand-alone, each focusing on a different group. One versus the Order of the Emerald Claw, one versus Blood of Vol. After a while, I could see which one works the best.
Lord of Dusts are my all-time favourite, but they are too subtle to provide most of the action and too strong to tackle one on one. Still, awakening a Rajah would be so damn awesome. Oh hey, why not awaken THREE Rajahs! Of course, I could make a campaign where the main villains are something else, only to reveal the LoD where behind this after all. The problem is that I doubt reaching level 20 will be possible during the course of the campaign. I could always start at a higher level, but it would remove most of the fun.
I do have a soft spot for undeads. Plus the come in all shape, flavor and CR.
I had much the same thought when I started my Eberron campaign. Of all the different types of monsters, they seem to be an extremely common type. I also have a player who loves playing clerics so I figured throwing undead enemies at her would make her quite happy with her turn undead and radiant-powered abilities.
So to help explain the amount of undead I use (whether they're simply a random encounter or at the heart of an adventure), I said the campaign started with Dolurrh becoming conterminous with Eberron (its conterminous for a year once every 100 years or so). This way anytime I needed undead to pop-up or wanted to have a necromantic flavoured adventure I could say "its because of Dolurrh being conterminous."
Even when a Necormancer would be around even if Dolurrh wasn't conterminous, you can make them even more powerful and deadly thanks to Dolurrh's influence.
That said, I don't feel I've overused undead monsters. Of the 5 adventures I've run so far, only one contained undead and it was unrelated to Dolurrh becoming conterminous. But that said, you never know when they'll pop up next
Anyways. So, your players are going to be the Big Damn Heroes. That's how I like it. You want to push the limits of a lot of things and go for the over-the-top action.
That's how you roll with Eberron. It's not classic fantasy.
It's pulp. It's full of over-the-top action. Your heroes don't have a horseback chase scene; no, instead, they fight off goblins on little flying platforms trying their best to shoot down their flying boat as everybody is dodging the mile-high towers of Sharn. Your heroes don't swing from one ship to another; no, they drop from their speeding airship onto the top of a speeding train-like vehicle and try to avoid the large bolts of lightning. Don't forget to work in brief pauses before your heroes curbstomp a bunch of baddies.
It's noir. There is a lot of bad things going on in the world, and you might not be able to trust everybody. Hell, your adventure could very well start with a body. Your character might have loads of faith, but nobody is sure that the gods even exist, let alone listen. Oh, and also Khorvaire is in a Cold War from Hell, where everybody is spying on each other and trying to get an advantage. Things could be.....tense.
It's punk. There's dissatisfaction and cynicism, but there's also a lot of familiar scenes or things that you can relate to...with some twists. Make sure, BTW, that the PCs are aware of the latest pimpin' fashions. Especially trenchcoats. I just like them for some reason.
In my experience, it has just taken a session or two of me running Eberron to get my players hooked. The world is vibrant and makes a lot more sense than most fantasy settings, but is still different, exotic, and foreign enough to be interesting. Plus, its flexible enough of a setting to really allow you to run a lot of different kinds. Indiana Jones-esque exploration is possible, as is serving your nation. Considering that there are like a dozen secret manipulative organizations, intrigue is no problem, and Eberron does not lack villains. It lacks heroes.
A shortfall which is rectified by the PCs.
(Good lord that took longer than I thought, but i think it was worth it.)
Its more or less spread out over all of them. There might be some Dragonshards, or articles by Keith Baker, about the Emerald Claw. Forge of War *might* have something, but I don't recall much. Faiths of Eberron covers the Blood of Vol, so slightly related to the EC. Players Guide has a page or so on them, I think.
Anyways. So, your players are going to be the Big Damn Heroes. That's how I like it. You want to push the limits of a lot of things and go for the over-the-top action.
That's how you roll with Eberron. It's not classic fantasy.
It's pulp. It's full of over-the-top action. Your heroes don't have a horseback chase scene; no, instead, they fight off goblins on little flying platforms trying their best to shoot down their flying boat as everybody is dodging the mile-high towers of Sharn. Your heroes don't swing from one ship to another; no, they drop from their speeding airship onto the top of a speeding train-like vehicle and try to avoid the large bolts of lightning. Don't forget to work in brief pauses before your heroes curbstomp a bunch of baddies.
It's noir. There is a lot of bad things going on in the world, and you might not be able to trust everybody. Hell, your adventure could very well start with a body. Your character might have loads of faith, but nobody is sure that the gods even exist, let alone listen. Oh, and also Khorvaire is in a Cold War from Hell, where everybody is spying on each other and trying to get an advantage. Things could be.....tense.
It's punk. There's dissatisfaction and cynicism, but there's also a lot of familiar scenes or things that you can relate to...with some twists. Make sure, BTW, that the PCs are aware of the latest pimpin' fashions. Especially trenchcoats. I just like them for some reason.
In my experience, it has just taken a session or two of me running Eberron to get my players hooked. The world is vibrant and makes a lot more sense than most fantasy settings, but is still different, exotic, and foreign enough to be interesting. Plus, its flexible enough of a setting to really allow you to run a lot of different kinds. Indiana Jones-esque exploration is possible, as is serving your nation. Considering that there are like a dozen secret manipulative organizations, intrigue is no problem, and Eberron does not lack villains. It lacks heroes.
A shortfall which is rectified by the PCs.
(Good lord that took longer than I thought, but i think it was worth it.)
Thank you, Ogiwan. I think you described Eberron (and how I intend to run it) pretty well. Now if I can find more ideas on how to go "beyond the impossible" with Eberron, that would help.
Truth be told, I've found that the way I work is that I take where they are (or where they're going), and think of the sort of cinematic fights I would want to see in a movie, and use those for the big, really-cool set piece encounters. So, tell us what you have; villians, places you want them to go, encounters, etc. We can offer suggestions. I have quite a few encounters that *worked* really well.
Also, from the start, I make sure the enemies are doing outrageous things, in combat or out, to get that pulp action sensibility across.
I also got the characters to do a short background. It took about five minutes which we just did at the start of one of our sessions, after the players had had some time to get familiar with the world. I told them they could invent parts of the world if they wanted as well, from locations to characters. I ended up with a bardic college, a Medani plot against changelings, an immanent second coming of Taratai, an ancient Dhakhaani Art of War, a half-orc wrestler touring the land, and numerous other ideas. Now the characters are following plots which they suggested themselves.
And when things are too quiet, the Swords of Liberty blow something up.
cheers,
Meshon
I never used the Swords of Liberty; for me, my troublemakers of choice have been the Order of the Emerald Claw. Why?
This motivational poster, I think, highlights it:
I've had great luck with the OotEC. My last group hated them. Their battle cry ("Karrnath Triumphant!") was so hated that some of my players regularly readied actions to punch anybody who said that. At least one OotEC mook got his teeth (and himself) knocked out that way.
Edit: Looking more at the Eberron Motivational Poster thread, there's a great post that highlights the feel for Pulp and Noir: community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/758...