Review: Eberron Campaign Setting

It really was an inspired move, the setting search. Send out the call for setting submissions, provide an entry into the game industry, and a whopping great cheque, to the winner, and instantly raise interest in D&D by about a dozen notches. I wonder how long it took for the investment to pay off.

The winner of the setting search is Eberron, which I've spent the last month reading through. And it's good. It's very, very good. But, is it as good as the previous best campaign setting sourcebook, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (3rd Edition)?

The Eberron Campaign setting is a 320-page full-colour hardback book. The text is extremely dense - there's more in here than in all the Babylon 5 gamebooks I have (the main book plus 3 "year" sourcebooks). I've not been reading slowly; the book's just got a hell of a lot in it. Another advantage over B5 (the third - the fact that it's new is the first) is the editing, which is of the level I expect from Wizards of the Coast, Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and damn no others.

Anyway, on to the contents. Eberron opens with a description of what the world is, and ten things you need to know. These include the fact that everything from core D&D can appear here (I wonder how many setting search entries were eliminated for not holding that to be true?), and the stunning revelation that monsters here need not follow their Monster Manual alignments (shock!). It also, very usefully, sets the tone for the setting, which is a cross between pulp and dark intrigue. It's part Indiana Jones and part X-Files, I suppose. It's also a little more 'adult' than Forgotten Realms, which is very good.

Chapter 1 provides details of the PC races, running to 18 pages. This describes the standard races in Eberron, some of which are slightly changed in rules terms, but most of which are only different in terms of their societies. The chapter also includes several new races including Shifters (descendants of lycanthropes, with the powers you'd expect), Kalashtar (a psionic race!), and Warforged (basically, robot-men, although they don't suck too badly. Bit powerful, though).

Speaking of psionics, it should be pointed out that Eberron doesn't require the use of psionics, and provides only a couple of hooks to it in the core book (there's a continent with more psionic influence, but it's not detailed here). The book does, however, have a lot more hooks than the FRCS does. Certainly, I'd feel a lot happier about psionic characters in an Eberron campaign than a Forgotten Realms one. This is all to the good, I think.

Chapter 2 discusses classes, in 16 pages. There are discussions of the existing classes, with a few new options, notably in animal companions and familiars that are available. There is also a new class, the Artificer, who is the "items guy" of the party. I suppose in d20 Modern he'd be a hacker/mad scientist. They're good, although there are aparently some concerns that too much is gained at 1st level. That said, they have some abilities that closely mirror spellcasting, which typically makes multiclassing a bad idea, so I'd need to see how it goes in play...

Chapter 3 discusses Heroic Characteristics. It introduces Action Points, which we're familiar with. It does include some refinements of the system, such as a limit on how many points a character can 'bank', which is good. The chapter has some new uses for skills, a bunch of new feats, discussion of the gods, and the introduction of dragonmarks - magical birthmarks that give spell-like abilities to those who possess them (they're bought with feats). These are okay, and have well-thought out impact on the setting. There's something about dragonmarks (and warforged, too) which just doesn't sit right with me. However, I don't think you can run Eberron without them; they're too ingrained in the setting.

The religions of Eberron are good. The gods are there, but they are 'hands-off'. These aren't the meddling children that the Forgotten Realms is stuck with. I like this. It should also be noted that Clerics in Eberron don't have to be within one step of their deity's alignment, which makes things quite interesting. Also, the churches aren't the main source of healing in the setting - one of the dragonmarked houses handles that.

Chapter 4 gets back to my favourite subject: Prestige Classes. There are eight of them, each tied to a particular aspect of the setting, such as the shifter and warforged paragon classes, the dragonmark heir (who improves his dragonmark abilities, of course), and so on. They're okay.

Chapter 5 deals with magic, describing the role of magic in the world, the impact of the dragonmark houses, and the planes of existence. These are really good - there's one tied to each of the moons (13), and each follows an orbit that affects how it impacts the Prime Material. Some spells become more powerful when the corresponding plane is 'full'. It's all very nice.

There's also some new spells.

Chapter 6 provides new equipment. This is fun, of course, because we need more equipment. Seriously, this provides a number of items that might reasonably come up in the game, such as the elemental-bound airships of the setting. This chapter is very short, which is about the right length.

Chapter 7 is an epic. This is the meat of the book, describing the world itself in 98 pages. Actually, most of that space is taken up with descriptions of the countries in the main continent. There are also brief descriptions of the other continents, a timeline, and so on. However, the bulk of the book is taken up with country after country.

This is good stuff. The format is the same as in the FRCS, and is just about ideal. I like it, even if it took forever to get through.

Chapter 8, cos we're not done yet, describes important organisations. These include the dragonmarked houses, the royal families, and several other factions. All nice stuff, and lots of adventure starters and patrons/adversaries for PCs. Nice.

Chapter 9 discusses issues, themes, and such facing an Eberron campaign. This is good stuff, missing the traditional essays into running an adventure in favour of talking about the particular themes of Eberron. It also includes a new NPC class, the mage-wright, who is a working class enchanter. Basically, mage-wrights are the backbone of the industrial base of Eberron.

This chapter is good, providing the necessary guidance without labouring the point.

Chapters 10 and 11 are new magic items and new monsters, respectively. These are okay, and fit the world. Alas, I'm a bit burned out on both, so I'll not comment further, except in this: the monsters chapter discusses means of fitting Monster Manual creatures in to Eberron (well, some specific examples). This includes things like new names for dinosaurs (long overdue in D&D - oh, and by the way, Eberron includes clans of dinosaur-riding halflings), but also short notes on the history of Beholders in the setting, the place of Rakshasas, and so on. This was missing from the FRCS, and is a very good thing to have. So, well done there.

Finally, the book has a short (and skeletal) adventure for 1st level characters. Which, I hate to say, would have been better if it hadn't just been another dungeon crawl. Hey, let's adventure in Eberron, a whole new world of fun, excitement, and dungeon crawling!

One other thing is worthy of comment: the art. I commented in the weeks before I got the book, that I was probably going to give it a miss, having seen the art gallery on the Wizards site. In truth, the art is very well done, and fits the book well. Mostly. The artworks at the start of the chapters, however, are really not to my taste. They each look like a page from a graphic novel, which is all well and good, but in my view graphic novels work as a medium because of the whole - taking one page out is generally not a great idea, and that's what's happened here (in effect). These were the pieces of art that almost prevented me getting the book. I'm glad they did not.

Overall, I think Eberron is damn good. I also think it's not quite as good (as a book) as the FRCS. However, I vastly prefer the setting, and might well consider running a campaign or two in this world (assuming the PCs don't go and allow it to be destroyed).

However, I won't be using any of the material from this book in a campaign that is not set in Eberron. It's too tightly bound (IMO) to the setting. Things that might be worth ripping off (the Warforged, the Dragonmarks) are not to my taste. So, if that's what you're wanting, I'd look elsewhere.

And that's that.