Jhonen Olain's Eberron Journal ~ notes on development & marketing

From the start, Eberron's development process has been highly visible. Created as part of Wizards of the Coast's 2002 Setting Search competition, it was selected from among thousands of submissions to be developed by Keith Baker, along with a team of experienced D&D writers and visionary concept artists. These quotes from Keith Baker provide insight into Eberron's influences and how we can expect to see the world grow in the future.

I am still amused by the fact that half the people who currently dislike Eberron say "I don't see what's so unique about the setting", while the other half say "This setting is so strange and bizarre that it will never succeed."

War. Action. Intrigue. Exploration. Magic. PCs as extraordinary individuals with the ability to make a difference in the world.

In the [first] Web article, they quote a line from the original 1-pager, and yes, that implies "dwarvish Sam Spades." But the world went through massive changes over the three stages of development... changes designed to give it a broader appeal to a traditional fantasy audience. It is a game with elements of pulp and noir, but look back at the movies referenced as inspiration, and you'll see Name of the Rose, Henry V, The Three Musketeers, and Brotherhood of the Wolf alongside Indy. Because it captures the mood of Indiana Jones or The Maltese Falcon does not mean that it is a parody of these movies -- the detective with pointy ears. Again, look to the artwork that's been released, and notice the lack of trenchcoats and fedoras. "Pulp and noir" is easier to say than "swashbuckling adventure and intrigue" -- but in this case, both mean the same thing.

The pulp element is about action and adventure. Noir adds uncertainty and intrigue to that mix - not gloom and despair. It's not Arcanum, and it's not Castle Falkenstein. It's Dungeons & Dragons, meaning that - surprise - both dungeons and dragons are the focus, not tommyguns and nazis.

As for detectives -- well, urban mystery and intrigue is supported, but as I've said, it's come a long way from that one pager and it's not Raymond Chandler in chainmail. But everything has its own place in the world. A culture has evolved around the use of psionics, just as magic has had its impact on Khorvaire. And that nation is far from the realm with the halflings and the dinosaurs. If you want a psychic halfling, you can come up with your own story for how he visited Riedra or was trained by a solitary kalashtar monk. Psionic halflings are not common -- but if you want one, it is easy to come up with a background that ties him to groups and places within the world, giving the DM something to work with in story development.

Te potential to lose allies or characters that the players care about is certainly something I believe needs to be part of the setting – hence the whole noir/dark fantasy thing. Raising the dead is a serious business, and there needs to be the sense that people can die and that you can lose friends or allies.

While I'd still probably say "swashbuckling action" and "dark fantasy" over "pulp/noir" (just to move a little farther away from the image of Gondor Jones fighting the Nazi orcs), the world has groups suited to both styles of play. Pulp traditionally is more black and white, and there are some heroic and villainous forces that are just that. But noir is all about layers and intrigue. The Silver Flame has is purehearted crusaders, but it also has its darker side, not to mention the feuds with other forces within Eberron.

My goal all along was to create a world with a logical place for all the varied elements of D&D.

The "Lord of the Rings meets Indiana Jones and The Maltese Falcon" description covers three distinct elements: fantasy; pulp action; and noir intrigue. Eberron is a fantasy world that is designed to have a lot of room for cinematic action, but to also have a place for mystery, intrigue, and the uncertainty that comes with film noir. In most cases, these can all work together, but it's really up to the DM. If you go hunting for the Blade of Burning Shadows in Xen'drik, it may be all action, all the time. On the other hand, an adventure in the court of Zilargo could be entirely based on intrigue, without a single fight scene.

So yes, I would generally expect an adventure to have much more action -- but there's certainly a lot of places where pure intrigue would be appropriate, for DMs who like the idea.

Galifar is largely feudal in nature. Thrane in particular has a strong tradition of chivalry, but there are knightly orders in other nations; the Order of the Emerald Claw first appeared as a knightly order in Karrnath. As for jousting, such pastimes vary by nation and city; in Sharn you actually have a strong tradition of aerial jousting. (A wide variety of creatures are used in the aerial sports, from hippogriffs to glidewing dinosaurs. Depends on the sport and part of town!)

Eberron still has much of the flavor of traditional fantasy.

I've read the final [Eberron Campaign Setting] book, and it is indeed 320 pages. Yup, at $40 it's expensive... but at a per page cost, it's cheaper than Unearthed Arcana, The Draconomicon, the Book of Exalted Deeds, the Player's Guide to Faerun, and many others. Even though the Complete Divine is only $29.95, it's also only 192 pages. Eberron's not cheap, but it is big. And while there is no poster map, there are a host of maps in the book -- world map, continental focus, regional maps, etc. Hopefully they will meet your basic needs!

[Even at 320 pages,] there's an awful lot I'd like to see in there that there just isn't space for!

As a campaign setting book, it draws on aspects of all three of the core books. The opening chapters that describe races, classes, feats, spells, and the like are going to be of interest to everyone. Beyond that, you run into organizations, nations, monsters, treasures, and the like.

Obviously you can't preserve mysteries if your players read the entire book. Whether that's important is a matter between you and your players. If they'd rather not know what the daelkyr can do, what to expect from dragonshard items, who's really in charge of the Aurum... then you'd want them to stop reading at around page 135. Really, it's your call. If you don't let your players read the DMG, you won't want them reading about new magic items; if you don't let them read the MM, then the monster chapter should be off limits. Again, it's something you'll have to work out on your own.

We could only squeeze so much information into the central book and have it be affordable for them & the customer... But nothing is going to be thrown away or forgotten. As long as there is interest in the world, they will get around to it eventually, whether it's as a sourcebook, web enhancement, or whatever. I still find the idea of interaction between aquatic cultures and surface cultures to be interesting, but it was never a central part of the setting, and it's certainly something that can wait -- or, if people just aren't interested, be left alone.

I know WotC will be publishing at least two adventures for Eberron. After that, I really don't know. So two for sure, then it's a mystery. Though there are definitely other books that will come out in support of the setting. I'm also confident that Dungeon will end up having some Eberron adventures.

WotC is releasing two Eberron adventures in 2004. Shadows of the Last War builds on the introductory adventure included in the campaign setting book, pulling you deeper into the story that began there. It assumes a certain level of altruism or curiosity, so it's not ideal for an evil-aligned party. It begins in the city of Sharn, but takes characters to a number of different places in Khorvaire. As long as you've got a group of people who wouldn't refuse to set foot in Sharn, any non-evil group should work.

Shadows of the Last War is more of an action-oriented adventure than an intrigue adventure, and it has elements of globe-trotting and dungeon-delving. It does not actively use psionics -- this doesn't prevent you from playing your kalashtar soulknife, but you don't need the Expanded Psionics Handbook to use the adventure. As for Whispers of the Vampire's Blade... I'm not 100% certain, but I think that it's by Bruce Cordell, and thus he may have worked psionics into the storyline (though I'm sure this would be done in such a way that you could use the adventure without owning the XPH).

I'm afraid Shadows is a small-scale adventure, not intended to serve as a campaign backdrop all on its own (though it certainly provides hooks that the DM can run with in future stories).

What happens in 2005 probably depends on sales. I think the issue of adventures is pure economics -- Only DMs buy adventures, and not all DMs at that. If you look on Amazon, the sales rank for City of the Spider Queen is 30,000, compared to 832 for Unearthed Arcana. In fact, it appears that there have been almost as many preorders for Eberron (2 months in advance) as sales of City of the Spider Queen. I know that a number of OGL companies I've worked with have stopped publishing adventures for the same reason. Do I like it? No. But a business does have to make money to survive.

I'm hoping to put short adventures for Eberron on my website on a regular basis (for free), so I'll at least try to help out there.

I know that there will be some Eberron adventures in Dungeon ...timed for the release. Whether they continue to support it in this manner will probably depend on the response to the setting!

My Dungeon adventures are both in Sharn, though both are quite different. However, the two adventures that will be published -- Shadows and Whispers -- begin in Sharn but have more globetrotting elements.

I'm not associated with WotC directly ...but I know a religion book is not on the short list of products. However, what you might see before a book would be expansion material on the WotC Website -- that's probably the best chance of getting the material in the short term.

[Religious] elements -- prayers, temples, holy symbols, and such -- are obviously useful. I don't know that you'd see a whole book on it, but I could see a web article focusing on a single religion ("Everything you ever wanted to know about the Sovereign Host") or it being added into a book on the Five Nations (Thrane could certainly use detailed info on the Silver Flame).

I would expect to see more about the Knights of Thrane in the future, in one form or another.

It's been very interesting for me to see the things people have mentioned so far. A lot of things that people are suggesting are sources I have no experience. I've never played a Final Fantasy game. The only Glen Cook books I've read have been the Black Company series. And to my shame, I've never actually read any Fritz Lieber. Does this mean that Eberron won't resemble these things? Not necessarily. For all I know, it's just like Final Fantasy -- one of these days, I'll play one of the games and find out.

Howard is a reasonable source to draw on. Conan and Kull are pulp heroes in many ways, and a lot of the Conan stories are actually very dark in tone. A great hero who uncovers bizarre civilizations, battles sinister cults and conspiracies, and obtains fantastic treasures -- sure, I could see Conan in Eberron, especially on the continent of Xen'drik.

Someone mentioned Harry Turtledove's The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump. While an extremely fun book, this is a little more over the top than Eberron -- it's magitech fully embraced, while Eberron simply attempts to (in some civilizations) take the magic that exists in D&D and explore the ways it could be incorporated into civilization.

Playing with fantasy noir, I would also bring up Stephen Brust's Dragaera novels. The first few Vlad Taltos books are very much in the noir vein -- hard luck assassin trying to get by in the big city. He also uses magic as a part of society, though at a far higher level than is present in Eberron (people don't just teleport around, and it's not like everyone has access to a telepathic phone).

As for books I've read and enjoyed: Most recently, I've really enjoyed George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire trilogy. I like the fact that the characters are reasonably well rounded and not simply "good" or "evil". The plot is complex and interesting. There may be no direct comparison to Eberron, but in developing the world we've also tried to make it an interesting place where politics, history, and the schemes of powerful groups have had a significant impact on the world. Players may choose to focus on dungeon crawling or exploration, but there is certainly room to get involved with the interactions of kings and princes and to help shape the world in the aftermath of the Last War.

To me the main similarities [between Eberron and Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice books] are the potential for political intrigue, the depth of the world, and that concept that good and evil arenot always black and white. Likewise, while Martin has the Others lurking in the shadows, the main conflicts so far are between nations and noble families, not humans and the vile forces of evil. In Eberron, we have the standard goblinoids and monstrous races, but they aren't just cardboard villains; they have their own cultures, motivations, and competing factions. So orcs aren't the Nazis of Eberron. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly vile monsters to be fought -- but humans can be worse than any monster, and monsters can be, hmm, humane as any human. (That sounds like a bad fortune cookie).

Other things that I've read and liked: The Dictionary of the Khazars by Milorad Pavic; The Flat Earth books by Tanith Lee and the Dying Earth books by Jack Vance; Sherri S. Tepper's True Game books; Julian May's Pliocene Exile; and Tolkein, Lovecraft, and Moorcock, looking back a ways.

Obviously The Maltese Falcon has already been mentioned – though the point there is more tone than anything else, with the level of intrigue, mystery, and backstabbing that goes on, and the hero being a man of questionable morals himself. Alexandre Dumas definitely fits the flavor of the world. If you consider Lovecraft non-fantasy (it's certainly a different style of fantasy than Lord of the Rings), he's in there. Edgar Rice Burroughs. I'm a big fan of Philip K. Dick, though I wouldn't say he's a major influence on Eberron.

Historical Influences

Eberron is a unique world. It's not a direct parallel to Earth in any era. The conveniences provided by magic are not a simple search-and-replace "Instead of guns, we have pistol-grip wands." It is still a fantasy world, and a world that the elements of core D&D make sense in. A lot of thought has gone into the cultures, and you won't just say "Oh, I get it, the orcs are the Nazis and the Inspired are the Yellow Menace." As discussed [previously], orcs would be an example of an interesting element of the world that has nothing to do with a '20's feel.

With all that said, yes, a lot of inspiration was drawn from both the pulp fiction and darker aspects of [the post-World War II] era. [Many of the themes of that time period] -- a world recovering from a terrible war; development of post-war "industry"; mysticism; exploration; and yes, the over-the-top pulp elements (dinosaurs, villianous masterminds, etc) are certainly part of Eberron. In fiction, Conan and John Carter are both products of that age, as was H.P. Lovecraft; each could be said to have had an influence on Eberron.

In the one-sentence summary of Eberron way back when I said it was "Lord of the Rings meets Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Maltese Falcon." That holds true today. You won't be fighting with a bullwhip or a pistol. You won't see anyone wearing a fedora. The look of the world is the Lord of the Rings part; it's a fantasy world. But it has the same capacty for intrigue, mystery, and deception that you find in the Maltese Falcon, and the same level of over-the-top globetrotting action you get from Indiana Jones.

Eberron isn't trying to match any part of the world. People have already commented on the Mayan look to Aerenal architecture, but the culture has nothing in common with the Mayans. The look and feel of Riedra doesn't really have any parallels to any earthly nation, as we've tried to come up with a nation shaped by psionics and the presence of otherworldly overlords. Like I said, there's certainly influences from the era, but drawing on those influences isn't the goal of the setting; it's one of many things that have gone into the world.

Ideally… novels will not have to jump to epic levels. There's a lot of exciting low-level action in Eberron. The point is that you can be a remarkable hero without being able to singlehandedly defeat 1000 warforged. There are epic-level challenges to be faced in Eberron, but there's lots to do as one works towards them.

I am writing a book for the setting, and it doesn't rewrite the laws of magic or end any of the major threats lurking in the shadows. I think that the characters are interesting people, and if they end up being used elsewhere, great. But they aren't superheroes. They might be a little over 1st level, but if they were magic items they'd still have faint auras. My goal is to create a story -- and hopefully a good one -- where you can see your party filling in the main roles.

Eberron is a setting with room for a lot of stories -- there are many places to explore and different organizations and power groups to play with. While I hate to keep bringing up Indiana Jones as people get the wrong impression, Raiders of the Lost Ark strikes me as a good parallel: it can be argued that Indy saves the world and defeats the Nazis, yet at the end of the movie only a handful of people know what he's done and there's still lots more Nazis out there.

Of course, the global trek is more of a pulp icon; looking to Eberron's other sources, the Maltese Falcon was a book before a movie, and again, it's an interesting story that doesn't shake the foundations of the world.

Where do my books fall into this spectrum? Who are the characters? Well, it's still going to be a LONG time 'til books come out, so I'm afraid I should keep quiet for now. I believe a time will come when I can reveal more.

I myself know practically nothing about the MMORPG, and hey, I created the world. The online game is being matched to where it best fits into the world, not the other way around. As it turns out, there is a place in the world that is well suited to this; but that is a convenient coincidence.

I am not working with [Turbine] directly. Christopher Perkins and Bill Slaviscek are, and they have talked to me about major issues.

At this time, I have not been involved in the development of D&D Online in any way. I know that other members of the WotC Eberron design team have been, so they aren't operating in the dark; however, I myself don't know anything about why they chose Eberron for the setting or where it will take place.

However, as a fomer MMORPG developer, I can take a few guesses as to why they'd choose Eberron as the setting:

1. It's new. This is good for one reason: less material to be true to. If they go with Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms, they have a built in fanbase -- but they are also bound by decades of existing material, and will have to deal with people saying "Why can't I be one of the Chosen?", "Where are the People of the Black Blood," or "As shown in Book #357, this could never happen in the Realms." Because Eberron is a new setting, the developers have more freedom to make what they think is the best game without disappointing fans who expect to see every detail of the world they've been playing with for over a decade.

2. There are large areas in Eberron that are inentionally mysterious. The Mournland. Xen'drik. Argonnessen. I don't know where they plan to set the game, but if they focused on Xen'drik then they get complete frontier action. This basically adds to my first point -- they wouldn't even have to worry about being perfectly attuned to the CSB, because there are no maps of Xen'drik. As long as they had the new races, the artificer, dragonmarks, & some of the organizations working in the background, they could do whatever they wanted. If they took this approach, they might not even have the lightning rail (train), as this currently only exists in Khorvaire. Frankly, this is probably what I'd do; it's better suited to an MMORPG, where you need a non-stop supply of action.

I have a non-disclosure agreement concerning the D&D RTS. The shadow elves tie into the existing history of the Aereni and drow, but they were developed in detail for the RTS, and there wouldn't be much point to discussing them without going into detail. Thus, I doubt you'll get much solid information until the RTS is released, at which point I hope that there will be an opportunity to explore their culture in more detail.

Just playing off of the information that has been released, in the RTS, two of the sides are the Shadow Elves and the Silver Flame. The fact that these two are opposed may say something about general perception -- but the truth isn't always so simple.

Wizards fully intends to save many of the more interesting details until the end. Whatever one thinks of their marketing approach, it is common sense to assume that they would want every preview to be more interesting than the one before. Therefore, they are not going to reveal the most intriguing elements six months in advance. You may have seen enough to know you won't like it -- but at this point, you may not know about the most original or interesting elements of the world.

In the [first] web article, the initial answer to the question of "who are the heroes" is literally the answer from the one pager. The world evolved a great deal over development, and while the pulp/noir feeling remains, it's a little more LOTR, a little less Raymond Chandler and the Shadow.

[Across Eberron] was an attempt to give a hint as to what the world is. WotC is specifically NOT showing the whole thing, so that each new preview will be more intresting than the one before. Looking to that flier, point me to any mention of the kalashtar, Sarlona, or the psionic societies. Tell me how many nations are in the world or how they relate to one another. Name three of the important organizations in the world, or religions. For that matter, tell me what a dragonmark is. All of these things are part of the world, and in time they will be revealed. But revealing the entire world and then saying "and now wait 8 months before it comes out" would be fairly pointless. At least one of the most important things about the setting -- something that has a major impact on the shape of the world -- has not been revealed, and won't be for months yet. Comparing it to Dragonlance, you've only seen the Dragon part, and we haven't shown you the Lance.

As always, I'm not saying "and this means you'll like it!" If you hate everything you've seen so far, you probably won't. But there are still surprises in store, and much to learn about the world.

Living Eberron

Given that they are having James and I at Winter Fantasy (the RPGA convention) it seems like a reasonable assumption!

[This has been confirmed. The campaign will start at Winter Fantasy '05.]

There will be a Living Eberron campaign. At the moment, I don't know the details.

Before Eberron

I remember that when I got my first miniatures, I was so young that I thought it was fun to squash them with a hammer to make "shadows". I think that I was eight years old when I started reading the books, though it was a little longer before I actually started playing them. My parents were divorced when I was very young, and one of the most exciting things about going to visit my father on vacations was that there was a real GAME STORE in Washington DC. I remember reading the Against the Giants modules, and how cool it was when Expedition to the Barrier Peaks came out with that whole book of art. I remember when 1st-edition Oriental Adventures came out and we all stayed up late designing martial arts.

Generally I ended up as the DM among my group of friends -- occasionally someone else would give things a go, but 9 times out of 10 I'd be the one people would turn to for games. Fast forward through high school and college and I emerged into the world hoping to find some way to write RPGs for a living, but having no idea where to start. By strange coincidence, I ended up working as a production assistant at a computer game company -- along with, among other people, Zeb Cook (Planescape), Graeme Davis (Warhammer FRP), Lawrence Schick (White Plume Mountain), and Ken Rolston (Paranoia). I learned a lot working with all of them, and it was while I was at Magnet that I managed to get my first freelance RPG job -- writing for Atlas Games' Over the Edge RPG for the princely sum of a penny a word. Needless to say, this isn't about my life story, so I'll skip ahead a few years to when WotC went public with the OGL; thanks to my exciting penny-a-word antics Atlas asked if I had any ideas for D20 material, and my first work as an actual D&D writer was for their Penumbra line. And here I am today, with Eberron about to come out.

A lot of people have complained that I shouldn't have been able to participate in the setting search, because I'm a "professional". To that, I can only say that I have always loved the game and wanted to be a part of it. I never dreamed that I would have an opportunity like this one, and I doubt that I ever will again. I don't know how long Eberron will be around, but I hope that people enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed Greyhawk, Planescape, and all the worlds that have come before.

The Evolution of Eberron

The setting draws on elements of a few different campaigns I've run in the past, but it's a unique world now (though I have run games in Eberron since developing it). It has evolved since the 100-page story bible that was selected in the setting search, and James Wyatt, Bill Slaviscek, and Chris Perkins have all also left their mark on it.

What I've played before was not directly Eberron, which draws on pieces of 2 of those 4 [of my past settings] and adds new material besides. One of those two campaigns was one I ran in high school through college, so quite a while. But again, that wasn't exactly Eberron.

[Since the original 100 page story bible,] there have been a lot of changes. The world was reduced in size, simply because it had to be -- as is, we are fighting to squeeze all of the nations and groups into the 360 page book... In the original setting there were well-developed aquatic nations and politics, and that's something that has been dropped -- which isn't to say that they aren't out there, but they don't have the same level of interaction with the surface world. The halfling dinosaur rider culture emerged out of a brainstorming session and belongs to everyone. The shifters were inspired by a comment Chris Perkins made at the begining of the final round when WotC brought each finalist in and said "Here's what we like and don't like about your setting"; they evolved in the 100-pager and have changed significantly since then. Almost all of the names of countries and places have changed. And so on, and so on. It's still the same world I submitted in that 100-page bible, but everyone on the team has had the chance to put their mark on it.

Playing Eberron

In the one Eberron game I've been able to play in, I had a lot of fun with a warforged fighter. If I was able to play long term, it would be a very hard choice. Warforged fighter, shifter druid, kalashtar soulknife, and dragonmarked human artificer would be the four I'd probably end up choosing between -- although there's a lot of other interesting characters to play!

The group I'm running for now actually shied away from most of the new races. The group is centered around a dragonmarked halfling rogue, who ran an inn in Cyre that was destroyed at the end of the war. Other characters include his warforged (fighter) bouncer, a formerly corrupt human cleric in search of redemption, a Valenar ranger who hung out at the inn while serving as a mercenary in Cyre, a dragonmarked human artificer who's looking after the warforged, and an elf enchanter who is from a dragonmarked house but does not possess the mark of his house, who is hoping to use the party to further his plans within his house.

On the other hand, an earlier party I ran for included a changeling rogue, shifter druid, warforged fighter, and dragonmarked human artificer, in which case every character was drawing on unique Eberron material...

Timeline and Metaplot

That's WotC's decision. There are major events that could be set in motion, if they want to take that path. However, I do feel that there are a lot of stories to be explored on the micro level before it is necessary to go to a macro level.

Also, there are the possibility of events that could have world-shaking consequences if things go wrong that may be completely unnoticed if things go right. For example, in Raiders of the Lost Ark, who knows what might have happened if the nazis had somehow been able to turn the Ark of the Covenant into a weapon? No one, because they didn't, and it disappeared into a warehouse never to be seen again. Following the pulp tradition, an evil mastermind or mad wizard could come up with a scheme that could threaten a nation, but if you stop him, the public will never know.

As your characters attain higher levels, there will be epic challenges to face. And if WotC wants, they could certainly push forward a hard timeline with world-changing events. But I'm in no rush to see that happen. I'd rather let players explore the world and get to know it well before forcing major changes on everyone.

What does everyone else think? Personally, I would rather see a book that discusses War in Eberron -- how to handle skirmishes or renewed hostilities between nations, how a major war might be handled, the military tactics and strengths of the major nations -- than a hard "The war has begun again" that may invalidate prior suppliments. This would provide the tools for a DM who wants to set off new wars (large or small) without forcing all people to go on a war footing, which may not suit many campaigns.

I'd rather see it presented as a series of possible scenarios: here is a possible scheme that could cause friction or even war between Thrane and Aundair. If you like this idea, run with it. If not, ignore it. It actually seems like an interesting web thing -- "the plot of the month", with the major NPCs and the possible fallout of various outcomes.

The potential for political intrigue is certainly one of the elements of the setting. The situation is very unstable and everyone is looking for an edge. At least one nation is specified as frequently violating the terms of the treaty, and border incidents and skirmishes are undoubtedly still a common occurance. The rulers of the nations and their outlooks on the situation will be discussed in the Core Sourcebook. So you'll have all the material to play with. It's mainly a question of whether we say "There is tension between Thrane and Nation X" and let you decide where to go with it, or whether at some point we say "Nation X attacks Thrane. Flamekeep is razed to the ground and the Keeper of the Flame has vanished." In the first example, you can decide how far you want to take things and what role the PCs take. In the second, we've told you what's going to happen; it takes power away from you and your PCs, but also provides you with a lot of new story material.

For me, the scope of the changes is also a factor. "Thrane and Nation X go to war" provides lots of room for wartime adventure, but can still be avoided by people who stay out of those areas. "All of the nations of Khorvaire go to war again" is going to completely change the tone of a campaign.

Pronunciation

Well, it's possible that Bill or James have different ideas (and various names have evolved over the course of the development of the setting, thus I am not the originator of all names) but here's how I pronounce them in *my* campaign.

Eberron (EB-bur-on)
Aundair (Awn-DARE)
Talenta (TUH-len-tuh)
Valenar (VAL-en-ar)
Lhazaar (Lah-ZAR)
Karrnath (KAR-nath)
Breland (BREL-und)
Zilargo (Zil-AR-go)
Q'barra (KUH-BAR-ruh)
Sarlona (Sar-LONE-nuh)
Xen'drik (ZEN-drik)
Thrane (Rhymes with "train")
Riedra (ruh-EE-dra)
Adar (uh-DAR)
Cyre (SEER-ee)
Aerenal (EAR-en-al)
Argonnessen (AR-gon-NESS-en)
The Shadow Marches (thee-SHA-doh-MAR-ches)

... OK, perhaps everyone agrees on that last one...

Including Psionic Content

The kalashtar and the Inspired were part of Eberron from day one, and back in 2002 I had no idea that a new version of the Psionics Handbook would be coming out in [2004]. But psionics have been in D&D since first edition and have always been this weird "what am I doing in a fantasy game" thing, so I wanted to have them have a place in Eberron that made sense. And as I've said elsewhere, I've always liked exploring dreams, so this killed two birds with one stone.

The goal was to give psionics a sensible place in the world without making them so central that people would have to make major changes if they did not possess the XPH. The point was not to allow you to run a game in Adar right off the bat, but for you to be able to say "My soulknife trained in Adar" or "My psychic warrior studied with a kalashtar elder in a secret monstary in Sharn." And, of course, the kalashtar and Inspired are psionic creatures with an important role in the world; the Dreaming Dark is one of my favorite things about the setting. Psionics even have a tie to the planes; creatures of dream and madness are typically psionic in nature as opposed to magical.

There's not a vast amount of psionic material in the CSB; we had a limited amount of space to work with and we needed to make sure that the book would be as useful as possible to as many people as possible. However, when the kalashtar, Inspired, or Sarlona are developed in more detail (whether online or in print), you should get more psionic material to play with.

D&D Miniatures

The warforged figures are the only Eberron-specific figures in [the D&D Miniatures expansion] Giants of Legend that I have heard of, but I'm not an expert on the subject. Of course, most non-setting-specific figures can be used in Eberron. Hopefully they will cover the other PC races in the future -- it would be nice to have a shifter figure.

Comparisons to Iron Kingdoms

[Privateer Press'] Iron Kingdoms describes itself as "a realm like no other, a place where adventurers encounter steam power and gunpowder almost as often as swords and sorcery" -- and neither gunpowder nor steam power are things you'll find in Eberron. Obviously there are some cases -- i.e., the lightning rail -- where you could argue that it makes little difference whether it uses steam or magic. However, I would imagine that the use of gunpowder adds a different feel to the world. From what I've skimmed online (I'm not actually familiar with IK) warjacks are often equipped with cannons, and there appear to be human miniatures with handguns and rifles. Eberron may have a few elements that people see as steampunk, but it's a fantasy world; where warfare has advanced, it has been purely through the application of the magic present in the core rules, along with the artificer.

Which is not to say that Iron Kingdoms doesn't look cool and that there may be elements in either world that can cross over to the other... looking at the website, I'm certainly interested in taking a look at the IK corebook when it comes out. But I suspect that the two settings will have more differences than similarities.

Development and Marketing