Eberron at Winter Fantasy

Each year, RPGA holds the Winter Fantasy convention, a gaming trade show and "Living" campaign play event. Eberron made a splash at Winter Fantasy 2004 with a sneak preview for attendees. While nothing can match being there, here are some quotes from players who attended the event.

Event Overview

From Nyneve, via the Vault Network boards:

The Eberron Preview opened with words from the marketing director followed by Keith speaking on his experiences with the setting search, a business director talking about the game, an artist talking about his art and the large miniatures coming out this spring and finished with James talking about Eberron and then Q&A. 

There will be an Eberron sourcebook and two side books in 2005 followed by five more books in 2006. Also there will be novels and miniatures created for the setting.

Eberron is designed to be a fantasy adventure with a cinematic adventure feeling. Breathtaking fight scenes or big action sequences like in the movies should be viable for characters in Eberron; character lives should be full of interesting and memorable moments. 

We received a handout of the Extreme Explorer character class. Extreme Explorer is a prestige class which was described as a "Legolas scaling the elephant and taking down 32 warriors" type of guy.

Action points are taken from Star Wars and the d20 system. They designed feats around action points to imbue the game with a cinematic adventure feeling which really make character lives interesting and special. Action points are supposed to provide for flair in adventuring. PC's are expected to describe their actions to the dm in depth when in the process of this in order to convince him that this is really ACTION that is going on. What is going on should be movie quality special effect action scenery. 

Monsters do not have action points; however, NPCs and very special monsters can take feats for action points in order to spice up encounters. 

This is the first full-fledged setting developed from the ground up specifically for D&D 3.0/3.5 rules. Everything in the Dungeon Master's Guide, Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, etc. can or will be utilized within Eberron ...although at times there will be twists. However, it will be very clear that everything will have a place if desired. 

Likewise Eberron is eminently loot-able for non-Eberron campaigns. Races, Prestige Classes, Action Point System, Organizations and LOTS of spells can be exported into non-Eberron games fairly easily. 

Eberron has content for both the traditional D&D dungeon crawling, explorer types as well as those who like social roleplaying and intrigue. 

For exploring there are locations such as the lost continent which is full of ruins and the ancient city which is built on top of an even older ruined ancient city that is full of dungeons. Also one of the core five nations of Eberron, the Mournland, was destroyed during the war and thus provides ample exploration adventure territory which is full of mutated creatures and the after effects of destruction. 

What looks like technology in Eberron is actually magic. Magic is pervasive within Eberron and the prevalent use has caused things such as the mutated creatures in the Mournland. 

The balance of power between nations is in flux. There is a lot of intrigue, espionage, and politics in play in Eberron. War only ended a year ago so affiliations and history are very meaningful to characters and NPCs as the dust settles and influence is tested. 

The cosmology of Eberron is fully detailed in the sourcebook and completely new. There is also a complete religious setup which is also different and new. 

A chapter of the book will be devoted to the history of Eberron. There will be a lot of info on nations, organizations and how this effects character in background choices and defining decisions. History will be told as it effects the current game experience; there are new ruins from the war as well as old ruins and ancient evils still locked up within the lands. The past is tied up with the future. 

Bad groups and good groups will be available for easily determining the alignment of NPCs and groups you come across. However there are also a great number of gray area groups which PC's will come in contact with in a variety of manners (patrons of adventure etc). This will make it harder for players to always know that they are doing the right or wrong thing at times. 

Living Eberron will officially begin next year at Winter Fantasy 2005. There will be sneak preview games run at this years Winter Fantasy as well as at GenCon. Living Eberron will be a two year cycling campaign.

Notes from Keith Baker's Eberron Playtest

From ArthurQ, via the ENworld boards:

Keith Baker was extremely nice enough to run some Eberron adventures at Winter Fantasy letting a few very lucky gamers try the mechanics at work with the new setting.

I was one of the lucky few to play(test) an adventure that is soon to be published. Though none of us are under NDA, I won't reveal anything.

In the adventure I played, Keith NPCed a Dwarf Artificer, one PC played a Warforged, and another played a Shifter. I decided to stay a tad more traditional and played a Paladin.

The Warforged are almost like a construct, but alive and a PC race that's ECL 0. Believe it or not, it's fairly well balanced.

There is a new type of feat, that goes along family lines, that lets you do something special and different. I'll refrain from telling you exactly what mine did, but it was very useful.

The Shifters are... well... descendants of lycanthropes that can make small physical changes, not a complete transformation.

The Artificer is one of the best. He's like a walking buff machine that uses magic to temporarily enhance your "items." 

I'm still in awe from the 5 hour game we played. Keith is a wonderful DM. Even Rob Hiensoo, developer for D&D Minis jumped in and played an evoker near the end.

We started out in a city that was built on top of an old city that was built on top of another city, that was partially underground. There were "lifts" powered by magic that moved you up and down, harpy messenger services, magic train lines...

It really was cinematic. The action points really spiced things up, allowing you to reuse an ability you've spent off, or augment an attack.

I'm completely sold on Eberron. I cant wait for the book to come out in June. I can only dream of some sort of FR/Eberron crossover 2 years from now. (just a dream, just a dream...)

I wish I could say more, but you'll just have to follow Eberron closely and give it a try when it's released.

Warforged:
They are rare and very cool. They cannot have dragonmarks. They cannot wear armor. If they want armor they must take a feat at first level and are required to stick with it. Yes this feat gives them arcane failure. Yes, Warforged can be wizards. Warforged have no need for sleep or food or drink, though its been suggested to take a page from Futurama and require them to drink oil or alcohol. (Mostly as a joke. Wizards would never allow the second one anyway). Craft Armorsmithing can be used to "heal" Warforged as the Heal skill is on humanoids. Artificers are the only ones who can build warforged. Artificers are the only ones who can cast spells, or infusions, that heal Warforged effectively. Normal healing potions (and maybe spells, I think) only work at half effectiveness for Warforged. You can have as many different types of Warforged as you have humanoids. It depends on how they were constructed. From huge tanks to light and fast infiltration/assassin units. Warforged were first created 30 years ago and MOST are 1-5 years old.

Keith Baker (left) runs an Eberron adventure at Winter Fantasy 2004

From LRonKnieval, via the ENworld boards:

I was also lucky enough to have Keith run my friends and I through Eberron. Heck, I was lucky enough to play the Artificer.

Anyway, I liked the Action Points. They were really easy to understand, rules-wise, and came in handy a couple of times. Admittedly, I might have been more conservative with them had I been gaming in an ongoing campaign. Overall, they were kind of like hero points except not as powerful, and slightly more plentiful. Also their use was specifically defined. As the Artificer, I used them to speed up my casting times when trying to beef up everyone's stuff before a tricky encounter.

Keith also mentioned the real trick to using them was to have the character add a bit of dramatic flair to explain their justification for use. Such as an extra burst of adrenaline to recover an initially off-placed strike. 

What was really the coolest factor about Eberron, aside from new classes and feats and stuff, was the depth of the setting, its flavor and what not. I got a real sense that alignment was more subjective and that certain races, while they have a tendency to be of a specific slant, weren't always as such. I thought that worked nicely with the inclusiveness that 3.0/ 3.5 were trying to attain. What also amazed me was, although distinctively different, there was a ton of familiarity to the setting and nothing struck me as being particularly odd or awkward. Overall, it was extremely dramatic and really visual. We even started in a tavern, sort of... but it was exciting. Instead of feeling cliché, it was more like the start of Indiana Jones when the Nazis break into the Siberian bar looking for the amulet.

I also liked that there were feats for specific classes but also restricted to different sects. (Kind of like how Legend of the Five Rings does it with clans, but with a little more umpf!).

I could probably go on an on about what a great time I had, but more so I look forward to the June release of the Eberron.

From Hida Kitsumi at the Eberron Yahoo! Group: 

I just got a crash course in Eberron this weekend at Winter Fantasy. I was lucky enough to play with Keith and he ran us through a very interesting adventure, which sadly there was not enough time to finish. I have to say, it really is an interesting world that I can't wait to learn more about. Funny thing is, my group had gone to Winter Fantasy just to check it out with no intentions of playing.

The best things I liked about Eberron (aside from Keith doing a Stellar job at DMing us) were the Artificer and the action points (in addition to the setting itself). I didn't have time to really read in detail about the artificer, but they really are a great support to other player characters and are awesome to have in your party.

The action points really were a great thing. Since we were only playing for a few hours and knew we had no chance of continuing, we had the opportunity to blow them at will and really see the effects. Let's just say they came in very handy when a very important Bluff role came up a little short. They really can have the effect of having everyone cheer.