...Keith Baker's sleeping on our couch tonight, so if you've got anything you're dying to know about Eberron or whatever, lemme know and I'll try to subtly work it into the conversation.
I was wondering for years if the inspiration for Eberron come from that paragraph in the AD&D DMG about possible campaign settings: "- A truly fantastic world filled with genii-driven steam engines, elemental airships and spell-driven telegraphs."
(Oh fuck, that sounded A LOT of nerdy question, isn't it?)
@Seth--He said "Obviously it's the use of too much arcane magic which will eventually turn Eberron into Athas, duh" (He's drunk now, though, so, y'know...)
Kelvingreen, I know a lot of people who like SW for Eberron. I've picked it up but haven't had a chance to check it out yet myself. I've run it in Over The Edge, myself... and I know other people who use GURPs. Whatever works!
In my World of Darkness "weird fantasy" game, for which is use minis (you know, so people remember that the door is over THERE & that they are standing next to the MONSTER) some of my players still get antsy because they WANT those attacks of opportunity. Sadists.
I like Eberron conceptually, but I haven't ever played it.
Mordicai, that was exactly my position. Eberron came out while I was out of gaming, so while I liked the setting, I couldn't actually play in it, so I wrote a graphic novel instead, the notes for which are sitting in a folder somewhere on one of my bookshelves. Then I got back into gaming just as D&D4 came out, and I've tried, but it's just not for me, so I just decided to go go unofficial and started running Savage Eberron earlier this year.
I wish it were like Freeport, and the setting book was multi-system, but I get by.
@biopunk Actually, it's not AoOs that bother me as such, it's some of the crazy combos you can get with them when characters are designed to take advantage of them. So really what bothers me isn't a SPECIFIC mechanic, but having to deal with characters that are completely tuned around one concept - the I-trip-you-and-then-when-you-stand-I-trip-you-again-with-my-AoO-and-this-is-the-only-thing-my-character-does-at-all-but-it's-awesome - just because I want people to feel rounded. So, in essence, the thing I hate dealing with is this: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html
@Seth I'm still not sure how to answer the question. If you mean "What is the cause of the Mournland", there never was an official answer and there never will be. At the end of the day, the mystery is more important than the answer. When the answer is known, people know whether it is something that can be harnessed or replicated, and whether there's any danger of it happening again. If it could be harnessed, it's a tremendous shift in the balance of power in Khorvaire. If it becomes known that it can't be harnessed or repeated, it will likely restart the Last War. So in MY campaign, I've never felt a need to answer the question. With that said, I've always had a short list of things it COULD be, and if I ever wanted to I'd pick from that list. So possibilities?
* It's the result of an overlord from the Age of Demons being released. He's still lingering in the ML building his strength; when he moves he'll spread the Mourning with him.
* House Cannith caused it while working on some form of weapon. The remains of that weapon are in the Mournland; it's possible that they are in the hands of the Lord of Blades, who is trying to put it back together.
* The Ashbound are right; it's the result of too much magic being used in the war. If the war were to start up again, it would spread.
Another option is explored in my next novel, which is coming out in October.
You may say "Wait a second! In The Gates of Night, Lei's father clearly implies that he knows the cause of the Mourning. Are you saying you didn't have an answer?" Not at all. Look closely and you'll see that he doesn't say he knows WHAT is causing it, he says he know WHO is causing it, and the answer he's thinking of could apply to any of those three answers.
I know some people don't like the idea that there's no absolute answer. But in the design of the setting, the impact of the event was always more important than the cause, and more than that, I wanted to leave a few critical points of mystery in the setting, so that if I played in your game and you made it an adventure about solving the Mourning, even though I'm the CREATOR of the setting I wouldn't know where the adventure was going to take us.
Damn, now I wish I had been around last night instead of gaming, but perhaps Mr. Baker will deign to answer again...
Where do you see the Cyrans going as time marches on? Will they become like the post-exodus medieval jews? Will they found a new homeland? Off Khorvaire? Or will they demonstrate the gratitude spoken of by DeGaulle and/or the Hapsburg Prime Minister towards Breland? Do you believe that if (when? Supposed to be 13 cycles of the Battleground according to James Wyatt) the Mourning ends they will try to reclaim their homeland?
Is the growing of the Dreamtime mentioned in Secrets of Sarlona the beginning of a 'new' realm of dreams, ironically due to the influence of the Reidran Monoliths, one co-existant with the Prime plane, rather akin to the Plane of Shadows from official cosmology? Would the current plane then 'wink out' at the end of the current age as the new plane is born, or become purely a plane of nightmares, once more firmly locked away behind the Giant’s magics, perhaps moving into closer alignment with Xoriat?
Also what’s up with the Daine/Jode hybrid left behind by Lei and Pierce? Any plans to further explore those characters? Xu’s appearance in ‘Son of Khyber’ was nice, but I’d like to see what Lei and Pierce have been up to!
@Tom, if you want to ask more Eberron stuff, feel free to ping me on Bossythecow.com/HDWT or Hellcowkeith on Twitter. I haven't posted as much as I'd like over the past year, but I intend to rectify that. All your questions are good, but they'll take more time to answer than I have right now, so I'll respond over there.
I had a great time running Eberron and Over The Edge for Zak and the crew. And it was good to finally have a chance to wear that leopard print bikini.
So how did that come about?
ReplyDeleteOh, wow. Is he still doing the "Have Dice, Will Travel" thing? He's been at it for well over a year, right?
ReplyDeleteI was wondering for years if the inspiration for Eberron come from that paragraph in the AD&D DMG about possible campaign settings:
ReplyDelete"- A truly fantastic world filled with genii-driven steam engines, elemental airships and spell-driven telegraphs."
(Oh fuck, that sounded A LOT of nerdy question, isn't it?)
@kelvin
ReplyDeletetalk to 19charisma
@19charisma
yep.
@liza
he says nope. but likes that.
I met him a couple months ago. Dude gets around!
ReplyDeleteBatman or Superman?
ReplyDelete(just trying to make liza feel better)
I'd love to hear his take on the fake Red Box "Essentials" thing, but I'm guessing if his opinion is negative he may not want to spread that around.
Playing *Gloom* with porn stars? just a thought... (please shoot video.)
ReplyDeleteAh, alles klar, as they say. So, did you ask him, or did he ask you, and will he be appearing in IHWMA?
ReplyDelete@cramp
ReplyDeletespent an hour looking for our copy of Gloom this morning.
@kelvin
he asked to come over, it's not on TV, it's just for fun
The girls have forced me to play a female goblin rogue.
at the moment Keith is explaining Satine's totally tricked out 5th level psychic doppleganger to her and spoiling her for our low level game.
I just want to know what the hell's up with the Mournland. Is that a legitimate question? Could he maybe whisper that over the internet?
ReplyDeleteAsk him what he's wearing.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if he's right there and you can just look. Ask him, or suffer the consequences!
ReplyDelete@TrentB--A leopard print bikini
ReplyDelete@Seth--He said "Obviously it's the use of too much arcane magic which will eventually turn Eberron into Athas, duh" (He's drunk now, though, so, y'know...)
If he is still conscious and somewhat coherent:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the D&D rule/mechanic that he finds the most problematic to rule on/over while actually playing/running a game?
@biopunk
ReplyDelete"I hate that 1st ed. weapon v. AC bonus ta...""Do you even use that?" "No."
"3rd ed--attacks of opportunity"
Then we started talking about 4th but it went onto a big tangent
Leopard Print = awesome.
ReplyDeletePretty sure I've asked the worst question of the evening, so I'm going go and eat a carrot.
Is it okay that I run Eberron using Savage Worlds?
ReplyDeleteKelvingreen, I know a lot of people who like SW for Eberron. I've picked it up but haven't had a chance to check it out yet myself. I've run it in Over The Edge, myself... and I know other people who use GURPs. Whatever works!
ReplyDeleteIn my World of Darkness "weird fantasy" game, for which is use minis (you know, so people remember that the door is over THERE & that they are standing next to the MONSTER) some of my players still get antsy because they WANT those attacks of opportunity. Sadists.
ReplyDeleteI like Eberron conceptually, but I haven't ever played it.
Mordicai, that was exactly my position. Eberron came out while I was out of gaming, so while I liked the setting, I couldn't actually play in it, so I wrote a graphic novel instead, the notes for which are sitting in a folder somewhere on one of my bookshelves. Then I got back into gaming just as D&D4 came out, and I've tried, but it's just not for me, so I just decided to go go unofficial and started running Savage Eberron earlier this year.
ReplyDeleteI wish it were like Freeport, and the setting book was multi-system, but I get by.
@biopunk Actually, it's not AoOs that bother me as such, it's some of the crazy combos you can get with them when characters are designed to take advantage of them. So really what bothers me isn't a SPECIFIC mechanic, but having to deal with characters that are completely tuned around one concept - the I-trip-you-and-then-when-you-stand-I-trip-you-again-with-my-AoO-and-this-is-the-only-thing-my-character-does-at-all-but-it's-awesome - just because I want people to feel rounded. So, in essence, the thing I hate dealing with is this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0216.html
@Seth I'm still not sure how to answer the question. If you mean "What is the cause of the Mournland", there never was an official answer and there never will be. At the end of the day, the mystery is more important than the answer. When the answer is known, people know whether it is something that can be harnessed or replicated, and whether there's any danger of it happening again. If it could be harnessed, it's a tremendous shift in the balance of power in Khorvaire. If it becomes known that it can't be harnessed or repeated, it will likely restart the Last War. So in MY campaign, I've never felt a need to answer the question. With that said, I've always had a short list of things it COULD be, and if I ever wanted to I'd pick from that list. So possibilities?
* It's the result of an overlord from the Age of Demons being released. He's still lingering in the ML building his strength; when he moves he'll spread the Mourning with him.
* House Cannith caused it while working on some form of weapon. The remains of that weapon are in the Mournland; it's possible that they are in the hands of the Lord of Blades, who is trying to put it back together.
* The Ashbound are right; it's the result of too much magic being used in the war. If the war were to start up again, it would spread.
Another option is explored in my next novel, which is coming out in October.
You may say "Wait a second! In The Gates of Night, Lei's father clearly implies that he knows the cause of the Mourning. Are you saying you didn't have an answer?" Not at all. Look closely and you'll see that he doesn't say he knows WHAT is causing it, he says he know WHO is causing it, and the answer he's thinking of could apply to any of those three answers.
I know some people don't like the idea that there's no absolute answer. But in the design of the setting, the impact of the event was always more important than the cause, and more than that, I wanted to leave a few critical points of mystery in the setting, so that if I played in your game and you made it an adventure about solving the Mourning, even though I'm the CREATOR of the setting I wouldn't know where the adventure was going to take us.
Thanks Keith!
ReplyDeleteDamn, now I wish I had been around last night instead of gaming, but perhaps Mr. Baker will deign to answer again...
ReplyDeleteWhere do you see the Cyrans going as time marches on? Will they become like the post-exodus medieval jews? Will they found a new homeland? Off Khorvaire? Or will they demonstrate the gratitude spoken of by DeGaulle and/or the Hapsburg Prime Minister towards Breland? Do you believe that if (when? Supposed to be 13 cycles of the Battleground according to James Wyatt) the Mourning ends they will try to reclaim their homeland?
Is the growing of the Dreamtime mentioned in Secrets of Sarlona the beginning of a 'new' realm of dreams, ironically due to the influence of the Reidran Monoliths, one co-existant with the Prime plane, rather akin to the Plane of Shadows from official cosmology? Would the current plane then 'wink out' at the end of the current age as the new plane is born, or become purely a plane of nightmares, once more firmly locked away behind the Giant’s magics, perhaps moving into closer alignment with Xoriat?
Also what’s up with the Daine/Jode hybrid left behind by Lei and Pierce? Any plans to further explore those characters? Xu’s appearance in ‘Son of Khyber’ was nice, but I’d like to see what Lei and Pierce have been up to!
Do we know anything, and if so how?
ReplyDelete@Tom, if you want to ask more Eberron stuff, feel free to ping me on Bossythecow.com/HDWT or Hellcowkeith on Twitter. I haven't posted as much as I'd like over the past year, but I intend to rectify that. All your questions are good, but they'll take more time to answer than I have right now, so I'll respond over there.
ReplyDeleteI had a great time running Eberron and Over The Edge for Zak and the crew. And it was good to finally have a chance to wear that leopard print bikini.
@Keith, bikini photos? For uh... science.
ReplyDelete@Zak
ReplyDeleteWhat did you think about the system and setting for OtE?
@Keith
Can you give us the skinny about the OtE session you ran, for science and posterity and all that. :)