Dear Marge...

[WageSlave1]

D&D 3rd ed.

Cheers BGG, it sounds good. I haven't played any human RPGs since about 1996 (due primarily to changing social scene), just before it swiched to 3rd edition. I have to admit that I always liked the D&D universes; Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun, Greyhawk, DragonLance, and my two favourites - Ravenloft and Spelljammer.

What are the universes like these days? I remember something along the lines of concentrating on Greyhawk and forgetting FR.

[Board Game Geek]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

With the d20 3rd edition push, FR material is coming out of your ears. Makes all the 1st and 2nd edition stuff look like a small carriers bag worth.

Grehawk has pretty much dried up. DarkSun and Spell jammer are dead. So is Planescape.

The new boy on the block is "Eberron" and it's a cracking campaign world.

Sort of Film Noir meets Indiana Jones with tons of swash and buckle. Magic, Magic Technology (like Elemental Bound Lighting Rail Trains and Sky Galleons), and several continents recovering from a major war, with lots of intrigue.

Also a major continent that is something of the "Lost World", with dinosaurs, hidden temples and ziggurats, weird cults and lord know what else. Perfect Indy territory. Adventurers are sponsored by the Universities or private individuals to lead dangerous expeditions to the Wailing Ziggurat of the Vampire Shaman and bring back his treasures, for example.

Ebberon's setting is VERY high magic. It's a world of sentient constructs, airships, magical items in abundance, cities floating in the sky, even a rail system connecting kingdoms powered by lightening elementals. Anyone who is a fan of Final Fantasy will feel at home with the tone of this game.

The tone for this setting, by the way, is that of high adventure and cinematic style. The standard beginning of the campaign takes place in the two years following a huge civil that took place between five kingdoms. In this time of uneasy peace, many opprotunities arise as nations begin to rebuild from the rubble of war. Adventure ideas can be anything here; from exploring remains of ancient civilizations to participating in political struggles between kingdoms and houses to even performing jobs in huge metropolitan cities. Literally any style of campaign or adventure can occur in this setting with plenty to work off of.

The setting introduces four new races and a new class (called Artificers. More on them later.) Changelings are a race of half-dopplegangers that can make subtle changes to their appearances, and usually make for good rogue-ish characters. Kalashtar are a race of beings who hail from the planes that dreams come from, designed to be a race of mostly psionic and monastic people. Shifters are decendants of Lycanthropes (which are exceedingly rare) that possess minor animalist attributes when they shift. Lastly, there's the Warforged, special war golems that have gained sentience and are now a playable race. Many will feel that the Warforged is a very twinkish option, since they are pretty much bred to be war machines. But their flaws represent group problems as well, as they do not heal naturally. Also, clerical healings are halved with sentient Warforged, and can only be fully healed by Artificers. All the other standard D&D races are here as well with their own twists. Elves seem to have a very different culture then in most fantasy games, almost as if they're portraying anicent cultures similar to the Mayans. Halflings are portrayed as a nomadic race, usually at home wandering the plains on small dinosaur mounts.

Artificers make for a nice addition to the classes. They are pretty much a class of magical inventors. Though they can't cast spells themselves, they are given special spell like abilities and feats that they can imbue into items. They're also allowed to use magical items, and even craft regular magical items using a special pool of points that are used in place of EXP. Yes sir, tinker gnomes...MOVE OVER.

Also, the setting introduces The Dragon Marked. DragonMarked are people of different races who are broken up into different houses, each with their own purposes and agendas. Though the houses are technically neutral in the affairs of the five kingdoms, members often find themselves mixing politics between houses and state. Players are able to purchase dragonmarks as feats, increasing the potency as they level up. The marks themselves act pretty much like minor forms of tatoo magic like you'd see in other game settings.

New races. High magic. Dragonmarks that add abilities. Sounds like a munchkins wet dream doesn't it? Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the setting implements the use of Action Points like those found in Unearthed Arcana. This is to help add to the cinematic and high-adventure/pulp feel of the world. Some players and DM's will be turned off by Ebberon for the fact that it pretty much is a high powered campaign on steroids. But I give credit to the setting in the fact that even though there is a high magic presence in the world, not everyone walking around is lvl 20 wizard.

Matter of fact, most of the stat info I found on nobles throughout the book are usually mid level (around 8-10 or so). And most of the magic is done through low level NPC's known as Magewrights, who aren't full fledged spell tossers, but magicians by trade. The high magic is nothing like everyone has an air ship and a pet dragon, but more subtle in a way....it's merely magic providing service like technology did in the late 1800s. Streets are covered in lamps that constantly cast continual light. Airships are powered by harnessed fire and wind elementals. Telegraphs are sent magically using certain magical scrying elements.

Okay, I've ranted about the game mechanics introduced. But what about the setting itself? Simply put: Awesome. The book details historical events leading up to the present in the game world. It goes into plenty of detail over the diverse pantheons worshipped, usually explaining more on religions than I've seen in most D&D settings. Also they go into detailed information on the houses of the Dragonmarked, and provide a detailed time line dating from creation of the world. And coolest of all, a detailed look to the planar setup of the campaign!

As for the details on locations, each country on the continent of Khorvaire is explained with details on major cities and locations, advice on adventure ideas for every part of the reigion, and is provided with detailed maps of each country. They were also pretty cool and included a selection of monsters unique to Ebberon, and go into details about what "classic" D&D monsters are like in the setting

In short, one of the most exciting, imaginative game worlds to come out of the hobby for many many years.

[Lucifer Box]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

It all looks very nice, but sometimes you just hanker for a good old Tunnels and Trolls bash.

[WageSlave1]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

It all looks very nice, but sometimes you just hanker for a good old Tunnels and Trolls bash.

T&T...can't believe I actually played that! Anyone remember Gamma World!? Rune Quest??

[Board Game Geek]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

Yup, played them as well. Paranoia was a favourite, as well as Call of Cthulhu. Too many to list....

[WageSlave1]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

Paranoia

Paranoia...ah, that was a funny game.

Call of Cthulhu...classic game. I remember it came in two flavours; 1920s and Cthulhu by gaslight.

[Board Game Geek]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

Comes in 3 now..Cthulhu Modern, which is a moden day tooled up version of you battling the Great Old Ones with MP5's and frag grenades.

Thankfully, both are still completely useless against the Shub Niggaurauth.

But nothing beats the old 1920's professor angrily waving his silver headed cane at a Deep Spawn that has just been summoned in his library.

[WageSlave1]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

Spell jammer are dead. So is Planescape.

No!!! I loved Spell Jammer (including the actual Spell Jammer ship campaign). And Planescape was wonderful; truly twisted and unique (Torment is one of my all time favourite PC games as well). Shame. Are Birthright, Al Qadim and Ravenloft still kicking around?

Thanks for the info, BGG. Eberron sounds interesting. From your description, I'm reminded of the 'Savage Coast' campaign world and the 'Maztica' setting. I'll definitely have to look into it. How does 3rd ed. handle alignment? Is it still the old LG, LN, LE, NE, N, NE, CG, CN and CE?

BGG, you're clearly an expert on RPGs, do you know anywhere I can pick up old 2nd and 1st ed. AD&D material? There's a lot of stuff my collection lacks that I'd like to have, if only for sentimental reasons. I missed the box set for the Neutral Planes in Planescape, and I'd love to get a copy of the Spell Jammer set (the actual ship).

PS. Apologies for the terms used; it's been about nine years since I played and my recollection of proper names and terms is very rusty.

[Lucifer Box]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

do you know anywhere I can pick up old 2nd and 1st ed. AD&D material

eBay is swimming with it.

You can also buy most of it as reasonably priced pdf downloads from 1st Edition Downloads and 2nd Edition Downloads

If you want hard copy, eBay is your best bet. There are second hand game dealers, but I wouldn't waste your time with those unless you are looking for something really, really rare as they charge absolutely top whack.

[WageSlave1]

Re: D&D 3rd ed.

eBay is swimming with it.

Cheers, Lucifer. I've always been suspicious of eBay...is it safe to use?
I'd rather have hardcopies than pdf...the uber geek in me likes to open the box and play with all the colourful maps 8o