In Anticipation of Eberron

Eberron is coming. When Wizards launched 4e all eyes were centered on the Forgotten Realms. Now it’s Eberron’s turn to take centre-stage.

Eberron is the core campaign setting the Dungeon’s Master team plays in. We still follow the Forgotten Realms (especially through the LFR games) but we’re eagerly anticipating the new Eberron books. We feel that Eberron represents a more mature D&D game. It has all the comforts of a modern society recreated through magic. It’s not the traditional D&D you may be used to, and that excites us a lot.

Before the new books come out we’d like to share a list of things that we’re most looking forward to reading about when Eberron gets the 4e treatment.

Dragonmarks

In 3e Eberron, Dragonmarks were restricted to very specific races. At GenCon last summer Keith Baker and James Wyatt told us that in 4e Dragonmarks will no longer be limited to any one race. As cool as this sound from a character creation standpoint, this will mean big changes to the social atmosphere in Eberron.

How will the mechanics of Dragonmarks themselves work? Will they still be feats? Will they grant at-will, encounter or daily powers? What sort of pre-requisites will be required to take such a feat? Can you retrain a Dragonmark feat once it’s selected? Will they be divided into least, lesser, greater and Siberys? Will they each represent a different adventuring tier?

Dragonmarked Houses

The Dragonmarked houses are the leaders of industry. They have very controlled bloodlines and those possessing marks are treated like royalty. So how will a house of refined Half-elves (say Lyrandar) look upon a Dwarf who now bears the Mark of the Storm? How will a character bearing a Dragonmark not typically associated with their race be treated? Will their own race forsake them? Will the race traditionally possessing the mark welcome them? Will their mark be considered an Aberrant mark? I expect that the houses will be in for a rough ride initially.

Warforged

The Warforged were first introduced in the original Eberron Campaign Setting. They were created as a slave race to fight a war that raged for a hundred years. The war ended and now these fighters are left without purpose. They were granted freedom as part of the Thronehold Accord, but not everyone is so willing to let their property go free. The Warforged are a unique and complicated race. What changes are in store for them with the 4e release of the Eberron books?

Will there be a shift in the general attitudes of the people of the Five Nations towards Warforged? Will any new laws be implemented to better the Warforged or restrict their rights? What happens if war breaks out once again? Will the Warforged be conscripted back in to battle, loosing their freedom? Or will they be given a choice to fight – possibly even to rejoin their old military units?

What of the mechanics of 4e on the Warforged? I’m most curious to see how armor and healing are handled in 4e. We’ve already seen a sneak peak at Warforged-specific racial paragon paths, can we expect more?

Mournland

Keith Baker said he’ll never provide an explanation of what caused the events of the Day or Mourning. He’s deliberately left this vague so that each DM can make it whatever will work best for their own campaign. But Wizards will no doubt plant a few more seeds of possibility throughout the new books. I’m curious to see what new information is provided.

House Cannith

What’s going to happen to House Cannith? The house was split into three factions. Are there any plans to have the three factions merge back into one dominant house? Doing so would arguably make Cannith the most powerful Dragonmarked House? Perhaps they have recovered something important from beneath Whitehearth in the Mournland? Will they try to setup a creation forge in Xen’drik, outside of the jurisdiction of the Thronehold Accord?

Lord of Blades

The Lord of Blades is the most powerful Warforged in Eberron. What is he planning within the Mournland? Is he preparing for all out war against the living races, or is he striving to create a nation for his people within the Mournland? Is he secretly an agent of House Cannith? Was he in any way involved in the cause of the Day of Mourning?

Draconic Prophecy

The Draconic Prophecy is very important to the events in Eberron. I’d like to see more details about it. So far the references in the sources books have been vague. It wasn’t until I read the novels that I got a better idea of how to incorporate the Draconic Prophecies into my game. More direction in this regard would be tremendously useful.

Manifest Zones

Next summer we’re going to see psionics become a bigger part of core D&D with the release of the PHB3. The entire continent of Sarlona in Eberron is based around psionics and psionic races. Will we see details in the new Eberron books that sets the stage for the incorporation of these new rules? Will there be more detail about manifest zones? Will the cosmology of the world be affected at all?

The Bigger World

Although most of the focus is on Khorvaire, there were 3e materials on the other continents. Will these places get a 4e treatment? Will it be included in the initial release or will it possibly come later in the form of new supplements? More details on Xen’drik may be very important if the Dragonmarked Houses continue to branch out, away from existing laws and limitations.

There you have it, our wish list. In just a few short weeks we’ll have the answers to some of these questions. No doubt it will in turn raise additional questions. With the launch of 4e Eberron source books, Dungeon’s Master will start running regular Eberron-centric articles.

What questions are you hoping to have answered when the new Eberron books are released?