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Eberron

Eberron A to Z

a-to-z-letters-eFor years my home game has taken place in the world of Eberron. It’s one of the official settings from Wizards of the Coast but it hasn’t received much love lately. All the focus seems to be on the Forgotten Realms. That’s all well and good, I too like the Forgotten Realms, but I think people need to be reminded of just how cool Eberron is.

Throughout April Dungeon’s Master is participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. The challenge is to write a new article ever day in April, excluding Sundays. That’s 26 articles over the course of the month. To make things even more interesting the title of each article will begin with a different letter of the alphabet. Today’s the “E” is for Eberron, my all-time favourite D&D campaign setting.

Inspired by the Blogging From A to Z Challenge I’ve put together my own list of Eberron A to Z. Hopefully this shines the spotlight back on Eberron and encourage some of our readers to check it out if they’ve never played there before or return to it if you’ve been away for a while.

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DM Resources

Only Ten – Ameron’s List

“If you could only keep ten of your printed RPG books, which would you pick?”

This is the question Brendan from the gaming blog Untimately asked on Monday. He then proceeded to share his ten. Many of his readers shared their list in the comments section of the original post and I’ve seen more than a few bloggers post their essential ten list around the blogosphere. Today it’s my turn to join in this show and tell exercise and share my list.

Yesterday I looked around my gaming room to try to narrow it down to just ten books. After giving it some consideration I finally narrowed it down to just ten (which was a lot harder than I thought it would be). I’ve actually cheated in a few instances and grouped a few books together as one entry, but the reasons will be apparent as you read through my list.

You’ll notice the absence of any PHB, DMG and MM from my list. This was a deliberate choice. In my opinion some iteration of these books should be on everyone’s list; after all they’re called core books for a reason. I approached this task with the assumption that the core books were a given and these were the next ten I’d choose after those.

Rather than struggle with ranking, I decided instead to list the books alphabetically. I want you to see my list as a collection. Theses all made my list and that’s all that should matter, not which one is more important or useful that the next.

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Adventure Hooks Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 14)

In this instalment of our ongoing Eberron series we reveal the secrets of the Magebred army that threatens Khorvaire from just within the Mournland, and we meet a Warforged Sentinel Marshal who knows secrets about House Cannith that they will kill to keep secret.

Today Dungeon’s Master welcomes guest poster Alton (a.k.a. Marc Talbot) author of the gaming blog 20ft Radius. Alton shares our passion for D&D as well as the Eberron setting. When he proposed writing an instalment of “The Secrets of Eberron Revealed” we were happy to let him make his contribution to this ongoing look at our favourite campaign setting. If you enjoyed this article, I encourage you to visit 20ft Radius and check out more or Alton’s work. – Ameron

Click on the Eberron tab above the Dungeon’s Master banner to find the previous installments in this ongoing series as well as many other great Eberron articles and resources.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 13)

The lightning rail changed the way people and good were transported across the Five Nations. It’s become such an important and integral means of cheap and reliable transportation across Khorvaire that it would be hard to image life without it.

House Orien takes great steps to ensure that the trains run on time. They work with House Cannith engineers to keep the mechanics and magic in check, and they employ House Deneith Marshals to maintain order onboard the vehicles. All aspects of running the lighting rail happen so efficiently that most people forget all the work that goes into keeping the train running on time – and that’s just the way House Orien wants it.

The last thing House Orien wants is negative publicity. Although the lightning rail is one of the safest means of travel there are occasional problems. However, when issues arise they are dealt with quickly and quietly.

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Month in Review

Month in Review: August 2011

August was a great moth for gamers and for us here at Dungeon’s Master. The month began with another fantastic GenCon. Following the Con we shared some of the things we saw (good and bad) including previews of D&D Encounters, Lair Assault and the D&D Open Championship. We also received a shout out from Bart Carroll on the Wizard of the Coast website in his August 17 article A Look Back at Gen Con.

In August we continued narrowing the list of best feats in 4e (voting is still open), we looked at playing in a party where everyone is the same race, and we shared more of the antics from D&D camp. Our critique of 4e D&D and our speculation of what might be in store for 5e D&D also generated a lot of excellent discussion. August we saw the conclusion of D&D Encounters: Dark Legacy of Evard and the beginning of D&D Encounters: Lost Crown of Neverwinter.

If you missed any of the great articles from August, this is your change to get caught up. We want to thank everyone who visited Dungeon’s master in August and hope that you continue to visit our website everyday in September. We always welcome your comments and feedback so don’t be shy.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 12)

The affairs of Eberron’s surface dwellers are well known and well documented, but very little is known or recorded about the intelligent life that thrives beneath Eberron’s seas. Anyone who’s travelled by sea from Khorvaire to Xen’drik has likely dealt with the Sahuagin, but very few know about the vast underwater society of which they are but a small part. Beneath Eberron’s seas lie vast civilizations as complex and filled with as much intrigue as the cities of the surface world the largest and most cosmopolitan of which is Madidus.

Madidus is the undersea equivalent of Sharn. All intelligent aquatic races live, play and do business here. It’s the centre of underwater commerce. Much like Sharn, Madidus was built around a manifest zone. Where Sharn’s connection to the plane of Syrania allows building to reach heights that seem impossible, Madidus is connected to the plane of air which crates permanent pockets of breathable air. This allows surface dwellers to live in Madidus comfortably. The area of the city enveloped with breathable air is home to hundreds of people from the surface including Humans, Elves, Dwarves and Halflings. Few who end up here make any effort to leave.

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Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 11)

Today Dungeon’s Master returns to Eberron and reveal more secrets. We explore a new power group out of Xen’Drik and speculate how this new presence might affect the region and the Five Nations. House Tarkanan also rears its ugly head with a powerful member who’s manifested an aberrant Siberys Mark.

Click on the Eberron tab above the Dungeon’s Master banner to find the previous installments in this ongoing series as well as many other great Eberron articles and resources.

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Class Discussions

Exploiting Racial and Class Powers: Warforged Resolve

Warforged are an unstoppable race. They wade into battle and keep fighting long past the normal limits of other their flesh and blood companions. Their durability bolstered by their racial power, lets them call on their deepest reserves to heal damage, gain temporary hit points and make saves to shrug off ongoing damage. Few other races are as all around tough as Warforged.

Warforged Resolve is a great racial power because it allows your PC to gain temporary hit points as a minor action. If you wait to use the power when you’re bloodied it also provides a way to get healing without expending a healing surge. The fact that it scales as your level increases. makes this power even more versatile. This alone may at first make Warforged Resolve seem like a poor cousin to Dwarven Resilience (which lets you use your second wind as a minor action and thereby spend a healing surge to regain a lot of hit points), but thre’s more. On top of the real and temporary hit points, you get to make a save against ongoing damage when you use Warforged Resolve.

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DM Resources Eberron

Secrets of Eberron Revealed (Part 10)

The Thronehold Tournament is the most mysterious and lucrative gambling tournament in Eberron. It happens every year in the very castle that once housed the Five Nations’ one true king. Today we reveal the history of the card tournament that according to the castles’ guardians, House Deneith, doesn’t exist. Are you ready to learn about the fastest way to earn a fortune in Eberron?

Click on the Eberron tab above the Dungeon’s Master banner to find the previous installments in this ongoing series as well as many other great Eberron articles and resources.

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Eberron Player Resources

Warforged – Creating an Identity for an Artificial Being

Warforged, and by extension constructs, are the most difficult races to play. But it’s this difficultly makes them extremely appealing to many gamers. The Warforged represents the best physical qualities that humanoids have to offer, yet they lack their fundamental weaknesses. They are, to put it bluntly, superior by design.

Today marks our 600th post. When we’ve hit significant milestones at Dungeon’s Master in the past we’ve tried to relate the number of that milestone into that article. Our 100th post was a list of 100 Great Things About D&D. For our 300th post Wimwick and I each created King Leonidas from the movie 300. Post 404 was all about Errors I’ve Made as a DM. With the 500th post looked at extreme wealth, the Fortune 500 of D&D.

Inspiration for 600 hit me when I was watching Terminator: Salvation on DVD. One of the Terminators they fought was the T-600 – an extremely powerful combat model. I’ve always believed that Keith Baker came up with his idea for Warforged after watching one of the Terminator movies. So with that in mind the 600th post seemed like the ideal time to take a closer look at Warforged in 4e D&D.