As an Eberron DM, I'm having a tough time using Dungeon. Are there any other DMs out there running an Eberron campaign that have successfully converted non-Eberron Dungeon modules to the setting?
I'm a little disappointed that three issues have gone by (118, 119 and now 120) with no sign of Eberron content and personally I think its the setting that needs it the most. Here's a list of every Eberron adventure I can get my hands on:
Forgotten Forge - Level 1 (ECS)
Queen with Burning Eyes - Level 1 (Dungeon 113)
Shadows of the Last War - Level 1 (WotC Published)
Steel Shadows - Level 7 (Dungeon 115)
Whispers of the Vampire's Blade - Level 4 (WotC Published)
Fallen Angel - Level 4 (Dungeon 117)
Grasp of the Emerald Claw - Level 7 (WotC Published)
As you can see, there really isn't much out there and there's nothing out there after level 7. I've added the XP from all the encounters in these adventures and if you ran all of them players would still only be level 8 or 9. One of the reasons I pick up premade adventures is to have a wide variety of already available roads for my players to choose from. I could make up my own paths but if that's the case why pick up Dungeon at all? I need help and so far I haven't found very much from reading Dungeon. Has anyone else had more success?
Dungeon 122 will contain a backdrop set in the Ring of Storms on Xen'drik.
Dungeon 123 kicks off a three-part Eberron trilogy by Andy Collins and James Wyatt.More Eberron stuff to come.
--Erik
Great to hear it!
(i have to order next subscription.:))Could you provide a bit more details concerning three-part Eberron trilogy. What level it support?
--shemov
Takasi-
Unless I've been misinformed, there should be a Campaign Workbook in issue #121 with a 12th level gnome NPC who could spark a lot of Eberron adventures.
I know you're looking for completely pregen adventures already set in Eberron, but I think Keith Baker and the WotC guys have that market cornered... and with a backdrop and a three-part adventure coming up, I don't think we can complain too much. :)
I have to admit, I was hesitant about Eberron. But I've found the new classes and races fun, and have incorperated them into my ongoing campaign of the last 2 years. That being said, It seems very easy to play a non Eberron adventure with Eberron PCs. Change a few of the NPCs and nobody will no the difference. In fact, you'll probably surprise you players who are probably aware of the current 'Eberron' adventures and not expecting something to be Eberroned out.
That being said, what is the possibility of adding a page with various versions of major NPCs in the issue that could make an adventure Psionic, Eberron, or standard D&D.
Ex: For a generic campaign Thag is Dwarf a Barbarian2/Wiz2
For a Psionic setting Thag is a Dwarf Psychic Warrior 4
For Eberron Thag is a Warforged Fighter2/Sorcerer2
Thoughts?
ASEO out
Ditto ASEO on 'Ebberonizing" other D&D adventures. In most cases it's not too hard. Heck, I'm running Monte Cook's the Banewarrens in Sharn right now.
That being said, what is the possibility of adding a page with various versions of major NPCs in the issue that could make an adventure Psionic, Eberron, or standard D&D.
Ex: For a generic campaign Thag is Dwarf a Barbarian2/Wiz2
For a Psionic setting Thag is a Dwarf Psychic Warrior 4
For Eberron Thag is a Warforged Fighter2/Sorcerer2Thoughts?
That'd be interesting, but I don't think it'd work for at least two reasons. The first is that all the extra stat blocks would seriously eat into the space available to actual adventures. The second is that I think it would feed the notion (which I believe is wrongheaded) that Eberron is *soo different* from ordinary D&D that one has to convert all the NPCs to make a given adventure work.
I'm constantly amused by people groaning and moaning over the "radical changes" Eberron brings to the game, when they're so much less extreme than anything in Dark Sun, or Birthright, or any of the late TSR campaign settings...
Thanks for the info Erik. Will we see any articles in Dragon?
"Unless I've been misinformed, there should be a Campaign Workbook in issue #121 with a 12th level gnome NPC who could spark a lot of Eberron adventures."
Awesome! Is this in the preview for 120?
"I know you're looking for completely pregen adventures already set in Eberron, but I think Keith Baker and the WotC guys have that market cornered... and with a backdrop and a three-part adventure coming up, I don't think we can complain too much. :)"
Well there aren't very many adventures out there. Wizards has three settings and Dungeon has room for three adventures every month. As an Eberron DM, Dungeon has been a little disappointing in the last few months. It sounds like things will improve though, so that's good.
"That'd be interesting, but I don't think it'd work for at least two reasons. The first is that all the extra stat blocks would seriously eat into the space available to actual adventures. The second is that I think it would feed the notion (which I believe is wrongheaded) that Eberron is *soo different* from ordinary D&D that one has to convert all the NPCs to make a given adventure work. "
I disagree. It's true that Eberron doesn't have so much "new" stuff that you couldn't play an Eberron adventure in a generic setting. The problem is that Eberron has a concrete place for almost every staple in D&D. Most generic adventures (and settings like Greyhawk) just throw in everything and come off disorganized.
Take Throne of Iuz in 118 for example. I could replace Iuz with some fiend, but where are these orcs from? Droamm? The Shadow Marshes? And what about the ancient elven burial ground? Do they have any ties to the Undying Council or Valenar? And what about the Giants? And the Slaad? Sure, I could just throw these things as a hodgepodge of creatures but then the adventure would seem pretty shallow. Has anyone else took a stab at this? What about the adventures in 119?
You wouldn't necessarily need a full stat block for each option. Add a paragraph called "Adapting this adventure" or whatever, with a one-sentence description of how to adapt it to other settings, leaving the work up to the individual DM. So it could literally be, "To adapt this campaign to Eberron, Thag would be best adapted as a Warforged Fighter2/Sorcerer2. For a psionics-based campain, you could write him as a Dwarf Psychic Warrior 4." Not a full write-up, but hints that would at least tell the DMs how best to do the adaptation on their own.
Alternatively, what about having these adaptations as web enhancements? It's more work for the adventure creators, which would mean more expense for the magazine, but it would also help convince magazine readers to come to the website and possibly start buying things... ;-) You could also pick the 2 or 3 top NPCs out of an adventure and convert them, while providing hints on how to adapt other NPCs as necessary.
"Unless I've been misinformed, there should be a Campaign Workbook in issue #121 with a 12th level gnome NPC who could spark a lot of Eberron adventures."
Awesome! Is this in the preview for 120?
Nope. I, um, wrote it. =)
Apparently I've got an article in 120 too, so I'm really looking forward to getting my copy in the mail!
With regards to your point regarding Throne of Iuz... yeah, I can see how that'd be hard to run in Eberron as written. Here's how I'd do the conversion:
Set the mound in the Eldeen Reaches. King Bog and the fiendish influences all come from the nearby Demon Wastes, while the giants were imported via Khyber. The serpent mound isn't an elven site, it's an ancient orcish one. The kidnapped gnomes are a House Sivis group that was there to certify a trade agreement between the Eldeen Reaches one of the Dragonmarked Houses or a nearby kingdom.
I guess my feeling was that since coming up with a list of modifications like that only takes me a few minutes, it's really easy. I seem to be alone in this, though, so maybe brief conversion notes like Keith Baker will be doing for the Adventure Path wouldn't be out of line.
Can you drop any cookies about the Campaign Workbook? Pretty please??? :)
Your conversion is pretty cool. As a DM I'd still have some questions about how the giants were imported. It may only take you a few minutes to do these things since you've already read the adventure, and that's great. However, for an Eberron DM to do this he would have to read THE ENTIRE ADVENTURE first to get a feel for the conversion. This takes more work than the conversion itself. Now, if there was a quick conversion already there then Eberron DMs would gravitate towards this first and THEN read the adventure. Do you see how helpful this would be?
I would think there's plenty of room to put these notes. Getting rid of Will Save would be a great start, but that's a post for a different topic...
However, for an Eberron DM to do this he would have to read THE ENTIRE ADVENTURE first to get a feel for the conversion. This takes more work than the conversion itself.
In my experience, reading the entire adventure is pretty much an essential part of deciding whether or not it fits in a campaign anyway, so I can't see that being a big deal. But if you can generally get by reading the synposis, I don't see why the situation here should be much different. Just about everything Alec talked about above in regards to "Throne of Iuz" is mentioned in the background, if I remember correctly.
Frankly, I though that adventure was fairly world-generic and was surprised to see it carry the Greyhawk tag, while the Istivin series (firmly set in the geographic and historical background of the Greyhawk campaign) was billed as generic.
But back to the main topic, I can see why conversion guidelines out of Eberron might be useful (i.e. using an Eberron adventure in another setting) but converting into Eberron should be no harder than adapting any module to the specifics of your individual campaign. After all, there's not any major monsters/class/rules etc. that are NOT supported by Eberron, so all you have to do is change places and names to fit what's currently happening in your campaign. I'd rather not see the magazine waste any space doing this, with the possible random exception on occasions in which there was a particularly noteworthy reason to do so.
Also, I'll second the question about what levels the new Eberron trilogy will be designed for. It'd be great if it picks up at level 7-8, whichever Grasp of the Emerald Claw ends off at.
As an Eberron DM, I'm having a tough time using Dungeon.
We have a forum specific to EBERRRON DM's. It's at:
www.yahoogroups.com/group/eberronDMsJoin us or suffer the fate!
jh
As an Eberron DM, I'm having a tough time using Dungeon.
What you want to do is beg the editors NOT to include Eberron-specific material. That way, you really get good at converting stuff. Stuff written just for Eberron only makes you weak and soft as a DM. Build those conversion muscles!
Gee, I guess if I was really good then I wouldn't need Dungeon at all, right? The magazine is supposed to be an aide and a few paragraphs for the two major settings available would be helpful.
Can you drop any cookies about the Campaign Workbook? Pretty please??? :)
There's not much to tell, really. I just wrote the guy so he'd fit in with gnomish society in Eberron (The Trust, intrigue, etc.), as well as being a viable NPC in a non-Eberron game. Anything more than that would give away too much.
I guess my feeling was that since coming up with a list of modifications like that only takes me a few minutes, it's really easy. I seem to be alone in this, though, so maybe brief conversion notes like Keith Baker will be doing for the Adventure Path wouldn't be out of line.
Having just this weekend gotten around to picking up the Eberron book, I think I'd definitely appreciate that kind of conversion text. I can do the actual NPC and flavour text conversion work myself if necessary (although it'd be fantastic to have it as a web enhancement), but I wouldn't know where to even start when it comes to placing adventures like that in the world. Maybe after spending a couple months DMing in Eberron, but...
For QSamantha: Eberron is worth taking a look at. See if a FLGS will let you flip through the book for a little bit to see if it's interesting to you. There's some cool stuff in there.