I am thinking of starting an Eberron Campaign and I have a couple of questions.
1) What Dungeon issues have Eberron base adventures in them?
2) Which ones would be a good beginning adventure?
For Eberron:
Really the only really low level adventure so far is Queen with the Burning Eyes (issue #113)
The most recent issue of Dungeon has a low level murder mystery that I haven't looked at yet.
- Ashavan
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1) What Dungeon issues have Eberron base adventures in them?
The first Eberron adventure, "Queen With Burning Eyes", appears in Dungeon 113 and is a follow up of th adventure provided in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting. Then there's "Steel Shadows" in 115, "Fallen Angel" in 117, the "Shards" trilogy of adventures in 123-125, and "Murder in Oakbridge" in 129.
And while they're not adventures, Dungeon 111 has the complete stats for the Lord of Blades if you plan to make him a recurring villain, and 122 has info onthe Ring of Storms, a site located in Eberron's continent of Xen'drik. Plus there's an awful lot of great stuff in Dragon which would take me too long to dig up.
2) Which ones would be a good beginning adventure?
I'd start with the adventure in the back of the ECS- my group loved it. Otherwise you'll have to come up with your own 1st-level adventure or adapt one- not too hard, but if you're looking to start the group off with the right Eberron "feel" it's good to try out the adventures written for the setting.
Hope that helps!
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I think the first appearance of the Eberron Setting was James Wyatts "Queen with burning eyes" in DUNGEON 113 for 1-level-characters.
Then:
115 - Steel Shadows by Keith Baker (level 7)
117 - Fallen Angel by Keith Baker (level 3)
123-125 Shards of Eberron-Trilogy by James Wyatt and Andy Collins (level 6 -9)
I haven't run any of them so far, so I cant tell you much, but they all start at Sharn, if I remember correctly, so maybe you could weave them into your great tale.
Play "Murder in Oakbridge."
It's good ;-)
Bill - Yes.
Uri - you're not a little biased, are you? ;) Actually, it was a wonderful example of how an event based (rather than location based) adventure can be developed. It looks entertaining.
Uri - you're not a little biased, are you? ;) Actually, it was a wonderful example of how an event based (rather than location based) adventure can be developed. It looks entertaining.
Me? Not at all!
Why should I be?
I'm just curious about two things. One, while Sharn is a very cool and well-supported locale, are there any Eberron adventures that will be published in the near future that do not take place in Sharn (even partially)?
Also, I'm just curious about why Eberron adventures require a sidebar on how to convert them to other campaign worlds, but the FR and Greyhawk adventures do not? While I guess an argument can be made that FR and Greyhawk are traditional enough settings to not require a sidebar, the recent FR and Greyhawk adventures has contained a lot of world specific material. Again, I'm just curious.
Bill - Yes.
Uri - you're not a little biased, are you? ;) Actually, it was a wonderful example of how an event based (rather than location based) adventure can be developed. It looks entertaining.
I think it's very entertaining too. Uri took his time making Oakbridge feel like a real place. He had a lot of gritty, realistic details about many of the suspects, and I especially iked the big NPC gather information table.
This neat thing about this adventure is that is doesn't absolutely have to take place in Sharn. With a few overall changes in flavor, this community could exist anywhere in civilized Khorvaire.
I think it's very entertaining too. Uri took his time making Oakbridge feel like a real place. He had a lot of gritty, realistic details about many of the suspects, and I especially iked the big NPC gather information table.This neat thing about this adventure is that is doesn't absolutely have to take place in Sharn. With a few overall changes in flavor, this community could exist anywhere in civilized Khorvaire.
Thanks! Hearing such reviews really makes my day :)
BTW, did anyone here ran\plans to run "Murder in Oakbridge"? If you did I'd love to hear how it went...
WHERE'S MY DUNGEON!?!?
Uri, if I had 129 (nudge, nudge, Paizo) I would run it. I'll tell you my opinions (after all, they matter so much :) ) ASAP.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
WHERE'S MY DUNGEON!?!?
Uri, if I had 129 (nudge, nudge, Paizo) I would run it. I'll tell you my opinions (after all, they matter so much :) ) ASAP.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
I know how it feels, I didn't get it yet either...
If you enjoyed the adventure in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting book, Wotc recently published three linked adventures (Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, and Grasp of the Emerald Claw) that build upon the events of that miniadventure. I think they are solid Eberron adventures, though my main criticism (along with a lot of Eberron adventures) is that they are based a little too much on finding magic items/artifacts.
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If you enjoyed the adventure in the back of the Eberron Campaign Setting book, Wotc recently published three linked adventures (Shadows of the Last War, Whispers of the Vampire's Blade, and Grasp of the Emerald Claw) that build upon the events of that miniadventure. I think they are solid Eberron adventures, though my main criticism (along with a lot of Eberron adventures) is that they are based a little too much on finding magic items/artifacts.
Yeah, I was kinda looking at those as my primary with some Dungeon adventures interspersed or perhaps as followup sinse this series seems to be coming out slowly. Also, the first modules starts at 2nd, so I needed something to get the party to that point. Albeit, our group usually runs with 7-8 players, so I could concievably start 8 1sts in a module designed for 2nds.
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Of those three modules, "Whispers of the Vampires Blade" could be easily dropped, because it doesn't contribute to the story at all, which was started in the ECS and "Shadows of the Last War". "Grasp of the Emerald Claw" is a nice conclusion to the Creation Pattern trilogy (which in fact, is only a two part story!).
I would use another module instead of WotVB! However, there are two cool encounters in this module which you should use somehow (very Eberron-stylish!!!) - an Airship encounter and a Lightning-Rail encounter! Those two rock, and can easily be used without the rest of the module...
WHERE'S MY DUNGEON!?!?
Uri, if I had 129 (nudge, nudge, Paizo) I would run it. I'll tell you my opinions (after all, they matter so much :) ) ASAP.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
We just ran it last weekend.
Our first Eberron game. The DM read the adventure about 30 minutes before we started. I had just brought it to the game since it was for PC levels that were real close to our starting level (3rd level).
Real rough game - DM wasn't ready (always a bad thing). I didn't help by not knowing the rules for manifesters (it was my first manifesting class character) so I ended up augmenting powers that I couldn't since my PC was only a 1st level psion. Kalashtar with 2 levels of soulknife (using racial substitution level at 1st level).
Basically in the final fight (the only encounter of the game) my PC stepped back from engagment with the protaganist and used Mind Thrust for 2d10 each attempt. Should have only been 1d10 since it wasn't augmentable yet. Regardless it was a very effective attack.
After the game I read the adventure and when we debriefed it, it was pointed out how the DM didn't use the bad guy to the best advantage - hence the short fight.
The DM also didn't play the encounters so there really was only a bunch of moving here and moving there and essentially none of the intrigue that is an inherent part of the adventure.
We'll see how the DM fares Saturday when he gets his second attempt and hopefully a better prepared event.
After reading the adventure - it really is a great one IMO, not your dungeon crawl hack and slash style. There is a lot of intrigue and interaction that should be done.
We just ran it last weekend.
Thanks for the reply.
Tell me, how quickly did you find Ziki and what was the aftermath of her death?
We just ran it last weekend.
Thanks for the reply.
Tell me, how quickly did you find Ziki and what was the aftermath of her death?
We decided to check with the elf and when the "wife" who was having an affair with him showed up to state heer husband had been killed - she ended up spilling everything.
So we set up to protect them that night and Ziki showed up and nearly killed my Kalashtar soulknife/psion with a sneak attack (good thing she missed).
Fight ensued and we kicked her butt.
Pretty much ended after the fight when the "guards" came and paid us our "fee".
Like I said the DM didn't put in a lot of prep time (any) to figure things out. Very anti-climatic IMO.
Contributor
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I ran The Queen with the Burning Eyes and The Forgotten Forge basically mashed together. Mind you, I modified the forgotten forge a lot. Basically, I made the PCs figure everything out on their own instead of Elaydrin telling them everything. At the same time, they were investigating the disappearance of a friend (who had been eaten by the Queen), and Elaydrin actually gave them information on that adventure. It worked well and definately set the scene for Shadows of the Last War.
I totally agree with Dryder about Whipers though. To be honest, I found that not only did it not really fit the series, the ending made no sense to me. So I just cut it completely and harvested all the best encounters for my own use.
Next I ran Fallen Angel, and Tela Kaelys made a good lead in for Moroni in Grasp of the Emerald Claw. My group finished Grasp (although they totally bungled it), and now I'm taking a break while my brother runs AoW converted to Eberron.
Unfortunately, I also won't be running Oakbridge. I got 129 a week ago and called my brother to tell him that I had the next installment of AoW. I also told him there was an Eberron murder mystery set in Sharn, and he decided to incorporate it into AoW. I almost cried, because that left only the 17th level Realms adventure for me to read; I don't play the Realms, and so far, none of our campaigns have made it to 17th level. sigh.
Anyways, I recommend taking all of the Eberron adventures you can get your hands on, putting them in a jar and shaking them up. So far I have found that it is pretty easy to start leading into the upcoming adventures before you've finished the one you're in.
Say, Anyone have any good ideas for following up Grasp of the Emerald Claw, preferably featuring the amulet from Queen with the Burning Eyes?
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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I totally agree with Dryder about Whipers though. To be honest, I found that not only did it not really fit the series, the ending made no sense to me. So I just cut it completely and harvested all the best encounters for my own use.
I however do not agree. To each their own, of course, but I did run Whispers.
#1 There are alot of fun encounters to harvest. Foremost for me were the crashing airships and the lightning rail encounters.
#2 Whispers of the Vampires Blade may not have been overtly part of the trilogy but it did let the DM (if not the players) know what the bad guys were up to. And if the PC's are observant they get a chance to see that when the changling dies at the climax of Grasp of the Emerald Claw. Look at the AP's not every adventure screams to the PC's that it is part of the arc but each builds part of the story for the DM.
#3 The trilogy was not just about the creation pattern but also to act as an introduction to a whole Eberron Campaign--of the DM's creation. (I could be in error but, the last I checked Grasp of the Emerald claw finished the prepublished arc from WotC.) Whispers gives the PC's access to the Dark Lanterns, Brelands intelligence service. My PC's will be meeting these folks again as well as Lucan and his sister. Probably at the same time Xulo is restored by House Cannith, just to bring it all together a little tighter. I'm going to wait a bit longer so that they have the chance to go: "Oh, Yeah! Those guys..."
#4 The ending worked for us. We had a blast and the PCs even got to bring thier man back alive . . . er . . . well. Point is we had fun.
But that's just my opinion run all three. And if not at the very least read all three before you make up your mind. The middle adventure may not be for every group but we had a great time and it has left me with some excellent threads for going forward.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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Once I finished running The WotC adventures I ran an adventure that was comprised of three seperate stories. I let one of my players whose character had died durring "Grasp" to read the middle module of the Shards trilogy from Dungeon and allowed him to meet up with the rest of the PC's in Stormreach and hitch a ride home to Sharn as the sole survivor of a group who had undertaken the chore to acquire the Heart of the Scorpion. (He made his character with the usual restrictions I place on my players for doing so but got to enter play with the Heart as a bonus.)
The two published adventures I used to create this larger story were Steel Shadows and the third chapter of the Shards of Eberron trilogy. Both of these adventures take place in the cogs and so fit smoothly together requiring only minimal tweeking because of the heat issues. My biggest change was to use the heat to increase tensions in the cogs making everyone more suspicious and irritable. The third story was a personal one for my group that was intended as a distraction and really just a teaser for the next dungeon crawl.
Anyway the setup worked well although the PC's only scored a partial victory: They took care of the portal but after a deadly altercation with a significant NPC and his underlings from Steel Shadows the PC's went to ground and the killings continued.
The groups warforged was hit particuarly hard when his "brother" (I made them from the same forging) Ash was killed.
I have just started reading up on Murder in Oakbridge, and even though it's in Eberron, I like the plot idea and the NPCs. I haven't thought about how I can convert this to the Realms, but I don't think it's too hard (haven't read the conversion sidebar yet). Ziki probably needs a Hat of Disguise or something. Murder mysteries.. or mysteries at all.. or even any other type of adventure besides dungeon crawls is VERY nice these days.. I think I have enough crawls to last a dozen lifetimes.. and unlike the really strange Shut In module a couple of issues back, Murder in Oakbridge offers a brilliant opportuinity for some CSI-esque, NYPD Blue style meets fantasy adventure!
And it's always nice to see a new face in Dungeon!
And it's always nice to see a new face in Dungeon!
Thanks!
Would anybody know where I may find the Dungeon artwork online?
I always want to show my players who or what they're facing, but always worry that they'll read the stats (no matter how much they assure me otherwise).