Nothing.
I read some of the Eberron book, its one of the few I would never consider buying. I think its really cheesy and unimaginative and doesn't much need expanding on.
Ouch. I personally LOVE the Eberron setting. Cheesy and unimaginative? I couldn't disagree more. This setting has actually rekindled the fire of my playing group because it's just so darn interesting and imaginative.
I would love to see any and all articles on the setting that Paizo/WotC is willing to produce. As far as which you should work on, well there's so much that hasn't been detailed. If you've been playing in the setting, think of all the non-mechanics questions that have come up in your game. What concepts have triggered interest (or confusion even) for the group? Are there any individuals, locations, races, events, or whatever that you think are just really cool? Well then use that to spark some ideas. Good luck and I truly look forward to reading your Eberron articles.
None.
But if we have to have them, I'd prefer easily portable things such as monsters, magic items, and spells.
It's sad to see such hostility to a new Campaign World. I like Eberron, and I play in a weekly Eberron game. Frankly, I haven't submitted a lot of Eberron ideas to Dragon because I figure if they want Eberron stuff they'll commission Keith Baker to do it.
I also get nervous about what new books will be coming out and how I can place articles within that framework without getting hit by the "that'll be covered in XXX book from wizards due out next year" syndrome.
I am always thrilled to see Eberron material in Dragon and hope they put more of it out.
- Ashavan
To future posters: Please do not respond with "I don't want to see any". I asked for help with various topics, and saying "I don't like it" isn't helping me.
This is a thread asking advice on what to write, and any comment that isn't offering advice is defeating the purpose and is indrectly rude and discouraging.
I apologize for coming across as rude and discouraging. It's hard in this medium to not sound cold sometimes.
What I should have said was:
Try to write something detailing monsters, spells, feats, etc. that while useful in Eberron, could easily be ported into other campaigns for readers not using Eberron. Maybe a spellbook article featuring more artificer infusions or more deathless. Since their introduction in Book of Exalted Deeds, I've felt that the game could really use more deathless, and Eberron uses them.
Avoid warforged. They have seen alot of coverage.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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Edit: I realized that Shade said something different than what I was responding to so I cut that out. Good point Shade about the overlap between the two settings.
I don't think that's really possible to make generic spell/items. If you write something generic enough to be used in any setting you cheat both the Eberron and the Non-Eberron groups. The Eberron group don't really get any value from an article detailing generic items for that are nominally campaign setting - after all, Dragon is chock full of generic items that can have nominal alterations to fit Eberron. Non-Eberron people lose out because they have to go through and change the nominal aspects to make the items fit their non-Eberron world.
I don't play Eberron, but occassionally I will start to become interested. What draws my attention is articles that are specific to the world and show off its interesting details. A good example would be in Dungeon actually. The first Eberron adventure (Queen with Burning Eyes) was a generic dungeon crawl that could have been in any world. It was not very interesting and certainly didn't make me want to play the setting. There was another adventure (who's name escapes me) involving the City of Sharn and a broken tower. It was very specific to the setting and very cool.
I would like to see more articles highlighting what is special about Eberron. Tell me more about the flying ships and the trade routes they ply? What are those lightning rail things? Who makes them and what are they like? Maybe all these details are in the core book, but I'm sure there is something that can be brought out and put into Dragon to showcase what is good about the setting.
So, I ask again: What do you want to see done?
Magic in Eberron is supposed to be like a very wide based pyramid meaning that low level magic spells like 0 1st and some 2nd are incredibly common while the stuff at the top of the pyramid 8th and 9th are practically non-existent. My point is that I would love to see someone get creative and do alot of stuff at the bottom of that pyramid. What about an article of spells and magic items that aren't neccesarily for the mighty adventurer but instead are for the common tradesman or the lower level adventurer. My party loves low-level very useful spells, we've done so much with grease and othe rlow-level spells.
My players also love to have professions and lives outside of adventuring. Why not do an entire article on creating a busines in Sharn. You could come up with rules for rent, new uses of the profession and craft skill. Maybe even a subsystem of rules for making money through business.
I've been toying with all this because my players want to do a very lowlevel completely Sharn centric campaign that is heavy on the roleplaying. We've even been creating different Sharn NPCs and just throwing them in a folder. We want to make a campaign that goes from 1st to say 15th very slowly and focusses more on interaction than just action. Maybe some of this will get your brain pumping out ideas and I look forward to reading them.
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To future posters: Please do not respond with "I don't want to see any". I asked for help with various topics, and saying "I don't like it" isn't helping me.
This is a thread asking advice on what to write, and any comment that isn't offering advice is defeating the purpose and is indrectly rude and discouraging.
In hindsight, it would have been better to lay down more ground rules for what kind of response you wanted. Eberron is a controversial topic on these message boards, as anyone who regularly posts would know.
As for what to write, I agree with the idea for writing something very generic. Maybe something with drow.
I only recently started reading Dungeon. Been fond of Dragon for years but Dungeon is a new love. There is a lot of material for Eberron what I dont see are alot of adventurers. I mean I'd love to see the Dungeon put together a seies of adventures beginning say low level and going into beyond epic. Who wouldn't laugh at a paladin of the silver flame gettin tankard whipped by a warforged artificer at some point. Age of Worms was good but would really love to see a game ripping across the face of Khorvaire and back again.
I'd like to see detailed encounter tables. Those are ALWAYS useful, especially for a DM in a hurry or who has to wing something.
The best guideline I can imagine without getting specific about saying,"You should write about this" would be to just try and write something really cool, but still relatively Eberron specific that is so neat that it makes people that aren't playing an Eberron campaign say,"Man, that's just so neat I have to find a way to use it." So, basically, as long as it's a really good article readers will be willing to forgive something that's on the setting specific side.
I'm always interested in seeing specific character background write-ups or options dealing with a character's past. If you've played the PC game Arcanum, you can choose a background relevent to your character, like "Son of a Hero", which lets you start out with a minor magical sword (heirloom of parent) but everyone knows who your parents are and if you fail to live up to that high standard they treat you even more viciously than normal. Or "Escaped From a Mental Institution", "Frankenstein's Monster", "Raised by Elves". The most comparable D&D specific thing would be the random backgrounds from the Shackled City campaign book. I may have to write this article myself.
I loved the "Lords of Dust" article, but did not care much for the one on the Umbragen (probably because it had to do with the Drow).
I'd say that articles on some of the less covered regions would be welcome. I haven't seen any WotC books looking in detail at the "far provinces" of Khorvaire, so an article on the Shadow Marshes, Darguun or Drooam, would be great.
Maybe an article on the Chamber could be useful? With sample members and indications as to what the agenda of some of the official/known members is.
The organisations and secret cabbals are what make a setting interesting (see the FR), so you never have enough information about them.
One last point from me: I know that Eberron is a shared world, but so far I find myself very partial for articles by Keith Baker. So I guess that I would think twice before buying a magazine with an article on such a core thing like the Chamber if it had not been written by him.
Bocklin
Bocklin beat me to it - I seccond his suggestion about focusing on one of the "far provinces" (Shadow Marshes, Darguun, Drooam, Q'barra, Eldeen Reaches).
Also, archeological digs are big in Eberron. Maybe a short article of 101 archeological finds? Or a longer article about doing an archeological investigation of a ruins, possible with subsections detailing some of the sorts of things you'd expect to see in different types of ruins - for example, what kind of decorations are typical in Dhakaani ruins? What are a few methods they used for concealing secret doors? What kinds of traps did they prefer? And how is this different from what you might find in a Xendrik ruins from the Age of Giants?
Maybe a short article of 101 archeological finds?
I really like this idea; another suggestion could be something similar to Critical Locations, just a typical dig site with focuses on what they've found, what they haven't found, who wants to steal what and betray whom, etc.
As for the idea about the far region content, I've been dying to see more on Riedra, and how the quori are subverting the region and dictatorially ruling the Sarlonans. The article could be generalized by focusing on how to run a high-psionics city or country, from laws and legality to privacy (or lack thereof) and such.
An article specifically on airships would also be nice. I'm designing one for a my Adventure Path campaign, and it would be nice to get some suggestions on specific room types, such as those mentioned in the Stronghold Builder's Guide. And ideas on how to adapt airships and airship travel to different settings could be useful.
One thing I would like to see, and plan on eventualy working on if I get the creative juices and the time, is information about Q'barra (sp?). Xen'Drik is neat and all, and there is a lot of room, but with all the focus of non-core-nation info being based there, I think the best thing for fan-made articles would be to explore elsewhere. Me personaly, I love lizard folk, yuan'ti, ophidians, and all the rest of the cold blooded scaled things, and after watching the part where everyone first arrives on the island in King Kong (the only good part of the movie far as I'm concerned), I'm realy obsessing over the whole savage tribe in the jungle concept.
What I really need is information about the planes (mostly because I'm converting SC and later AoW). I would also like to see more information on how (more importantly where) monsters fit into Eberron (including the planes). I really like the idea of random encounter tables for Khorvaire's/Eberron's regions.
MOSTLY however I think the authors article should be canon. They should know the setting and get approval from its creators (Keith, James, etc.), not necessarily the owners.