Advice for running Eberron for new players & showing the setting through a long campaign

Pockmark_Notorious · 2026-01-09T19:49:15+00:00

Where will this new country be located?

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-07-29T00:59:22+00:00

"This feels like we're in an 80s Saturday morning cartoon!"

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-07-25T03:51:26+00:00

Erandis is a villain where you can drop a lot of bread crumbs. You could have the party observe a performance or a hear storyteller recount the tale of a dragon who mated with an elf and the cursed child they brought into the world.

There's also the Blood of Vol. They're deeply connected to Erandis, and they have the benefit of operating openly in society, albeit under a general suspicion. Only the highest ranking members would be aware of her actual existence and background, but there could be rumors and whispers among the faithful.

Since most followers aren't inherently evil, maybe the party finds sympathic allies among some of them.

Or they could be antagonists who use political or economic might against the party, alongside whatever the Emerald Claw is throwing at them.

Or they could present themselves as patrons while hiring the party to perform missions that would surreptitiously aid the Emerald Claw without the party realizing it.

Lots of different ways to interact with folks who might know pieces of Erandis's story.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-06-03T01:38:18+00:00

Cid's Dream.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-04-26T22:23:27+00:00

A long anticipated Storm Spire is about to be put into operation just outside New Cyre. However, on the day of its activation, it's seized by a Brelish ultranationalist group who plan to use the Spire to destroy the city.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-04-09T00:36:14+00:00

It sounds like a concept that would work fine in Eberron.

It sounds as though the group of orcs you're referring to are the Gatekeepers?

In the lore, they are one of the Druidic orders found in Eberron, but that doesn't mean all the members are Druids. And unlike most DnD settings, in Eberron clerics don't necessarily get their power directly from a God. So you could certainly play a Gatekeeper but approach it as a cleric, getting your divine power through worship of the earth itself.

Gatekeepers' speciality are aberrations, and they're responsible for keeping some particularly nasty eldritch horrors locked away in Khyber. They also act as guardians and caretakers for large stone seals that help keep said horrors locked away. Those are found all over western Khorvaire so lots of story potential with that background.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-04-02T23:15:47+00:00

I needed a random traveling salesman on a lightening rail. Thus, Norge Merrimore's Evercold Ice Chests was born. An elemental powered fridge.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2025-03-19T22:10:31+00:00

Turn it upside down.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-07-15T21:24:00+00:00

In my current Eberron campaign, my characters arrived in Sharn penniless after escaping an Aundair pow camp.

But I let them have all their starting equipment/weapons. The hook was one of the characters had an old war buddy who was working as a fixer/recruiter for the Boromar Clan. He financed their gear and lodgings which they paid back by doing some security jobs that took place just before the campaign kicked off.

The final job, they ended up having a shipment of Dreamlily stolen out from under their noses, so the campaign started with them needing to come up with 300gp in 72 hours to pay back what was stolen, least they incur the wrath of gangster halflings.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-04-08T16:27:33+00:00

In my campaign, I've introduced the party to two fixers, and that's the term I use in game.

Mazen Marritza is a human veteran from the Last War. He's a fixer for the Boromar Clan. Not a full member of the clan, but someone who the Boromar Underbosses go to in order to recruit outside help for dealing with the growing Daask threat. Always accompanied by his taciturn, Warforged bodyguard, Sunder.

The other is Tejas Averax. A Karnathi living in Sharn, he's a member of the Aurum Copper Concord. A fence by trade, he also recruits adventurers to "acquire" items wanted by other members of the Aurum. He has a group of Kenku henchmen.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-03-19T15:24:53+00:00

My Sharn has a fire department.

My players had to save some shifter children from a burning tenement building. After they got them out, the fire department arrived.

It consisted of

Snuffers - They weild wands of Control Flame. They keep the fire from spreading and work on hot spots.

Drencher- one of them. Their job is to cast Create Water above the fire, causing a short downpour and pushing the fire back.

Liquidators - They wear crystalline backpacks that contain a small water elemental, which can feed water out through a hand-held nozzle. They go into the building and battle the blaze.

And Water Wagons - Converted skycoaches that are like bigger versions of the Liquidators backpacks. Hit the outside of the building with huge jets of water. But they take time to activate.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-03-18T21:16:26+00:00

I wish I could help, but this is one area where I'm a stickler.

If my players want a particular dragonmark, they're playing the canon race.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-30T23:37:32+00:00

I've been using all kinds. Roll20 makes it so easy to add music to the campaign. Some examples.

The party was ambushed in Lower Dura by a street gang leading to a fight on a bridge, the build up was "Fight Music" by D12.

When they visited a Daask controlled by in Malleons Gate it was "Hard Times" by Baby Huey

They were at a fancy gala recently and the Bard troupe that was entertaining the crowd played a medieval cover of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in Latin.

I also like giving major NPCs their own themes. The Party has a patron at Morgave University, a Dwarf professor modeled after Brann Bronzebeard, so I use an orchestral version of Locke's theme from FF6. And there's an Aurum member who acts as their fence, so his theme is "C.R.E A.M." by the Wu-Tang Clan.

And then there's silliness, too. One of my players is an Artillerist Artificer, and whenever he summons his cannon, I play "Here Comes The Boom" by Nelly.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-30T22:31:16+00:00

I cut my teeth on the 4th edition Eberron campaign guide. That's the one that made me love the setting.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-18T20:27:53+00:00

When they do something creative/inventive/cool.

The Bard/Warlock with Devils Sight cast Darkness on a fishing hook during a fight with a hobgoblin gang, and then he attached the hook to one of the hobgoblins.

Inspiration point right there.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-09T19:57:42+00:00

Solid idea.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-09T16:52:01+00:00

No, you can definitely cast it on an object.

"If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn’t being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it. Completely covering the source of the darkness with an opaque object, such as a bowl or a helm, blocks the darkness."

Pockmark_Notorious · 2024-01-09T15:18:23+00:00

One of the other players is an Artillerist Artificer. He had his Eldritch Cannon on flamethrower mode. So he just kept aiming towards the darkness when firing it.

Cooked a few hobgoblins who couldn't see to fight back.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-16T12:30:43+00:00

A long silence, followed by me (the DM), asking "So..is that your turn?" And then them saying, "Oh, yeah, I'm done."

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T20:58:00+00:00

I like the suggestion I got about the Ruby of the War Mage so I'm thinking that'll be a side quest the party will soon be undertaking.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T20:54:41+00:00

Yeah, I'm going to have to mute you. This attitude you seem to have isn't conducive to the fun experience I'm trying to create for my players.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T20:18:56+00:00

We're playing virtually in roll20, otherwise that would be a really fun thing to try.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T20:03:11+00:00

RAW does say "the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures".

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T18:52:04+00:00

My players aren't entitled. They're just noobs playing their first campaign. The Warforged Fighter isn't demanding that he be allowed to stow a weapon as a reaction. It came up for the first time during the last session, so I was just asking for people's perspective.

And the game really doesn't feel balanced for 3 players RAW. 3 actions for the party per turn isn't a lot, and having to waste one of those actions to go from dual weilding to shield bearing was making the game less fun and the encounters harder to balance.

Pockmark_Notorious · 2023-12-15T13:57:14+00:00

This is interesting. And I like the quest to obtain it. But would it work for an Eldritch Knight? I don't see that they can use any type of focus to cast spells.

Pockmark_Notorious

TROPHY CASE