Todd Talks - Eberron

hello everyone welcome to Todd talks today I am joined by my lead writer James hake we are going to inquisitive Baker about all things at Braun we have him tied to a chair in a library of an unknown location inquisitive yes your inquisitive all the ropes down here yeah it's usually it's usually a surefire sign well first off how did that brawn come about for those that don't know it this setting in Dean became about in a very unusual way well it was during third edition when Wizards the coast acquired Dungeons and Dragons and so this was around 2003 and they decided they'd inherited all of the the previous settings but they wanted to create a new unique setting for third edition and they actually did an open call where anybody could send in a one-page description of a world and they got 12,000 entries and we know those down to 10 they went over this down to 3 you know everyone sort of built it up and finally picked up rung you know everyone came out of that it's from sane how'd that feel yeah what was crazy I mean the the once it went on it would you know it's still crazy today but it was certainly when they called me up and told me I was one of the final ten that was just insane I was just you know and you couldn't tell anyone about it at that point so it was like the total crazy oh I've got this enormous news that I can't share with anyone I will say just again to be entirely clear the whole point is the core idea came out of this thing that I submitted but once they picked it you know I went up there to wizards and we went through a whole sort of you know process creating the book with James Wyatt Chris Perkins Bill slava second you know ever run as it exists is certainly the war came from you know what I was just saying is is just that again that's where the core of ever on came from but once they selected it it you know I went up to the Wizards the coast and worked with a whole team of people including James Wyatt Chris Perkins Bell Slava SEC and you know again ever on as you see it today has sort of you know evolved from the work of a lot of people very cool do you have any question questions right here well that's actually a good question now that you bring up the morning so I have the perspective on ever on of a fairly new comer right I've deemed for a long time but this new ever on materialism edition is the first time I've ever taken a real deep look at the setting and so the morning is one of kind of the big mysteries of the setting uh my understanding and you can you can fill in bits where I leave it out my understand the broad strokes of it is the last war which began about a century ago involved the entire main continent of Corvair and a horrible you know nuclear almost accident happened at the end of it that no one knows exactly what caused it that wiped a nation completely off the medical that's kind of one of the the big tensions of the modern setting is is that mystery and and I really like the idea of a core like deeply core part of the setting having no definitive answer and I have some ideas but when you were making ever on what what drove you and the other designer is to make that mystery such a core aspect of it well there's two pieces of it the first is the idea that one of the things that really drives the the campaign as you said is the idea of the last war that up until a century ago the continent was dominated by this kingdom of Galla fire and that over the course the last century it collapsed into a gigantic extended civil war part of the point being that that really broke all the existing power structures it's completely changed new nations have popped up that the balance between the established monarchies and the dragon market houses has changed that it is a world that is still finding you know sort of what is the balance of the present day the morning then as you said is this crucial event that destroyed the nation of Syria and that part of the point of it is it sort of hits two things this happened it transformed the nation into this sort of magical wasteland which first off stopped the war not because anyone won but because people are afraid to keep fighting until late you know when when you know we knew to Oshima we understood well the bomb was and that we had made it the point where the morning is because no one understands it one of the common theories is this is just what happens when you use too much war magic that it's essentially global warming that then basically we can't keep going until we've solved this mystery so that's sort of what brought over at the table is everyone saying whoa if this could happen to us tomorrow we need to stop and part of the point is if it's a weapon whoever has that weapon they could rule the world if it's completely random and can never happen again there's nothing stopping people from fighting so part of the point is all the nations are trying to find the answer and certainly for you as your group of adventurers if you find that answer there's the question of do you even want to share that knowledge because it will change the world that we're in this cold war situation because no one can afford to go back to war but the second thing it did is one of the sort of weird things about a game like Dungeons & Dragons where you know you want people to be exploring and there's ruins and there's interesting things but you can say if there's a well-established civilized nation why are there ruins why are there dungeons just around that no one's messed with and what this basically did is not only broke up the kingdom but dropped a nation sized dungeon right in the center of the contract the continent that the morn land is this massive you know it's filled with whatever strange monsters you can think of you literally have cities of the richest nation you know in the past that are now sort of magical twisted bizarre ruins and so part of it is creating this huge opportunity for adventure right on your doorstep as well as by adding in you know this massive refugee crisis of all the Syrians who survived that also is something which obviously today is even more relevant than it was 13 years ago but you know it again has really transformed the shape of of the world and in farm that it being a mystery part of it is just because what I really like with a campaign setting is we want it to be a source of inspiration there's something that's a starting point for you to make your own stories but it shouldn't limit you and so there's a bunch of things in every one that we did intentionally leave is that the morning shapes and defines the setting but do you want it to be solved and if so what do you want the answer um what's going to be compelling for your story and so there's a couple of things like that that like I said we intentionally left because we want you to make it your world not just that you're playing in ours I think that's a really important thing for people to see as a distinction between Dungeon Master's at home and game designers at the table especially when it comes to cannon and as far as stories go or even as far as like rules as written as rules go because all of those things whether you're a designer or a home DM at your own table you'll have your own answers to the rules your own answers to the lore and one of the hardest things about being a game designer is finding the line where you have to resist adding your own home stuff into the core game that's like that's true for like a law media like I how often have we been to supplying sometimes with the answer to a question that we've been dying to know for like you know whether it's like seven seasons of a TV show or like five books that we have read and then they the author tells you they're what big secret thing was and then you're like oh I thought of something cooler like knowing invites you to participate and that's one of the things that honestly came up when we were working on never on for fifth edition is do with the timeline Ford and things like that and one of the reasons we felt like not doing it is because for all the people who have been playing Abraham for a long time suddenly it sort of changes all the more that's that's you know become their own over this time and you know the 998 the the sort of default setting that we have kept as is the point is just a point when all sorts of things are coming together and and yes if I moved to for ten years a lot of things would have had to change and it's just it's a very interesting moment to start with but part of it is I will say I've been playing in everyone for 14 years I have never actually ran a group that solved the mystery of the morning I've played in games where where people where you know people have made that applaud but for me the mystery is as important than the impact of the event I'm much more interested in the Cold War and the the sort of looming fear that the morning has created I don't actually need us to find that answer but as I said I've also played in campaigns where people have made it a central part of the story and that's what I like is that I complain you're ever on campaign and have a really interesting time discovering what caused the morning even though you know I mean the world yes I think there's something oh go on oh and I was just gonna say I mean back to your point too it also comes the fact that we have 36 novels set in ever on you know from back in the day and part of our point there was saying these are not canon that these are examples of things that could happen in ever on but you shouldn't feel like you have to take them into account in your cat's that'll happen to me later in this show to my you could hear his my mic was muted but my cat is playing with the skittery toy off in the distance yeah very good yeah he probably be back we have a few questions from the audience some which should be answered and some that maybe prep should not why are war Ford so damn cool because robots are cool like how can you not love war forged that's my opinion what questions is what sources inspire this is coming from ether dark just gamertag fantastic what sources inspired ever on when it was created have to run out and move the cat so with why our war forts so cool and you know part of the thing about war forged was it was trying to really hit the point of that magic is a part of the world that magic is treated here like a science and it is something that we use to solve problems of transportation communication and war and come on yet he isn't saying anyhow and the the war Forge really embody that idea of the last war that they were created as weapons in the war one of the things to me is you have all the standard sort of interesting questions of exploring of being a created life form of what does that mean added to that that idea that you were literally made for war and the war is over what do you do what is your purpose there's a lot of just interesting things to explore there that I'm really enjoy coming back to things that inspired it you know I mean I'll say right off the bat the one sentence description of the setting when it first came out was lord of the Rings meets Raiders in the Lost Ark in The Maltese Falcon and you know it's certainly not any of those things individually but that's still hitting that point of we wanted a setting that was distinctly fantasy but they captured both sort of over-the-top pulp adventure I'll say when I was working on it one of the things that inspired me was I've been working on a pope themed MMORPG that never ended up coming out but I basically spent like three years watching Republic serials and the mummy and I just the Lost Ark and all of those things and so part of it was that over-the-top pulp adventure theory and then I always loved conspiracy theories film noir you know the big sleep and so it was that sort of idea of taking both those things and then also lending in I have always felt that arcane magic the the you know the magic of wizards in D&D operates very scientifically and that sort of lends to these so why does it not involve as a science why is it not incorporated into civilization and so those were sort of the two key pieces was that hope and war but then a whirl in which magic is understood as a science and a lot of people like to say it's steampunk but the big thing is that a lot of things like steampunk Shadowrun are kaanum are all ideas that came out that put magic and technology side-by-side even right now carnival wrote would be a good example of that as what we really wanted with ever on was to say this is a world where technology is magic it's not that these things are at odds it's that this is our science so yeah I mean I will say thank carnival Rowe is a good there are aspects of it that definitely have an uber ani feel if if you just sort of replaced some of the technology with more magic but I'm trying to think what else off the top of my head anything you guys immediately think of that you're like oh this is this is something that feels like a burn to me well I mean it's it's it's an obscure reference but there was a video game series called thief which is a very good example of this exact meant mentality thief is magic becomes technology yeah that's I mean it's just the natural progression of a world where there is magic you're going to use it to light all of your lampposts like you're going to use it to run your trains and make weird machines and everything runs I'm magic I think sticks as well is a video game now I think a telling people will play but you play a little wily golem a goblin Alchemist and he's a menace but anyhow how about you Joe James anything coming to your mind mmm I I remember when I scanned the third edition ever on book there was actually like a quarter page dedicated to all the filmic influences ever on yeah I and I'll also say I mean one of the that certainly inspires me on some levels are things like Neuromancer Bladerunner and that you know those are science fiction but certainly both of those in their own way are essentially noir em you know gradient wash stories and part of the point with Eberron is you do have the dragon mark houses which in many ways do fill the same sort of role in the setting as you know mega-corporations in a cyberpunk world that these are these multinational economic powerhouses and that's part of what I like in the setting you know one of the themes that it's exploring is this what happens when you have these mercantile forces that are essentially becoming larger than any one nation and it's one of those things where even though it's completely fantasy you know between things like the refugees the war the dragon mark houses there's a lot of aspects where it's a fantasy setting but there are pieces of it that are very relevant to our lives and that's one thing I like exploring and I've been you know oh I'm kind of changing the topic here so if you have something you want to go for okay this conversation and the one we were just having about the morning really makes me think a lot about genre as far as settings are concerned um it's the the three main influences you mentioned were Maltese Falcon Raiders of the Lost Ark and what was what was the third one Lord of the Rings more about you could you mainly just saying fantasy right so if I was doing it today I'd have said Game of Thrones you know but you could almost make for your campaign if you're a DM making an ever on campaign atone you'd almost take like a blank white piece of paper draw out a triangle on it where the rings Maltese Falcon raids Lost Ark put them on the three poles and you could ask your players to put down a sharpie point where on this chart do you want our game to fall and suddenly and so much of the setting endlich's many like wide bizarre diverse complex suddenly come into very clear focus there's a fun MDM tool in general no I love that there should be there should be a triangle in like every DD book setting actually we were like if you're playing Ravenloft like how much horror do you want and now it's blood and how much this and that's very much one of the core ideas of ever on is we we often call it like Pope nor or things like that but it is supposed to be exactly as you described it it's not that it is simultaneously The Maltese Falcon and Raiders of the Lost Ark is that it can encompass both of those things in the wayfinders guide you know we talk about the difference of there's there's three starting points and that cliff top is basically the Raiders of the Lost Ark we're traveling to distant places as exotic adventurers and callused an is much more this is the gridding war we're down on our luck in the bad part of town [Laughter] I'm currently running is actually set in the nation called Kabara which is on the eastern coast and it's basically Deadwood it's it's essentially just a fantasy western you know with wands instead of guns and and you know that's one of the things I like about Efron is it does there's a room for a lot of different things and and so there you are the the morn land the age in the middle of the continent I think is a great opportunity to play with this mutability of genre because we were talking about like campaign said choose to answer the mystery of the morning campaigns to choose not to answer the mystery and I think if you have a group of players that wants to pop that dot right up at the top near Lord of rings suddenly you know for a fact let's answer the Miss through the morning let's dig into this this like epic answer where is where's ya contrast more than waar sort of aspect of things is more getting to this is just e this could be the end of the world for all we know and you know everything's falling apart and we're just trying to make it one more day yes I'm just kind of live with the fallout yeah that's all I got to say that's the the more land itself is just IIIi think just a great cauldron for a experiment and get that sort of thing well and one of the things is one of the things we said in the the very original book we've sort of said ever since is if something exists in D&D there's a place for it in ever on and one of the points is that you know the three big things for that are the mooring land xandred or mourning the flesh Weaver the del key or that sort of thing and so part of the point is the mourn land is a great place to you just got some obscured race or some weird monster or something that has no logical place in the world drop it in the morn land you know you want to use be people and we don't really have a whole history for B people but well there's a village in and Syria that was transformed into a Nabeel hive in the morning in the morning and boom there we go yeah and basically exactly that sort of almost anything you can think of you can say well that was created in the morn you know shark minds well your character was fused with crystals in the morning and now you're a shark mine you know okay on on that that opens up a huge new horizon this is a question I could ask Edie Greenwood and get a probably a very different answer you've seen ever on go through three editions of D&D now and we're talking about like if something exists in D&D it it should exist in everyone as well and how do you tailor a campaign setting that suits the nature of D&D like you made it so that magic arcane magic it made sense logically speaking for dandies magic to tailor itself to a world where magic becomes technology what have been like the the good the bad the ugly of moving ever on through three different editions well I mean it's interesting because one of the things is there have been certain changes that actually fit the setting better with the later systems and then certain was the move away one of the issues is that third edition had the strongest magic item creation system and that was certainly a thing of well we had the art of we had this whole idea of magic as an economy so the fact that there was a very clearly delineated this is how you make magic items and exactly what it costs you know did help and that has certainly been one of the ongoing like trying to figure out how you reconcile that has been one of the ongoing things on the other hand what I will say starting with the fourth and continuing in fifth two things that have really helped make the world make sense are rich walls and can trips mmm that basically part of the weird thing with third edition was this idea that we always wanted made rights to be the idea of this is just a professional you can have an arcane locksmith who just tests knock and arcane lock at for a living that's his job and that doesn't make any sense using fancy and magic where he casts it twice and then he's done for the day you know that's not a can't make a living off that whereas with rich wall system where it's well it takes him ten minutes it costs him 25 gold he charges you 50 and he can do that all day if he's got the time and you've got the goal like it makes a lot more sense for magic can be a job and that there can be an industry and furthermore in both fourth and fifth there's a greater acceptance the idea that NPCs do not have to follow the rules of player characters and we've always always said from the start that player characters are supposed to be exceptional in third we sort of really emphasize use the the MPC classes in fourth and fifth we just don't even have to you just say you know made writes a major I can cast one spell but he can do it as a ritual even though you can't cast arcane maccas ritual he spent three years learning how to cast arcane lock is ritual you know you could if you put in the time but trust us you've got better things to do and and so that certainly has really helped with major rights and want slingers to just be able to say we all understand the concept of a guy who makes his living casting knock and lock it just isn't the thing that makes by the system players use and so that's really helped as I said it was definitely the change in you know the sort of lack immediately of any kind of magic item creation system was something when 5th edition first came out that was like a how do how does this work again when you see rising from the last war you know there is a system in place that the least covers that in concept I think people will be very excited to see that huh I do like the idea of major initiate magic initiates have you know yeah you're just a soldier who shoots fight fire bolt and that's what you do that's it actually works pretty well you know of just saying yeah you know I've got fireball I've got shocking grasp and I have one use of burning hands which is basically my grenade if you will yeah you know you know I got my close range my long range and my my quick quick blast effect and that is one of the things I'm like yeah go ahead sorry let me finish one point it's specifically actually arcane focuses or another thing I really like arcane focuses and can trips of we wanted that idea that you could be a want slinger like that is a thing you could just have a soldier who like you said use his fire bolt and in third edition a wand was a charged item that was used and throw away it was too expensive you couldn't imagine a soldier with a wand it just didn't make sense whereas in in 5th edition saying oh it's the soldier the wand isn't have the power he just allows the soldier to cast his fire bolt and boom suddenly like you've got your wands longer there and so that's something I really like I've been buying how dare you sir the Dragonlance books recently I just finished reading dragons of autumn Twilight for the very first time I went to Todd's chagrin and the descriptions of cuz you're like well is that right and the descriptions of magic users using material components in that book is really exceptional it's something that just by playing D&D I don't think I ever quite got to the full extent of how cool it could be in practice and I really want and I think it will and I think ever on especially now will really give the idea of how cool it can actually be to use in arcane focus on the others and so on the one hand you've got our keen focuses which I agree and and this is something wayfinders guide you know started with with the imbued woods and things like that of trying to say you never won and it's just it's a cool one even if it doesn't have that power I will also add to that certainly my throne of brendlin novels you know I get into like you know the components she carries and such and that's my cat's a tail just blotted out there for a moment like with the artificer is the idea you know and again not speaking to the final form in rising but I mean just from what people have seen on uh North Kona the idea of the artificer uses a tool as their arcane focus and that that doesn't just mean I'm waving my hammer at you and a fire bolt comes out it's saying think about what tool you're using and how that manifests if you use alchemists tools as your arcane focus then you are mixing little potions and flinging them at people if you use a tinker's tool as your arcane focus you're creating little devices and I did a sidebar about this in the UA and and you know certainly something I'll be writing more about but it's back to that just because you don't need to describe this yes you have a hammer you can cast a spell it's much more fun if you stop and say but how am I using this tool to produce these effects it's seeing that logic and every time it's done in in any story or film I I love it especially when it's assumed logic like you've seen the movement Constantine is a very good example of well you need to sit in this electric chair there needs to be water at your feet you need to drink some vodka and then I need to use this and then I will send you the hell like you'll be able to like or you know you'll be able to like you know stalk someone with clairvoyance and stuff like that and the fact that they treated it as this is just how it is in a very Dean D way made that entire movie for me they're like all of this just can't works like if I need to make a shotgun that kills demons I take this crucifix I've loaded up with the this type these type of rounds and it's every artificer feeling kind of moment right and and that's why I love the artificer so much and and that's what I love of just this is everything we're doing is about making the story we want to see or watch and and this is the point of the rules are the underlying foundation the rules tell you when you cast that spell this is how much damage will do this is how far away the person can be but the specifics of you know the trappings of it that's all I'm left to us you know as long as you're not hurting anyone with it what is it you want you know what's making it compelling to you I still love one things I suggested I think it's just off of my website was talking about different kinds of war books and the idea of having a warlock whose us the gnome in spite for the trust and that your patron is the you know the trust you know that it's essentially you've just got em in your ear sending you missions and that all your magic is essentially everyone's answer to cue that it's not that you know you're casting spells like some other warlock it's like oh yeah I've got my eldritch my Aldrich blast ready to go and Oh invisibility yes I've got that right here you know and that this is equivalently spy gadgets in a magical world and so again everything about that is functionally a warlock but you don't have to be making deals with the devil you know you can come up with other other flavor to that oh but if you break your contract with the trust Oh their works yeah I've always liked the idea of a celestial warlock made a pact with a unicorn to kill people of God James are you speaking of devil ah there's everyone you know yeah everyone has a somewhat unique cosmology doesn't it I remember discussion as everyone is being brought into fifth edition that the the current D&D cosmology has always had or the idea of a multiverse that encompasses everything in the world of D&D has a bit of a hitch I'm connecting to everyone can you talk to us a little bit about that well the main thing is that when we created Eberron in the beginning we specifically decided we wanted to basically start from scratch and make a you know give the seti in its own unique cosmology and then that affects the worlds in many ways you have what are called manifest zones where the sort of energies of the planes merge into the world you have coterminous and remote periods where the idea is that the planes are moving in and out of alignment and that affects the world I will say I'm working on something for the DM scale that will go a little deeper into the planes we never in part because part of the problem is that we've never gone as deeply into the planes as beautiful for people to fully take care of that and so nonetheless we wanted Yanni part of the idea with ever on is that Forgotten Realms is already out there it is there if you want to tell stories like the tribes of trouble if you want to tell the blood war you've got that and that we wanted to explore something very different so ever on is a setting where the gods do not manifest and that it is possible for someone to say I don't believe the gods exist we're devils and demons in such play a role where the main primary antagonist fiends are actually native to ever on itself they are the children of khyber whereas the devils and demons of the outer Plains incarnate different ideas so you have the plane of shabath which is the plane of war and it has devils and demons and angels fighting this endless war but they are literally the devil's represent sort of tyranny and war fought for conquest the demons are sort of the idea of chaos and blood lust and rage the angels are war fought for justice but they all embody war if that makes any sense and they don't particularly care about ever they are fighting their eternal war and that's their business whereas it's the fiends of Iran itself which are primarily Rakshasa but can be any type of fiend that are are there to cause trouble for you but beyond that it's that idea that fiends Celestials they really are about incarnate in concepts you know a form specific form of evil you know and so with any kind of theme you want to stop and say what is this embodying and how is that manifest here this is such a different take on the fiends and Celestials and descent into a furnace has I think people who are you know who do a furnace and then want something totally different we'll all be very happy with this mutation well again that's the whole important thing that people you know want to make clear is that ever on in no way says Oh wrong to do things the other way it was specifically just if you want a vernest you've got a Vernis and and just saying you know basically Forgotten Realms has these very active gods and then ever on is a place where we can have a whole thing about schisms or heresies or things like that that make no sense in a world where you ought to be able to just call up the gods and get an answer and so it's very much that about just singing variety is good because it lets you tell different kinds of stories yeah yep and and it's great to love all of it - yeah it's great to look at this thing as long as your passion on someone else but it's great to love all of it yep we have a question from chat the worm were star very clearly tied to the history setting of a bran are the other a bran races such as changelings and shifters tied into the history to the same extent as the war forged so the chemists are are because the callused are are very much tied to the idea that you have the plane of dreams d'accord but it goes through cycles where it completely changes and that throughout the history of Eberron there have been times where the quarry of the current age have tried to essentially escape the change and that happened in the age of giants and we don't know what those quarry were like now it may be happening again and essentially the dreaming dark is trying to stop the change by basically taking over everyone and the callused are are are rebels who you know have escaped and are actually trying to push the change but that are essentially renegades you know hiding out from the dreamy dark and so they're very tightly tied into the story and part of the point there is young you could also ignore that story if your game master who doesn't find that plotline interesting changelings and shifters they're not so much tied to the history as when we were developing the setting initially it was just that point that this is a world where magic is part of the world and what are some races with it are sort of inherently magical and what I'll say with both of them actually where they originally came from in the very first draft of every run I just had doppelgangers as more integrated into society and it was just the point of you had class levels you know monster class levels which was the thing in third edition ultimately just decided well it would be easier to just have a zero level adjustment this version of a doppelganger I'll be covering events for the first time today you could just have a doppelganger - sure yeah and and and that's all I'm saying is originally they were doppelgangers and and it was just this sort of decision of let's make a sort of sideways race to two doppelgangers and I think her in fifth edition we're actually sort of suggesting maybe the doppelgangers are actually changelings corrupted by you know during the corruptor in one of the delq here previously in fourth edition because it was much less clear what a doppelganger was we were just kind of saying well a doppelganger is just essentially a pejorative term for a changeling just like a doppelganger and shifters have a similar sort of relationship to lycanthropes where it's you get some of the flavor of a lycanthrope without all the various power levels that make you know make like and throw up some balance just player characters but again it's capturing a taste of that I have a beast eale nature I transform without going quite all the way how I think they're very fanatic races - right we're yeah we're fourth collapse jar talk to the plot of ever on the chain the shifters talk to the feel of ever on yeah how much are you planning on supporting it after after the book launches in November with TM skilled the content because you every time I thought you you were always off of font of ideas and I can't imagine ever getting them all in one book no no so so this is the thing is you know in the past it's always been just in the hands of wizards and wizards of course is releasing you know there's going to be an adventurous league campaign you know beyond that you know I don't even fully know what will happen I mean certainly with fourth edition it was just here's the books and now we're moving on and I don't know you know what's going to be here what's exciting now is we do of the DMS guild and so that is the thing is I'll say in December I'm working on a book I'm just calling exploring ever on that I'm just excited about because basically it is a chance to talk about a lot of things that have been important to me and ever on for 14 years and there's just never been an opportunity to squeeze them in to one of the official source boats so the planes are a perfect example where I've always wanted to talk more about the planes and we've just never really had the the call for our planes of Eberron book but there's going to be a big plane section in planes in explain everyone to really get into more depth I'm also talking about the oceans like this wagon and the merfolk and you know basically those are intelligent species like what are their nations how did they interact with the surface and doing a bunch of other you know just lots of little things so that's gonna be the first thing I'm doing solo like that if you will in December beyond that I mean it's basically going to be a question of how much time I have and what interest there is I do have ideas for a second book I'd like to write if there's time so really it's all going to be you know I expect to explore never on to come out in December and it will be a question of how is it new that's exciting yeah I think every writer knows what it feels like to like not get everything done that's the thing is I started writing this book and part of it is there's just so much stuff I'd love to write about that you know I can't put it in like I can't remember what someone's talking about like the demon wastes love to write about the demon wastes I'm all sorts of thoughts about the demon ways but they sure just don't fit in this book you know and then Kabara is where I'm running my Western campaign now and love to talk more about that but I don't have room in this book so so yeah what as I said is exciting to me is just that because the dams guild exists for the past 14 years ever on has sort of been locked up if you will and now we have this opportunity and of course none of that material is official but as we've been saying early on that's kind of the point of ever on use what you want to use you know make it make it your world and so I'm very excited to have the ability to just create more more stuff and I'm very much looking forward to seeing when you do James huh thank you yeah talk about a Western campaign has got me excited actually tell me more about my you know what I've been doing with that I I've actually I've been wanting to write a series of articles about it so when did you start that gathering well I've run two iterations of it so far so I started that campaign I want to say early 2018 because it was while I was working on wayfinders mmm mom and and then as I said yeah yeah you know we're talking about this I was like oh that's that's intriguing cuz instantly think of oh I can make a but the artifice or it can be Boba Fett now I can make like Western II yep and there's so many fun characters and and basically you know part of it is what I did is is I told people from the start this is gonna be about this village and part of it is I'm like in the Ville there's the other cat and I was saying you know the village is going to need a sheriff it's gonna need a preacher you know if one of you wants to step up and take that role you know you can be that otherwise there's going to be an NPC told in that position and you know sort of fun giving people that sort of stake in the success or you know failure of this town going to depend on you and it's been very interesting I'll say the campaign I've been running one of the big things is we started off and said there's one in you know one Tavern in town everyone tell me something about it and everyone said something everyone's like oh it's got great acoustics in an open mic night oh they make their own beer oh they have the best business yeah and the last person says they don't have a working toilet and it stinks and I said well you know cleansing stones which are what you would use for magical plumbing you know it's gonna run you 250 gold pieces and like the first four adventures really were about them raising enough money so they can buy a cleansing stone for the bar that's perfect storytelling and I adore that what was there a key takeaway in this for you you've been focused on like kind of this Western element to ever on what was key to making that flavor in your campaign and how did people react for this particular campaign yeah you know any party that was again you know you look to the sort of tropes of the Western and you know we're in the classic Western you often sort of pick up off the Civil War and here we have the war so you know we were dealing with the fact you had a refugee community you had that question like in the the second version I've run part of the point is the sheriff was a former soldier from Syria who has led a group of refugees here and is trying to make a better life for them but he's like hardened by war and you know did things he regrets and you know another part of it was again st. the the character who took the preacher so I'm basically saying this village is made up of dwarven miners refugees and a particular religious group and preacher you tell me what religion that is and that it was totally up to them you know if they said it was the blood of all of them what do you know it's a bunch of settlers trying to start a blood of all community as they said I think as the green singers that she's an obscure druidic sect and I'm like great this basically like a Utah situation where you know the bunch of green singers have said we're going out to the the frontier where we can have our own town and and that that in and of itself the players sort of put these pieces on the table and now we've been exploring that well how do the refugees get along with the green singers and then just because Kabara has this whole dragon shards or essentially our oil and you know they're a dragon short mining town and it's like in now the big mining company house the rash is sort of moving into town and you get a lot of those classic things of what you do when the big bank is moving in and wanted to buy the mine and and so you know it's sort of again of just taking what are some of those classic Western tropes and how do you overlay those what's everyone's answer to those so again big money on big big oil as it were you know well that's the rash you've got that there you have the lizard folk who are the do we understand the natives or we break in all their taboos and I will say that I love that with no prompting the players did totally desecrate a whole bunch of holy sites you know in their first look a bunch of a bunch of dragon shards on the ground in an interesting pattern let's rip all those so they did they did completely you know just as you want because now there will be of course will realize and be like oops and and but as I said just that coming off of the war trying to start something new these are all themes that are already there but play very well that's cool now there's a whole lot more to everyone than just the war-torn continent of corvair there's a whole world out there and yes that is true like I said I'm pretty new to everyone as a whole by were where parts of where other parts that world covered in source books from previous editions or they always been sort of lightly touched no they've always been they have been covered in previous editions so dragons of Eberron covers Argan Essen which is of course to be the the here there be dragons nobody goes here continent there's two things that covers and direct secret subs Andric and city of storm reach are the true things there and then there's a book called secrets of soul ona that covers cilona what I will say is that Zen dreck is inherently part of the point of Zen Drake has it's been completely sort of massively cursed by epic magic and such that makes it among other things in space does not work normally there and so you literally can stumble onto a city that then when you try and go back you won't find it again and so part of the point of Xandra was to say this is the playground for the DM to do whatever crazy you know story you want to do and that's one reason Dean D online was set there is because I really can sort of do whatever without breaking the setting if you will and so core there is the sort of you know concentrated if you will Game of Thrones Hendrik is sort of you know Tarzan Atlantis lost continent with some room for sort of colonial plot lines and then Tsar Lona is was more driven towards psionics frankly which were a part of third edition and editions before of saying this is a land where psionics is to Tsar Lona as arcane magic used to core there and and so it's a little more almost of the sort of shangri-la you know mysterious continent that when you go there everything's going to be different and and it also has the plotline of the inspired essentially having conquered the land long ago and so there's a lot of rooms for sort of uprising and Orwellian you know play the resistance against the empire so you know each sort of continent sort of supports it something I don't know the degree to which you know new material will cover those you know it's one of those things sure I'd love to write more about Sir Ilona in my copious time but there are third edition books on the DMS guild they do cover that actually yeah if and and because the the timeframe hasn't moved at all all of the Laure for people you know we just got done saying that cannon doesn't really matter in your home game but if you love cannon lore all of that stuff is still absolutely and it's completely about inspiration and especially in the case of Zen dreck that's part of the point of everything even in the Zen dirt book is basically like this is cool stuff that could be in Cedric it's still up to you if anyone can find ya fantastic let's say we got we have time for one more question from the chat room [Music] well this is a very basic question how do you try to capture a pulp feel and ever on which is a broad question but it is one my favorite elements of a bran like it feels like a penny dreadful it feels like pulp it such a such a cereal episod there's there's a bunch of things I will say if you look to wayfinders guide to ever on and of course rise of the last you know rising from the last word will also discuss this sort of thing wayfinders guide has a whole little section talking specifically about this you know one of the things I'd say is one of the elements is of pulp is is raise the stakes you know what's more exciting than being on an airship that's crashing and being on an airship is crashing and on fire how do you imagine things up step one of the things I've said before that I'd like to do is is I will in dramatic scenes I'll put out a list of environmental elements you're in a bar I'm just gonna throw a list on the table and say by the way there's a raging fire in the heart there's a plate grass window there's a tray of drinks and there's a chandelier if you use one of these things I'll give you a vantage I've used it in a clever way and that is just encouraging the players to say oh it's not just that I'm gonna hit him with my sword it's I'm gonna grab the chandelier so when you cross the table and hit him with my sword or I'm gonna try and Ram him and push him back into the fireplace or something through the plate-glass window because all of those are things you could just say you were doing in the first place it's just sometimes players aren't going to think about I'm in a tavern these things should all be there of course there's a tray of drinks in a tavern of course there's a fireplace and so that's one thing and and once you start that with your players they will start to think that way more naturally it can just help players to say here's a bunch of cool things that you could do something cool with and I'll give you a bonus if you do is a way to get people into that like I said why across the room when you could swing on the chandelier and beyond I had a great and and it's the same way as the game master of of when you describe the monster doing something don't just say he hits you for six points describe it you know what's that look like and you know going back to the noir you know the noir gets a lot more into are there consequences do bad things happen to good people you know have people think somewhat about like what do you regret as character because everybody regrets something you know I have another campaign that I'm running that has actually been on hold for a little while but same callus tan it's a very much a sort of Gangs of New York you know Grady down-and-out a sort of group and I really like that because it is a totally different feel but one of the points is getting the players to engage is with that group I basically said to them starting off you're living in this crap part of town why you know what is it that ties you to this community why don't you just leave and that a lot of that is about the players need to want that moved the players need to be like yes we're over the top and and so things like having that list of environmental elements is just a way to to sort of let people know this is the kind of thing you can do you know don't be afraid to be dramatic that's a great that's this great advice for any Dungeon Master out there and that that's such a great plan of inspiration for everyone let's ever remember is that's what I do that's handy dude and for my two cents if you're trying to run a game in a certain genre I think one of the best ways to do that to start along that path is to just consume a lot of media within that genre right like we all know how to run the Forgotten Realms game because we're all big Lord of the Rings nerds or you or you know we've watched Game of Thrones or something big fantasy media property and so we know what it looks like if you're trying to run an or ever game but you don't know but you haven't watched you know a Humphrey Bogart movie and life and suddenly you don't have any idea what you're trying to emulate so you know read the classics no no and I completely agree and you know frankly I think it was watching the Netflix series godless that made me say oh I'm totally getting that that Western story going just cuz I was like oh yeah that would fit you know so yeah yeah well we are out of time Keith Baker thank you for as always for giving us letting us just basically extract your brain and devour it for our purposes I appreciate that thank you James yeah it's been cracked open for a long time game speak for joining us as well sorry we didn't get to everyone's questions but I hope you'll understand and I'm sure we'll have Keith's back very soon thank you so much for watching

Channel: D&D Beyond

Views: 42,517

Keywords: eberron, eberron races, eberron campaign setting, wayfinder's guide to eberron, eberron 5e, eberron (fictional universe), dungeons and dragons, eberron campaign setting 5e, 5e eberron, d&d eberron, eberron d&d, 5th edition, ebberon, d&d 5e eberron, eberron world, eberron d&d 5e, lore of eberron, dungeons & dragons, eberron campaing, d&d 5e eberron pdf, d\u0026d eberron, James Haeck, Keith Baker

Id: l7Mjl04e6Lw

Length: 59min 8sec (3548 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 09 2019