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Old 02-27-2006, 04:51 PM
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C.W.Richeson C.W.Richeson is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: [RPG]: Eberron Campaign Setting, reviewed by C.W.Richeson (5/5)

Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesh
I liked that, too, but it failed to take into account how much space in the product is dedicated to very system-specific content that is ultimately of little or no interest to somebody who doesn't play D&D 3x and/or a feasibly compatible game (C&C, Blue Rose, et al). I've owned Eberron, but I wouldn't recommend it to people who use non-d20/OGL game systems, not beacuse it isn't a wonderful setting, but because the amount of non-system specific detail that it offers (approximately 1/3 of the book) isn't worth the cover price.
I'm not sure i'd go so far as to say that 2/3 of the book is composed of game mechanics. The regional geography alone is a third of the book, and it's pure setting material. I'd say you get at least 200 pages of setting here, and the mechanics support the setting in such a way as to make them useful as well.

I also find the Eberron specific mechanics generally useful for running the game with other systems. Say I want to build race packages for HERO, GURPS, Tri-Stat, Savage Worlds, whatever. With a very simple understanding of the very basics of d20 I can see that Warforged are tough and resilient, Changelings have limited shapeshifting powers, certain types of artifice are common to the world, etc.
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