Customer Reviews

Player's Guide to Eberron (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying, Eberron Supplement)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an excellent, flavor-rich cyclopaedia for the world of Eberron, arranged in 2 to 4 page entries in alphabetical order covering the various nations, cultures, and factions of the world. Within these pages you'll find eloquent summaries to spark your imagination or catch up player knowledge to the point of character knowledge. There are sidebars describing where the new classes from the Complete [character type] series fit into the world of Eberron, along with the various subraces from the Races of [foo] series. These expositions make sense. They show that in a world as crowded with drama as Eberron, there is still room remaining for more of the magic and mystery that other D&D supplements spill. If anything, the babel of fantasy tidbits from other books make MORE sense when put into context this way.

My one concern with this book is the deceiving title. It is a player's guide if one considers the DM a player, too. DMs expecting the book to respect the secrets of the setting, preserving them to be gradually revealed to the players, will be disappointed. Within the first entry of the Guide the names of the secret masters of Eberron have already been ticked off by checklist. This one complaint is hardly enough to detract from an otherwise awesome book.

This book is divided into two chapters. The first deals with character concepts appropriate to the Eberron setting. These are fairly generic, but useful for players trying to come up with ideas.

The second chapter is where the book really shines. PGTE lists a large variety of topics in an encyclopedia style format, making them easy to find. Each topic is explored in moderate detail, and includes topic related game mechanics (on sidebars), suggestions on how to incorporate other Wizards of the Coast books (such as where other races live, where Warlocks get their power), and interesting tidbits such as what a DC 10 Knowledge (Nature) check tells you about the Gatekeepers.

All in all this is a fantastic book. With full color art, a well done index, and good solid writing throughout you'll be hard pressed to find a better produced gaming book out there. While the price may seem a little steep for the book's relatively small size, the text density and high quality writing more than make up for it.

Know that this is a setting-heavy book. Those interested primarily in game mechanics will not find a lot here, though what is provided is interesting and strongly tied to the entry it is found in.

I picked this book up somewhat reluctantly - my budget for D&D books is pretty tight - but I'm glad I did. The title is misleading - it's an EVERYONE Guide to Eberron, and if you like the setting, this book is a definate must-buy. My only complaint is that it was too short.

Because Wizards of the Coast limited the book to 160 pages [in line with other, similar releases], there just wasn't enough space to cover everything I wished this book had covered. For example, the Five Nations get a 2-page spread, the Demon Wastes get 4 pages, Droaam gets 52 pages, the Eldeen Reaches get 4 [but that also covers Druidic Sects], The Mournland gets 2 pages, Q'Barra gets 2 pages and Valenar gets 6 pages [including a new prestige class] - but Aundair, Breland, Karnath, the Mror Holds, the Shadow Marches, the Talenta Plains, Thrane and Zilargo, DON'T get their own entries - and they should have. Sure, they get a *little* coverage under other entries, but I would have appreciated a more thorough overview. The information on the other continents and the oceans of Eberron is terrific.

But WotC cut out *everything* that can be found in other references, so this book is almost 100% pure new material - which is its blessing and its curse. If the encyclopedia-style layout bothers you, there is an excellent Index in the back of the book [which is too often missing from WotC products] in addition to a detailed Table of Contents. The book is fun to browse through, and it's easy to find a specific piece of information if you need it.

I especially like the way this book ties together supplemental game stuff into Eberron. Use any of "The Complete..." books and you'll find suggestions for where the new core classes and prestige classes will work. Races for the "Races of..." series find out-of-the way homes in Eberron - so if you use those books, they're covered - and if you don't use them, you lose nothing from the game world. The book is worth the cost just for that help.

I would have been willing to pay more for more content, though - especially if it were of the same quailty as what was included. That is the only reason I rated this book at 4 stars instead of 5. Actaully, I think it deserves a 4-and-a-half.

Wizards of the Coast continues to build on its outstanding new Eberron setting with their latest release, The Players Guide to Eberron. But don't let the title fool you, as this book is just as important to the DM as it is to players. The book is designed to help your characters fit into the Eberron campaign by fleshing out the world even more. The book begins by offering character archetypes which are basically personality packages designed to work with existing classes. These are things such as Outlanders, Restless Wanderers, War Torn Heroes and more, and all designed to add depth to the Eberron player character.

The balance of the book is essentially laid out in an encyclopedia type format in alphabetical order and covers places, events, races, all geared towards the player and how they will interact with them. Subjects include the Dark Six, those six dark gods who stand in opposition to the Sovereign Host. These seem to be Lovecraftian-inspired deities...wholly evil on a cosmic scale and only blithely aware of those that worship them. There is The Fury, worshipped primarily by the insane but also by cults of Mind Flayers and Drow; And there is The Devourer who manifests himself as a destructive force of nature causing storms and earthquakes.

Eberron has its own version of the Underdark called The Khyber. The Khyber section provides background on the Daelkyr, that extra-planar race of beings who broke through to the world of Eberron and are responsible for the creation of many of the races of the underdark such as Belashyrra Lord of the Eyes who created Beholders and Orlassk who created Basilisks and Medusas, and other monsters with the power to petrify. These creatures are sometimes referred to as aberrations meaning that they don't fit into true nature. Also included for the players are the known entrances to the Khyber, scattered throughout Eberron.

Other subjects covered include The Demon Wastes, villainous organizations, the hybrid race called Changelings, The deities of the Sovereign Host, and much more. Players will be happy to know that some new prestige classes are included as well. There are the Revenant Blades and the Gatekeeper Mystagogues. The Gatekeeper Mystagogues are those that have taken up the cause to battle and destroy the Daelkyr-created aberrations. They begin as druids of at least 3rd level and gain numerous special abilities to aid them in their profession.

As mentioned at the beginning, the book is also of value to the DM as a tool to design adventure hooks and set-up their own campaigns in conjunction with other Eberron material.

You can also count on new feats, magic items, and spells throughout the 160 page, hardcover book. While the Players Guide to Eberron may not be essential to the campaign, I do heartily recommend it as it expands the setting and adds greater depth and color to an already well-defined world. As usual the art within is first rate, and the material is well-written and researched. Highly recommended!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Frankly, I was hesitant to pre-order this book--I thought it might be little more than 'Eberron Campaign Setting Book Lite'. I was pleasantly surprised at the contents.

1) The book introduces a variety of character archetypes to help in roleplaying your character, from the world-weary hero who survived the last war (barely) to the reporter eagerly chasing down stories of corruption to the master detective who unravels mysteries--11 character concepts in all. These are not new classes, but ways to play one of the existing character classes--the world weary hero could be a fighter or a wizard, for example. I found these archetypes to be well thought out and interesting.

2) The book shows you how material in other D&D books show up in Eberron; the goliaths, raptorans, and illumians from the Races books, the new character classes introduced in Complete Warrior/Adventurer/Divine/Arcane books, material from Frostburn, Sandstorm, Stormwrack, Magic of Incarnum--if you like using any of these supplements, this book shows you how and where to incorporate them in Eberron.

3) The book is laid out like an encyclopedia; subjects are presented alphabetically, each receiving (at minimum) a two-page spread (a few receive four or even six pages). Each includes a sidebar listing Difficulty Checks for PCs to know the information contained in the article. Over all, a nice presentation.

I definitely recommend this book for those interested in Eberron.

THis book has basicly two parts, both entirely designed for players. The first one contains some information about how to roleplay your character according to the personality options that an Eberron adventurer is likely to develop. There is pretty cool information and it helps define the PC, so he finds himself more at home. This chapter goes fome page 7 to 13. The rest of the book is part two.

Chapter 2 is an encyclopedia containing most of the most interesting topics in the Eberron Campaign Setting. There is a lot of inspiration for players in there, as every topic is very player oriented, with explanations about how a PC may get involved with different aspects of the world and society. It's prett cool, but for players only. For DMs, I think almost the whole of this information can be found in the Eberron Campaign Setting. (of course, with some mor searching through the book, since the ECS is not alphabetically ordered as this Player's Guide)

I hate the way prestige classes, feats and new spells or items are presented in this book. They don't have their own chapter; they are instead scattered through Chapter 2, and not even the index shows which enrty refers to a prestige class. So, you may sometimes "discover" a new PrC you never heard of while looking for information about Valenar, for example. Maybe that reinforces the way a PC aqquires knowledge: by asking the DM about a specific topic. But as I said, this book is meant to be in the hands of a Player, not a DM.

There are a lot of sidebars in this book showing the Knowledge DC for most of the information provided in the book, but i guess its purpose is to save he DM the time it takes to think about the appropiate DC.

Well, in short, it is a book for players really into the ECS and/or those incapable of waiting fo their Eberron DM to throw in some information about the world. If you are an Eberron DM, there are a lot of books you should buy before this one.

Of all the books at my fingertips in a gaming session, this one (besides the core Eberron book, PHB, DMG, MM) gets the most use. I really like the information provided to the players based on their skills. Furthermore, it is easier to track down this information than in the Eberron Campaign Setting book.

I thought this book was a very disappointing purchase. All it is, is a very vague encyclopaedia. They didnt go into much detail about anything and the stuff they did go into detail on wasn't that important. The worst part was how they stress in the product detail the new feats and prestige classes. Which are about 2 or 3 good ones at best. This book is a waist of money and time.

I ordered this item and one other book on the same day. They both arrived speedily and on time, and they were both in perfect condition when i got them. :)

I run an Eberron campaign and was really eager for one of my players to get this. I thought it would hold most of the information from the Eberron Campaign Setting book, only with the 'behind the scenes' details and story paths ripped out. I was hoping it would provide the players with a great explaination of the lands, the houses, etc., but it really falls short. The format is really strange, and I find it hard to find what I'm looking for. The information is also not nearly as useful as anything in the campaign setting book, so usually I end up just pulling information from there, rewriting it sometimes to take out details that my players shouldn't know about. Kind of a bummer, as I really liked the idea of this book.