Eberron: Pulp, Noir, Steampunk...what's not to like?

After a few weeks of the Playtest version of DarkSun that our DM (ted) picked up at PAX-East, one of our players and his wife had Twins and we decided to shift our weekly game over to Eberron until his "daddy schedule" levels out and the official book comes out later this year. Having skipped most of 3rd ED and all of 3.5, I missed out on the phenomenal run that Eberron had. For those of you that might not know, the Eberron campaign setting is basically the dream that all DM's have when they make a world and populate it with countries, gods, and all the minutiae that breathes life into a universe. Much like an author, you set the objects in motion but with a campaign setting, you give up control of your stage and your puppets to a new group of puppet masters. Keith Baker was one of the more than 11,000 entries that competed in Wizards of the Coast's Fantasy Setting Search, not only did it win and get published but it then won the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game Supplement of 2004. Baker has written on the history and factions involved in Eberron but stands steadfast that the canon of the setting ends 4 years after the Day of Mourning. This strikes me as particularly unselfish of him. Eberron has several story arcs that spread well over 30 novels, comics and anthologies, all of which Baker has allowed to remain separate from his world. This is in polar opposition to settings like Forgotten Realms, where established lore characters are so overwhelming in scale that the PCs are second class citizens by comparison or Dragonlance where the PCs can barely hope to be witnesses to the established story line by playing the canon characters.

I have really be enjoying the setting and the new edition now that I have a half dozen sessions under my belt.

My new PC is a Deva Artificer, I specifically did not "munchkin" him out for combat, instead nudging his stats and skill to make him more of a thinker; part inventor, part detective. I was inspired by an episode of the Critical Hit podcast to have him do his magic and investagations by observing vibrations, as such the best implement for the job seemed to be a tuning fork, or a lot of tuning forks steampunked up for all manner of situations. I picked the name Doctor Tesla Volks, the last name is a cool but throwaway PC name, the first was in honor of the most prototypical Artificer I could think of. The title of Doctor is twofold, as a leader class he is responsible for keeping the part in fighing form but as an immortal that "regenerates" upon death and fights with sonic weaponry he reminds me of a D & D version of a TimeLord. Not THE Doctor but certainly one of his kith and kin.

any interested parties can view images of our game via twitter, Pictures are sent to TwitPic during the games on Sundays between approx. 6 to 11 PM EST.

or at our listing at Pen and Paper Games.