Eberron

[Sablemage]

I'm a couple of sessions now into a plain vanilla Eberron game using drobertson's racial backgrounds, and probably more of his houserules later. The first batch of players are my kids, with some friends joining in shortly from a True20 EPT campaign thanks to evil NPC wizards who want to get rid of them. As a GM, my style is oriented towards pulp and action adventure movies, so the setting and rules both work well. I'm letting people "grow into" their vices and virtues, so these aren't fully defined yet.

The initial PCs:

Eleanora Miso (the obligatory hobbit thief; Halfling Expert 1). Ellie ran away to Sharn after borrowing a prize dinosaur (which has yet to appear in play). Virtue: TBA, but probably Friendly. Vice: Soup addict.

Chunkerley (Warforged Warrior 1). Chunkerley tooled up with Adamantium armour, and boosted Str, Dex and Con to +5. Unfortunately, while this makes him a combat god, it drops his Wis and Cha to -5, and thus his Wealth to 0. Consequently he follows Eleanora around, because she used her massive edge in Cha and Wis to Intimidate him. She now uses him to Intimidate others (Chunkerley: "You'd better do what the halfling says, she's really scary!") Virtue: TBA. Vice: Trigger-happy.

Pasha Islech (NPC Adept 1). Virtue: TBA. Vice: Fastidious. It seemed obvious they were going to need Cure a lot, and didn't have it; hence an NPC healer. Then I realised that an Adept didn't have to be either a Wizard or a Cleric (we spent the last couple of years playing D&D together), so added Fire Shaping, Heart Shaping, and Elemental Blast (for later levels).

Suetonius (at least until a better name comes along; Expert 1). Suetonius is a young nobleman of Sharn, heavy on interpersonal skills and vehicle/animal skills. He's likely to be a recurring "guest star" as the player has left home now. Virtue: Honour. Vice: Drink problem.

[Sablemage]

Real Life (TM) is a bit pressing at the moment so I started them off using the Forgotten Forge adventure in the setting book, which we haven't quite finished yet; highlights so far... I'm torn between avoiding spoilers and describing what happened, so feedback welcomed on whether it makes sense!

The party were already halfway through the "dungeon crawl" part of the scenarion when Suetonius appeared, as if by magic. Since his vice is Drink, they decided he must have got drunk, taken a bet on whether he could do something in the dungeon or not, got lost, and then forgotten what the bet was.

Vertical shaft negotiation 101: Chunkerley leapt into the shaft and (with a +9 modifier on climbing) was well away. Suetonious followed, and with a much lesser modifier, fell. Chunkerley then let go to follow him, but sadly failed to land on him by a hair's breadth. They then heard Pasha suggest they should use a rope, which Ellie had...

In-sewer combat: Nobody wanted to walk through the sewage once they found the sewers, swollen with floodwater. The hobbit especially, as it was deeper than she is high. I really can't describe how funny it was that they were trying to fight off an ambush in the sewers without falling into the sewage. Of course they all did. Except Pasha, who then didn't want to Cure them after the battle because he'd have to (yuck!) touch them... I guess you had to be there.

Suetonius decided (correctly) that the others saved his life, so since they are homeless he suggested they crash at his pad for a while. I can't wait for their return... "Hello, mama. The smell? Oh, that's just sewage. This is my friend Ellie, and her friend Chunkerley, the ugliest warforged in creation..."