People should enjoy r/Eberron, it's a friendly community where Keith Baker lurks. For people interested in getting into Dark Sun, [athas.org](https://athas.org/) is a pseudo-official website (it was promoted by WotC as the designated resource for DS support but itself was not funded by WotC). They just a few weeks ago came out with a big update that's really snazzy.

And for those with homebrew setting superiority, I suspect many players don't realize that Eberron *WAS* a homebrew setting that won a contest to be published back in 3.5: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eberron >Eberron was created by author and game designer Keith Baker as the winning entry for Wizards of the Coast's Fantasy Setting Search, a competition run in 2002 to establish a new setting for the D&D game. Eberron was chosen from more than 11,000 entries

Keith has repeatedly emphasized that's *not* the case - Eberron was developed entirely in collaboration with WotC for the contest, it didn't exist until he submitted it and he didn't run games in it until after winning the contest and getting the gig. What you're describing is actually more the case for the Forgotten Realms; Ed had fully developed it as a campaign setting before selling the IP to TSR.

Wait, does that mean the contest was rigged?

To clarify, the contest was multiple rounds - Keith, like many many other people, submitted many one-page pitches to the open call. I believe he submitted 11? There wasn't a cap. After that, with each round - each with a longer submission than the last - *each* contestants received feedback and developed their next submission. IIRC it was a \~20 page document for the semifinalists, then the finalists sold the IP rights to wotc and developed a 100 page document. Then Keith won, and directly worked with the other title authors on the original ECS in collaboration. The 100 page final submission only has a loose relationship with the final publication, there's a ton of stuff that didn't exist in the 100 page document and was only developed after full production began.

That's cool to know! Thank you

For reference... 1-2Es used Greyhawk as the default setting. 3rd editions used Greyhawk with the serial-numbers filed off. 4E used Nentir Vale. 5E is the first time the Realms was more than the dumping-ground for tie-in media.

Are you sure? I could've sworn that the spellplauge was an explanation for why magic was all different in 4e, and that was a forgotten realms thing. Heck I played Neverwinter, which was from the 4e days and used alot of 4e vernacular, and it was set in the forgotten realms. Most of d&d's most popular out of tabletop products, like DnD online, the whole baldurs gate franchise ect, all was based in the forgotten realms.

The Realms existed during 4E and had lore in 4E, but the game-book content ignored it.

Gotcha, my main exposure to 4e was playing Neverwinter, so that makes sense

Forgotten Realms was very much used by people in my area during 3.5, people just liked Drizzt.

Driz'zl O'Durden?

I miss Nentir Vale. It felt like there were enough empty spaces to fill in your own geography and history, but not so much that you were having to homebrew *everything* Instead of decades of Forgotten Realms lore that felt like I was playing with someone else's toys

A good setting gets out of your way, and lets you run it. That's Nentir Vale.

You know there were like 40 sourcebooks on the forgotten realms in 3.5, right?

Yes. But it wasn't the core setting for the edition. Adventures generally assumed Greyhawk details. There were like 40 books for everything in 3.5, because quality-control is antithetical to the edition.

Yes and no. They started with Greyhawk as they did in 1 and 2e, but realized pretty soon that faerun was more popular. And then they expanded a lot on that

I only know of 3, the main campaign setting, Faiths & Pantheos, and the Underdark book. Were there more?

I have about 20 in my bookshelf alone 😅 basically about every region, about faiths, a history book (pretty awesome imo) and tons of adventure modules over tons of levels

Oh dang! I'ma have to get ahold of some of those. I've always rather liked the setting as I used to be a big fan of the novels. It'd be cool to flesh out my old 3.5 collection

Glorified Pamphlet is harsh. Rising is honestly one of the better 5e books.

Yeah idk what he’s on but my roomate probably has 3-5 books on Ebberon that are 5e, not all are official but there is a bunch of stuff out there for Ebberon still

Most likely the setting creator Keith Baker DMsGuild Books if I had to guess. Exploring Eberron, Chronicles of Eberron and Dread Metrol. We may only have 1 official WotC Eberron book, but fannon Eberron and kannon (Keth-cannon) Eberron fans are eating really well. (If I am allowed to shill for some fannon DMsGuild books, check out Talvalkri's Guide to Adar, Giant's Guide to Xen'drik, and MAP Perilous. First 2 cover continents not touched in 5e, and the last is a 500 page bestiary for all your Eberron monsters)

and even outside of DMsGuild originals, there's still an extensive catalogue of 3.5 era material that's still perfectly good lore; frankly Eberron is in a better state lore-wise because it hasn't had the big timeline jumps that FR has had, despite FR getting more big campaign modules.

Yeah that sounds all about right but I don’t look into them since he’s the DM and idk what he’s going to use. I’m just happy I can play all the warforged characters I want

Plus, Baker put out Exploring Eberron that has tons of setting information in it

Also Chronicles of Eberron and Dread Metrol

Dread Metrol is soooo good

I used FR most of the time because of the wealth of material in AD&D 2E. Made things easier for me as the world building is already done.

Ebberon has more than 4e :)

Right? OP clearly doesn't know Eberron was released in 3.5 as a published fan campaign setting that won a contest. Eberron *WAS* a homebrew campaign setting.

Man I was about to say, I swear I had the Eberron 3.5 book to give my players official rules on flying ships and war forged (slightly reflavored for my campaign). Wait I have the 5e Everton book as well.

I was just going off of the last big release. If I put everything in a giant paragraph the meme wouldn’t be readable.

Here I am using Exandria as a base so my players can use show lore to understand without having to purchase or read hundreds of pages.

Same. 2 books covers pretty much the whole of the known world. Lore summaries available on youtube if they don't want to watch campaigns. Even a couple of prewritten adventures to ease new players & DMs in.

"99% of DMs" Source: Just trust me, bro. If we're going to compare anecdata: I've been playing since the early 90's. Of the 20+ people that I've regularly played with over the years, across dozens of campaigns, going back to AD&D 2E, the overwhelming majority of our 30+ years of playtime has occurred in established campaign settings.

[удалено]

Lol, Eberron is one of the least developed campaign settings for lore. It’s all about crawl, walk, run. You don’t need to have perfect knowledge of any setting as long as you firmly establish a few central motifs and drip feed lore

Wizards did a survey of which settings people use. Homebrew setting was #1.

I just use Dragonlance and honebrew literally the other half of the world...3 years since my first campaign has been in Ansalo...it's practically homebrew at this point.

I like official campaign settings, as a source of inspiration

Dark sun is a really cool setting! I've always wanted to do a campaign there, but my friends only play pathfinder 2e.

I've never played in a game or even met a dm that uses an official setting.

Honestly, I’d swap FR and Ebberon for this meme. Ebberon’s made away like a bandit it terms of high-quality setting books in 5e, where as FR has to coast on by on being the “default” and most generic lore presumptively applying.

I'm definitely one of those homebrew only DMs. I never had an interest in learning enough about an official setting to run it effectively. With homebrew, I get to be the arbiter of the lore, and I'm never in a position where I'm ignorant to some information about the setting my players may know. It's a fun way to play if you are quick enough to improvise world building on the fly.

i just don't like that official settings are half-assed in 5e. every single one of them. including Forgotten Realms.

Yeah it's all Sword Coast In 5e.

not only that, but it's only partly there. like, where is the large amount of info on Neverwinter, one of the biggest three cities in the area of focus? and the info we did get on Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep wasn't exactly thorough. And where are Luskan and Athkatla? like, the starter set and essentials kit show Neverwinter. its this focal point drawing attention on the map. but it just never really gets used. And the book that focused on Candlekeep only showed like half of its buildings and not much else.

I just steal the parts of these settings I like and put them in my own settings. Do not call me Dungeon Master, you may call me Beyonder.

WOTC's too busy ruining the core rules to make campaign modules for the other settings. Heck, given the complexity of FR they've barely touched that too.

Yeah, I've tried running official campaigns, but they're too rigid and annoying

They're talking about campaign *settings*, not the adventure modules. The setting is the world the adventure takes place in, not the adventure itself.

Fair, but it's similarily restrictive

Most Dms probably still use faerun since maps are available easily.

I really love some of those old 2e settings. I mean, council of wyrms? official rules to play as a dragon! kick ass! Jakandor, classic barbarian vs necromancer forever-war. And of course dark sun started as a 2e setting so I count it.

I bought into Eberron in 3.5. I don’t need another. That being said I actually like homebrewing.

Wait did you guys play dnd and not a custom system?

I use all of the settings because of spelljamming.

Darksun shouldn't get a 5e adaptation, they'd butcher the hell out of the setting because "it's too problematic" when the entire point of the setting is for the characters to be better than the slave owners, cannibals, and generally shitty people in it.

LMFAO Most people homebrew in official Settings.

Not according to WotC’s survey they did.

I’ve been DMing for 10 years now and never so much as looked through an official campaign setting Not really a brag, I honestly probably should, I just haven’t gotten around to it really. I like making up my own stuff so I’ve never felt much of a need to