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i'm sure you've heard this wayyyyyyyyyy to much but... what exactly is eberron and how is it different from the other dnd campaign settings?[/quote]
“What makes Eberron Better or Worst than other settings?”

“What Makes Eberron so different from everything else?”

“Why should I buy Eberron stuff?”

These questions are asked by a lot of gamers upon hearing of Eberron. A lot of DM’s are fans of Faerun (sp?) or Grey Hawk or would rather run their own homebrew games. These DMs (and players) are the ones that want to know “Yeah but what is Eberron going to do for me?”

I don’t think this can be given with a definite answer that makes all things clear but here are some things that make Eberron interesting.

New Races: The new races provided by the ECS have a good feel to them. Each makes for interesting role-playing opportunities and each has a well thought out history. Each also fills a ‘niche” in the Eberron setting.

Warforged: The Bruiser. Although the forged can be other classes they excel at being fighters. And although they have some limitations when compared to human fighters they also have a lot of advantages. This along with the complex aspects of the forged makes for an interesting role-playing challenge. For the pulp feel think “Marv” from Sin City.

Kalashtar: The ‘Jedi’, The Telepath, And The Mystic. Unlike most campaign worlds, Eberron fully integrates Psionics in to the setting. This does not mean that you have to use Psionics but it means that if you do you have a tailor made race and Enemy (in the Dream Dark) to use. The dual nature of the Kalashtar is also a great role-playing challenge as you can have the character remember things that they did not do because the qouri (sp?0) spirit that is part of them gives them insight. For the pulp feel they are the mystic warriors, mind readers, and seers.

The Changeling: The Face, The Spy. With the changeling you have so many options especially if you go the bard or rouge route. Being able to impersonate people goes a long way. The face man is the pulp feel for this one.

Shifter: The Wild One, Beast Man, Predator.  Part humanoid, part beast all predator the Shifter is a great race to play for numerous reasons. For a pulp feel think Wolverine in his stand alone comics.

Organizations: From the benevolent to the malevolent the new groups give a DM much stuff to work with. The Dragon Marked Houses with their control over mercantile markets, the Daughters of Sora Kell with their control of Daask, the monstrous humanoid crime syndicate. The Emerald Claw can be viewed as the SS from Indiana Jones. The Dreaming Dark, The Lords of Dust, The Chamber, The Twelve, The Cults of the Dragon Below, The Blood of Vol, and others are perfect nemeses to any group. Or they could be patrons as well.

The “Pulp Noir” Thing: Many players and DMs don’t quit understand what Pulp Noir is. So less start with Pulp first.

Zorro is Pulp. Batman Year One is Pulp. Indiana Jones is Pulp. The Shadow is Pulp. Pretty much any good pirate story is Pulp.  The Mummy and The Mummy Returns are Pulp.

Now ‘Noir’ is a little trickier. ‘Noir’ means “Black”. The best way to explain it is that things take on a darker feel. Everything is not light and candy and fluff. Things happen that are dark and black. People sell you out. The orphan you saved steals your money purse. The local constable that is supposed to be tracking down the missing people is actually a serial killer and member of one of the Cults of the Dragon Below.

Pulp.

Noir.

Put the 2 together and you get ‘Indy’ saving the stones but not before ‘Short Round’ gets sacrificed to Kali-ma (A Lord of Dust) by having his still beating heart ripped from his chest and shown to him. 

New Class: The Artificer. What can I say? This class adds a whole new dimension to D&D. They are the jacks of all magical trades. Oh it may take them a while but if you give them time to prepare they can cause so much havoc. And with abilities like Retain Essence you have a craft monkey that can recycle those lower level magic items to make something better and more useful. And because they can emulate both arcane AND divine spells they are even more dangerous as now they can use pretty much ANY wand or Staff! Yikes.

Action Points: Even though this mechanic, or something similar, to it has been around before, it seems to “just fit’ with Eberron. Eberron is a setting of high adventure.

Chases on top of moving lightning rails…

Swing or jumping from one airship to another….

Hanging on to the out of control skycoach….

These things require the use of action points.

Being able to add an additional d6 (or d8 with the appropriate feat) to a d20 roll is awesome. Especially at higher levels when you can roll 2d6 (or 2d8) and choose the higher roll.

The points can also be burned for other things as well. Artificers can burn one to speed up there infusion casting time. Paladins can burn 2 to get an extra smite.

Home Brew: Then there are the home brew uses for action points, for example:

Heroic Critical (Ex): As an immediate action you may spend two action points to increase the threat range of your weapon. Roll 1d4 and add the result to your weapon's threat range for this attack. If you have the Action Boost feat, roll 1d6 instead. This benefit stacks with the benefit of the keen weapon enhancement or the Improved Critical feat.

That’s one I came up with and was tweaked by “Save vs. DM”

These are just a few of the reasons that Eberron should be on your buy list. Even if you don’t use the setting to it fullest having the setting book will give you loads of ideas!!

Hope this helps.