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1 year ago ::
Mar 28, 2012 - 2:56PM
#1
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- Eberron Designer
- Moo, Baby, Moo
Date Joined:
Dec 11, 2002
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I'm going to start posting an Eberron Q&A piece on my website on Wednesday (though perhaps not every Wednesday). The first one went up today. Post your questions here or at the site!
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1 year ago ::
Mar 29, 2012 - 3:29PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2012
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You briefly mentioned in this Dragonshard that the Riedrans play a game called "Path" and Five Nations mentions that "Conqueror", a chess-like board game, is popular among Karrns. Were any rules ever invented for these games in your campaigns that you would be able to share? EDIT: I do realize that the Explorer's Handbook provides in-game rules for playing Conqueror using Knowlege (History) checks, but I mean actual out-of-game methods of playing.
Call me Ender.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 02, 2012 - 12:40AM
#3
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Yay insight! 
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1 year ago ::
Apr 04, 2012 - 4:55PM
#4
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- Eberron Designer
- Moo, Baby, Moo
Date Joined:
Dec 11, 2002
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It's Wednesday, and that means there's a new Dragonmark blog up at my website.Today's subject: alignment. Please feel free to submit questions here or in the comments of the blog!
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1 year ago ::
Apr 05, 2012 - 5:16AM
#5
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Great initiative Keith! Thank you for the opportunity. I have a question if you don't mind, about a shady and may be less know Eberronian figure: the Finch family. Question: Did you ever used the Finch family in one of your campaign and where did the inspiration came from for their creation ? For those that don't know the Finch Spoiler:
Show
The Family Finch (Eberron Campaign Guide pg 253.) are a family residing on the outskirt s of Zarash'ak where civililzation pretends to dwell in Ihe heart of the Shadow Marches. Their estate is sprawling and grand, but its fences are rusted, its paths overgrown and its walls peeling. They are one of the region's oldest families. Family members mostly keep to themselves, except when they send servants or younger members into town to buy goods and supplies. They're a stiff, proper, unsmiling bunch but they've been decent enough to the community.
Some more details:
- The Finch family is ruled with iron fists by Thdonius and Lucretia. They have one son, Julius, who's not known for his intellectual capacity. Their favored heir is Lucretia's niece. Eliza Winthrope, who came to live with them when she was just a child.
- Rumor has it that the Finch estate is haunted, but that the Finches won't admit to it in order to avoid shaming the family. This, some locals say, is the reason for their stern, unbending demeanor.
- In reality, every Finch for generations uncounted has a burning, inherited madness.
- The Finches have their gods: dark, alien powers who they believe will restore the family's weallh and power and set the Finches to rule atop the festering graveyard of twisted flesh once called Eberron.
I love them and think they are a bunch of weirdos. The Finches are the perfect candidates for every creepy, insular, darkness-worshiping, backwoods family story you've ever imagined. They are the cut off, secluded clan of degenerated people living outside your village, that appear almost normal on the surface. They can be used in any Campaign or Setting, in any part of a town, remote region or small Village and not just in Eberron. I've used them twice already, once in an Eberron campaign and once in a non-Eberron campaign. They are the Ravenloft creepyness you can introduce just about anywhere, the kind of people not right in their mind that everyone distrust. They could be Cultist venerating people, or simply evil and disjointed family like those upstaged in many horror movies, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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1 year ago ::
Apr 05, 2012 - 7:52AM
#6
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- Eberron Designer
- Moo, Baby, Moo
Date Joined:
Dec 11, 2002
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I have a question if you don't mind, about a shady and may be less know Eberronian figure: the Finch family.
If memory serves me right - and it may not - the Finch family is the work of Ari Marmell. As such, I haven't personally used them. However, they are certainly a Marcher archetype, and I've used variations of my own in the past. I'd certainly point to Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror and Shadow Over Innsmouth as good inspiration for this sort of Marcher.
Spoiler:
Show
One Marcher scene I like is to have the family who, while a little off, are generally friendly; a member of the family may be a friend of the party, or even one of the PCs (a star/vestige warlock would work well, if they are interested). While staying overnight, whispers draw you to the basement, where you find they have a gibbering mouther. Family tradition holds that anyone who grows ill or reaches a certain age is concumed by the mouther; they believe that the spirits live on, and that the maddening voices are the souls of all the ancestors gone before... and they claim to be able to understand the whispers. Is it true? Or is it a mad family with a monster in the basement?
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1 year ago ::
Apr 05, 2012 - 8:05AM
#7
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Great Lovecraft's The Dunwich Horror reference. Ari huh ? Thank you Keith for the reply!
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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1 year ago ::
Apr 05, 2012 - 2:57PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Feb 13, 2003
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Hey, guys. Yup, the Finch family was my creation. As Keith suggests, they were inspired mostly by the "backwood folks" of many of Lovecraft's stories, though I also got a little bit of inspiration from a few episodes of Supernatural and the X-Files. (Of course, let's be fair. There's a pretty good chance that portions of Supernatural and the X-Files were both inspired, in part, by Lovecraft. Lovecraft is everywhere. Ia, ia!)  I've actually not had the chance to use them in a campaign myself, actually. (Whether Eberron or not; they could be tweaked pretty easily to fit in elsewhere.) I'd very much like to, but the opportunity simply hasn't come up.
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1 year ago ::
Apr 05, 2012 - 7:23PM
#9
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Date Joined:
May 12, 2009
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Thanks Ari for chiming in on the Finch as well !
Yan
Montréal, Canada
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1 year ago ::
Apr 10, 2012 - 8:01PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2012
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Certainly anything relating to the planes would be interesting  (though anything mentioned would probably skirt NDA issues, so I wouldn't be expecting to see it)
Call me Ender.
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