The cast introduces themselves and discusses what defines Eberron as a setting, what it has to offer GMs, and what expectations players should have.
Time Markers
- 00:00:00 – Introductions
- 00:01:05 – Keith’s Background
- 00:02:19 – Wayne’s Background
- 00:03:22 – Scott’s Background
- 00:04:32 – Kristian’s Background
- 00:06:18 – Keith Wants to Do More with Eberron
- 00:08:12 – Origins of Manifest Zone
- 00:08:58 – Scope of the Show
- 00:09:31 – Topic: What Makes Eberron Unique
- 00:14:02 – The Design of Gnomes in Eberron
- 00:16:27 – Exploring Real World Issues with Magic as Technology
- 00:17:23 – Dragonmarked House, Magical Economy, and Corporate Power
- 00:18:53 – Eberron as a Versatile, Cross-genre Setting
- 00:20:22 – Keith’s ‘Lost’ Campaign Set in Lammania
- 00:23:56 – Eberron as a Sandbox Setting
- 00:28:17 – Inspiration vs. Canon and Metaplot
- 00:33:27 – PCs As Most Powerful Characters in the Setting
- 00:39:05 – What Eberron Is Not
- 00:42:00 – Magic as Technology
- 00:43:20 – Magic as Industry
- 00:44:02 – Dragonmarks Are about Focus Items
- 00:45:15 – What Is an Eberron Campaign?
- 00:45:37 – Setting Player Expectations
- 00:46:30 – Failure Can Be a Part of the Story
- 00:49:21 – Moving among Cross-genre Stories
- 00:53:57 – Fail Forward Mechanics [Beginning of Audio Glitches]
- 00:55:37 – The GM Is a Story Facilitator, Not the Enemy
- 00:58:29 – Closing
To subscribe to Manifest Zone, visit manifest.zone. (Yes, that’s the real URL.)
![](http://eberron.wiki/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Manifest-Zone-album-art-1024x1024.webp)
Media Type | Podcast |
Source | Manifest Zone Website |
Date Published | Mar 17, 2017 |
Author | Keith Baker |
Ruleset | N/A |
Canonicity | Non-Canon |
Manifest Zone
Explore the many themes and features of Eberron as a tabletop role-playing game setting. In each episode, the hosts choose a topic and discuss how GMs and players can use the setting's lore in their campaigns.2017 - 2022
Introductions(Keith Baker, Wayne Chang, Kristian Serrano, Scott W.)
Transcript
Edited
Original
00:00:00 | Kristian Serrano | Welcome to Manifest Zone, a podcast that explores the breadth and depth of the world of Eberron. I’m one of your hosts, Kristian Serrano. |
00:00:08 | Scott W. | I’m Scott W. |
00:00:10 | Wayne Chang | I’m Wayne Chang. |
00:00:11 | Keith Baker | And I’m Keith Baker. |
00:00:13 | Kristian Serrano | Wow, wait, what? Keith? How’d you get here, man? |
00:00:17 | Keith Baker | Well, we’ve been talking for some time, and I love to talk about Eberron. So, you know, pretty much, I’ll be walking around the streets and “You want to talk about Eberron?” And so, you said, “Do you want to talk about about Eberron?” And of course I do! So here I am! |
00:00:33 | Kristian Serrano | That’s true. I tried to act like I was shocked and surprised, but I am still shocked and surprised, in actuality. So, a big thank you Keith for being willing to participate in this podcast. |
00:00:43 | Keith Baker | Very glad to be here. |
00:00:44 | Kristian Serrano | Yes. So, I thought it would be good for us to sort of kind of introduce who we are, and what we’ve done with Eberron. I think for some people, or one person, it’s going to be really obvious what we’ve done with Eberron. And then we’ll talk about what this podcast is about, and how it came about, and so on. So, Keith; I’ll let you go first ’cause you’re obviously – |
00:01:08 | Keith Baker | Fair enough. |
00:01:09 | Kristian Serrano | – yeah. |
00:00:00 | Kristian Serrano | Welcome to Manifest Zone, a podcast that explores the breadth and depth of the world of Eberron. I’m one of your hosts, Kristian Serrano. |
00:00:08 | Scott Walker | I’m Scott W. |
00:00:10 | Wayne Chang | I’m Wayne Chang. |
00:00:11 | Keith Baker | And I’m Keith Baker. |
00:00:13 | Kristian Serrano | Wow, wait, what? Keith? How’d you get here, man? |
00:00:17 | Keith Baker | Well, we’ve been talking, uh, for some time, and I love to talk about Eberron. So, you know, pretty much, people have to, like, you know, I’ll be walking around the streets and “You want to talk about Eberron?” And, uh, so, you said, “Do you want to talk about about Eberron?” And of course I do! So here I am! |
00:00:33 | Kristian Serrano | That’s true. That’s true – I tried to act like I was shocked and surprised, but I am still shocked and surprised, in actuality. So, uh, a big thank you Keith for, for being willing to, uh, participate in this podcast. |
00:00:43 | Keith Baker | Very glad to be here. |
00:00:44 | Kristian Serrano | Yes. So, um, uh, I thought it would be good for us to sort of kind of introduce who we are, and what we’ve done with Eberron. Uh, I think for some people, or one person, it’s going to be really obvious what we’ve done with Eberron. Um, what kind of – yeah – and then we’ll kind of talk about, um, you know, sort of what this podcast is about, and, uh, how it came about, and so on. So, uh, yeah, Keith; I’ll let you go first ’cause you’re obviously – |
00:01:08 | Keith Baker | Fair enough. |
00:01:09 | Kristian Serrano | – yeah. |
00:01:09 | Keith Baker | Uh, so, I created Eberron in 2003. Uh, I came up – it was something that I did come up with for the Fantasy Setting Search. It draws on various aspects of different campaigns I’d run before but it was something that was sort of created for the Fantasy Setting Search, um, y’know, started as a single page, built into, um, 100 page document and then that’s something I sort of worked on and iterated with Chris Perkins, James Wyatt, Bill Slavicsek. Um, in the years since I’ve written 6 novels set in Eberron and some short stories, a whole bunch of, uh, D&D books and adventures, and, uh, y’know, a metric ton of, of, Q&As and things like that on my website. Uh, so what can I say? I love me some Eberron. |
00:02:06 | Kristian Serrano | Yeah, and some of those Q&As are totally invaluable. They’re just, they’re just awesome in terms of diving deep into the setting. So, thank you for writing those. |
00:02:15 | Keith Baker | You’re welcome, thank you for reading them! |
00:02:17 | Kristian Serrano | Yeah. So Wayne, with your, uh, loss of voice, I’m sorry you’re, you’re sick Wayne, and your, your voice is such as it is, and I’m sorry that you’re feeling horrible, but if you can, if you can push through, [laughs] you can give us a few words? |
00:02:32 | Wayne Chang | I’ll make an attempt. Um, so my name’s Wayne Chang. I am one of the hosts for A Vanished Insight and, uh, really I got into Eberron right at the beginning. I wanted to play the robot. Hey, that’s what I wanted. I wanted to play the Warforged. I love the Warforged. Um, for me, um, Eberron is one of my favourite settings, and really, it was an opportunity for me to really talk about the setting and get it more well known, and I, I believe that there’s that huge community out there, so, having Kristian on the show, um, a few times, and just, being able to talk about it and bring it to the forefront of people’s knowledge, that was my, my big thing. That was my big push. |
00:03:20 | Kristian Serrano | Excellent, yeah. |
00:03:22 | Wayne Chang | What about you, Scott? I know that you, you work a little bit on Eberron stuff. |
00:03:26 | Scott Walker | Yes, so, uh, yeah, I, I also hit Eberron from the beginning, but, it was presented – I didn’t, I was a player, and it was presented, ooh, I’ll say, incorrectly, in my opinion, uh, it, y’know, as to how Eberron sort of was written, and so didn’t really like it, I was just like, “Okay, I’ll maybe move onto something else”, and I came back to it, reading it and re-reading it, I read the books during a lot of commutes on the, on the trains, and I was like, “This is a really cool set of ideas”, but I was just kind of back and forth, didn’t really play it, um, I fell out of d20 a long time ago, so, wasn’t really tracking on that, and then, uh, I saw Kristian had written the, uh, Savage World’s Guide to Eberron, if you will, and then it just clicked and I was just like, “Oh my god, it’s the perfect setting with the perfect, uh, game system to match it”, and yeah, I’ve been running an Eberron game in Savage Worlds. I’m on my second campaign now, and this one’s been going about 6 months. |
00:04:26 | Kristian Serrano | Nice. Thank you for that, by the way. That’s awesome. So that’s, I guess, yeah, no sure, you’re welcome, that’s, that’s a great segue into, I guess, my bit, um, so I, I’ve also been playing Eberron – I, I actually started with 2005, uh, waited about a year, kind of saw what was going on with it, and, uh, I was still sceptical at first, and then once I really like, I, I finally just took the plunge, got the core book, read through it, and I was like “Wow, this really is, y’know, all the things I’ve always wanted to try to do in settings like Greyhawk and such”. Um, y’know, that, that sort of pulp action feel |