Mystara - Eberron crossover
by John CalvinI just picked up a copy of the Eberron Campaign setting and I have to say I'm impressed with it. The reason I think I like it so much is that I think it has a very Mystaran feel to it. Anyway, I thought it might be useful to share with you some ideas I had for using Eberron material in a Mystaran campaign.
1) Warforged. I'm a big Blackmoor fan, and these things seem to fit right in. Where might they be found (as both PCs and NPCs)? There was talk before of placing Blackmoorian cultures on Jomphur in the HW. Warforged might fit right in there. I would remove the emphasis on battle and shift it to something else. Perhaps most warforged on Jomphur have expert class levels. They could be the work force of a more technomantic type Blackmoorian culture being preserved in the HW. The same could be said for warforged living with the Blacklore elves. One might also find warforged as part of some long buried and forgotten Blackmoorian cache on the outer world. Perhaps some still survive with their masters in Hidden Blackmoor (located in the World shield somewhere - see the vaults for more info).
2) Shifters. Shifters are a perfect result of ancient Taymoran necromancer experimentation. Their back-story as written in Eberron can even fit directly into Mystara with very little changes. Move them to Ierendi and surrounding areas. The lycanthropic purges might have driven them across the sea of dread and into the hinterlands, or perhaps westwards to the Savage Baronies. Other shifters might hail from up north near Denagoth, or from Limn in Alphatia (where lycanthropy was supposedly born).
3) Changelings. Who doesn't want doppelganger spawn running around, huh? Put these guys anywhere! Once again I think a very appropriate place would be in Ierendi/Minrothad where the legacy of Taymora can still be felt. Anywhere with intrigue would draw these guys in like moths to a fire. Glantri, Thyatis, Minrothad, Alphatia, Darokin...
4) Magewrites and Artificers. These classes are perfect for a multitude of use cases. Magewrites are perfect for filling out boltman positions on Alphatian airships, or for beefing up Thyatian legions. Artificers are a perfect match Blackmoorian type cultures.
Here are some things that I don't think would fit particularly well in Mystara.
1) Dragonshards and Dragonmarked. These could work in a Mystaran setting, but it would take a lot of revisionism. The closest these come to is the guild houses of Minrothad. Perhaps some tweaking to make the two mesh.
2) Eberron magical transit. This is related to #1 above. Most transit (airships, the lightning rail) is based off of Dragonshards and controlled by the dragonmarked. The concepts are cool (and might find some use) but the mechanics are all wrong for Mystara.
3) There is a lot of fluff in the ECS. That's a good thing if you're planning or playing in Eberron, but not so good if you want to take chunks out of the source book and place them into another setting.
All in all I'm very happy with the Eberron material. Quite a bit of it will find its way into my version of Mystara. If I think of any more ideas on this subject I'll post them here later.