Races

Humans

• Free Edge – Humans begin play with a free novice edge, which they must meet the requirements for as normal.

Elf

• Disliked – Elves are disliked by most other races and get a -2 penalty to charisma when dealing with non-elves.
• Keen Hearing – Their well-developed ears give elves a +2 bonus on notice checks to detect sounds.
  Low-Light Vision – Elves can see well in all but the darkest conditions, and ignore penalties for dim and dark lighting.
• Survivalist – Elves are particularly in tune with the world of Zendikar and begin play with a free d6 in survival.

Goblin

• Agile – Goblins begin play with a free d8 in agility, and may raise it up to a d12+2. Through the expert and master edges, this may be raised up to a d12+4.
• Ambush – Goblins favor ambush tactics, and begin play with a free d6 in climbing and stealth.
• Small – Goblins begin play with the small hindrance, giving them a -1 penalty to toughness.
• Outsider – Goblins begin play with the outsider hindrance, giving them a -2 penalty to charisma when dealing with non-goblins and they are treated particularly poorly.

Kor

• Acrobatic Climbers – Kor base their climbing skill on either strength or agility, whichever is better.
• Hearty – The Kor are a hearty race and gain an extra point to spend on attributes.

Merfolk

• Aquatic – Merfolk have webbed fingers and toes, and can move at their full Swimming skill while in water (-2” per load limit penalty). Merfolk begin play with a free d6 in Swimming.
• Dehydration – Merfolk must immerse themselves in water one hour out of every twenty-four. Those who don’t are automatically fatigued each day until they are Incapacitated. The day after that, they perish.
• Lore of the Sea – Merfolk have a strong oral tradition, granting a +2 bonus on common knowledge checks and they begin play with a free d6 in Knowledge (History).
• Magical Affinity – Merfolk start with 5 free power points. Those without an Arcane Background edge gain no bonus from this trait, though they do get the bonus power points immediately if they later gain an Arcane Background.

Magic

Edges

Arcane Background (Mana)

Associated Skill: Channeling
Starting mana points: 10

Starting spells: 3, at least two of which must be from your chosen color.

When you choose this arcane background, pick a color– white, blue, black, red or green. The color you choose determines what spells you have access to and what attribute your channeling skill is derived from.

You may learn powers from your color’s list, as well as your two allied colors’ lists. Spells from your allied colors’ lists cost 1 additional mana point to cast (your own color’s spells cost the usual amount).

For reference, here are each color’s allied colors:

White: Blue, green
Blue: White, black
Black: Blue, red
Red: Black, green
Green: Red, white

A normal character can only channel a single type of mana; even though you have access to other colors’ spell lists, when you cast a spell from one of them you are using your own color of mana to do it, and the spell is aligned with that color. For example, if a blue mage casts heal (which is on the white list), it is considered a blue spell and uses blue mana.

Versatile Caster

Requirements: Novice, Channeling d8

You may cast spells from your allied colors’ spell lists for their normal cost instead of paying an extra mana point.

Skills

Channeling (Special)
This skill is used for Arcane Background (Mana). If you take the arcane background edge, make sure to toss some points in here! Otherwise, ignore this. The skill is linked to a different attribute, depending on your chosen color, as follows:

• White: Spirit
• Blue: Smarts
• Black: Smarts
• Red: Strength
• Green: Vigor

Spell Lists

White

• Armor
• Deflection
• Healing
• Light
• Smite

Blue

• Conceal/Distract (See New Spells, below)
• Detect/Conceal Mana (See Detect/Conceal Arcana)
• Elemental Manipulation (Air)
• Elemental Manipulation (Water)
• Speak Language

Black

• Entangle
• Fear
• Lower Trait (See Boost/Lower Trait)
• Obscure
• Stun

Red

• Bolt
• Burst
• Elemental Manipulation (Fire)
• Speed

Green

• Beast Friend
• Boost Trait (See Boost/Lower Trait)
• Elemental Manipulation (Earth)
• Environmental Protection
• Shape Change

New Spells

Conceal/Distract

Rank: Novice
Mana Points: 3
Range: Smarts
Duration: 3 (1/round)
Trappings: Illusory camouflauge, ghost sounds, etc.

This spell has two similar modes.

As Conceal, all creatures in a small burst are magically camouflaged, and all others take a -1 penalty on notice checks to spot them for the duration of the spell.

As Distract, all creatures in a large burst take a -2 penalty on all notice checks for the duration of the spell.

For example, there might be a Good/Evil zero sum rule. So every demon that enters the world allows an angel to enter to balance him. Which btw explains why the forces of good are so reluctant to intervene directly, they don’t want to allow a corosponding number of demons to intervene elsewhere. Or more interestingly it might be sort of the opposite of the planescape assumption. That is to say the prescence of supernatural evil in the mortal world might balance out by moving the whole mortal plane that much closer to goodness.

Andor, What holds the world in balance? (or, why aren’t demons over-running the world?) – EN World

I don’t know about you, but that’s so elegant and perfect that I just want to assimilate it into every setting ever.

Flavor wise, I’ll leave you with the description given by the Magic creative team.

Vampires live openly in Guul Draz and are famed for the decadence and perversion of their lifestyle. Bloodchiefs, the progenitors of their race, control the opulent city of Malakir. Vampire society is divided by “family” allegiances, each family beholden to its Bloodchief. Each family controls a small amount of territory and routes through the swamp, although the main currency of any family is in its connections and relationships. The tastes and passions of the Bloodchief tend to be imprinted on the vampires he or she creates.

There are five greater families in Guul Draz: Nirkana, Kalastria, Emevera, Urnaav, and Ghet. Dozens of other lesser families are scattered across Guul Draz, each with a contingent of undead nulls appropriate to their place in vampire society. Whenever a vampire fully drains the blood of a living creature without destroying the husk, a vampire null is created from the body. If nulls are left without orders, they will hunt and kill living things that they can find.

-Magic Creative Team, A Planeswalker’s Guide to Zendikar

Guul Draz Vampire XML

Guul Draz Lacerator XML

Guul Draz Bloodletter XML

Guul Draz Null XML

Tactics

Nulls swarm enemies, attacking mindlessly and attempting to maneuver to give flanking bonuses to the true vampires. The bloodletter dances through the melee, attempting to keep as many foes bloodied as possible at all times. Lacerators use their claws only as a last resort, prefering to grab and bite their enemies even when the enemy isn’t bloodied. The vampires stay hidden until someone’s bloodied, and then concentrate on the bloodied foe(s).

The Darknet is so-called because almost every attempt to determine anything about it has been thwarted. Its a network of indeterminate size, but even the lowest estimates number in the thousands of nodes, and some have suggested it may even be in the millions or billions.

The truly strange thing is that no one is sure where the Darknet computers are located. They are connected to the internet, but traces on the origin of their traffic have proved futile as the traces wrap around the globe multiple times before the trail fades.

Those who’ve tried to investigate the Darknet have suffered a series of increasingly-dangerous setbacks. At first, they found their computers hijacked or wiped by viruses unlike anything yet-documented, viruses which have also resisted all attempts at capture and study. They seem to know what systems are honeypots and how to avoid them.

However, the more persistent have been targeted by stranger and stranger attacks. They’ve had their houses foreclosed on despite never missing a mortgage payment; been declared legally dead; had falsified warrants and arrest records placed in their name, and more.

Recently, some of them have even had attacks made on them in meatspace. One researcher was killed when the balcony of his hotel room collapsed, and was later found to have been sabotaged. Another was assassinated by a known mafia hitman; when the police tracked the hitman down they found him lying dead in a pool of vomit in a motel in Arizona.

At this point, the Darknet has been known for only five weeks and the more it resists inspection, the more it makes everyone paranoid. Many believe it is a Chinese cyberweapon, though the only real evidence for that is that it was first discovered in Tibet. The Russians believe it to be American; the Americans believe it is European, and the EU has been strained almost to the breaking point over infighting. Several African and Middle-Eastern countries and groups have claimed responsibility for it, but have been unable to prove their claims.

One popular theory states that the Darknet is based in satellites in orbit around the Earth or even the moon, which have somehow managed to go undetected as yet. Some even claim that the Darknet is extraterrestrial in origin, and that aliens are using it to study us, whether for good or ill.

I feel pretty confident when I say that Zendikar may just be the greatest D&D setting never published.

There’s a great post on the Magic website detailing the setting’s theme, regions and inhabitants in great detail.

It is utterly impossible to start a new fire ever since Ferno was captured, either by mundane or magical means. Zarnoff has used his monopoly on fire to create an empire for himself, even going so far as to create an army tasked solely with extinguishing unauthorized fires and tending authorized ones.

Around the world, in most cities and communities can be found Firemongers. These people pay hefty prices to maintain a fire of their own, which they are allowed to sell to others. The fires are guarded jealously, as Zarnoff has them inspected frequently and if a merchant is found to be loose in his control of his supply then it will be forcibly extinguished.

By Zarnoff’s decree, only established firemongers are allowed to use one flame to create another. The penalty if Zarnoff’s forces discover a violation is death.

Needless to say, many have tried to topple Zarnoff, but that is a task not easily-achieved. Even ignoring the fact that he has the power to control a god, Zarnoff’s monopoly on fire means that only he is able to shoe his horses and equip his army with metal armors and weapons. There are pre-existing armaments, of course, but most of them are long-since corroded or broken. Too few remain to equip an army of sufficient size to challenge Zarnoff.

But anyways, I think I stumbled upon a neat mechanic. I was looking for a way to allow for healing magic to be used as much as a player would like without having any limits on it such as mana points, uses per day/per encounter, etc.

What I came up with is the idea of sympathy points. In short, most healing spells and direct damage spells are labeled as sympathetic magic. Whenever someone is the target of a sympathetic spell, for better or worse, if it affects them they also gain a point of sympathy. Points of sympathy are lost after resting for a few hours.

Now here’s the interesting bit; all sympathetic magic gets a bonus based on the sympathy points the target has. So the more you heal someone, the stronger your heals on that person become, but also the harder an enemy’s fireball hits them for. And of course, that fireball also adds sympathy points, making other attacks and heals themselves stronger.

Too many sympathy points and you could be killed in one shot by even the weakest spell. Thus there’s no hard limit on healing, but you do accrue a bit of risk… It’s probably unlikely that one weak spell will kill you, and a single healing spell keeps parity with a single damage spell, but if there are multiple enemy casters the effects could become very nasty, very fast.

It also gives you another mechanic to play around with. For example, a mage might have an ability which doesn’t do damage but does add a number of sympathy points to a target, or which moves sympathy points between targets.

Another interesting thing with this idea is that it dictates a bit about the setting itself. This suggests a world where people are “magically inert,” but as they are affected by more and more of it they turn into magnets for magical energies.

So yeah… Just kinda had to get that outta my head. Toodles!

Stormwind, on its face, appears to be a fairly generic fantasy castle/city. Indeed, as the “human city” in World of Warcraft it seems specifically designed to be quite normal and expected. However, beneath its surface are some interesting bits of lore and plot which could go well in any setting.

Rebuilt on a Shameful Foundation

Stormwind was one of the oldest human kingdoms in Azeroth, and among the first destroyed when the orcs came to Azeroth. It was only retaken in recent years, and the crown set out a call to all the kingdom’s greatest engineers and artisans to help rebuild it.

A dispute arose as the workers, after toiling long and hard to rebuild, demanded recompense. The crown had assumed they’d worked for civic pride alone and refused them, in fact exiling them from Stormwind entirely.

The wronged craftsmen banded together, forming a band of criminals known as The Defias. The same ingenuity which allowed Stormwind to regain its former glory was now turned against it, the artisans and engineers using their skills to take their payment in the form of blood and banditry.

Since then, The Defias have grown exponentially, conscripting all those whose greed outstrips their scruples. Entire portions of the kingdom of Stormwind have for all intents and purposes been taken over by them, and the crown has had little success in stopping them.

The Stockade

Within Stormwind, there is a dungeon-esque prison known as The Stockade. Frequently plagued by riots, recently they’ve gotten so bad that the Stormwind guard has pulled out entirely. They now sit outside the only entrance, standing behind barricades and simply trying to keep the prisoners from escaping.

A prison like this is ripe for adventuring and adaptation. Not only can the PCs help to protect the city or stop the riots, but an adventure could also be setup where the PCs have to find a contact inside the prison, but don’t have the time or resources to actually stop the rioting.

All along the borders of Cyre– political borders, mind you, not just natural borders– there is a wall of mist. Within, time seems frozen, as the land is littered with the corpses of those killed in the Mourning, but still appearing as fresh as to have just died that day.

Here are three possible explanations for the Day of Mourning to provide inspiration and possibilities.

Sacrificed for the good of all

It is a fact that the catastrophic event which destroyed Cyre spurred the remaining four nations into signing the Treaty of Thronehold and ending the generations-long Last War. Perhaps this was exactly why Cyre was destroyed. Someone or something with the knowledge and power to do so destroyed Cyre as a way to end the war once and for all.

Who could have done such a thing, and how? Why Cyre? Is the culprit still alive and present on Eberron? Perhaps they even had a hand in the Treaty of Thronehold itself.

Variation

The players get the opportunity to change history through time travel, a wish, or something similar, and stop the Day of Mourning from ever happening. Should they do so, they find the world changed and themselves entrenched in a war that never ended.

Exodus

Cyre was not, in fact, destroyed. Rather, a plot was discovered among the other four nations to destroy Cyre once and for all. On the very day the combined strike was to happen, Cannith magewrights loyal to Cyre managed to shift the entire country into a demiplane in Siberys, leaving the shattered crater which is the Mournlands in its wake.

The reason the Cyran ruins and bodies of those present remain is due to the nature of the act. It wasn’t a true planeshift, but more like a cloning of the country into the demiplane. This cloning took place over several weeks, and when it was complete the final step was taken, transferring the essence of all life from the old Cyre to the new. In fact, the other countries’ combined attack was necessary for this plan to work, as it required the added lifeforce of the foreign soldiers.

The players could discover this piece by piece, first learning of the impending attack on the same day, then discovering the Cyran government knew of the attack and had begun a plan to escape it. In the end, the players might visit the living Cyre.

Variation

The plan was not successful. The attempt to transfer the country to the demiplane was sabotaged, aborted midway, or perhaps never even fully conceived in the first place. Regardless, Cyre exists now trapped halfway within Eberron and halfway within Siberys. If the PCs could find some way to undo the transfer, Cyre could be restored to a normal, if devastated, state and re-colonized.

Scrubbed from Reality

This Eberron is but one of many existing in parallel realities. In another, the Last War ended considerably earlier, with a magically-advanged Cyre dominating the other four countries and eventually the world. The Cyran rulers were cruel and harsh, and when the others finally managed to overthrow Cyre a plan of ultimate revenge was concocted.

The others used the Cyran magic against the country, destroying not only their former oppressor but also every copy of it in every other reality.

The PCs might stumble upon something odd along the edge of the mournlands, a bit where it extends beyond Cyre’s borders, or even a bit of Cyre which is untouched. After performing some research, the PCs discover that the affected land was once offered to Cyre as part of a rejected negotiation, or Cyre had gained the unaffected land through something similar.

The key is that in the alternate reality, these changes didn’t take place and the Mourning followed the border of that reality’s Cyre. If the PCs put two and two together, they might even be able to visit some of the alternate realities and see what might have been.