While I haven't read it through entirely yet, I did want to leave a review, in case I don't remember to after.

It's very informative and I'm so happy to have a book I can read for fun to prepare for eventually (hopefully) DM-ing an Eberron campaign! I still lack so much knowledge on D&D, since most of my friends aren't really lore nerds like me, but when I researched changelings and got sent to the Eberron wiki, it was love at first sight. (I now state "Keith Baker" as my favorite fantasy author, I don't care what anyone says.) Thank you DM's Guild/Drivethrurpg for giving me a way to read nerdy things before bed! I absolutely reccomend the book for Eberron info and generally Eberron as a setting, because from what I've read so far it's absolutely beautiful and fascinating.

Well thought out, planned and written. Thank you!

I got my hardcover premium copy in the mail today and thus far I’ve been just as impressed with the reading material, concepts and illustrations as I’ve been unimpressed and disappointed with the lack of printing production quality.

Perhaps I got the odd copy where the manufacturer dropped the ball. If not, then I feel the hardcover premium quality label is being misrepresented and falls well below what I thought the price-tag was going to portray.

I picked up the premium color version of this title and am glad I did. Very professional looking both inside and out; layout was stellar, quality is on par with the official releases. The paper from POD is less glossy, which I prefer; dark backgrounds will show my fingerprints in the core books, but not here.

I knew before ordering that many or most of the chapters had starts on Keith’s blog, but were revised and expanded for the publication. Without the extra work I probably still would have bought it for the convenience of shelf/ offline reference; the extra time and effort was well spent though, and a lot of new material and game inspiration comes through. I love reading about how Keith would approach various things, whether they've been widely discussed or rarely thought of - it shows how much this world is alive to him, and that really comes through here.

I liked most of the art in it, though one quibble – there’s not a unified ‘style’ between the pieces from their various contributors like I’ve seen in the core books. All of them capture the feel of Eberron in different ways and don’t feel out of place, but it can be a little distracting with very different styles in close proximity. (‘Exploring Eberron’ had similar variety.)

Overall I’m very happy with this excellent purchase and look forward to more offerings from the team!

Strengths: Creative and imaginative. Wide and deep. Actionable and flexible. Character options are embedded, related and unique.

• I appreciate the case study style discussion, like the bit on armor and crossbows
• Ancestry (species) lore and guidance is clutch, especially as this list is always expanding
• I already had some sense of the Tairnadal elves from novels - I'm pretty meh about the murder cult violence-is-prestige society types but they're explained effectively and given a bit more dimension
• Both sets of Gnomes are freaking brilliant - avatar elemental people and feywild happy folk
• The section on "bad guy" faiths is so much better than personified gods - malleable ideals can fit more settings and make better stories
• Session 0 Eberron Edition is very much something that should have been in the PHB or DMG - BUT I wished it included some advice on how to prevent new players who don't read much from getting overwhelmed by the astronomical amount of material about Eberron
• Secrets of the Barren Sea and Rierdra open up new campaign settings but with a decidedly different flavors that feel spooky and paranoid
• Astral plane feels very classic DnD but teeming with new hooks and I appreciate the distinction with spelljammer
• Demystifying the Karnathi undead is very thought-provoking
• The Riedra portion alone could be its own mini sourcebook, LOVE that map and the 1984-Matrix feel

Suggestions:

• I want a small map locating each niche nation/culture/city as they're introduced because the Eberron world is very big!
• Similarly art is so important to not only promoting imagination but also explaining - give us more pictures of these places and peoples - what do The Inspired look like, how might we render an every-day scene in Riedra? How about those rock elemental cannon balls? Some of that new metamagic in-action? A map of Ashtakala?
• I'd love a glossary/footnotes and/or summary of terms for things like Marbar or Daelkyr or a history of Xen'drik, perhaps an interactive map with where to read more about whatever region; sometimes I have to visit 3 wiki articles to read just a single paragraph and if I'm away from the internet that's hard
• KB you should pen the Spelljammer and Planescape lore for WotC, you're so much better at it than they are

It only took 8 DAYS to get the print on Demand. 8 DAYS!!! Thats crazy fast!

I like this book.

As always, Keith's writing polished and presented by the KB Presents team gives me so many ideas and such inspiration for the setting. The original articles were enough to spark ideas; the expanded ones are enough to spark campaigns! I look forward to having my PoD copy on my shelf next to ExE.

This is great book for beginners and Eberron Experts. It gives great dm advice, player options, and lore. My favorite Chapter is 11 about Barren Sea. It gives creative spin to Kuo-Toa.

Twogether Studios hits with another gem! This one feels really personal, I loved working on its map!

An A+ Addition to my Eberron Collection!

Having the breadth of common knowledge, as well as so much information on the "evil" side of Eberron (the dark six, overlords, Riedra) all in one place is a huge boon. The art is A+, the layout is clean and easy to read and follow at all times.

The chapter on Session Zero and running your games will be a help as someone looking to DM for the first time, and if "Play a Tairnadal Paladin" wasn't already on my list of Eberron must-plays, the Oath of Veneration has made it a certainty. Sentira lenses and arcane crossbows also are going to add a much more colourful and dangerous layer to combat and storytelling, with regards to who has access to what kind of skills at any given time.

A fantastic book, I can't wait to hold the hardback, and I can't wait for whatever Mr.Baker and his amazing team put together next!

Chronicles of Eberron is the newest product from Keith Baker Presents, which does mean that while it is written by Keith Baker it is not WoTC canon. I say this not as a detraction but just for informational purposes.

The other thing to be aware of is that the foundation of this book consists of articles previously (and no longer) available for free on Keith Baker's blog. I can't say whether or not Keith Baker would have left them available given the choice, but DMs Guild rules did not give KBP a choice in the matter. This left the choice between leaving the articles and not publishing on DMs Guild or removing the articles to publish.

Given that the content was previously free, here's why I think it is worth purchasing regardless.

• Editing: The articles could be rough. In Chronicles they've been professionally edited. The content reads better, many typos corrected, and innacurracies/contradictions/redundancies are addressed.
• Lore Content: The bulk of the lore will match the articles, but there is additional lore content. I assume some of it came about naturally from KBP re-reading it and additional parts from the Q&As below the articles. I can't quantify how much new lore there is unfortunately.
• Mechanical Content: The articles usually had zero mechanical content, so there was a good amount of work put into these. I'm particularly impressed with the separate table of contents for mechanics, as they are spread throughout the book.
• Art: Consists of original commissions and well chosen stock art. The original commissions are particularly good and have some truly iconic scenes as well as a fantastic map of Riedra. I think the accompanying art alone justifies the price tag.
• Usability: I've personally struggled in the past with cross referencing stuff on Keith's blog. Especially if a cohesive picture on a topic is spread across multiple articles. Chronicles is infinitely more easy to read and reference.
• Layout: The book looks nice. It's organized neatly. The headers and subheaders are fancy. There's little easter eggs. The pages are decorated nicely.
• Physical Copy: This is entirely personal preference, but I like having nice RPG books on my shelf. At no point were the free articles going to scratch that particular itch unless I learned a lot about self-printing.

Now, onto the actual content of the book. The focus of the chapters is frankly a bit arbitrary. This is not a focused dive into one specific aspect of Eberron. Not all of it is going to be useful, or even desirable, to everyone. A key thing that I really enjoy is that it's not all exposition dumping, there is frequent discussion on why the lore would matter to players and how to use it in game. In the below, I've grouped chapters together by thematic similarity. Just assume if it's separate by a comma, it's a different chapter.

Part 1: The Library - This section is more player oriented.

1. Common Knowledge, Arms Armor and Aesthetics, and Nobility of Galifar: These chapters are all generally useful information for players and DMs. Gives you a better insight into Khorvaire/The Five Nations.
2. Adding Ancestries, The Tairnadal Elves, Gnomes of Lorghalan and Pylas Pyrial: These chapters are much more niche, useful for people who want to play very specific characters such as mutated soldier aarakocra, warmongering elves, or hippy gnomes.
3. The Dark Six: The "evil" pantheon of Eberron needed a lot more depth than it previously had, and this provides. There is more nuance in the related faiths, discussion on those who don't consider the Dark Six evil, and subclasses for those who want to explore that. Something that I initially loved about Eberron was its goal of a bit more depth in its characters. Monsters are people. Shades of grey morality. And religions that are good, but can have done wrong. Well, now we get some of that depth for religions that are "evil" but can do good.

Part 2: The Vault - This section is more DM oriented.

1. Session Zero, It's All About the Journey: This is general advice on running in Eberron. I think it's solid info. People may have seen these sorts of suggestions before, but this does tie them directly into Eberron.
2. The Barren Sea, The Astral Plane: These two areas previously had little to no lore and now have a chapter each. The Barren Sea in particular is bananas in its interpretation of kuo-toa.
3. The Overlords Revealed, Ashtakala, The First War: Often the Overlords are considered the end game for an Eberron campaign. They are the threat present from the beginning, always on the verge of spilling back out and bringing the world to ruin. If you want to DM an Overlord centric campaign, these are the right chapters.
4. Ghost Stories, Karrnathi Undead, Mordain, Avassh: This is more scattershot. Ghost Stories was one of my favorite articles on the blog, so I think well worth reading here. Mordain is a crazy villain (with an even crazier statblock) and Avassh is a nice new Daelkyr to horrify players with.
5. Riedra: There's already a whole book on Sarlona right? Why do we need a chapter on Riedra? Well, there's a lot in this chapter. Each province gets its own individuality. There's a discussion on the role of psionics in Riedra vs magic in Khorvaire. There's psionic laser gun stats. And tips for psionics in 5e.
6. High Level Adventure: More advice for running in Eberron, but at the rocket-tag levels. A lot of the previous chapters are usable in direct conjunction with this.

Part 3: There's not actually a part 3, but the last page of the book does have art of a Warforged Collussus throwing down with a Tarrasque, and that's pretty awesome.

Chronicles of Eberron is a bag of holding full of priceless treasure. While Exploring Eberron touched upon a smaller number of broad subjects that had, until Exploring, never been given proper attention, Chronicles fills in a lot of valuable details for a larger number of more specific subjects. However, that does not mean that the book has content only for fans of niche lore topics - many of the subjects covered in Chronicles of Eberron are of use to any Eberron player or GM in adding nuance to the world and making Eberron's cultures and peoples feel alive rather than just existing as game objects.

One of my favorites is the Common Knowledge chapter, which describes what the average commoner in Khorvaire knows about the setting. This section is essential for new players as well as players and DMs that are so steeped in the lore that they can't remember whether the existence of Erandis Vol, the Chamber, or the Daelkyr is something most people know about.

The Nobility of Galifar is another section that is incredibly valuable for anyone who needs to know how life works for most people in Khorvaire. This is something that is going to matter, at least peripherally, for the vast majority of Eberron campaigns, and Keith explains clearly not only the how but the why of nobility in the setting. This elevates the subject of Khorvaire's feudal system from lore details to adventure hook, something gameable, and the explanation given for the system of nobility offers something for people who want actionable, gameable material as well as something for lore hounds who wish to know all the details.

The book as a whole follows that pattern - giving details on the world of Eberron as well as explaining why this information is fun and gameable, how it can create good dramatic conflict, why it's relevant to an adventuring hero. Having the opportunity to hear directly from Keith about the logic behind certain decicions and setting elements is extremely helpful. Advice and suggestions are woven in with lore details in a conversational way that never tells you how your Eberron must be, only what it could be and why this might be a fun story to tell.

Chronicles of Eberron is also not lacking in the mechanics department, continuing the work done in Exploring Eberron to provide rules and character options for things that exist in Eberron but haven't been full detailed in sources from Wizards of the Coast. Psionics in particular, a major element of the nation of Riedra, is visited in a way significantly more comprehensive than what is available at this time from official WotC sourcebooks. I'm also very interested in trying out the forbidden metamagic of the Shadow. Core D&D doesn't really have a system for doing dark, dangerous magic, and Chronicles of Eberron has this covered in a clear and concise way. There are monster stat blocks as well, including for some very high level unique monsters and characters.

The art, symbols, and maps are gorgeous and evocative, and really help in envisioning what the world of Eberron looks like - including some peeks at aspects of the world that haven't been illustrated before, or in this much detail.

In my opinion, this book is a must-have for any fan of the Eberron setting, especially Dungeon Masters who wish to make their Eberron a truly living world.

Love the art mechanics and storytelling in the new book will definitely be using it in my games.