Frontiers of Eberron

Art by Carolina Cesario

Happy holidays! Here’s the latest news from KB Presents.

2020 has been a wild ride for KB Presents and we’re excited for things to come!

In July, we released Exploring Eberron, a 247-page book that gave Eberron creator and designer Keith Baker the freedom to write about topics he never had the opportunity before. As extensive as the book is, there is so much more to explore! While working on Exploring Eberron, we were also looking towards the future. An outline for a new book, codenamed FOES, was discussed. In August, we began development work on a project codenamed Fool’s Gold—a PDF product that was planned as the next release. Thomas Bourdon worked on the cover and development began in earnest.

However, inspiration is tricky and you never know when it might strike!

The first idea was Eberron Confidential—a book of character secrets inspired by Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden that inserted itself into the production cycle. It launched in November 2020 and is now our second Eberron product on digital shelves. 

The second idea was Threshold. For years, Keith has run Eberron campaigns set in the jungles of Q’barra. Fans have expressed great interest in this fantasy western approach. In September, we began development on an adventure, codenamed Hunger, that drew on the same principles—but set on the actual western frontier border between Breland and Droaam. Hunger is intended as an ideal starter campaign for new players to the setting. As Project: Hunger grew, Keith decided to run an online campaign in this region, focusing on the town of Threshold. The game will be played with a shifting cast of players drawn from his Patreon supporters. While Project: Hunger is not the focus of this announcement, more information will be forthcoming in 2021.

Which brings us to the announcement! We are proud to reveal Frontiers of Eberron: Threshold, a sourcebook that will provide everything you need to run your own campaign and adventures in the exciting Breland-Droaam border region. In addition to a full chapter focused on the town of Threshold and its denizens, this book will contain expanded locations, power groups, adventures hooks, and monsters that can be found on the frontier, along with a host of character options. It will be available both in PDF and print when it is launched on Dungeon Masters Guild in 2021!

Frontiers of Eberron: Threshold (Project: FRAG) is designed by Keith Baker, supported by the talents of Will Brolley, Laura Hirsbrunner, and Wayne Chang, along with an expanded group of playtesters. In the coming months, we will continue to tease and preview as we always have. You can even get a sneak peek at Threshold by joining Keith’s Patreon.

What about Project: Fool’s Gold? It’s still in development and on the production slate. In fact, we have significantly expanded the scope of Project: Fool’s Gold—now Project: Fool’s Platinum—and it’s scheduled for an early 2022 release.

There are exciting times ahead! Stay tuned and we’ll see you on the frontier!

38 thoughts on “Frontiers of Eberron

  1. I’m excited for content from this region of Khorvaire, and always eager to support new product!

    Will the source book have helpful tidbits on Droaam? The stuff in Exploring Eberron was overwhelmingly good but I’m always hungry for more

    • Will the source book have helpful tidbits on Droaam?
      Absolutely! I don’t want to go into too many details at this point, but there will be a lot of Droaam content.

        • Merry Christmas/Long Shadows to me then, my favourite region of Khorvaire getting even more love than it already did! Seriously, sometimes I just read the Droaam section over again start to finish (something I only otherwise do with Secrets of Sarlona at this point) just to dream of fun encounters and scenarios if I ever actually run a game/play in a game set there

  2. Exciting! Droaam is one of my favorite regions and I’m thrilled to hear more about it. Hoping there will be some bits about Shaarat Kol and Kethelrax the Cunning, as I’m always hungry for Kobold content.

  3. Awesome! I’m excited!

    Though it’s hard to tell which of the earlier things mentioned this is corresponding with. Is this going to be just a PDF release or also a print release (I would absolutely buy a print release).

  4. Tentatively excited!

    I am curious about your plans for sensitivity reading and inclusion in this project — the concept of a “frontier” is very much tied into colonialism, and while I appreciate Eberron’s willingness to call out the “kill monsters and take their stuff” angle as colonialist, a lot of the Droaam, Q’barra, and Stormreach material in Eberron has focused on the stories of the Galifaran settlers. While D&D 5E isn’t the friendliest system for playing many of the peoples of Droaam or Xen’drik, lizardfolk and drow both have official statistics, firbolgs and goliaths could represent many of the giant peoples, and kreen don’t seem that far a stretch. I’d love to see options and advice for stories that focus on the people who’ve been living in a “frontier” for thousands of years, rather than the dregs of Galifar who’ve ended up there.

    • There’s also statistics for minotaurs, gnolls, goblins, orcs, shifters and changelings (obv). Aarakorca can substitute for harpies in a pinch in fact 5e I’d argue is better prepared to play Droaam’s races than 3.5 was (as level adjustment made a massive disparity between some characters)

    • All good points! To be clear, this book will focus specifically on the frontier between Droaam and Breland (“Threshold”). I don’t want to go deep into the content, but I’ll say that IF I was writing about Q’barra I would certainly want a strong focus on lizardfolk and dragonborn, and IF I was writing about Xen’drik I’d want a strong focus on drow and kreen. That same principle applies here. This isn’t the story of BRELAND; it’s the story of Breland and Droaam, and the interaction between them. And I certainly do intend to hire sensitivity readers, as we did with Exploring Eberron.

      • Thanks for the clarification, and good to hear!

        (Although, as someone whose ancestors came from the subtropics and had a knife-based martial culture, I’m now really getting an itch to do something with the northern drow …)

    • One thing I’ll note: compared to Q’barra or Stormreach, the story of Threshold ISN’T a tale driven by colonialism. The land on which Threshold rests has been in Brelish hands for a thousand years. This isn’t a story of Brelish settlers claiming unknown lands, and the reason Threshold is booming isn’t because of its resources—it’s because of the rise of Droaam. A young nation formed from the union of many cultures, Droaam grows ever stronger. The dragonmarked houses want to investigate opportunities and strengthen ties with Droaam, and Breland wants to strengthen ties… or prepare for war. The lightning rail has come to Threshold not because of the resources of the town, but rather because it’s the last stop in Breland on the way to Droaam.

      “Frontier” CAN mean “The edge of settled land”, but it can also mean “a border separating two countries.” Threshold is on the edge of Breland, far from the great cities of the Five Nations and lacking many of the amenities of Sharn. But what drives this story is that the frontier is BETWEEN two nations, one old and one young. It’s not a Brelish story; it’s the story of the rise of Droaam and the impact that has on Breland. Essentially, Threshold has elements of Deadwood, but it also has elements of Casablanca. DROAAM is the nation that’s actively growing and expanding; Threshold hopes to prosper from the opportunities that brings.

      • Thanks for pointing that out! I honestly hadn’t heard “frontier” used in that context before (and the linguist in me is fascinated to find out why not XD).

        … And now I’m thinking once again about the “Droaam Sends A Team To Eurovision” adventure I keep meaning to write …

  5. Any plans for more Frontiers of Eberron? Maybe a series of locations like Hope (from your Q’bara posts) or the Blade Desert?

    • Certainly, the intent of the title is that there could be a Frontiers of Eberron: Hope in the future. We’ll see if there’s interest!

  6. Will this feature the bios on the warlords of Droaam you mentioned being scrapped from Exploring Eberron?

  7. What a lovely Christmas present (or promise of one) for all of us! Thanks, Keith! My old Eberron character was from the “wrong” side of the Droaam/Breland border, so I’m fascinated to learn more about the dynamics of that region. A whole series of Frontiers books sounds like a lovely idea. Besides Threshold, Hope, and somewhere in Xen=drik, are there other areas that would qualify for such a series? Eldeen/Aundair? Eldeen/Demon Wastes? Maybe Mror/Lhazaar?

  8. Frontiers of Eberron sounds like a great start to what could be a series focused on certain areas that don’t get much attention. Any chance we’re ever going to see more material for the Lhazaar Principalities?

    • The idea of FoE as a potential series is to focus on interesting regions that haven’t received a lot of attention. Lhazaar is certainly a possibility.

  9. Great news this new supplement !

    But with all these projects to come, will there be one day a really big campaign for Eberron DD5?

  10. I am very excited. Exploring Eberron is of amazing quality, so I decided to buy every supplement you will make to my favourite DnD setting. 🙂

    My wishlist for Frontiers of Eberron series:
    – Border between Karrnath and Mror
    – Border region of Breland – Mournland – Valenar
    – Border between Eldeen reaches and Aundair

    • We’re still in production, and it’s going to be a big book! I’m hoping to release in August.

  11. Will Threshold expand on Tieflings, like the the Venomous Demesne or Planetouched Tieflings, in a similar way that Exploring Eberron expanded on Aasimar? Also, I got to know, will there be a new artificer subclass or infusions?? I can’t wait for the book to come out!

    • Not yet. Real life events caused work to grind to a halt a few months ago and I’m still rebuilding momentum. We’ll make an announcement once there’s something to announce.

  12. I’ve decided to try a campaign on the border of Aundair and the Eldeen Reaches. Play-by-post, it’s found on the Paizo boards website as a campaign for Pathfinder (1e). In the spirit of what Keith is doing, I’m doing my own take.

    Now I say that Eberron is not in its medieval period of history. So I asked my players to look at Westerns for their Characters’ outfits. I disallowed three classes: the Gunslinger, the Samurai, and the Ninja (Paizo’s ninja is actually good, but their Samurai class sucks). The Gunslinger is obviously disallowed since Keith said there was no gunpowder. I was thinking of allowing the Warlock (from Complete Arcane) and the Warmage (also from Complete Arcane).

    No time travel in this one. Although if this campaign doesn’t get enough players, I might try a campaign that will involve time travel. But the Frontiers of Eberron is something I couldn’t ignore.

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