In broad strokes, then, here is the setting. I had originally planned on doing a very detailed worldbuild on Airberron, but remembered - or was reminded by some more experienced GMs, to be honest - that much like writing fiction, your world just needs some highlights and you can fill in the details later as the game goes on. Unless you're preparing your world to share with others, which I am kind of doing, but as this is a modification of an extant campaign setting instead of a new creation, I realized that just hitting the highlights will suffice.
Of course, you already know about the major change from Eberron - the Change that ended the Last War and brought about the Mournland, well, in Airberron it changed the entire face of the world. All continents (as far as everyone knows) lifted from the face of the planet and are now floating in the air. Some floated higher, some stayed lower, but all lifted off the face of the planet.
The next big change from the setting that, in response to the continents floating into the air, the Changelings all took on the form of Aarakocra. To me, this fit far better with the setting of Airberron and also because I always found the Changelings to be rather meh. Ooh, it's a secret race that no one knows about (except all the players and by meta-extension, their characters), which guarantees that every Changeling PC will come with more backstory than your average Wiki entry. That feels strange, using a comparison to Wikipedia instead of an actual, printed encyclopedia, but who knows what an encyclopedia is these days? Anyway, you know how I feel about PC backstory, and this fantastic article proves that, but is also why I'm paring down my wotldbuilding backstories as well. Managed to get rid of one class I definitely did not care for and added a class with flying, which will be most helpful on a world where the landmasses are all in the air.
Other race changes from the core book - I put on my big boy undies and once again outlawed Dragonborn. Come on, the dragons of Eberron are mysterious figures who rarely contact any of the "lesser" races openly, the world is steeped in dragon lore and mythology, so no, I am allowing none of their relatives to be played by the PCs. The original Eberron setting in 3.5 stated explicitly no dragon characters, partly because there were no Dragonborn until 4e, but they did have half-dragons (let us be honest, half-dragons are the same thing as Dragonborn, and made a lot more sense) in that original edition and what that version was referring to. Now in 5e, WotC is loathe to tell the players "no", so they waffled and said if you spun your backstory right, you could have Dragonborn. I am not a waffler, however, so no Dragonborn. Also no Tieflings, and no Drow, there is plenty to see and do in this campaign setting, you do not need to try and recreate Drizzt Do'urden or play another "race of the week" from 4th edition. Warforged, since the world has changed, can turn in their natural armor ability to get wings and a flying movement speed. That one just made sense to me, and would allow another PC race to come with the ability to fly. And we are discounting all the other spare races from Xanathar's Guide, because the main Eberron book does, which is also fine by me.
The next bits are less world setting related and more neat things that I have run across that I am incorporating in the campaign going forward. First up is backstory connections. In my current campaign, I am using what would be called a framing device in the literary world to help bring the party together and give them direction. In Eberron terms, the party has the option to have a patron, which in my own world is a government run agency much like the Musketeers were to France in our own history. Why not stick with that? Well, even after telling my players this is what is going to happen, some of them still insisted on making the most unlikable, narcissistic, team hating edgelords they could. (it is not all that bad, but sometimes it feels like they are being disagreeable on purpose, and I want to strangle them - this is a cooperative game and not your personal piece of fanfic!) This connections idea I got from a recent video I watched about character creation in the Traveller RPG, and when I realized what a neat bit of party creation it was, it also made me realize how well it puts the onus of getting the party together on the shoulders of the players. Basically the idea is this - every player decides with the other players what connections in the past each PC has. Each PC has a connection with two other PCs, and if you have more than 3 players, each set of connections is unique, and if a PC has a connection to another PC, they can not share their other PC connection. Each player (in conjunction with the other players) decides what the connection is and when it occurred in the past, and uses their background, not their character class, to help define the connection. For example - the acolyte hung out with the sage, the acolyte as they were taking their rites in the church and the sage while they were studying at whatever institute of higher learning they were at, and they partied like the world was ending. That was five years ago. The sage got into a bit of debt with the local crime syndicate, and the criminal was the one who had to come around and collect the weekly payment and any interest owed. This was two years ago. The criminal got waylaid along the highway (irony) and was helped out by the soldier when their troop of cavalry happened by. This was last year. And the soldier is cousin to the acolyte. Four PCs, each with two connections, all unique, but they quickly and simply describe how the party knows each other and gives just enough of a backstory for the players to build on. Hell, you could even just use Eberron's patronage section of the rules and skip all that, but my players will have to decide together how this is going to work.
The other thing I am adding into future campaigns is a few tables from Xanathar's Lost Notes to Everything Else, a little fan-made product over on the GM's Guild store. I say "fan-made", but it is written by some of the biggest names in the fan community, not so much professionals themselves as they are top seeded amateurs. Anyway, I like the Lingering Injuries table in the DMG, so I am definitely using the expanded table from Lost Notes. In addition, while I have been using Seth Skorkowsky's critical hits and fumble tables in my current campaign, they are just overpowered for most 5e campaigns. However, I still like having more options beyond just "you crit'ed, double your damage", so I will also be using the expanded crit and fumble tables, also from Lost Notes. The one thing I am surprised at with Lost Notes is how badly in need of an editorial pass it is. At least the copy I have has many small grammar issues, and maybe they have updated it - it is mainly a digital product with print on demand dead tree versions also available - so I may just have to redownload my copy to correct them. It does remind me that even the semi-professionals need to pay more attention to their grammar and editorial passes. I have been typing most of my recent blog posts, especially this one, on my phone and not on my computer, so I need to pay close attention to what autocorrect is doing to my words.
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