I’ve been pouring through the DragonMarked for over a month now, I’m technically not finished at this stage, but I’ve gone through it enough to write up this review.
Dragonmarked’s purpose is to provide a better understanding of who the Dragonmarked houses are, what their role is in the world, how they operate, and why it is, exactly, that they are such an important part of Eberron. Based on this purpose alone, the book has more than fulfilled its aspirations.
But this is a D&D gaming book, and D&D players don’t live, die, and game on pretty words alone; so how does the book do as a D&D gaming supplement? To give an idea, our very next campaign had multiple characters with dragonmarks, something that previously was a very rare occurance.
When originally reading through the EbCS (Eberron campaign setting), something that came to mind for me was that the Dragonmarked, while interesting, were, for the most part, so weak that it was difficult for me to think about these families becoming the major economic powers they were described as. My reasons for thinking this was not only the powers they possessed (which are generally minimal), but also because of how little time was spent on the houses themselves. Of course a 158 page hardbound book fulfills the latter, and the additional rules helped satisfy my prior reasoning.
The book begins with a history of the Dragonmarked, discussing how they came to be and how they formed into the organized mercantile powers they are today. It leads into a thorough description of each house taking up a good portion of the book. Each house gets around 5 pages or so, with information on the origin of the house, how, if at all, one can join the house, benefits for being Favored in House (a feat from the EbCS), guidelines for the DM, some of the intrigue relating to the house, and often the stats for an important personage. A nice aspect of recent WotC products, including this one, is that a small bit of text is included describing how each house can be used outside of Eberron (presumably in homecrafted campaigns). A nice thing here is small bits and blurbs throughout describing new uses for skills, situational skill modifiers, and a good description of the various guilds. The guilds are the true face of the houses, what adventurers and the commonfolk deal with on a regular basis, something I liked.
Of note regarding the guilds was something I liked, the idea that regular service providers might be part of the various guilds, with the guild setting standardized pricing and many normal people refusing to deal with anyone not recognized by the guild. Of course this reflects real world organizations (being part of the BBB or what have you), but it also makes it easy for the DM to justify why all the prices throughout the world are effectively the same (or at least the continent of Khorvaire)
Chapter Two begins on page 95, to give you an idea how much is dedicated to the houses, and it’s the start of the real crunch of the book, beginning with prestige classes. They have given every house a prestige class, with some being very appealing to those looking for something looking for something powerful or unique (and distinctly Eberron), others seem a bit weak but potentially interesting from a thematic perspective.