Any Dark Sun info from DDXP yet?

[Kez Darksun]

I'm probably most interested in seeing more info on the character themes. After reading about how the D&D essentials line will have narrative based character creation, the addition of a character theme to that would seem like something that fits in perfectly. I suppose one of the main issues holding that back would be how much something like that, outside of Dark Sun, would alter current game balance.

 

[filthgrinder]

And, wait, I just realized they said all 7 sorcerer kings... meaning Kalak is one of the ones detailed? Hm. Interesting.

From the previews, and the podcast, I believe they said they were launching the setting a couple of weeks after Kalak's death, with Tyr a free city (in the throws of chaos).

So 7 SKs... hmm, Dregoth?
Andropinis, Tectuktitlay, Lalali-Puy, Nibenay, Abalach-Re, Hamanu, and Dregoth.

I like it!

 

[Shroomy]

And, wait, I just realized they said all 7 sorcerer kings... meaning Kalak is one of the ones detailed? Hm. Interesting.

Hmm, since the CS is set a week after the fall of Kalak, I'm assuming that Dregoth takes up one of those spots.

 

[Wik]

Hmm, since the CS is set a week after the fall of Kalak, I'm assuming that Dregoth takes up one of those spots.

Except I remember there being a quote somewhere that said if you wanted to run a pre revolution Tyr, there'd be a way to do that. Kalak as a low-epic SK would work for that.

Oo! Speculation time!

 

[Mouseferatu]

Ari, I've said it before - you are one of my absolute favourite designers, and I usually love what you put out. So I'm excited to see what you've done. Who were the SKs you got to work on (since we know all 7 are in, I don't think there are any spoilers here)?

Thank you. I really appreciate that.

Since they have, indeed, announced that all the SKs are in there... I worked on Lalali-Puy and Tectuktitlay.

ha ha... not what I ment, did you go in looking for a blank slate, or did you bring in X years of being a darksun fan and your own notions of what those DKs should look like?
Did you get alot of freedom to do things as you wanted when it started, or did you have to follow templets from the lead designers for them???

Some of each. I'm a big DS fan from way back, and I wanted to keep most of the details thematically faithful. So mechanics might have changed, and some other specifics got tweaked (either for 4E, or just because the other designers and I agreed that a different approach worked better), but I absolutely wanted my work to be rooted in what had come before.

And I had a pretty strong degree of freedom. This is a very different edition, so we were more about "interpretation" than "conversion" when it came to mechanics.

Oo! Speculation time!

As opposed to what was going on earlier, you mean?

 

[Nai_Calus]

According to the seminar today, there will be 10 themes initially. With the promise of monthly DDI updates, I imagine that'll grow with DDI support.

Like all the support in DDI for FR and Eberron chars? Colour me skeptical.

 

[Wik]

Thank you. I really appreciate that.

Since they have, indeed, announced that all the SKs are in there... I worked on Lalali-Puy and Tectuktitlay.

Lalali-Puy is one of my favourites, so that's pretty cool. I'm actually thinking of casting her on the side of the "good guys" (not that she's a good guy herself) and possibly using her as a patron of sorts.

As for Tec, he's that jerk everyone wants to see killed. I imagine a lot of PCs will be cursing your name sometime next year.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Lalali-Puy is one of my favourites, so that's pretty cool.

Glad to hear that; she was one of my favorites to stat up. I tried to do some really interesting stuff with her mechanics. (I mean, obviously I always try to be interesting, but I mean even more so.

As for Tec, he's that jerk everyone wants to see killed. I imagine a lot of PCs will be cursing your name sometime next year.

I certainly hope so.

 

[Wik]

Like all the support in DDI for FR and Eberron chars? Colour me skeptical.

I dunno. There has been a fair amount of FR stuff I've seen popping up - particularly the backgrounds.

Really, though, I imagine someone will put together a couple of extra DARK SUN themes and submit them to Dragon or something. I'm sure I'll take a stab at one or two, myself.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Really, though - do we really need more powers? The way I see it (and this is all just my humble opinion, here), 1st level PCs don't need an additional encounter power

Yes. It relieves the grind. Fights take a long time, even at 1st-level (especially "boss" fights). Players seem to like using encounter rather than at-will powers; at least that's been my experience.

They're also likely to save daily powers for "boss battles" the more encounter powers they have, making such battles less frustrating.