D&D General Dark Sun Nostalgia Thread [+]

[Staffan]

Well, 5E is pretty souped-up compared to 2E, so it should be fine.

Lotusden halflings (+1 Wis in addition to the baseline +2 Dex, some inherent druidic magic, and benefits moving in natural terrain) from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount would probably be the closest equivalent.

 

[overgeeked]

Oh I agree. I just think that if they don't offer some guidance as per the above, a lot of people would complain that they're leaving out key elements of the setting.

They're not going to complain if the setting book doesn't feature martial maneuvers or alternate Genasi forms (when we haven't even gotten the 4e's core sublineage - the Storm Genasi). Those are negligible parts of the setting. If anything, I'd expect them to say that use Fire Genasi to model Sun Genasi, etc.

People will complain no matter what WotC does. Not completely updating every scrap of lore and mechanics from every book ever printed for Dark Sun will cause someone to complain about "leaving out key elements". So just do the best you can to cover what you can and let people complain. They're going to anyway.

Lotusden halflings (+1 Wis in addition to the baseline +2 Dex, some inherent druidic magic, and benefits moving in natural terrain) from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount would probably be the closest equivalent.

Maybe. I don't see them as particularly special in regards to traits and inherent magic. They're halflings that eat other humanoids.

 

[Eltab]

Muls could be a customized dwarf or human or a player created race from Tasha’s.

My 'first draft' effort to recreate my Ashes of Athas druid in 5e as a Mul was to use the Dwarf stat boosts and racial Lesser Restoration, self-only, per short rest. It came reasonably close to the 'you cannot bog ME down' feel I wanted.

 

[Mind of tempest]

People will complain no matter what WotC does. Not completely updating every scrap of lore and mechanics from every book ever printed for Dark Sun will cause someone to complain about "leaving out key elements". So just do the best you can to cover what you can and let people complain. They're going to anyway.

Maybe. I don't see them as particularly special in regards to traits and inherent magic. They're halflings that eat other humanoids.

anything less than a full psion class is likely to do the same thing.

 

[Ogre Mage]

My only experience with Darksun was during my second year of college in Fall 1994. I was a water cleric, trying to bring sustenance back to the parched land of Athas. I remember there was a fire cleric in the party too and we bickered a bit but he still had to respect me. Even fire clerics needed to drink! Though I did not do as much damage as him in combat.

The campaign was quite fun but it fell apart after only three months. I came back from winter break in January 1995 and went to our usual gaming room. Only one other player showed up and the DM was not there. Thinking folks were just slow to get back from the break, I came back a week later. That time, no one was there. The third week was the same. After that I gave up. I did run into one of the other players about two months later and asked if she knew what happened. She said the DM got busy with school and his personal life and flaked out on the game.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The RPG settings are like the cook recipes. The text is the same for everybody, but these cook it in their own way. One can add shadar-kai saying they were survivors from the disaster in Kalidnay, and other can say these aren't wellcome in their game. Somebody can tell in their campaing the Athasian drows were elves slavered by the shadow spiders but they rebeled against these and now they have their own secret underground town. A DM could allow shardminds, a living construct PC race from 4th Ed but with a requirement, the living construct in Athas will suffer an effect like the Disquiet by the Prometheans (White Wolf CoD game). Or a player could suggest to use elements from the 3.5 sourcebook "Sandstorm".

And the time travel was canon in AD&D.

Other idea is to start from zero, but using things from different settings, for example an ancient dragon cult created a demiplane, with two secret planar gates to Athas and Jakandor, but these are discovered, and the until now dessert place is being explored and settled by factions from both D&D settings. With a spin-off you can surprise your players without worrying too much with a "jumping the shark" effect.

And Vecna, the lord of the secrets, can find his own reasons to send agents to Athas.