Pardon the mass-reply here...
Rats! I had placed my 1 gold crown bet on Dragonlance.
Oh well, go Dark Sun!
Gold is worthless in Dragonlance anyway, so that's why you lost the bet. Next time, bet steel!
Hamster and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
I have no idea what this means, but it made me chuckle.
So they've done a 'Realms-shattering-event' for FR, basically retconned 4e changes for Eberron, and it looks like Dark Sun is getting a reboot back to its original setting (with 4e tweaks, presumably). Three very different models on how to handle things.
Which gives me hope. The biggest reason I was hoping it wasn't Dragonlance was because I was afraid that WotC might approach the setting in a way that isn't conducive to the setting. So let's see how Dark Sun turns out.
And as much as I love Dragonlance, I'm excited to see Dark Sun! Congrats to the folks at Athas.org for keeping the torch alive! I hope you guys get some loving from WotC for your efforts!
The gods of the setting are absent or dead, replaced by elemental spirits tied to the ancient primordials. Shamans and other primal characters draw on the forces of sun, sand, wind, and precious rain. Wizards practice their magic in secret or openly serve the sorcerer-kings. And psionic power is more common than on other worlds -- which is handy, since this setting will come out a few months after Player’s Handbook 3, which introduces the psionic power source.
Hells yeah!
Check out this other part of the interview:
James Wyatt: Our goal with the setting was to cleave as close to the original boxed set as possible while still allowing as many D&D options as we could and making the setting ideal for 4th Edition play. We’re in the process of re-releasing Troy Denning’s excellent Prism Pentad series of novels, and we didn’t want readers to come away from those books and look at the campaign setting and not recognize it as the same world. So we tried to capture the essence of the original Dark Sun boxed set while ensuring that the Prism Pentad novels could be one possible way things turn out.
Emphasis mine. So all the critics of the Prism Pentad don't have to worry.
I would be interested to hear how the Dragon and Dungeon Dark Sun material from 3.5 would be utilized in the setting, if at all.
Perhaps they will expand on the gladiator mechanics and make it into core Dark Sun.
I suspect we won't see a gladiator class. Rather, I could see it being a fighter build, or some sort of fighter paragon path.
As someone who has basically no exposure to the Dark Sun setting, what is the big deal with races? How does it break the setting to have all the 4e races as playable?
Dark Sun is a world that is so harsh, some of the races no longer exist. Gnomes are now extinct (and I hope that prevails). Some races, though, have adapted very nicely. Halflings, for example, are now cannibals.
I think most 4e races will work nicely. The fey step of the eladrin might need some explaining, but a little fluff will work out. Dragonborn would be an incredible visual, but you would have to explain their relationship to the dragon. Goliaths would be a natural fit, though they may possibly take the place of half-giants (maybe they're one and the same?). I'm not certain how deva or tieflings will work, but I'm willing to reserve judgment.
I'm hoping we might see some of the XPH races for Dark Sun as we did in the Dragon article in 3.5.
Ooh! Sorcerer-king epic destiny!
So if there's a new class, what might it be? Templar? Elemental-flavored divine class?
What paragon paths might we see?
