It's Dark Sun

[Dausuul]

I haven't read the thread apart from the first post announcing this news, but as a huge Dark Sun fan, I cannot help but feel saddened it is being revived in 4E, which I am not a fan of at all. The reason I care one way or another with respect to what settings make it to 4E is that once 5E or 6E comes along and I might start playing the current edition again, these settings will have been ruined forever by Realms* Shattering Events (*replace 'Realms' by the appropriate setting name) and various retcons to fit the settings into the 4E mold, as was done with Forgotten Realms. With Realms it was hard to swallow, but it will be worse now, because now it is the turn of my favorite official campaign setting to be butchered.

Might want to read this before jumping to conclusions there, mate.

 

[Roman]

Having read the thread now, as well as the link (thanks Dausuul), it seems that my pessimism was rather hasty. If they really stay true to the original and won't try to shoehorn 4E concepts into the setting, than they won't ruin the setting. Heck, if they go back to the original boxed set as the baseline, they will even undo the damage done by the later 2E supplements and might have a positive impact on the setting's future - an opposite outcome to what I had assumed when I read the announcement.

Hopefully, the setting will attract more fans and then reappear in future editions (more amenable to my playstyle than 4E) when they come.

 

[fba827]

Alrighty my own speculation:
(snip)
Classes:
I could see lots of Feats, new Powers, etc. to make classes feel more appropriate for Dark Sun. Primal getting stuff dealing with sand, Arcane the Defiler stuff and so forth. I really don't know what class they will bring in.

I'm imagining some alternate class features, where (some heavy) armor proficiency is lost in exchange for something else that grants an AC bonus.

 

[outsider]

Alot of my thoughts on how they'll impliment various classes and mechanics are already covered, but here's the overall philosophy I would take if I were them:

Don't tinker with individual classes unless absolutely necessary. Instead, tinker with the power sources.

Eg. Preserving/Defiling should be represented by things like feats and paragon paths. That way everybody from sorcerors to swordmages to any random arcane class they come up with in the future can be either a defiler or preserver.

Divine classes as Templar variants. The cleric matches most closely with a Dark Sun templar, but I could easily see the Sorceror Kings imbuing people with divine energy to serve as bodyguards(paladins) or assassins(avengers), or for many other purposes.

The former 'elemental cleric' role is taken over by the primal power source classes. Why would an independant elemental worshiper be called a cleric anyways? Never made much sense to me. Shaman seems to be a much better fit.

The other big key is avoiding getting entangled with old school names. Cleric is a good example of that. Why bother totally remaking the class that happens to be named 'cleric' into the old school elemental cleric when the shaman is far closer to it already and the cleric class can be reflavored into templar, which it matches pretty closely? The fighter is another good example. Dark Sun fighters were leaders of armies, generals, and the like. We've already got a class that does that: the Warlord. Additionally, the fighter fills the Dark Sun gladiator role pretty well, so why bother making a gladiator class? Just give the fighter some gladiator flavored stuff. 4e rogues can easily fill the Dark Sun bard role, so we shouldn't see the 4e bard class rebuilt to look like the Dark Sun bard either.

 

[Vicar In A Tutu]

Awesome. The cover is sweet as well. The fact that they are basing it (i.e. the timeline) on the first boxed set is an excellent choice. Overall, I'm very optimistic. The first campaign guide (FR) was lacklustre, IMHO. The Eberron campaign guide was very good. I'm hoping Darksun 4E will be even better. This is a good time to be a D&D fan.

Now, if they only breathed a little life into the boring, soulless magic items in 4E, everything would be just hunky dory .

 

[RangerWickett]

So does the desert of Athas count as a 'sandbox' setting?

 

[Greg K]

This couldn't have been announced at a more opportune time. Darksun is my favorite setting and, on Sunday, I had asked one of my players that owns the PHB and Martial Power if I can borrow them this weekend. I and my other players have been reluctant to play 4e (I walked out in the middle of a demo). However, based upon parts of PHB2, Arcane Power, Divine Power, and Martial Power (along with some 3rd party products), I thought I would give it a second look.

 

[Obryn]

If they really stay true to the original and won't try to shoehorn 4E concepts into the setting, than they won't ruin the setting. Heck, if they go back to the original boxed set as the baseline, they will even undo the damage done by the later 2E supplements and might have a positive impact on the setting's future - an opposite outcome to what I had assumed when I read the announcement.

Well, I can almost guarantee there will be stuff in it that's new to 4e that wasn't there in 2e. The real question is whether or not it will be implemented well, IMO. I can handle Eladrin in Dark Sun so long as they're Dark Sun Eladrin. I can handle Tieflings so long as they're Dark Sun Tieflings. Basically, I want them to do with the new races what the original Dark Sun boxed set did with the old races - twist them so they're recognizable, but make them suitable for a rugged, harsh desert world.

That's basically what Dark Sun was, to me - a reimagining of the familiar into a new and bizarre context. If this continues, and if 4e Dark Sun is faithful in theme rather than detail, I'll be thrilled. (If it doesn't, like I said, I can always just rip the mechanics out and use them in the old setting!)

-O

 

[the8bitdeity]

The former 'elemental cleric' role is taken over by the primal power source classes. Why would an independant elemental worshiper be called a cleric anyways? Never made much sense to me. Shaman seems to be a much better fit.

Let's not forget the elemental power source is probalby in PHB4

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Wow, I'm floored. A reboot of Dark Sun is like a dream come true.