D&D 5E Assuming Dark Sun is on the horizon, what are your worries?

[Delazar]

On Dark Sun evil won basically. Major themes.

Environment
Psionics
Slavery
Defiling.

This. I hope people don't get stuck on edition-specific issues ("Half-giants should be Large! Sorcerers do not exist! Tieflings are not a thing! Psionics is not magic"), and instead focus on the major themes that made Dark Sun great.

I don't care if they use goliaths instead of half-giants, or dragonborn instead of dray, or if the Psionicist uses PHB spells (I actually hope it does, I don't want to learn a new set of rules).

Art by Brom would be awesome, but I don't think this is happening...

 

[Coroc]

This. I hope people don't get stuck on edition-specific issues ("Half-giants should be Large! Sorcerers do not exist! Tieflings are not a thing! Psionics is not magic"), and instead focus on the major themes that made Dark Sun great.

I don't care if they use goliaths instead of half-giants, or dragonborn instead of dray, or if the Psionicist uses PHB spells (I actually hope it does, I don't want to learn a new set of rules).

Art by Brom would be awesome, but I don't think this is happening...

It ain't that easy even with your enthusiastic attitude.

Environment challenges are nullified or heftily weakened by some classes (monk, barbarian, shapeshifting druid e.g.)

Defiling: It is evil. A sorcerer if the concept would exist in Darksun could not be anything else than a defiler. He would lack the subtlety and intelligence to cast in a preserving way. He does not fit into lore in any way, and would not survive for long. And he is also one of the classes (Red dragon sorcerer) who nullifies the extreme heat conditions with a whim.

Psionics is not magic, it is quasimagic, pure power of the mind. It never requires any components at all.
It is best compareable to at wil lcasting of some mobs if you want to compare for what ever reason.

For halfgiants use permanent "enlarged" humans, you do not need "goliaths" the naming of the later is a joke imho (it would be like naming barbarians Conans or wizards Merlins).
The challenge for halfgiants lie in their size requiring more water, bigger equipment and they do not fit through anywere. And they got shifting alignment issues. But they are tough, very tough.

Tieflings require demons or devils, which requires abyss or nine hells. None of these exist in darksun so why retcon? Do you also need aquatic elves there? No? Why? Does it not fit? Because no big bodies of water for them to live? See, same goes for tieflings. Because no progenitors for them to justify their existence.

Edit: same goes for dragonborn. No Dragons there, so no dragonborn. The "dragon(s)" of DS are totally different thing than in other gameworlds.

For all of you who want to play kitchensink in the desert with stoneage weaponry why don't you ask for FR accessory "Anauroch -10000 DR" including every race of the multiverse and all classes

 

[slipshot762]

My worry is that they will not simply port DS to the new edition w/o making sweeping changes of the kind we've seen to FR. I would not wish to see teifling or dragonborn but rather mul and thrikren as they were originally presented. I would not find a new psionic system desirable. I would not object to changes around social concerns such as slavery so long as the threat of sorceror Kings / defilers remains prevalent and looming, ready to pounce if players do not intervene in beating back the menace. There is a definite opportunity to wield an effective Spartacus/against the odds motif here, in much the way starwars gives you the empire to unite player characters against. Think Stargate. But please do not change lore history or major themes for the sake of social commentary through a modern lense, former slaves of athas like those of Rome would still likely view slavery as a part of the brutal world, a fact of life, the condition of the conquered and safeguard for the weak who might otherwise perish rather than an unspeakable universal evil. Again think of the ga'ould in Stargate and how they view what constitutes the proper order of things. Nothing would be a bigger letdown than an athas where everyone but sorceror Kings view everything through a modern Western moral frame of reference...I mean halfling cannibals should still be halfling cannibals, please do not rewrite them to be anything but Savage and scary as inverting the Bilbo trope was part of the appeal.

 

[Coroc]

My worry is that they will not simply port DS to the new edition w/o making sweeping changes of the kind we've seen to FR. I would not wish to see teifling or dragonborn but rather mul and thrikren as they were originally presented. I would not find a new psionic system desirable. I would not object to changes around social concerns such as slavery so long as the threat of sorceror Kings / defilers remains prevalent and looming, ready to pounce if players do not intervene in beating back the menace. There is a definite opportunity to wield an effective Spartacus/against the odds motif here, in much the way starwars gives you the empire to unite player characters against. Think Stargate. But please do not change lore history or major themes for the sake of social commentary through a modern lense, former slaves of athas like those of Rome would still likely view slavery as a part of the brutal world, a fact of life, the condition of the conquered and safeguard for the weak who might otherwise perish rather than an unspeakable universal evil. Again think of the ga'ould in Stargate and how they view what constitutes the proper order of things. Nothing would be a bigger letdown than an athas where everyone but sorceror Kings view everything through a modern Western moral frame of reference...I mean halfling cannibals should still be halfling cannibals, please do not rewrite them to be anything but Savage and scary as inverting the Bilbo trope was part of the appeal.

Yea but that is why I rather want they keep their hands of it I rather convert it to my ideals myself.
Cannibal halflings, lol with todays Zeitgeist they make vegans out of them haha.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I can allow me lots of retcons in my own DS, for example allowing sorcerers as no-arcane spellcasters, or ardents, the psionic cousing of paladins and clerics, or even the warden and the seeker, the primal classes from the 4th Edition, or the totemist shaman, the incarnum soulmelder class. If want I can do a crossover with Jackandor and Mystara's Hollow World.

But I wonder how the metaplot would continue after the fall of (almost) all the sorcerer-kings. Invasion by the three-kin empire, or exploring the dead lands? Now the undead empire is a very boring faction for DS (even with the necromantic version of the life-shape technology by . An extrapalanr invasion by aliens from the Far Realm would be possible. What were the plans for the rest of the world?

 

[toucanbuzz]

Slavery is in D&D already, so it's not taboo or off-limits: drow, mind flayers, goblins, the Red Wizards of Thay, the githyanki race, aboleths, azers, beholders, and so on. But, no setting has ever made it a way of life for the setting like Dark Sun did. Usually it's clear-cut: kill slavers, happy ending. That wouldn't always work on Athas.

It'll come down to market perceptions. Dark Sun came out after over a decade, when it was a barrage of Forgotten Realms + Dragonlance. No one had branched out of traditional high fantasy, and some gamers needed something fresh. Unexpectedly, Dark Sun was a blockbuster for TSR. I say unexpectedly because you can read between the lines when the game designers talk history in interviews.

Dark Sun wasn't for the masses. It's appeal would lie in the "jaded" gamer who'd played enough drunk dwarves, and brave knights, all saving the world and keeping things safe and sound. Dark Sun flipped everything. Bad guys won, there's no reward in the afterlife for living a moral existence, and you're not playing to keep the status quo but for the hope something better might happen because of your actions. And therein lies the economic gamble.

New players are coming in droves to the game. How long will they be satisfied with dose after dose of Forgotten Realms and the same dwarf and the same elf and the same wizard and the same fighter? What about the experienced gamer who's been buying your product for several editions? I'm sure someone is going to read the sales numbers and try to discern when interest wanes in the Realms, then strategically put out something to alleviate that waning interest. Whether they do it with a bold new world, or a simplistic supplement like Ravnica, remains to be seen.

 

[cbwjm]

Slavery is a big theme if the setting. It was never presented as a good thing.

On Dark Sun evil won basically. Major themes.


Environment
Psionics
Slavery
Defiling.

Oh damn, the environment. I'd expect there to be someone complaining about how it is propaganda from the climate change crowd.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

My biggest concern is that instead of making new rules for half-giants or dray, they'll just slot in goliath and dragonborn again.

 

[Zardnaar]

Oh damn, the environment. I'd expect there to be someone complaining about how it is propaganda from the climate change crowd.

Hey it would suck if they pushed climate change in say FR but it's organic/built from the ground up in DS.

If it was another RSE on FR and they hamfisted it in that's fine.

Or if they did a water world type setting that's also fine.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Cannibal halflings, lol with todays Zeitgeist they make vegans out of them haha.

With the scarcity of plant life on Athas, vegan halflings might be more scary than cannibal ones--because they would be INCREDIBLY HUNGRY ALL THE TIME.