VAN RICHTEN'S GUIDE TO RAVENLOFT has given us an idea of how Wizards of the Coast will be updating old campaigns to 5th Ed
With that template in mind I started musing about Dark Sun
I imagine it will look a lot like it did in 4th Ed but continue to evolve
Okay! Let's dig in!
Lineages
All the races / lineages in the PH need to be in the campaign. That means including tieflings, gnomes and half-orcs. Each could get a paragraph on his they fit into the world, like in EBERRON: RISING FROM THE LAST WAR
Thri-kreen will likely be the sole new race
Half-giants will likely remain goliaths. Muls are the ugly product of forced mating, so they're just gone. They could also reprint aarakocra
Nah. They can do the "Gnomes and Half Orcs no longer exist" and then have the side-bar addition thing. Like maybe they were held in magical stasis or something if your DM is cool with it.
Muls were the ugly product of coercive rape, no doubt... But they'll just rewrite it so that any loving Dwarf/Human can get together and have a bald baby that'll never have kids with the coercive rape thing being a background detail that largely gets fudged over... or even ignored entirely in favor of "Sometimes when one slave loves another slave -very much and they're not of the same species..."
Thri-Kreen could be a new race, though? Definitely. I could see them sticking with Goliaths or making full on Half-Giants as something a little more imposing in height while still "Technically" being Medium.
Player Options
WizCo isn't going to do a psionicist for 5th Ed. Instead, a Wild Talent system allowing PCs to have psychic powers would replace that. Like Dark Gifts or the Supernatural Gifts of Theros. Everyone is psionic
They won't get rid of paladins and clerics because players need to be able to make whatever characters they want. Just having an Elemental Domain would limit options too much. Clerics would instead worship the Primordials. Just provide a table of flavor suggestions on how spells could look elemental
But a templar domain could work. Or warlock pact like in 4th Ed
Getting inspiration from 4th Ed, Defiling and obsidian and bone weapons could work roughly the same. When you roll a natural 1 on an attack you can re-roll. With a spell you defoliate and area based on the level and with a weapon it breaks if the re-roll misses. Make it the player's choice. Defiling could also be a method of gaining additional spell slots. When you're high enough level you can kill an area of land to get an extra 1st level spell
Dunno if I agree that there won't be a Psionicist for 5e.
There are already Wild Talents and Psionic Subclasses, but with the setting being -so reliant- on Psionics since Arcane Magic results in Defiling they might have to make a Psionic class or just have Sorcerers or Wizards be "Psionic" for all intents and purposes. Personally, I'm hoping they do a Psionicist class, 'cause even if it sucks it could still be interesting to play with.
Paladins... Probably an NPC only class. Though I could see them making "Pact of the Sorcerer King" for Warlocks which basically makes them into Arcane-Paladins swinging swords and spells for their masters.
Though after the changes to Darkon...? Maybe there's a "New God" rising as a big event-thing that's core to the 5e version. Where Clerics and Paladins devoted to this new power are viewed as Cultists and mistrusted and stuff.
Setting
VGR showed us WizCo is willing to change campaigns to fit modern tastes
Based on past convos here a controversial element is slavery. That needs to be gone
The sorcerer-kings can be dictators who rule their lands and hold sway over the life 'n' death of all their subjects without using the loaded term "slaves." Folk in the city-states can just have mistreated servants and not buy or sell people
I doubt they'll remove slavery altogether. I think they'll just do their best to make it clear that anyone who engages in slavery is -clearly- and -flatly- evil, with no questions one way or the other. And all slaves need to be rescued and freed.
Survival Adventures
Like VGR focused on "horror adventures" this product should focus on "wilderness survival." Person v. nature
Lottsa charts of random encounters and adventure sites encountered on the road. Advice on how to run adventures focused on travel and natural hazards. How to make it work at various levels. Reprinted and expanded rules on surviving in hot environments and foraging for food
Definitely think there'll be a bunch of this. But with the added rules for Stress and Dark Gifts in Ravenloft we know that they're willing to put in some measure of effort to increase the setting's strength. I think we might see more of a Journey System where tracking supplies is a core part of moving through the wasteland, and where supplies are what lots of narrative events will be striking.
City States
Each City-State should have a completely different tone and style of adventure. Focus on what dungeons are nearby and what the PCs need to do to survive there. There should also be some new city-states ruled by non-humans. An elf or tiefling city-state
Like Ravenloft's domains, these should be isolated. We don't need a full map of the Tablelands. DMs can choose how far away settlements are and rearrange the map based on what's best for their adventure
It's harder to survive if you're uncertain of the distance between city-states and oases. It also works with the shifting nature of deserts. There could be a watering hole or it could have dried out. There could be a pass or it could have been erased by the sands. You could have enough food and water to make it to the next settlement, but you might not
Each journey is new and travel is never routine
Partly agree... I definitely agree that we'll see the settlements as very individualistic, most likely with their own particular flavor/character of postapocalyptica. We might even see a domain where there's PLENTY of food and water, but the Sorcerer-King zealously guards it compared to another kingdom where everything is incredibly scarce.
But I think there'll be a full map. Or, at least, enough of a map to get a rough idea of where things are in relation to each other. I think it's more likely that while the whole map will show the distance and position between the Silt Sea and Tyr, for example, there'll be a lot of undefined areas between the two.
Like maybe instead of having a full map, have detailed maps of the areas near a given settlement, and a fairly detailed map of the Silt Sea, and then exact distances between specific landmarks and other landmarks so the players can kind of put the maps on a big surface separated to get an idea of where everything is? Not 100% sure on that one... but could be fun!
Sorcerer-Kings
There are seven major city-states ruled by sorcerer-kings. There's only two sorcerer-queen so a couple need to be gender flipped for better representation
They also need a new name. They're not all kings. And they're wizards, not sorcerers. Wizard-Monarchs? Spell-Tyrants? Archdefilers?
The ruler of Tyr should also still be alive. If anyone kills them it should be the PCs. And having a "safe" city-state populated by free folk not ruled by a tyrant makes Dark Sun less dangerous and hostile
I think leaving them Sorcerer-Kings works. There can just be no gender-segregation within the term. Sort of like how anyone who is the most powerful Magician in Xanth is the King, regardless of gender.
That said, yeah. Probably another woman or five rising in the ranks. Maybe a couple of the Sorcerer Kings have been assassinated and their positions usurped by new Defilers who stole their power? I mean... that's what they did to Rajaat, after all!
More seriously: we'll probably need 3 more female Sorcerer-Kings to go with Lalali-Puy, Sielba, and Abalach-Re. Maybe axe Andropinis for his daughter, Daskinor, as well, and just to get big on it Tectuktitlay. That'd give us Draj, Balic, and Eldaarich with new female leaders and Raam, Yaramuke, and Gulg with traditional ones.
That'll make it a 7/6 split, but since Borys is kind of gigantic and red it's as near to a 50/50 as I think you can reasonably get!
What ya'll think?
Anything else that needs changed?
I think you hit the highlights.
