D&D 5E Dark Sun Spiritual Successor on Kickstarter: Red Dawn: Into the Dawnlands

[Mecheon]

And have you read the book in it's entirety?

You're comparing a few snippets vs post original DS boxed set.

A Kickstarter is presented on what they push out. The work presented is indicative of what your full work should be. Briefer, yes, but its at least an indication as to what you'll get for going all in on this one. So, we can summise that what we have is indicative of what the full work would be and can judge accordingly.

But if it isn't indicative of what they're doing? Well, then its not a good intro for a Kickstarter and I'm getting vague shades of another Kickstarter I called out for publishing itself on a well received D&D addon, but was instead being for an MMO

 

[NaturalZero]

Is this the Patrick Swayze version or the new one where North Korea invades?

 

[Zardnaar]

A Kickstarter is presented on what they push out. The work presented is indicative of what your full work should be. Briefer, yes, but its at least an indication as to what you'll get for going all in on this one. So, we can summise that what we have is indicative of what the full work would be and can judge accordingly.

But if it isn't indicative of what they're doing? Well, then its not a good intro for a Kickstarter and I'm getting vague shades of another Kickstarter I called out for publishing itself on a well received D&D addon, but was instead being for an MMO

Do you remember the original DS boxed set? It was about as grim as this in content.

Now cut that content down to by 95%. See where I'm going with this?

 

[Zardnaar]

Is this the Patrick Swayze version or the new one where North Korea invades?

Sounds like Force Awakens version just file off the details.

 

[TheSword]

People gave accused them that they don't get Darksun.

It seems they get Darksun better than Fe. That grittiness is a key part of Darksun.

It wasn't designed as a nice world it's your PG14 or R16 world vs your G or PG realms.

I agree with the basic principle that publishers should be able to publish their material and then succeed or fail on its merits. If the publishers want to include slavery or gritty survival horror elements then that’s on them. It’s for them to judge the balance and tbe inevitable backlash. It seems short sighted to publish a product that only appeals to a slice of the pie, but that will come down to their marketing decisions and how many people they want to alienate.

Where I do have an issue is that I’d be much happier if it was their material. Replacing defiling with Ravaging, sorcerer kings, city states, pretty much the same races, etc etc is just being edgy with someone else’s IP. It’s disappointing that they couldn’t come up with their own ideas.

Spiritual Successor should not be synonymous with Knock Off.

 

[humble minion]

just being edgy with someone else’s IP.

To be completely fair to these guys, I haven’t seen anything like enough evidence to convince me that they’re deliberately going out there and TRYING to be OMGedgy and consciously targeting the market segment that is undoubtedly out there that enjoys seeing people get offended. On their Twitter account they at least claim that they’ve changed the text of the ‘ideal slaves’ thing (I haven’t checked) and that the funding target of the Kickstarter includes hiring a sensitivity reader. Which, let’s be honest, it sounds like they sorely need.

it’s quite possible that they’re just a few old school dark sun fans who haven’t paid any real attention to the various improvements in representation and portrayal that have happened in the rpg community even over the past couple of years. Which again, doesn’t say a lot of their grasp on the modern rpg market or customer base, and which suggests they’ll have a LOT of revising to do if/when the sensitivity reader’s comments come back and if they are taken seriously.

having said that - there are some signs that make me a bit twitchy. The explicit promotion of the ability to play evil characters, for instance, is always a little bit of a red flag to me. But mostly it’s the facts that I dislike that it’s such a blatant Dark Sun ripoff, that they have seemed to have missed almost all of the greater themes behind Dark Sun, and that the people behind it don’t seem to have much in the way of writing chops or game design track records, that are giving me pause. So far, anyway.

 

[Zardnaar]

Well Darksun dealt with slavery, genocide, environmental destruction. Probably find a few more things in there.

Do you sanitize it or put warning labels on it like a movie?

 

[Charlaquin]

1. We know that's not true. Plenty of things have crash d and burned because it doesn't appeal to the old or new.

I didn’t say it would guarantee financial success…?

2. We don't know what their goals are or expectations.

They're not claiming bits a universal RPG or aimed at everyone.

So? I still think they’re going about it poorly.

It's essentially gatekeeping? Variety etc don't like it don't buy it it's fairly simple concept.

“I don’t like it so I won’t buy it” is literally what I’m saying…

 

[Charlaquin]

People gave accused them that they don't get Darksun.

It seems they get Darksun better than Fe. That grittiness is a key part of Darksun.

It wasn't designed as a nice world it's your PG14 or R16 world vs your G or PG realms.

Sounds like you don’t get Dark Sun either. Yes, it’s gritty, but that grit has a purpose. It isn’t dark for the sake of being dark, it’s dark because it has a message that darkness serves.

 

[Zardnaar]

Sounds like you don’t get Dark Sun either. Yes, it’s gritty, but that grit has a purpose. It isn’t dark for the sake of being dark, it’s dark because it has a message that darkness serves.

I'm well aware of Darksuns themes. Have you read the final product tthough? Might be good might be crap.

Basically if the villains are being villains I'm basically fine with there actions.

This isn't really doing anything the original didn't. I've often thought about a not Darksun game similar to this.

Currently working on a post apocalyptic campaign basically rping off Fallout4.

Force Awakens and Pathfinder guilty of same thing execution will be the main thing.