D&D General Dark Sun Nostalgia Thread [+]

[CleverNickName]

Do you remember seeing this full-page ad on Page 33 of Dragon Magazine #170, back in June 1991?
Did you wait with bated breath for months, checking the shelves at your local game store (or Waldenbooks!) for the official release?
Did you and your friends cannonball into the world of Athas, and spend the long winter months fighting the merciless desert and running from the thri-kreen?

Then tell us about it! I'd like to hear everyone's stories of how they enjoyed the Dark Sun campaign setting, what they thought of it, and whether or not they are still playing it more than 30 years later.

(And please note that this is a positive-only thread; please avoid dumping all over everyone's good time. If you didn't particularly enjoy, or even play, the Dark Sun campaign setting, that's fine and I want to hear about your experiences also...but we don't need insults and threadcrapping.)

 

[Charlaquin]

I was three months old in June of 1991, so I missed out on original Dark Sun. My first experience with the setting was the 4e conversion, but I absolutely loved it. I never did get to run it myself, but one year in college there was a freak blizzard that shut everything down for 2 weeks. I happened to live on campus, and the on-campus housing had its own generator, so we weren’t affected by the power outages that were all over the rest of the town. So, my apartment became the hangout for the gamer crowd, and we played D&D every day for two weeks straight. And that campaign was 4e Dark Sun. One of my all-time fondest gaming memories.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I didn't get into it right away, simply due to lack of info until a few years afterward. But when I got into it, I got really excited. I even bought Thri-kreen of Athas (I didn't have a credit card and had to mail a cheque to an outfit in the US).

I didn't get to play much. I DM'd more than I played. But that's life. I like the setting, and from a rules perspective preferred 4th Edition for it.

I've read all the novels. I only knew about the Prism Pentad and Tribe of One until a few years ago, and when I learned of the others (Chronicles of Athas, plus three newer ones) I bought all of them in ebook format.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Dark Sun was awesome. It was the first real "slam dunk" setting they published that both had a distinct viewpoint and played with the standard expectations of D&D players.

In the Gygaxian+ era (pre-2e), there Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance. Sure, there were some other settings, and 3PP, and glosses (Kara Tur) ... but nothing too wild or distinctive.

Dark Sun really put down the gauntlet and let to later settings like Planescape and Birthright.

While I always return to Greyhawk as my go-to default, Dark Sun holds a special place in my heart.

 

[pukunui]

I own the original Dark Sun box set and the first two of the boxed adventures but I haven’t ever gotten to use them in actual play.

My only experience playing Dark Sun came via the Shattered Lands PC game (which was a lot of fun but also really hard - I don’t think I ever managed to finish it).

 

[Bolares]

Do you remember seeing this full-page ad on Page 33 of Dragon Magazine #170, back in June 1991?

I wouldn't be born for two whole months

 

[CleverNickName]

My Dark Sun experience was...a bit different from most people, I think.

At the time Dark Sun was released, I was wrapping up my senior year in high school and getting ready to move off to college. My high school gaming group had disbanded, and we wouldn't ever play D&D together again.

Fast forward almost a year later, when I ran across the Dark Sun: Shattered Lands computer game in the campus bookstore. My poor computer could barely run it, but I spent every free hour I had playing it. I thought it was one of the best D&D games ever published by SSI.

If you haven't played it, and if you're a fan of the Dark Sun setting, it might be worth your time.

EDIT:

My only experience playing Dark Sun came via the Shattered Lands PC game

I worried that I was the only one!

 

[Bolares]

I've never got to play it. in 3e and 4e setting support for Brazil was basically the Forgotten Realms so my group never came in contact with Darksun, or any other setting. It was a stroke of luck that I found Eberron books when searching for 4e supplements one day. I'm eager for Darksun support for 5e so I can finally give it a shot.

 

[Fenris-77]

My first DS character was a Mul Gladiator with dimension door. The DM ruled that DD could be produced on any axis, not just upright. Shenanigans ensued.

 

[pukunui]

Oh, I have also read the first of the novels (The Verdant Passage). It was all right. Haven’t read any of the others.