Spelljammer Dark Sun confirmed? Or, the mysterious case of the dissappearing Spelljammer article...

[SkidAce]

Except there's little to no treasure, and magic which you can use without issue everywhere else in the multiverse actually harms all life around you. I just don't think why a party from somewhere would like to go to Athas. A DM might want to do a "Your ship crash lands in this incredibly hostile planet!" scenario, but I think even that ruins Athas's own lore just to make a quick one-shot adventure. The larger themes of a post-apocalyptic setting where the only hope is to fight the oppressors is just gone when you have the better option of getting the eff out of there with a ship.

Kinda sucks for the people you left behind (assuming your group is playing good guys.)

 

[SkidAce]

@Ondath that actually gives me a great idea for a large scale campaign.

Start off low level fight the oppression, eventually realize you are fighting an uphill battle, discover an old spelljammer, go recruit help.

Would you end up making the situation worse (magic using invasion) or better (help change the world)?

I might just start a one off campaign with this idea, thanks.

 

[Maxperson]

The obscenely wealthy can escape an Apocalypse. It's just everyone else that's stuck

Even if they make it so that spelljamming ships can go to Athas, the Sorcerer Kings are not going to want the populace to know about it. I wouldn't be surprised if spelljammers were shoot down on sight and the Sorcerer Kings had fleets patrolling space to intercept and destroy incoming ships.

 

[Shardstone]

Even if they make it so that spelljamming ships can go to Athas, the Sorcerer Kings are not going to want the populace to know about it. I wouldn't be surprised if spelljammers were shoot down on sight and the Sorcerer Kings had fleets patrolling space to intercept and destroy incoming ships.

This sounds like an amazing campaign. You fly into Doomspace, get shot down but survive, and are now wanted by the most powerful people on the planet.

What exactly is the lore issue? All we've done is made another cool Athas adventure idea lol

 

[bedir than]

Even if they make it so that spelljamming ships can go to Athas, the Sorcerer Kings are not going to want the populace to know about it. I wouldn't be surprised if spelljammers were shoot down on sight and the Sorcerer Kings had fleets patrolling space to intercept and destroy incoming ships.

Absolutely.

The existence of spelljamming doesn't change the world at all.

 

[SkidAce]

Absolutely.

The existence of spelljamming doesn't change the world at all.

I hear yah, but wouldn't go so far as to say it doesn't change the world at all.

It certainly doesn't hurt it, or ruin it in any fashion. But it would be different.

 

[bedir than]

I hear yah, but wouldn't go so far as to say it doesn't change the world at all.

It certainly doesn't hurt it, or ruin it in any fashion. But it would be different.

Space travel exists in our real world. A rocket could land on Mars in about 2.5 years. It wouldn't change anyone's life.

 

[pukunui]

Space travel exists in our real world. A rocket could land on Mars in about 2.5 years. It wouldn't change anyone's life.

I'd say it would be more like if space travel didn't exist in the real world and an alien spacecraft showed up from some other world. That would be pretty life-changing!

 

[Maxperson]

I'd say it would be more like if space travel didn't exist in the real world and an alien spacecraft showed up from some other world. That would be pretty life-changing!

That still would!

 

[humble minion]

I love Athas, but I don't think its sacrosanct enough to not be changed.

Athas continually changed even in the original material. The Prism Pentad turned it upside down, the number of sorcerer-kings was in continual flux depending on author, halfling biotech got retrofitted in, Black Spine and Dregoth re-introduced planar travel to the setting, etc etc. There's no reason it can't change again.

I think WotC would like to bring back Athas, but there's a few thorny points they keep running into and recoiling. How to do psionics is one, clearly. How to reconcile a world where arcane magic is rare and hated with a game edition where 2/3 of subclasses even of the martial classes are casually throwing flashy magic around is another. And then there's how to treat slavery, and the fact that templars have always been playable in previous Dark Sun editions, but modern mores have a distinctly less sympathetic view on playing the brutal enforcers of tyrannical slave societies.

The question is how much you can change it. Part of the reason you reinvent a setting in the first place rather than make an entire new one is to leverage nostalgia. The massive reinvention of Ravenloft seems to have split opinions right down the middle. Personally I really dislike it (for a number of reasons, but "cos it's different!" is not one of them) but I know lots of people find it a great improvement. Different strokes I guess. But WotC was able to reinvent Ravenloft as a generic horror sourcebook while leaving enough that's recognisable so the older school fans feel a bit catered to as well. They seem to be taking this strategy with Dragonlance as well - reinvent it as a generic mass combat sourcebook mixed with a legacy world/campaign to hit the nostalgia buttons. Dark Sun is a harder sell on that front. Its 'thing' is brutal survivalist sword and sorcery - and that's a long, long way from what the 5e ruleset is optimised for. Ravenloft can still be Ravenlofty if the Core is gone and Azalin is gone and everyone's bopping around between domains like a Planescape berk with a pocket full of portal keys so long as there's doomed darklords and Gothicness and gloom. WotC are betting that Dragonlance can maybe still be Dragonlancey if the campaign is set nowhere near the Inn of Last Home and the Heroes of the Lance don't appear at all (though what they do about clerics and divine magic before the return of the gods will be interesting to see). Can Athas still be Athasy if there's no slavery and wilderness survival is trivial and even the fighters and barbarians are popping off flashy magic all over the place?