D&D 5E "Doom Sun" − reconstructing a 5e Dark Sun setting for the DMs Guild

[Charlaquin]

If your a DS fan wouldn't this make you optimistic? They specifically didn't "destroy" the setting. Or is Pandora's hope to much to handle?

I have very mixed feelings about the whole situation. Relief that they didn’t destroy the setting, outrage that they (might have) even considered it, disappointment that they probably won’t be doing a proper Dark Sun book in the near future, closure for the same reason, motivation to work on my own 5e Dark Sun rules, interest in the concept of the Doomspace we did get… It’s a bit of a roller coaster.

 

[Yaarel]

DARK SUN RACES

1991 2e Dark Sun Campaign Guide
Dwarf
Elf
Half-Elf
Half-Giant
Halfling
Human
Mul (Half-Dwarf)
Thri-kreen

Mentioned as Languages
Aarakocra
Anakore
Belgoi
Braxat
Ettercap
Genie
Giant
Gith
Goblin Spider
Jozhal
Kenku
Meazel
Yuan-ti



1992 2e Dark Sun 1, Monstrous Compendium
Brohg Giant (huge four-arm, low Int)
Giant (huge, low Int, plains good, desert evil, psi beasthead evil)
Pterran (psionic, lizardfolk)
Villichi (human, rare female psionic mutation)

1995 2e Dark Sun 2, Monstrous Compendium
Dray (humanoid dragon made by Dregoth the undead dragon king)
Shadow Giant (metamorphosed halflings in The Black shadow plane)
Ssurran
Tarek



1995 2e Dark Sun Campaign Setting, Revised
Aarakocra
Dwarf
Elf
Half-Elf
Half-Giant
Halfling
Mul (Half-Dwarf)
Pterran
Thri-kreen

Mentioned as Language
Gith



1993 2e Dark Sun Elves of Athas
7 feet tall, speed bonus, heat/cold resistance but no charm resistance nor trance, lifespan 140 years, often fighter blending wizard, psionicist, or thief, preferring bows, swords and polearms, tribal nomads, herders, merchants, individuals any alignment, listed as Chaotic Neutral, narratively seems Neutral



2010 4e Dark Sun Campaign Setting
Positive Material Plane ≈ Feywild
Negative Material Plane ≈ The Gray ≈ Shadowfell

Dray (Dragonborn) (descending from metamorphosed humanoids)
Dwarf
Eladrin (fey, often psionic)
Elf (fey, often martial)
Half-Giant (Goliath)
Half-Elf
Halfling (often primal)
Human
Mul (Half-Dwarf)
Thri-kreen
Tiefling

Mentioned as Other Races
Genasi
Kalashtar
Minotaur

Mentioned as Monsters
Anakore (aberrant humanoid)
Belgoi (fey)
Braxat (large humanoid, reptile)
Brohg (large giant, four-armed)
Gith (descending from other world)
Golem
Ssurran (Lizardfolk)
Tarek (resembling orc)

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The Dawn War is part of the Forgotten Realms setting, part of its timeline.

The Dawn War Pantheon was different from the FR Parthenon.

Also the Dawn War was inserted into everything in 4e including FR. (Dark Sun had it too in 4e)

 

[dave2008]

I have very mixed feelings about the whole situation. Relief that they didn’t destroy the setting, outrage that they (might have) even considered it, disappointment that they probably won’t be doing a proper Dark Sun book in the near future, closure for the same reason, motivation to work on my own 5e Dark Sun rules, interest in the concept of the Doomspace we did get… It’s a bit of a roller coaster.

I get it. I guess my thought is it is rather common for the Realms to be "destroyed" between editions and they have thus far resisted the urge to do that in 5e for DS. Take the good where you can IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

Yes, but Fyreen is said to be days away from falling into the black hole, so setting this “Doom Sun” there would put a pretty tight time constraint on any adventures in the setting.

If nothing else, it would kill the 5 minute work day.

 

[Maxperson]

And don’t get me wrong, “you only have a few days to escape Fyreen before it falls into the black hole” is a very cool premise for an adventure. But it’s pretty limiting to Fyreen’s usability as a long-term campaign setting.

Unless you modify into some sort of fantasy black hole that spits the planet out in another wildspace in front of a red sun!

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

A supermassive black hole is pretty much what it sounds like: a black hole with way more mass. But I think people underestimate the difference of scale. A normal black hole has mass comparable to a star - in fact, it has the same mass as the star it formed from, the mass is just all concentrated into an infinitely small point with infinite density. At least initially - as more stuff “falls in” that stuff’s mass gets added to the total. So, if we really want to “um, actually” this, there’s no reason that turning Fyreen’s star into a black hole should have meaningfully impacted Fyreen’s orbit, unless the gods also increased the mass.

But a supermassive black hole is on a whole other scale. It’s fundamentally the same thing - tremendous mass concentrated into an infinitely small, infinitely dense point. But we’re talking many, many stars worth of mass. A planetary system could orbit a regular black hole same as it would a star. Supermassive black holes have galaxies orbiting them.

This is what I was going to say. If the sun in Doomspace was transformed into a Black Hole without mass being added, then the orbits of the planets in Doomspace wouldn't be changed at all. The planets would probably begin to freeze (depending on the volcanic activity of the planet and if the black hole has an accretion disk), but their orbits wouldn't degrade and they wouldn't fall into the Eye of Doom.

So, the Eye of Doom probably is just a fantasy version of a black hole. It's basically the "a Wizard did it" version of a black hole in D&D, which might actually be a wormhole that transports you to another plane of existence (Shadowfell, Negative Energy Plane, Carceri, or someplace else). Or, the gods just used magic to increase its mass so much that it would degrade the orbits of Doomspace's planets.

(Just a minor note: Supermassive black holes do sit in the center of galaxies, but their gravitational force alone isn't enough to hold galaxies together. Dark matter does that.)

 

[Maxperson]

I think you’re over-estimating the amount of content the book dedicates to Doomspace. It’s just a two-page spread. Someone posted a screen shot of it. That’s it, that’s all there is.

I'm pretty sure the adventures will add more.

 

[Eltab]

It's basically the "a Wizard did it" version of a black hole in D&D, which might actually be a wormhole that transports you to another plane of existence (Shadowfell, Negative Energy Plane, Carceri, or someplace else).

A Certain Uber-Lich did it.
The wormhole magically separates the planet from the population, who are magically divided into groups of no more than 10 living souls. The groups are placed in identical untraceable demiplanes.
The survivors find themselves on the doorstep of The Tomb of Horrors.

 

[Charlaquin]

Unless you modify into some sort of fantasy black hole that spits the planet out in another wildspace in front of a red sun!

And to be fair, I’m pretty sure the possibility of the doom maw being a portal to somewhere else is mentioned.