D&D 5E WotC: Why Dark Sun Hasn't Been Revived

In an interview with YouTuber 'Bob the Worldbuilder', WotC's Kyle Brink explained why the classic Dark Sun setting has not yet seen light of day in the D&D 5E era.

I’ll be frank here, the Dark Sun setting is problematic in a lot of ways. And that’s the main reason we haven’t come back to it. We know it’s got a huge fan following and we have standards today that make it extraordinarily hard to be true to the source material and also meet our ethical and inclusion standards... We know there’s love out there for it and god we would love to make those people happy, and also we gotta be responsible.

You can listen to the clip here.

 

[Burnside]

That's very different than a flat no, or flat no they've already been genocided.

"You'll need your DM's permission" is as close to a flat no as D&D can or should get, isn't it? I mean, some DM might want, say, tabaxi to be playable in Dark Sun.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

That's very different than a flat no, or flat no they've already been genocided.

The existence of the Pristine Tower spinning out mutated creatures was given as an excuse to permit any PC race. They would just be a one-off. But in a world where strange things existed would likely get minimal attention unless wildly different in form, imo.

 

[overgeeked]

I don't get the strain of fandom (generally, not just with Dark Sun) that dislikes when existing IP is revisited, reinvented, and/or recontextualized. Sometimes (a lot of times) it goes horribly wrong. But I am so glad that, for example, that I got the Rings of Power instead of nothing, or the Star Wars sequel trilogy instead of nothing. And I am pleased as hell when a revisited IP is genuinely great like, say, Andor.

For me it comes down to preferences and selfishness, honestly. I like Dark Sun and I want to keep on liking Dark Sun and I want future Dark Sun products to be for me. The more they revise the setting the less likely it will be for me. I don't mean that in the "if I can't have it no one can" sense. Rather in the "I love this thing so much I want to keep on loving it" sense. If they put out a heavily revised version I am less likely to care for it...because I like it for what it actually was in the past...I want more of that. Not something fundamentally different with the same name at the top of the cover.

What does a gutted Dark Sun setting cause you to lose?

Time, money, and access to new content.

If there's no chance they're making new Dark Sun stuff, I lose nothing.

If they are making new Dark Sun stuff that's not for me, I lose out on that new content. And if I try to engage with people who are new to Dark Sun with the new content, I have to invest in the new content enough to spot the differences between that and whatever I'd do, then talk about the differences, explain why this or that, etc. I had to do that exact thing with Spelljammer. It was honestly easier to run Spelljammer in 5E before the product came out because the players were blank slates rather than filled with stuff fundamentally different than what I was doing.

Surely it would have at least some good nuggets of setting detail and workable defiling rules, right?

I don't need WotC for that. No one does.

Not to dogpile on the pushback you've gotten in this thread, I realize people's preferences differ. Let me, I guess, concur with you that I love the setting and would very much like to see it done well.

It's my all-time favorite setting for D&D. Probably my all-time favorite setting period. And yeah, I'd love to see it done well.

I just don't think WotC is capable of doing it well. And I don't think it's possible to do in the current crazy environment we live in.

 

[dave2008]

You got a link? That's interesting if true.

I don't know if it is in the marketing advice (quick google search couldn't find any of the original marketing from the launch); however, I did find this on Sage Advice (FYI Dan is a D&D designer for WotC):

 

[DorkForge]

"You'll need your DM's permission" is as close to a flat no as D&D can or should get, isn't it? I mean, some DM might want, say, tabaxi to be playable in Dark Sun.

I mean, I just took a look at Dragonlance and couldn't see it at all? Just that it presented PHB characters in a Dragonlance lense and added Kender. Theros went further saying PHB races are: "side from humans, the races in the Player's Handbook are unknown on Theros, unless they're visiting from other worlds."
Which isn't an explicit no, but is an explicit excuse to play something not listed.
So, no, I don't think they've gone as far as ruling something out explicitly yet.

 

[dave2008]

I mean, I just took a look at Dragonlance and couldn't see it at all? Just that it presented PHB characters in a Dragonlance lense and added Kender. Theros went further saying PHB races are: "side from humans, the races in the Player's Handbook are unknown on Theros, unless they're visiting from other worlds."
Which isn't an explicit no, but is an explicit excuse to play something not listed.
So, no, I don't think they've gone as far as ruling something out explicitly yet.

This is what DL: Shadow of the Dragon Queen has to say about it (after: "...contextualizes the races from the Player’s Handbook within the world of Krynns." as: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Humans, & Kender):

 

[Zardnaar]

I look forward to more WotC settings dipped in the cauldron of blandness!!.

 

[Faolyn]

Why? It’s the easiest thing in the world to just not include that.

Not really. By including them as something that's legal (and therefore socially acceptable) and readily available, that's basically giving PCs carte blanche to buy a slave.

 

[Burnside]

This is what DL: Shadow of the Dragon Queen has to say about it (after: "...contextualizes the races from the Player’s Handbook within the world of Krynns." as: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Humans, & Kender):

View attachment 276378

This is how they would handle it in Dark Sun. I'm disputing the idea that "banning races" would be some kind of impediment to publishing the setting - that's a non-issue, because they would do this.

 

[Faolyn]

Considering Ravenloft and Spelljammer, I wasn't holding my breath for Dark Sun anyway. And I'm not sure how interesting a new Planescape is going to be.

The thing with Planescape is that literally all that's needed to run it are updated rules for factions--are they backgrounds, feats, factions a la Ravnica, or something else? All the other mechanics have been covered already in 5e.