Voadam
Legend
I think slavery is one of multiple strong themes in Dark Sun.
Evil Sorcerer Kings
Post Apocalyptic desert.
Metal and water poor.
Psionics.
Defiling magic.
No gods but elemental powers.
Weird D&D including twists on races.
The absence of some common D&D things like gnomes and horses.
The Dragon.
I really liked the original boxed set a lot and a bunch of the supplements and themes, I read the first set of novels but never DM'd it straight as a setting (just a background adventure for a Dark Sun character to get pulled into Ravenloft) and I only played a few games in Dark Sun. I do not like some of the metaplot developments in the setting. I was not a fan of the novels immediately killing off most of the sorcerer kings and the dragon, I thought that took away big cool parts of the setting. So I am a fan but not a hard core fan.
Slavery seems pretty integral for the setting though. Slavery is common in the sorcerer king city states. Arena fighting is mostly a slave gladiator thing and you have the gladiator class as big DS development. You have the sterile half-dwarf muls who are introduced as often bred specifically for slave gladiator and labor purposes.
The first adventure DS1 Freedom sets up slavery as a big background element
"Enter the ancient and corrupt city of Tyr, whose tyrannical sorcerer king has ruled for a millennium. As you wander the city, from the wreck of the Elven warrens to the sanguine splendor of the arena, you realize that the citizens of Tyr thirst less for water than they do for freedom.
Now, after a century of slave labor, sorcerer king Kalak's great ziggurat nears completion. He has promised the city a grand celebration when the monument is done, complete with the most brutal arena spectacle in Tyr's long history. Rumors abound as to the nature of the spectacle: some believe it will bring with it the longed for manumission of countless slaves: others fear the annihilation of Tyr and her people as a sacrifice to Kalak's hunger for power; and a secret few believe it will be a day of revolution - a day of freedom."
The first supplement was DSR1 Slave Tribes.
Some of the adventures have being captured by slavers and escaping as part of the plot.
From my memories of the novels the protagonist of the first one is Rikus, a mul slave gladiator who becomes an ex-slave gladiator hero. Refreshing myself on the Wikipedia entries, other ex-slave protagonists include Neeva and Sadira.
Freeing slaves is a plot element in the novels and the setting with a city where the sorcerer king was killed and slavery abolished.
You can run Dark Sun without foregrounding slavery as an issue, you could easily have players based out of a free area and deal with non slavery related stuff. Just focus on desert survival, weird monsters, the twists on normal D&D stuff, defiling magic, exploring the history and mysteries, the politics, merchant caravans, etc.
You could excise slavery entirely, but you would be taking one of the fairly integral aspects of the background setting away and cutting off a number of fairly standard Dark Sun plot elements (the threat of slavers, escaping slavery after capture, freeing slaves).
Evil Sorcerer Kings
Post Apocalyptic desert.
Metal and water poor.
Psionics.
Defiling magic.
No gods but elemental powers.
Weird D&D including twists on races.
The absence of some common D&D things like gnomes and horses.
The Dragon.
I really liked the original boxed set a lot and a bunch of the supplements and themes, I read the first set of novels but never DM'd it straight as a setting (just a background adventure for a Dark Sun character to get pulled into Ravenloft) and I only played a few games in Dark Sun. I do not like some of the metaplot developments in the setting. I was not a fan of the novels immediately killing off most of the sorcerer kings and the dragon, I thought that took away big cool parts of the setting. So I am a fan but not a hard core fan.
Slavery seems pretty integral for the setting though. Slavery is common in the sorcerer king city states. Arena fighting is mostly a slave gladiator thing and you have the gladiator class as big DS development. You have the sterile half-dwarf muls who are introduced as often bred specifically for slave gladiator and labor purposes.
The first adventure DS1 Freedom sets up slavery as a big background element
"Enter the ancient and corrupt city of Tyr, whose tyrannical sorcerer king has ruled for a millennium. As you wander the city, from the wreck of the Elven warrens to the sanguine splendor of the arena, you realize that the citizens of Tyr thirst less for water than they do for freedom.
Now, after a century of slave labor, sorcerer king Kalak's great ziggurat nears completion. He has promised the city a grand celebration when the monument is done, complete with the most brutal arena spectacle in Tyr's long history. Rumors abound as to the nature of the spectacle: some believe it will bring with it the longed for manumission of countless slaves: others fear the annihilation of Tyr and her people as a sacrifice to Kalak's hunger for power; and a secret few believe it will be a day of revolution - a day of freedom."
The first supplement was DSR1 Slave Tribes.
Some of the adventures have being captured by slavers and escaping as part of the plot.
From my memories of the novels the protagonist of the first one is Rikus, a mul slave gladiator who becomes an ex-slave gladiator hero. Refreshing myself on the Wikipedia entries, other ex-slave protagonists include Neeva and Sadira.
Freeing slaves is a plot element in the novels and the setting with a city where the sorcerer king was killed and slavery abolished.
You can run Dark Sun without foregrounding slavery as an issue, you could easily have players based out of a free area and deal with non slavery related stuff. Just focus on desert survival, weird monsters, the twists on normal D&D stuff, defiling magic, exploring the history and mysteries, the politics, merchant caravans, etc.
You could excise slavery entirely, but you would be taking one of the fairly integral aspects of the background setting away and cutting off a number of fairly standard Dark Sun plot elements (the threat of slavers, escaping slavery after capture, freeing slaves).