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.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Sorry, but we could fix a solution sooner if we don't try to talk like a moral authority scolding to shows a different opinion. If we want to stop the bigotry, the hate-speech and those things, then the coherence demands to show respect for the human dignity.

I can't be convived when any body doesn't show enough respect. Convincing is not about forcing others to say you are right.

How to explain it? For example I have got my reasons to explain because Ixalan can be potentially ofensive and politically correct, at least in the eyes of a future generation. If I want to expose my position, I should use an asertive tone. Other example: the character David in the 8th episode 1st Season "When we are in need" of the teleserie "The last of us" is offensive, really offensive. It is not only irritating, but very outrageous because it is an attack against a community what is suffering psychological and physical attacks in different places of the world, and now in a far past, but even in the last years, in the present. But being right is not enough. I have to take care with my words because if I cause the image I am too radical, then I will can to help to fix nothing at all. We have to use an assertive and moderate tone. We need social skills as the diplomacy and the empathy.

I want to know the difference between something can be offensive for the most of the population, or only offensive for a little but radical group who causes a lot of noise.

And you can't help to create a better world for everybody if you forget the respect for the human dignity, the core of our rights as people. Without the respect for the human dignity we can become into monster like those mercyless princes and nobles from "Game of Thrones".

To talk with true moral authority before you have to earn the trust by the others. Do you remember the Sgt Hartman in the movie "the metalic jacket"? My grandfather was in the Spanish civil war. In the real battlefiel if an official talked like this to his soldiers.. when these lost the saint patience, then these could make "it look like an accident".

Be diplomatic, be assertive, show respect, and the others will be willing to keep listening you.

I haven't to foce them any thing. It is an IP with a great potential value, and if they don't use, they will be losing money. It is not a project to be closed, but they have to find a better way. They could earn more money if they could find a viable solution instead surrending too soon.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And you can't help to create a better world for everybody if you forget the respect for the human dignity

By promoting the theme park experience of people owning other people.

 

[Zardnaar]

By promoting the theme park experience of people owning other people.

Including things like slavery doesn't promote it.

How its executed matters.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Including things like slavery doesn't promote it.

How its executed matters.

Apparently, having slavery as a thing is a literal selling point for some people?

 

[Zardnaar]

Apparently, having slavery as a thing is a literal selling point for some people?

Not specifically for me but it does fall into the post apocalyptic brutal type world.

I play Fallout 4 for example. It's R18. Making it PG or PG13 kinda defeats the point of the game. Same with Saints Row or Grand Theft auto.

I also play Stellaris a sandbox 4X grand strategy game. You can outright play evil in that including genocidal.

Eg space skynet, borg, tyranids, slavers etc.

Do you watch movies like Schindlers List, war movies, Starship Troopers, Terminator 2 and enjoy them? How about Aliens, M
ad Max reboot?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

By promoting the theme park experience of people owning other people.

It is really sad if you believe it is a "theme park experience". Then with the same logic we couldn't play games set in the second world war against the nazis, or in the American civil war for the fight against slavery. Can't we play "the Mask of the Red Death" because the British empire did a lot of horrible things? Are we going to cancel "GIJoe: the American hero" because people from the real life suffered terrorist attacks? Or a episode of "Law&Order" where the criminal group catchs illegal inmigrants for forced works. Are we going to cancel all old far west movies what showed Northamerican indigenous?

Are we being too frivoulous, or are you being too radical and extremist?

Do you believe all the movies about the Spanish civil war are a "theme park experience"? There is a movie about the Cristero war in Mexico for the begining of the XX century. Should this be cancelled? Crime in Detroit is real. Are we going to cancel the cartoons of Robocop? There is a Spanish movie "Un Dios prohibido" (a forbidden God) about the seminar of Barbastro, completely terminated for the Spanish civil war. Are you going to say it to be a "theme park experience"? Do you say to be a "theme park experencie" the movie about the crusades "the Kingdom of the Heaven" or "the name of the rose"? What if a Blackafrican in front of your faces says the movie "the Woman King" should be cancelled, because in the real life the Dahomey amazons not only were practically slaves, but also they launched raids against the neighbours to catch slaves. That movie tells them to be anti-slavery, but this is totally false.

Do you say to be a "theme park experencie" the slavery showed in other D&D worlds? For example the scarlet brotherhood in Greyhawk, but also the gnolls, the drows, the illithid, the duergars..

Would you say "theme park experencie" speculative fiction about future distopian dictatorships? For example cyberpunk or V of Vendetta. Let's imagine in the next two years there is a new expansion of New Capena where the citizens start a rebellion against a new dictatorship, and one of the first actions by the resistance is to free innocent people (for example soldiers prisons of war who tried to stop the invasion) punished with forced works (practically state slavery). Would you ask the cancellation?

My ancenstors knew what it was to be attacked by pirates who searched slaves. Someones say there were more Europeans slavered by the Muslims than Blackafricans sent to Northamerica. Should I hold a grudge against Turkish people because Otoman empire did horrible things? The famous pirate Barbarrosa was not English, but Otoman. Didn't you know it?

If I was a child whose pet was brutally killed by a mad man wearing a jacket with the logo of Oakland Golden Grizzlies, should I hate all the people who wore a jacket with the same logo?

Do you agree about the censorship of the teleserie "Dukes of Hazzard" because the car showed the confederate flag?

Should be cancelled the 1939 movie "the Real Glory", with Gary Cooper, about the moro rebellion in Philipines?

Is your criteria based in the good sense?

 

[zedturtle]

So, relevant to this thread:

ASHEN FRONTIERS, a 3pp update inspired by Dark Sun, has just been announced: here.

Beowulf, by the same author, was great.

Today we’ve updated our website (www.ashenfrontiers.com) with information about the two game systems Ashen Frontiers will support, and provided a preview of the six classes for the game!

 

[Vaalingrade]

It is really sad if you believe it is a "theme park experience".

It's a trivializing it so as to be wallpaper and a cheap nod to Howard. Slavery and the suffering of slaves serves no other purpose than titillation and genre coding. DS has nothing to say about slavery; it's just using it for effect at maximum 90's edgelordery.

And frankly, the fact that this is all is EVER is in D&D; just some cheap turbo edge for the backstories of any species they're too lazy to write a real backstory for. If DS was 'the Slavery One', at least it would have a claim to novelty, but D&D has an addiction to slavery so hard, the fan outcry over the mere idea of maybe not having slavery literally all over the place to the point that per capita it is the actual most populace social system in most D&D worlds is a clear withdrawal system.

Also, yes, we could do with less than 50% WWII content in the FPS world. Most gamers have stormed Normandy Beach more often than they're washed their legs.

 

[Gradine]

It's a trivializing it so as to be wallpaper and a cheap nod to Howard. Slavery and the suffering of slaves serves no other purpose than titillation and genre coding. DS has nothing to say about slavery; it's just using it for effect at maximum 90's edgelordery.

And frankly, the fact that this is all is EVER is in D&D; just some cheap turbo edge for the backstories of any species they're too lazy to write a real backstory for. If DS was 'the Slavery One', at least it would have a claim to novelty, but D&D has an addiction to slavery so hard, the fan outcry over the mere idea of maybe not having slavery literally all over the place to the point that per capita it is the actual most populace social system in most D&D worlds is a clear withdrawal system.

Also, yes, we could do with less than 50% WWII content in the FPS world. Most gamers have stormed Normandy Beach more often than they're washed their legs.

Normandy : WWII FPS Games :: Loose Pearls Scattering Across the Pavement : Batman Movies

 

[Vaalingrade]

Normandy : WWII FPS Games :: Loose Pearls Scattering Across the Pavement : Batman Movies

My favorite one is the one where Chill apparently gets Martha's pearls stuck in the slide of his pistol somehow.