D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[Baron Opal II]

At any rate if Steampunkette or anyone else does decide to work on an A5E Dark Sun-esque setting hit me up because i'd like to help & i could use the work.

Me too. I wouldn't mind getting my hand back into writing.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Me too. I wouldn't mind getting my had back into writing.

I would also like a crack at it

 

[Steampunkette]

Y'know, there's a Gate Pass Gazette open call for pitches coming next month, @Chaltab, @Baron Opal II, and @Mind of tempest.

Doing a little work for EN Publishing is a great way to start things off, and you get paid 5 cents a word!

 

[Mind of tempest]

Y'know, there's a Gate Pass Gazette open call for pitches coming next month, @Chaltab, @Baron Opal II, and @Mind of tempest.

Doing a little work for EN Publishing is a great way to start things off, and you get paid 5 cents a word!

no I did not, nor have I ever written for anyone thus I do not know what to expect

 

[Steampunkette]

no I did not, nor have I ever written for anyone thus I do not know what to expect

Gate Pass Gazette - Upcoming Gate Pass Gazette Pitch Call

That creaking you hear? It's the gates of the next Gate Pass pitch call getting ready to open! If you're not already on the pitch call list but want to be, email gatepass@enpublishingrpg.com and title it "Gate Pass Gazette Freelancer" followed by your name, and express your interest in the body...

www.enworld.org

Zan Broadway is the editor of the GPG and posts about pitch calls on the forums, here, before they come up! Just follow the instructions in their first post and you'll get added to the mailing list!

You'll submit your pitches via E-mail (I typically use a Google Doc for ease of access before and after pitching).

The most effective format for pitches I've found, so far, is to do a header which expresses an initial title, an overview of the article's contents, and such like so:

And then include an example of something that would appear in the article, thusly:

This pitch would later be published as "Living at the Edge of Night" in issue 2 of the GPG!

Level Up: Gate Pass Gazette Issue #2 (A5E)

The Gate Pass Gazette is the official monthly magazine for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition. Each month, this digital supplement comes crammed with new rules and resources for your game. Avenging Archetypes When fate has dealt the world a dire hand and everything is on the table, only the most...

enpublishingrpg.com

Each commissioned article is 2,000 words, 5 cents a word, and $100 per article. Though Zan is -very- fair with article publishing and won't use multiple articles from the same author within a month of each other to avoid crowding out new talent. They're -super- cool and I love them to pieces.

The standard contract is exclusive publishing rights for 1 year. After that year is up, you're able to republish your words anywhere you like and even sell them to other companies or in your own products!

It's a great little leg up and I truly wish more 5e players and homebrewers knew about the GPG. Especially since it's all official A5e content, not "Third Party" since EN Publishing puts it out and adds it to their material going forward! (All the GPG stuff becomes available on the A5e.Tools site, so anyone can use your work in their games!)

There's also the EN5ider magazine that EN Publishing puts out monthly that works the exact same way, except Mike Myler is the one who manages that one! Get your information to him and you can do 3rd Party 5e content, too! I've done it, and it's a great way to get some exposure, a little cash, and access to a writing community that is -super- supportive!

 

[Mind of tempest]

is there a topic for this year?

 

[Steampunkette]

is there a topic for this year?

Nope!

The editor will send you a list of things they want (Archetypes, Backgrounds, Heritages, Cultures, Feats, Spells, Alternate Class Abilities, Monsters, Etc) and you can pick and choose off that list anything you want to pitch. But that's based on the GPG Patreon poll, so you can keep track of where that is and plan pitches accordingly!

So far the only full class was in GPG 1 with the Artificer, but I'm hoping against hope we'll get another class entry that I can fight, tooth and nail, for!

But as far as the "Theme" it's entirely in the air. I've done two articles about an Airship crew, two Magic Martial Maneuvers articles, the Zevites as a planestriders heritage, a dungeon delving system, the backgrounds and destinies in the Edge of Night article...

And my next article involves Voidrunning space ant people.

 

[Steampunkette]

If you see a "Knave" class coming out of the GPG soon you can blame me for trying to do a 'Better Illrigger'.

 

[Aldarc]

Forced was meant to imply that a lot of Dark Suns excesses were reigned in. Much of the 2e PHB was useless as DS used its own stat generation, rewrote nearly all the races and classes, had its own equipment section, changed the rules on magic, etc. The 2e PHB was only usable for basic rules (dice rolling, combat, etc) and spell descriptions. By contrast, the 4e Dark Sun uses much of the 4e core options with a few omissions (no gnomes or divine magic), re flavors (goliaths and dragonborn as half-giants and dray) and additions (adding the option to defile to any caster rather than being a specific class).

2e wanted to use a little of the core books as it could, 4e incorporated as much of the core rules as the setting could allow. That is a fundamental change to the nature of setting design and IMHO a better style of setting design.

Dark Sun 2e never felt like it should have had clerics in the game, elemental servitors or not. Clerics felt like they were mostly shoehorned in there for the sake of having healers.

However, the role system of 4e ironically allowed WotC to make the bold decision to remove all divine casters. Even absent clerics, there were other healers or support classes available: Warlords (which are a great fit for Dark Sun), primal Shamans, psionic Ardents, and even arcane Bards. IMHO, I personally think that the absence of the divine power source made for a better Dark Sun.

 

[Aldarc]

I am surprised that a manga/movie has not been mentioned yet in regards to a potential hopepunk influence for Dark Sun.


Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind is more science-fiction but there are similar ideas of hope for humanity creating a life in a post-apocalyptic landscape that is slowly killing them. I would recommend the manga as it goes a bit more into the setting themes with greater complexity and nuance.