D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[Aldarc]

That part was better. I would go back bit further and let Kalak be killed by PCs.

I think that 4e D&D having Kalak be killed and the city of Tyr being free opened the setting to hopepunk.

 

[Chaltab]

I do think having the default be after Kalak's death is useful for gameability. it lets the PCs begin play in a relatively safe home base where slavery is already abolished and that, for all the propaganda, the SKs are neither all powerful nor immortal.

My conversion added that a death curse erased all memory of who killed him so there aren't a bunch of high level heroes stealing the PC's thunder.
.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think that 4e D&D having Kalak be killed and the city of Tyr being free opened the setting to hopepunk.

Just repeating older products.

Revised set and some novels opened the door. If you're setting the game in that timeline.

Read Rise and Fall of A Dragon King?

 

[GrimCo]

When it comes to setting lore, there is such thing as too much.

Give it enough to create feeling of living world, establish key players and factions, give them goals and motivations, then freeze it. In essence, create opening scene and leave it, players will evolve story trough the game. If any more products from the "game line" come out, they don't temper with original setting fluff, they don't move "plot" ahead.

Clear separation between game products and novels. If they ever do novels, put in clause that everything in them should be events that happened before in relation with game.

 

[delericho]

I do think having the default be after Kalak's death is useful for gameability. it lets the PCs begin play in a relatively safe home base where slavery is already abolished and that, for all the propaganda, the SKs are neither all powerful nor immortal.

I tend to agree. Although I'm inclined to suggest it's probably best to do a full-on reboot of the setting, meaning that the dead SK probably isn't Kalak and the free city probably isn't Tyr.

Amongst other things, that could well mean that "Who Killed the King?" can be one of the mysteries at the centre of the campaign.

 

[Retros_x]

The sad part is, even that wasn't enough.

And yet, people still managed to misread it.

But the solution can't be to get even more obvious and get rid of subtext and implications at all. We will just make everybody dumber and dumber, nobody can learn it ever. I have no children so I don't know about state of schools nowadays, but I hope the acknowledge the issue and adjust.

 

[Aldarc]

And yet, people still managed to misread it.

But the solution can't be to get even more obvious and get rid of subtext and implications at all. We will just make everybody dumber and dumber, nobody can learn it ever. I have no children so I don't know about state of schools nowadays, but I hope the acknowledge the issue and adjust.

I don't exactly think that it's a coincidence that we are becoming functionally illiterate as a society. People may know how to read but they increasingly don't, and much less do so critically. Likewise, people may watch films but they don't know how to watch them critically. But there is a deep reluctance in our culture, if not resistance, with engaging in these sorts of things.

 

[Steampunkette]

Anti-Intellectualism is a thing. And it comes in cycles throughout human history. Build-ups of willfully believing one's ignorant opinion is equal to someone else's qualified knowledge. Until enough of the world Dunning Kruger's themselves out of it we're SoL on avoiding that issue.

Refusing to make things obvious for folks who aren't reading critically won't fix anything. It'll just make it so those individuals don't get it.

There's a perfect Tumblr meme about reading comprehension being abysmal.

And it was from TWELVE YEARS AGO.

Anyway, yeah. If I were writing the book (which is the thread's premise) I would spell it out for folks that slavery is outright evil, and everyone knows it and some people do it anyway, regardless of whether or not someone feels it "Holds their Hand" too much.

 

[Aldarc]

Anyway, yeah. If I were writing the book (which is the thread's premise) I would spell it out for folks that slavery is outright evil, and everyone knows it and some people do it anyway, regardless of whether or not someone feels it "Holds their Hand" too much.

And that's not to mention all the sea lions.

 

[A2Z]

Just repeating older products.

Revised set and some novels opened the door. If you're setting the game in that timeline.

Read Rise and Fall of A Dragon King?

The very first adventure, 'Freedom' opened it up