D&D (2024) D&D Monster Manual (2025)

[Imaro]

Sure...its like having Ragnarök in the future of the setting.

Hmmm...ok

You can play way before the event, using it as a foretold DOOM, or

You could do this without its destruction being pre-ordained in s published product.

Darksun campaign conclusion: The Black Hole is starting to shred the barrier around Dark Sun, can your players use this window of opportunity to evacuate survivors off the world before the end? Will this survivors (due to black hole time shenanigans actually be the founding races of the cosmos, i.e. Dark Sun was the Prime World?

But do you need an official ending for this? I guess what I'm getting at is what is the benefit to the setting having meta plot for those actually playing in it?

 

[Dire Bare]

But do you need an official ending for this? I guess what I'm getting at is what is the benefit to the setting having meta plot for those actually playing in it?

Why the pushback? Some folks think it's a cool idea . . . you don't. Okay.

Personally, it's simply the "rule of cool" . . . and I agree, it's cool (and on theme) that the world of Athas is doomed. If you don't agree . . . well, that's alright!

 

[Dire Bare]

It makes sense when you are trying to claim the 5e community for 3pps and force WotC out of it. The dream scenario is that WotC goes and swanders off to do its own thing with a 6e by itself and leaves 5e to 3pps like TotV and Level Up to be the 5e standard bearers. That way all 5e conversations will omit WotC who can do no right.

Well, that's an odd position to take . . . IMO.

Eventually, there will be a true 6th Edition, one that differs significantly from today's D&D . . . even if we get there incrementally. Will the alt-5E games survive the transition long? Pathfinder seems to be doing fine after 3E ended publication, although it has itself evolved . . .

 

[Dire Bare]

You really think if WotC had just dropped dragonborn all over the Realms with no explanation people would have just shrugged and accepted it?

Well, actually . . . the Realms already had dragon-people before 4th Edition, during 2E actually. They were an obscure race, written as antagonists (monsters) . . . I only remember them from one of the Monstrous Compendium appendixes, which pulled them from an earlier source . . .

 

[Imaro]

Why the pushback? Some folks think it's a cool idea . . . you don't. Okay.

Personally, it's simply the "rule of cool" . . . and I agree, it's cool (and on theme) that the world of Athas is doomed. If you don't agree . . . well, that's alright!

No pushback... just trying to understand why this can't be done unofficially and if it can what the advantage is of having it ended officially... especially given the decline of community around most "dead" ttrpg products.

 

[Dire Bare]

No pushback... just trying to understand why this can't be done unofficially and if it can what the advantage is of having it ended officially... especially given the decline of community around most "dead" ttrpg products.

Huh?

It could be done unofficially, as homebrew, sure. It could also be done officially. Shrug. Folks are only saying, "Hey, I think that's a neat idea!" That's all.

 

[SkidAce]

But do you need an official ending for this? I guess what I'm getting at is what is the benefit to the setting having meta plot for those actually playing in it?

Use as is for those that need or like it, or inspire ideas in others.

IMO, its kinda like the "why not both" meme...

 

[Bae'zel]

As an aside, I'd love to see a thread on "Make Monsters Scary Again".

A place to discuss ways to get the characters, and their players, actually a bit anxious about the myriad mythical monsters they encounter.

Stuff like:

- show evidence of the monsters' deeds (destroyed farms, bodies of victims, lingering effects of their presence etc...) nice stuff from the WItcher RPG by Talsorian games

- adjust the stat blocks so that they're not banal and routine ("whaddaya mean these trolls aren't bothered by fire?")

- Monster tactics (eg insights from books like "The Monsters KNow What They're Doing", by Keith Ammann)

- Typical monster allies, hangers on and parasites (stirges follow the creature about because of all of the blood that gets splattered in their wake, goblins always have wolves and small fey sprites, Drow always have monstrous, expendable slaves etc)

- Thematic "finishing moves" or scary critical hits or "bloodied condition" effects (at 50% HP the vampire vomits a fountain of blood at the heroes, possibly blinding and choking them, the Death Knight may decapitate or chop off a limb on a target with a critical etc...)

 

[Echohawk]

As a fan of the setting you wanted the setting... destroyed??

Knowing that Athas's sun eventually turns into a black hole in Spelljammer canon doesn't in any way destroy the Dark Sun setting for me. Similarly, knowing that our sun will likely engulf Earth within eight billion years does't spoil my enjoyment of the planet right now.

 

[Remathilis]

Knowing that Athas's sun eventually turns into a black hole in Spelljammer canon doesn't in any way destroy the Dark Sun setting for me. Similarly, knowing that our sun will likely engulf Earth within eight billion years does't spoil my enjoyment of the planet right now.

The issue isn't "eventually", its that it is now. There isn't a lot of continuity amongst settings, but Eye of Ruin seems to be set in the settings as they are now in the current books, all at the same time. So I would assume most of the settings would be happening simultaneously. So that would place Dark Sun as dead relative to all other settings as they are now. Probably not a good way to sell Dark Sun.

I assume the thought was to end DS and never speak of it again. Between then and DMG 24, they changed their mind. So I suspect that a more alive version closer to 4e's Dark Sun will be what we see in the future.