D&D 5E (2024) Unconfirmed Dark Sun World Book

[Yaarel]

We can have happy slaves.

Actually, thats worse.

 

[Superchunk77]

Neither could the original. It’s an interesting idea in concept, but in practice, why would players care about imaginary environmental damage to a world that does not exist?

Why would it be without slavery? There is slavery in the new FR books. Every world has slavery, it’s a perennial evil. But it’s a boring theme to focus on when the environment and tyranny are far more interesting and contemporary.

But the idea that something should be “faithful” is silly. The whole point of putting out a new version is to modernise it for a contemporary audience.

Defiling worked just fine in the original boxed set. It was well established in its effect, just not really in it its implementation. The UA article however is a complete swing and miss.

WotC won't publish a book with prevalent slavery in it, especially one where the PC's can end up as slaves. At least that was the message in the past and I have seen no evidence that this mantra has changed.

That whole statement, "updated for modern audiences" is just code for overpriced badly written slop. The majority of modernized editions of older media products are of lesser quality, and generally only get attention for their updated visuals.

 

[Superchunk77]

The immersion in slavery is the problem.

Similarly, D&D has violence, but immersion in extreme graphic violence changes the rating.

It's only a problem for some.

The city-states relied almost exclusively on slavery (with the exception of Tyr and New Kurn) for their economies and infrastructure to operate. Just look at what happened to Tyr when their Sorcerer-King was killed, and all of the slaves were freed. The city went through massive riots, famine, crime, and had a large portion of its population wiped out. Then Urik marched an army on them to attempt to take their iron mine, and that was only thwarted by some massive NPC plot armor and super-powered artifacts (with a lot of creative writing).

Slavery is also one of the 8 major pillars of the Dark Sun setting. If you start removing those pillars, the setting collapses in on itself and it's no longer Dark Sun.

 

[Lalato]

WotC already published a book where the PC's literally start out as slaves. Out of the Abyss has the first section starting out as captured by the Drow and doing slave work for a while until an event occurs that allows for an escape.

Then later, it's made clear that the Duergar also practice slavery. So clearly WotC doesn't have an issue with it... so why do people keep saying this?

 

[Superchunk77]

WotC already published a book where the PC's literally start out as slaves. Out of the Abyss has the first section starting out as captured by the Drow and doing slave work for a while until an event occurs that allows for an escape.

Then later, it's made clear that the Duergar also practice slavery. So clearly WotC doesn't have an issue with it... so why do people keep saying this?

Because that adventure was published in 2015. The current view of WotC is much less tolerant of this type of subject matter.

 

[Remathilis]

Last year, FWIW, we did have a full roadmap of the 2025 official book publications before the end of 2024.

I know this because I was on a year-end podcast recorded in mid-December 2024 where we were able to preview pretty much the full slate of 2025 books - the Stranger Things boxed set was not known about, and I think we didn't know about the Eberron one also, but Monster Manual, Dragon Delves, Heroes of the Borderlands, and the two FR books were known about by mid-December 2024 at the latest, as well as their rough release timing (not exact dates).

We knew about the starter set, Dragon Delves and the FR duology. Eberron was announced later with a secret October book they finally announced was Stranger Things in September.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's only a problem for some.

The city-states relied almost exclusively on slavery (with the exception of Tyr and New Kurn) for their economies and infrastructure to operate.

True of many real world societies, but it’s still veiled for entertainment purposes (e.g. 300), just like lots of other bad stuff.

Slavery is also one of the 8 major pillars of the Dark Sun setting. If you start removing those pillars, the setting collapses in on itself and it's no longer Dark Sun.

Nonsense, slavery exists in the setting, just like it does in FR and Greyhawk. But not every FR story has to focus on Thay. I have to suspect what you are really objecting to is the unlikelihood of images of slave girls in bondage gear and other Gor type adolescent male fantasies.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Because that adventure was published in 2015. The current view of WotC is much less tolerant of this type of subject matter.

As mentioned already in this thread, the new FR books have slavery, and they were published a month or two ago.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WotC already published a book where the PC's literally start out as slaves. Out of the Abyss has the first section starting out as captured by the Drow and doing slave work for a while until an event occurs that allows for an escape.

Then later, it's made clear that the Duergar also practice slavery. So clearly WotC doesn't have an issue with it... so why do people keep saying this?

Because the internet

 

[Parmandur]

We knew about the starter set, Dragon Delves and the FR duology. Eberron was announced later with a secret October book they finally announced was Stranger Things in September.

Not super clear to me whybthey kept Eberron under wraps, though maybe they were less certain about format before the beginning of the year, and the Stranger Thigns tie-in was about aligning with Netflix marketing cycle.