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

Morrus · Jan 5, 2026

Superchunk77 said:
I don't want it at all.

Well that’s an easy solution. Don’t buy it!

humble minion · Jan 5, 2026

Superchunk77 said:
4e Dark Sun didn't ignore nearly half of the canon from earlier editions.

Um, yes it did.

It ignored the Prism Pentad and the many subsequent supplements or parts of supplements that discussed the post-Prism world, it ignored Mind Lords of the Sea, it pretty much brushed over the existence of Kurn and Eldaarich and the Obsidian Wastes and even Ur Draxa. From memory (I’m away from my books right now) it largely ignored the Kreen material that later 2e book expanded on. The list would go on ( but I’m tired and am forgetting stuff).

One of the things many many people genuinely LIKED about 4e Dark Sun was its willingness to chuck out bad old lore, or setting-destructive lore like the overly NPC-centric Pentad and retcon the timeline. I certainly have my disagreements with the 4th Ed book, but they got that one ENTIRELY right in my opinion.

SableWyvern · Jan 5, 2026

humble minion said:
Um, yes it did.

It ignored the Prism Pentad and the many subsequent supplements or parts of supplements that discussed the post-Prism world, it ignored Mind Lords of the Sea, it pretty much brushed over the existence of Kurn and Eldaarich and the Obsidian Wastes and even Ur Draxa. From memory (I’m away from my books right now) it largely ignored the Kreen material that later 2e book expanded on. The list would go on ( but I’m tired and am forgetting stuff).

One of the things many many people genuinely LIKED about 4e Dark Sun was its willingness to chuck out bad old lore, or setting-destructive lore like the overly NPC-centric Pentad and retcon the timeline. I certainly have my disagreements with the 4th Ed book, but they got that one ENTIRELY right in my opinion.

I'm no expert, but the feeling I get around various Dark Sun communities is that 4e Dark Sun was, overall, well received and if it's barely talked about now that has a lot more to do with the 4e part than the Dark Sun part.

LuisCarlos17f · Jan 5, 2026

My suggestion to try to fix the controversies about the continuity is the Athaspace was the battlefield of a "multiversal war". The choice was because due to be a post-apocaliptic world the risk of collateral damages was lower, and deities manipulated the chronomancer factions because the Athaspace was not their "business".

If Tharizdum is a deity and this were sent to the Athaspace where deities lost their divinity... maybe Tharizdum is in other place within the Athaspace.

Superchunk77 · Jan 5, 2026

humble minion said:
It ignored the Prism Pentad and the many subsequent supplements or parts of supplements that discussed the post-Prism world, it ignored Mind Lords of the Sea, it pretty much brushed over the existence of Kurn and Eldaarich and the Obsidian Wastes and even Ur Draxa. From memory (I’m away from my books right now) it largely ignored the Kreen material that later 2e book expanded on.

If by "ignore" you mean didn't have enough room to include all of that stuff then, yeah, ok. And the timeline in the book takes place just after Kalak's death (the year of Priest's Defiance), so of course it didn't have the prism pentad, as those events hadn't happened yet. All of those other topics were part of the second revised boxed set, or detailed in additional supplements.

humble minion said:
One of the things many many people genuinely LIKED about 4e Dark Sun was its willingness to chuck out bad old lore, or setting-destructive lore like the overly NPC-centric Pentad and retcon the timeline.

Again, it didn't retcon that stuff. It just left the door open for people to progress the campaign timeline how they wanted by not chaining the setting to the novels.

The only thing I have found that it did change was the History of Athas, as they wanted to tie the setting to the 4e cosmology. They also glossed over a lot of the historical events, which again, isn't really changing them, as the history of Athas has always been a contentious topic.

Zardnaar · Jan 5, 2026

Superchunk77 said:
If by "ignore" you mean didn't have enough room to include all of that stuff then, yeah, ok. And the timeline in the book takes place just after Kalak's death (the year of Priest's Defiance), so of course it didn't have the prism pentad, as those events hadn't happened yet. All of those other topics were part of the second revised boxed set, or detailed in additional supplements.

Again, it didn't retcon that stuff. It just left the door open for people to progress the campaign timeline how they wanted by not chaining the setting to the novels.

The only thing I have found that it did change was the History of Athas, as they wanted to tie the setting to the 4e cosmology. They also glossed over a lot of the historical events, which again, isn't really changing them, as the history of Athas has always been a contentious topic.

They messed up the vibe. They didnt pull an FR with it though.

I would go back to the OBS and retcon nothing history wise. OBS had very little.

So people whobwantvtobkillbkalak can do so. People who want to start later can advance the timeline.

Include the race from 4E and revised boxed set with ask the DM for the newer ones.
I don't expect much about add on material eg Last Sea and Kurn etc. Just focus on the original area.

Major themes.

Environmental destruction via magic
Environmental effects eg heat.
Lack of metal
Slavery/SK city states
Non traditoonal/limited races
Psionics

Evils already won up to the heroes to change it.

Misanthrope Prime · Jan 5, 2026

Maxperson said:
You might want to talk to the Native Americans and African Americans about whether or not slavery, imperialism, and genocide are a part of the American culture.

Also, talk to Jeffrey Dahmer and the Donner Party(man, that sounds like a 60s rock band).

American genocidaires to their British forebears be like

LuisCarlos17f · Jan 5, 2026

What are the Obsidian Wastes?

Other point: We are now in a new age where streamers with help of AI to create images can create fan-fiction videos in youtube style Dragonlance two centuries later or What if X-Men in Dark Sun. This could mean the creation of alternate timelines or true reboots with a different list of sorcerer-kings.

Zardnaar · Jan 5, 2026

LuisCarlos17f said:
What are the Obsidian Wastes?

Other point: We are now in a new age where streamers with help of AI to create images can create fan-fiction videos in youtube style Dragonlance two centuries later or What if X-Men in Dark Sun. This could mean the creation of alternate timelines or true reboots with a different list of sorcerer-kings.

Darksun its probably the dead lands. Added in the revised boxed set

I'm A Banana · Jan 6, 2026

SableWyvern said:
I'm no expert, but the feeling I get around various Dark Sun communities is that 4e Dark Sun was, overall, well received and if it's barely talked about now that has a lot more to do with the 4e part than the Dark Sun part.

I played in a 4e Dark Sun game.

I'm not a huge expert on Dark Sun lore, but my experience was generally fine. A little disappointed by the exploration/survival aspect being so small in scope, and a little disappointed by the defiler mechanic being not super enticing, mostly.

With the survival aspect, I'd expect the wilderness on Athas to be able to kill PC's with the weather well into 5e's Tier 3. I'd expect even well-worn trade roads to challenge Tier 1 characters, and most wilderness areas to be a reasonable risk for Tier 2, with maybe the more extreme zones in Tier 3. 4e Dark Sun's weather wasn't a major issue for us ever. Just an aesthetic.

With the defiler mechanic, I'd expect a rule where arcane magic kills things by default and you have to do something EXTRA (make some effort) to stop doing that. The 4e rules made defiling an opt-in thing rather than an opt-out thing, which hurt the vibe because then arcane magic was just normal for the party and no one really had an issue with it. Which isn't what I'd expect in this setting, where to be an arcanist is to be complicit unless you know some secret and do hard things.

But the character options were cromulent and the setting still had that "fighting against the apocalypse" kind of vibe in the antagonists that the DM chose, and all of that went a long way to having a good time with the setting, even with a few structural problems in the design. It was cool to play with more psionic PC's, and I really enjoyed my two characters (a thri-kreen monk/ranger, loyal to one of the Sorcerer Kings, who mechanically was just there to get as many attacks as possible in a turn; and a water genasi swarm druid who I flavored to be a human whose powers were about summoning water but who could never keep the water around, since it was just a magical creation, someone who was haunted by their failure to bring back water and who mourned the world each time she used her powers).

A 5e Dark Sun in the vein of the FR setting books could be a nice thing. I especially enjoy the adventure options in the 5e FR books, and I think a 5e Dark Sun could really show the setting off with a few of those. 5e is also kind of overdue for some robust psionic options, and it would be cool to have some deadly environments and to get another take on what defiling could be like as a setting element that costs you something to overcome.