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What I don't want is a setting that encourages rat-bastard PCs who are slightly less terrible than the Sorcerer-Kings and Templars they profess as enemies. A setting where Tyr is just the start, not the end, of the good that can be done via heroics and collective action. A setting that doesn't...

How does the setting promote heroic play? I ask this in genuine curiosity. From an outsider perspective, it doesn't. (Or, didn't, pre 4e). I compared to classic Ravenloft because Ravenloft is superficially similar (grim setting, evil overpowers good) but while Ravenloft doesn't provide carrots...

First rule of Enworld: you don't debate red text. Unless you're not a fan of your account.

Does it? Most of the vibe I get from people who liked the classic setting is that they don't want heroes. They want bad people who do bad things to even badder people. Good isn't a moral choice, it's an unintended consequence. Which is why preserving should be weak and paladins non-existent and...

In a story, I agree. In a GAME, that's more complicated. I know they say D&D doesn't have a win/lose state, but it does encourage survival (dead player characters don't advance stories) and survival is predicated on power. So if you have two options where one is clearly the better choice...

That just reinforces my long held belief that Dark Suns biggest draw was that it is a setting that isn't even morally gray, it's black vs pitch black and the winners are whoever can be the biggest bastards. It permitted, may encouraged, you to be a bunch of be selfish and cruel. If the settings...

The issue is carrots and sticks. D&D is still a game, and the has to be a better trade off for preserving than a feeling of moral superiority to work. That's part of the fundamental flaw in Dark Sun if you want it to be hopepunk rather than grimdark: you need to incentivize hope rather than...

This thread has shown me a lot of people apparently have either forgotten or homebrewed what preserving and defiling meant.

Maybe so, but it's thematically more satisfying to say, "I'm trying to preserve, but the temptation to get extra power via defiling is tempting" than it is to say, "I have to intentionally tie one arm behind my back in order to be a good person". Maybe it's my Star Wars addled brain, but I find...

I would have thought the Purple Dragon Knight fiasco would convince people to quit jumping to conclusions, but everyone out here like it's Olympic Poke vaulting tryouts

Yeah, that didn't work that well either.

That preview is the perfect encapsulation of the edgelord aesthetic that dates Dark Sun. "I was cut out of my dying mother's womb" is absolute pizza cutter (all edge, no point). Anyway, it only takes a clever life shaper halfling or a powerful druid, psionic or such to morph muls from a...

Would it be Dark Sun if it wasn't op as hell? 😎

I mean, that's somewhat consistent with the original box set. The default wizard was the preserver and the defiler was a wizard with a faster XP track. From a rules perspective, the PHB wizard is a preserver and the defiler is the "cheat to get ahead" class. I think you would have been right...

That too, but not relevant to the topic.

I'm more disappointed in the remake of Harry Potter, considering that there isn't enough time between the movies and the series to do anything more than rehash the same plot but with more filler.

Honestly, Fallout Athas sounds kinda awesome.

I run Ravenloft pretty regularly and I try to walk a fine line between hope and despair. The PCs can't fundamentally change the nature of Ravenloft; the Dark Powers can't be overcome, the Dark Lords never fully defeated. But their plans can be disrupted, the lives of those living in the domains...

I want more Forge of the Artificer type setting updates: a Heros of Horror update for Ravenloft, Spacefarers Handbook for Spelljammer (now with actual ship combat rules!), a Heroes of the Lance guide to Dragonlance, a Planeswalkers Guide to Planescape, etc.

You realize some of the best art is also made not by the original artist, but by those who came later and reinterpreted it? What would the X-Men look like if only Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were allowed to write them? No Clairemont to introduce Wolverine, Storm, Kitty Pride, Nightcrawler, etc? No...