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Message: <blockquote data-quote="squibbles" data-source="post: 8274785" data-attributes="member: 6937590">Interesting.That's exactly what they did in 4e by changing the map scale from 30 miles to 75 miles. I don't think the 4e materials really stressed the limitations of travel and connectivity between cities, but the designers definitely anticipated your critique.I'm 100% in agreement with you.If WotC does an update of Dark Sun, they are going to sand down some of its hard edges to promote inclusivity. That's fine but, rather than getting a homunculus of the 1991 set--sans problematic bits--I'd prefer they start with fresh canvas.Take all of the themes and conventions of the original, but create a new stretch of tableland with a new batch of city states and a new set of oppressive sorcerer kings. I bet there would be some truly excellent entries if new writers were set loose on that premise--entries that are enriched by our 21st century zeitgeist rather than hindered by it. There'd be some duds too but it's not like I'd have to use them.And the beauty of setting things on the east bank of the Sea of Silt is that there's precedent for it--several of those ~60 sorcerer kings I mathed out from the implied premises of the 1991 set could easily be there. And they'd be independent enough from the prior lore that not much would need to be retconned (for those who care). Rajaat could just be said to have had a bunch more champions than previously recorded.Yeah, stats are the biggest value added of an official product. But let me ask: do they need to be written for the 7 rulers of the Tyr region--Kalak, Hamanu, Abalach-Re, Nibenay, Andropinis, Lalali-Puy, and Tektuktitlay?4e treated them as though they are very different from one another, but in the 2e materials--Dragon Kings, City by the Silt Sea, Marauders of Nibenay, Black Flames, Beyond the Prism Pentad--sorcerer kings are just different level 'dragons' with different loadouts of spells and psionic sciences, i.e Nibenay; 24th level dragon king, Hamanu; 23rd level dragon king, Dregoth; 29th level dragon king. Wouldn't, say, a half dozen sorcerer kings and a template to create more (and maybe an advancement path for high level PCs) serve for the Tyr region sorcerer kings? Some of the original seven, like Tektuktitlay and Abalach-Re, are pretty bland to begin with and wouldn't much suffer from reusing stat blocks written for other sorcerer king NPCs.</blockquote>

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