D&D 5E Assuming Dark Sun is on the horizon, what are your worries?

[Remathilis]

Yes, this is the approach I have advocated.

I wouldn't be opposed to this, but then IP so...

I don't know why Dark Sun isn't just its own game... seems like it demands way too much change from the base expectations of DnD...

I have advocated this approach for a long time:. A compatible d20 standalone game with it's own PHB, DMG/CS, and MM. It's a far cry better then with butchering the setting or the core rules to make that shotgun marriage work.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Dark Sun should definitely still be D&D. Now, it should be very, very different than the class/race/magic assumptions made in the PHB. But the system overall should have the same framework.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Many players will want it to be totally compatible, for example because there is a dark domain in Ravenloft whose inhabitants are from Athas, Kalidnay.

* Now I am thinking about the idea based in the thread of the intruder and refugees. Beyond Tyr there is a region with new population. Maybe they faked their own disappeance to trick sorcerer-kings and survive the cleasing wars, or from other world surviving a apocalypse worse than the one from Athas. They aren't welcomed and here people haven't ended to understand the concept of coexestence. And the eladrin have discovered "visitors" from a planar gate in the "land within the wind", from the world of Jakandor, or with links to this.

Other idea is the apparition of the vestiges, something like fallen, or wannabe, gods, but with primal magic.

 

[cbwjm]

I was a fan of the 2e version of dark sun but I also found that the 4e setting nicely captured the feel so I think the design team know what they're doing when updating the setting.

 

[Remathilis]

Dark Sun should definitely still be D&D. Now, it should be very, very different than the class/race/magic assumptions made in the PHB. But the system overall should have the same framework.

I could see a d20-style game with Dark Sun, using the general 5e rules framework (bound accuracy, adv/disadv, prof bonus, etc) but has its own PHB that has all-new write-ups for the available classes, races, spells, equipment, etc. It would reprint some of the regular PHB (the stuff needed to run the game so that you wouldn't need both the regular PHB and the DS PHB) but you could, theoretically, use DS options in a regular D&D game or vice-versa (assuming you don't mind bending the assumptions of either). Ditto with the setting guide (which could double as a mini DMG with magic items) and Monster book (reprinting some stable creatures DS-ified, but mostly newer or DS specific stuff).

IMHO, this is the cleanest way to do a traditional DS. It makes it clear this isn't the same "D&D" that is in the PHB and doesn't force you to cross reference the campaign book with the PHB to see what is/isn't available.

 

[Mark Hope]

I worry that we won't get loads and loads of amazing new art by Brom. I feel this concern to be well-founded. Oh well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

When I suggest in previous posts about a d20 Modern 2.0. some answers were the next d20 Future lines would be within D&D 5th. Then DS should be also. It some differen't things, but it is too compatible to try sell a new basic. And other players would rather to create their own version of DS mixing it with other ideas, for example new regions where native flora survived the defiler magic but it became toxic or causing allergy for most of humanoids.

Thanks Brom has got a special style, but don't forget Thomas Baxat art. And other artists, even fan-art could try to imitate that "hirborean-punk" style. (the tribal-punk and primal-punk are different styles).

I think we may see clues about lands beyond Tyr, not as open space for a future spin-off but also to give some explanation to new races and classes, for example minotaurs or dromites.

 

[Coroc]

It will be like fr but in a desert. I love how the original ds captured the ancient times. I want s&s and not wuxia.

That it is like FR in a desert is the biggest fear of us who love the original or even the 4e remake.

DS is S&S? uh that one is questionable. It certainly is not Conan the Barbarian. Some of its aspects are rather more akin to Ravenloft - do not misunderstand me here - just from the point of mechanical adventure design, in that the world itself is one of the worst opponents of the PCs.

Survival as such is not some main aspect of S&S imho.

You can of course do survival challenges in FR or Greyhawk, but in DS they never go away, they are always there.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Dark Sun was also well marketed. Accompanying the game itself was a solid (by TSR standards) advertising campaign, the release of novels by a known author, and the release of video games using a (by the times) pretty cutting edge style. The only thing they didn't do was put Rikus on a box of Wheaties. And, it worked.

So yeah, same fear as @Coroc that they turn Dark Sun into FR in a desert.

 

[cmad1977]

My greatest fear is that WoTC won’t unshackle the setting from the past version.
Also, I’m not convinced we’re gonna see DS at all. Or that we should.