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Assuming Dark Sun is on the horizon, what are your worries?
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<blockquote data-quote="Ruin Explorer" data-source="post: 7862197" data-attributes="member: 18"><p>I don't think Dark Sun is on the horizon but assuming it is I have a few worries.</p><p></p><p>0) None of the people who came up with DS or handled it well still work at WotC or are likely to be hired as consultants. This makes it much more likely that careless changes will be made.</p><p></p><p>1) Defiling and Preserving, whilst more conceptually relevant than ever may be seen as too political or too complicated by WotC. As such they may well simply be removed and vague, nebulous, non-personal stuff put in their place.</p><p></p><p>2) WotC hasn't locked down Psionics, at all, and we'd be less than a year from release. So a fundamental part of DS identity might well be a mess. It'd much worse than doing Eberron without Artificers, even.</p><p></p><p>3) Most subraces and many subclasses simply don't work for DS. DS would need to add subraces for many races, add several races, two of which are challenging to do well (Half-Giants and Thri-Kreen), and add subclasses, some required, for most or all classes (not Rogue or Ranger I guess). This would be huge work and likely to create issues and I worry they'd just take a bad road and change the setting to match the rules to reduce required effort.</p><p></p><p>4) 5E does not have great rules for survival. To be fair, neither did 2E. But that's a whole chunk of rules to create and get right.</p><p></p><p>5) 5E doesn't really have design space for the alternate armours, weapons, and armour and weapon materials that give DS part of its character. Perhaps this could still be made, but that's a whole other chunk of rules to get right.</p><p></p><p>6) Big fundamental issue, 5E is about pretty much everything being compatible and only individual DMs saying no. DS, however, says no to vast chunks of stuff. No to loads of monsters, including D&D classics. No to loads of subclasses and subraces. No to some spells. No to entire concepts (gods, for example). It would be incompatible with virtually all WotC released adventure paths and some entire books. This again might lead WotC to just change DS, making it something else entirely, as it would be so much easier and potentially more profitable than not doing so.</p><p></p><p>There an awful lot of other issues too. But I think any DS in the next year would likely be a completely different setting, stripped of uniqueness and that 1990s edge, and replaced with marketability. It might even be a good setting! But it would be an entirely different one.</p><p></p><p>All that said I don't think it will be DS. Spelljammer is strangely well known and conceptually popular with many people who have never played it, including people relatively new to D&D. It also has none of these flaws, is very marketable (and we know Spacefinder sells well), and is the ultimate in cross-marketing in some ways, arguably more than Planescape. So. I think if we see an old setting back it will be that. I note the BG3 trailer features an Illithid Spelljammer ship in it too. And the FR has had Spelljammer ships in it since Spelljammer was a thing (Classic FR borging!). </p><p></p><p>If we suddenly see a Psion class appear and maybe a survival rules UA and stuff then DS may be on the way, but not before.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ruin Explorer, post: 7862197, member: 18"] I don't think Dark Sun is on the horizon but assuming it is I have a few worries. 0) None of the people who came up with DS or handled it well still work at WotC or are likely to be hired as consultants. This makes it much more likely that careless changes will be made. 1) Defiling and Preserving, whilst more conceptually relevant than ever may be seen as too political or too complicated by WotC. As such they may well simply be removed and vague, nebulous, non-personal stuff put in their place. 2) WotC hasn't locked down Psionics, at all, and we'd be less than a year from release. So a fundamental part of DS identity might well be a mess. It'd much worse than doing Eberron without Artificers, even. 3) Most subraces and many subclasses simply don't work for DS. DS would need to add subraces for many races, add several races, two of which are challenging to do well (Half-Giants and Thri-Kreen), and add subclasses, some required, for most or all classes (not Rogue or Ranger I guess). This would be huge work and likely to create issues and I worry they'd just take a bad road and change the setting to match the rules to reduce required effort. 4) 5E does not have great rules for survival. To be fair, neither did 2E. But that's a whole chunk of rules to create and get right. 5) 5E doesn't really have design space for the alternate armours, weapons, and armour and weapon materials that give DS part of its character. Perhaps this could still be made, but that's a whole other chunk of rules to get right. 6) Big fundamental issue, 5E is about pretty much everything being compatible and only individual DMs saying no. DS, however, says no to vast chunks of stuff. No to loads of monsters, including D&D classics. No to loads of subclasses and subraces. No to some spells. No to entire concepts (gods, for example). It would be incompatible with virtually all WotC released adventure paths and some entire books. This again might lead WotC to just change DS, making it something else entirely, as it would be so much easier and potentially more profitable than not doing so. There an awful lot of other issues too. But I think any DS in the next year would likely be a completely different setting, stripped of uniqueness and that 1990s edge, and replaced with marketability. It might even be a good setting! But it would be an entirely different one. All that said I don't think it will be DS. Spelljammer is strangely well known and conceptually popular with many people who have never played it, including people relatively new to D&D. It also has none of these flaws, is very marketable (and we know Spacefinder sells well), and is the ultimate in cross-marketing in some ways, arguably more than Planescape. So. I think if we see an old setting back it will be that. I note the BG3 trailer features an Illithid Spelljammer ship in it too. And the FR has had Spelljammer ships in it since Spelljammer was a thing (Classic FR borging!). If we suddenly see a Psion class appear and maybe a survival rules UA and stuff then DS may be on the way, but not before. [/QUOTE]
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Assuming Dark Sun is on the horizon, what are your worries?
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