Best Era of Dark Sun?

[DragonLancer]

I've tried each incarnation (except 4E) and for me the setting was at it's best when it was first released under 2nd edition. I find that the world has moved on too much or the D&D mechanics of the day don't quite work within the setting like 2nd ed did.

 

[the Jester]

I like a meld of the 4e and OG box.

I voted for the original set, because to me the key issue is the death of Kalak; I like using the history and stuff later developed, and the 4e take on the Feywild in Dark Sun is awesome imho.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I've always thought that the rules for preserving vs. defiling were never quite right until 4E, where it becomes a spell-to-spell choice rather than a class choice (which makes absolutely no sense given the fiction).

As for where in the timeline, however, I like the existence of a free, ex-slave-run city as a contrast vs. the others.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

My own version. Loosely based on the Paizo version. The Cerulean storm has filled the Silt Sea turning it into a water sea about the salinity of the Caspian Sea. Andropinus of Balic's Maenadi have turned him into a supreme naval power and he has taken to colonizing far shores of the sea. A new Greenish Age has come (but given that the Cerulean storms wash what little top soil there is into the sea, not all that Green, but then carnivorous plants don't mind that much), but only after invasions from the Crimson Savannah (more like the Crimson Sea now), the Obsidian Plains (now the Obsidian Sea), and the halfling of the Forest Ridge, who brought the plagues of the common cold and pneumonia to the Tyr Region. The temperatures are still high, but the humidity makes it even more brutal and now the nights are really that cold anymore, so there is no relief. The Dragon has returned (artifact pah...I spit) and once again demands tribute. And worst of all, Kalak's corpse has disappeared and his templars (now mostly feeble dwarves, but that is changing) can cast spells again.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I'm disappointed that the Athas.org 3.5 conversion wasn't listed.

Anyway, I voted for the 4th edition version. I felt it held true to the feel of the original boxed set, while doing away with some of the rules that made the game not as fun. Overall, I'm very pleased.

 

[frankthedm]

I'm disappointed that the Athas.org 3.5 conversion wasn't listed.

Since my memories are Swiss cheese, would you be willing to remind me how Athas.org differed from the "Revised Boxed Set"?

 

[RainOfSteel]

I have both the first and second boxed sets.

The first boxed set just reads far better to me. It reveals a tough and mysterious place. There was plenty of elbow room to do what I wanted.

The second boxed set reads as if I had owned and read all previous products and novels; except I only had boxed set one. It constantly specifically gave vague references to events that had occurred in the novels, but did not explain them. A pile of secrets and histories are revealed to little purpose except making most players experts regarding matters where few have knowledge. It more than doubled the mapped area, but it sill covered only a tiny fraction of the world. The short histories of the distant past seemed to describe world-spanning events (at least that is the impression I received), but the maps and other references only discussed what amounted to a small area. It was incongruent.

 

[SSquirrel]

For actual game mechanics I definitely prefer the 4E version, but original box set is the best core version. I was down w/Dark Sun until about the Dragon Kings book. Shortly after that came the Revised box set and things just got weird. I was a fan of books like the Valley of Dust and Fire for just being very cool products. Imagery like the cover of Slave Tribes is just awesome and that art is something that the 4E version just doesn't have.

EDIT: I don't really care that Kalak is dead, I do mind that the PCs are basically just an afterthought in the Prism Pentad adventures tho. Luckily you can take a lot of those old 2E products and just re-use the fluff

 

[Sombalance]

I have to go for the original boxed set. The other material was interesting, but most of it never made it into my campaign. I'm okay with new material, but I don't like world altering material.

 

[pneumatik]

Being a preserver means you are taking the moral high road on a world where that is not rewarded.

Being a preserver also made it possible to hide your spellcasting, or making it look more like psionics. To be honest I'm not quite sure how commoners managed to differentiate between the two so certainly. Or they didn't, and plenty of psionicists got lynched.

The first adventures (in which the PCs are spectators to the events of a novel) were not at all appealing to me. And the history, when revealed, was almost nothing like what I had imagined.

The worst thing about that adventure is that if you took out the bit at the end where Kalak died it was great.

[MENTION=1164]frankthedm[/MENTION] The athas.org version adapted the 2nd ed material to 3.5. The rules were a pretty good fit. They managed to make defiling more like it worked in the books. OTOH they took advantage of the epic rules to make the SKs level 30-70, which was much higher than I ever want to play.