Big Dark Sun hint

[an_idol_mind]

Can someone explain what happened to DS after the initial box set that upset so many people. I am familiar with the basics of the setting but I never got that deep into it (the Baxa art just killed any interest I might have had).

Within a year of the setting's release, the Prism Pentad series was written. This series killed off multiple sorcerer kings, killed the Dragon of Tyr (whose named turned out to be Borys, by the way), freed a city-state, and added a ridiculous back story to the setting. The latter wouldn't be so bad if the history wasn't so lousy and if a large portion of the setting's initial focus hadn't been on mystery in the first place.

Basically, the changes to the Dark Sun setting are similar in scope to the changes that the Spellplague made to the Forgotten Realms setting. The difference is that the Spellplague came about 20+ years after the creation of the Realms, while the Prism Pentad series came out before people even had a solid focus on the new setting.

 

[cangrejoide]

frankthedm
I think they learned their lesson the hard way with Realms 4th ed, in how NOT to be so...hm...drastic

What lesson was that?

Did 4E FR sales tanked ? Or are you refering to the intrawebs nerdrage?

 

[Jhaelen]

I believe any official release from wotc will be Dark*Sun in name only.

Well, it is *THE* archetypical D&D points-of-light setting, imho.

This reminds of my thoughts while reading the Eberron Players' Guide:
It keeps repeating how Eberron is supposed to fit the points-of-light idea.
I don't see it. at all.

I can hardly think of anything less points-of-light than Eberron. Especially Khorvaire is more like a big-center-of-light-surrounded-by-a-thin-border-of-darkness. How can you have something like a (functional) lightning railway in a points-of-light setting?

 

[Rechan]

Well, it is *THE* archetypical D&D points-of-light setting, imho.

This reminds of my thoughts while reading the Eberron Players' Guide:
It keeps repeating how Eberron is supposed to fit the points-of-light idea.
I don't see it. at all.

Except that Baker said it was.

Khorvaire has tons of space, and there are only islands of civilization, connected by Lightning Rails and Sivis stations. He gave an exmaple of going a hundred miles out in one direction and stumble across a Dhakaani ruin. Breland is a good example of this, with the towns all along the northern part are pretty much on their own, unless a Rail goes through it. Especially given that Breland is rather close to Droaam AND Draguun.

Not to mention that the Last War left a lot of battlefields, a lot of dead. Which no doubt attracted a large amount of monsters (and undead) to the sites. Not just to pick the corpses (naturally), but the lasting feeling of death certainly has an effect.

Then you have the Mournland. The Mournland itself is one big black hole in the middle of the continent, but consider the impact that the Mournland had on the surrounding countries of Thrane, Breland, and Karrnath: monsters from the Mournland have been flowing into previously safe, monsterless areas, making them dangerous once more.

With imprisoned Rajahs causing influence here or there, buried Daelkyrs/Cults popping up anywhere they please, and Manifest zones, which can pop up anywhere, plunging the place into danger, there's lots of room for Darkness out there between the cities.

 

[qstor]

They are toying us. I blame The Rouse

I put more faith in Mona

Mike

 

[coyote6]

The novels happened. In the first set of novels a sorcerer king is killed and a city becomes free and the Dragon is killed. There were other smaller things too but those really altered the setting. It was almost like at first it was too hopeless so they needed a place of freedom for PCs to make a base at or something.

I gathered it was sort of like they wanted to add a point of light, but the fountain pen of light sprung a leak and they ended up adding a big giant blot of light, spreading all over the place.

 

[Sonny]

They've been reprinting Dark Sun novels since September 2008. The person may be just handling the reprinting of the line and nothing more.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

They've been reprinting Dark Sun novels since September 2008. The person may be just handling the reprinting of the line and nothing more.

Exactly my thought.

 

[Dausuul]

Am I the only one who thinks Dark Sun is a Blatant rip-off of Kelewan from Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar saga?

Um... yeah, I think you are. There are a handful of common elements; bug-people, limited supplies of metal, slaves. But none of those is particularly distinctive, and the settings themselves are nothing alike. The culture of Kelewan, with its elaborate formalities and its emphasis on honor and protocol, could not be more different from Dark Sun's post-apocalyptic savagery. Likewise, Kelewan is a rich and fertile world, utterly different from the Athasian wastelands.

You might as well say that Dark Sun is a rip-off of Middle-Earth. Both settings have elves, dwarves, humans, and halflings. The villains are ancient immortal wizard-kings whose power lays waste to the lands around them. Dragons are evil creatures that also lay waste to the lands around them. Civilization exists in enclaves surrounded by a vast, monster-haunted wilderness.

One could probably find a similar set of correspondences with almost any fantasy world.

 

[arscott]

I gathered it was sort of like they wanted to add a point of light, but the fountain pen of light sprung a leak and they ended up adding a big giant blot of light, spreading all over the place.

Per creator Troy Denning, the novel metaplot disaster had less to do with a desire to change the setting and more to do with the way that the novels department and game department interacted. Dark•Sun would have really benefited from the "Novels aren't canon" rule that Eberron uses.

Anyway, the 2010 setting will totally be Jakandor, Isle of War