Big Dark Sun hint

[firesnakearies]

Wow, that James Ryman has some gorgeous pieces of art. He definitely emulates a VERY Brom-like feel with some of them. I'd love to see some of his art in the new Dark Sun books, if they are ever published.

 

[amethal]

The problem is, Dark Sun isn't points of light. Especially not how 4e does it.

The other big problem is inclusiveness. 4e is very much "Everything is core. All races, all gods, all planes, all classes - they're in every setting." Dark Sun on the other hand is "Half your classes are gone, your races are all mutated and like to eat one another, the planes are there only to remind you how hilariously screwed life is, and the only gods are the sorcerer kings who are all very Evil." these two viewpoints don't, uh, match up well.

Maybe by then WotC will feel able to do something different?

I hope so, otherwise the new setting might turn out to be 30% Forgotten Realms, 20% Eberron and 50% generic Points of Light.

 

[Marshall]

Maybe by then WotC will feel able to do something different?

I hope so, otherwise the new setting might turn out to be 30% Forgotten Realms, 20% Eberron and 50% generic Points of Light.

You're repeating yourself.

 

[MinionOfCthulhu]

Hooray! I can't wait to see them shoehorn in dragonborn and tieflings, axe thri-kreen as a playable race (too weird!), and civilize the halflings (can't have our free-spirited nomad race made into cannibals, now can we?).

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Dragonborn could be either a form of dray (Draegoth's dragon-like servant race he creeated, 1st version he abandoned for not being good enough)
or some new mutant race, rmember the world DOES have a hell of a lot of lizard creatures and Athas is a huge planet with only a tiny poriton is mapped.

Cannibal hallflings must be retained though! if only for the iconically wonderful idea of a bunch of Frodo's munching into roast Legolas butt!!

Thri-kreen are cool! leave 'em alone! anyway, an oil can full of RAID will fix 'em...

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Another inclusiveness problem is gods and the Grey.

Dark Sun didn't have gods, other then the sorcerer kings. Clerics worshiped the elements. The setting was written with 2e rules in mind - spheres were important. Water clerics got stuff fire clerics didn't. Again, this is where the problem sets in - in 4e, clerics all get the same powers. The difference between a fire cleric and water cleric may be minute at best - a small handful of powers given by a feat. Again 4e's "Everything is core" presents the problem of bringing in the core gods.

As for the cosmology, the whole thing of the Grey is that you couldn't get past it (unless you were high level and/or really lucky). So I'm not sure how they're going to have the Feywilde (with or without the Grey. HEY YEAH A PLANE OF FEY CREATURES AND WILD GROWTH), or the astral sea, or...well, anything else.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Firesnakeries
well that Gandhi fella sure paints a mean trhi-kreen and his work should be used IMHO!!

ProfessorCirno

Stuff then snooty Eladrin and their Fey-Pile!! *says the dwarf in the corner*

On a more serious note, isn't the Divine Handbook adding elemental spells/domains?

And it's good that the Astral is "closed off": nice to be self reliant, no "evaccing" to Sigil for safety etc.
(yeah, there's a thought for you, running away to Sigil is safer than being on Athas )

The ELemental Chaos should be accessible, thus also, the Abyss, maybe with some difficulty. On of my 2nd Ed campaigns the party had to flee after angering King Kalak, so had ot go through the Abyss.

Suitable lists of spells, feats etc for the setting would be a must.

 

[Bumbles]

I suspect that whatever happens, there will be people disappointed. Some will be because their favorite setting didn't get picked. Some will be because of the results from what did happen when it was picked.

Oh well, I'm going to go re-read the Tribe of One.

 

[White Tornado]

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

Also considering that said person apparently has enough time to handle the Magic: The Gathering novels. I'm not really into M:TG, but I have a gut feeling that I wouldn't be able to handle the job during my lunch breaks

When was this GenCon thing happening again?

 

[arscott]

Another inclusiveness problem is gods and the Grey.

Dark Sun didn't have gods, other then the sorcerer kings. Clerics worshiped the elements. The setting was written with 2e rules in mind - spheres were important. Water clerics got stuff fire clerics didn't. Again, this is where the problem sets in - in 4e, clerics all get the same powers. The difference between a fire cleric and water cleric may be minute at best - a small handful of powers given by a feat. Again 4e's "Everything is core" presents the problem of bringing in the core gods.

Really, the best solution is just to say that the divine power source lets you channel the power of the sorcerer kings, include some blanket mechanical tweaks to reflect that change, and come up with an elemental priest class.

As for the cosmology, the whole thing of the Grey is that you couldn't get past it (unless you were high level and/or really lucky). So I'm not sure how they're going to have the Feywilde (with or without the Grey. HEY YEAH A PLANE OF FEY CREATURES AND WILD GROWTH), or the astral sea, or...well, anything else.

I'm not really attached to the cosmology they eventually came up with for Dark Sun--it invalidated some earlier adventures, and was always little more than a klugde to get around the "all settings share a cosmology" nonsense that was 2e.

I say, keep the world axis, and just extend it to it's logical conclusions. The elemental chaos can pretty much stay as-is. The god are long gone (if they ever existed in the first place), so the astral domains should be ancient and abandoned, or homes to non-divine beings like Githyanki.

The feywild is basically a magical reflection of the natural world--whatever effect defiling had on the world would be magnified in the Feywild. So I'd go for an even bleaker wasteland, occupied by completely insane fey.

Last but not least, the shadowfell. I'd actually put lots of trees and vegitation in the shadowfell--I think it works best as a dark and melancholy reflection of more verdant times.