Bloodsand Arena/Dark Sun questions

[Dragonblade]

I ran Dark Sun a lot back in the 2e days and here is my take:

Commoners generally are going to run away and take cover once anyone starts calling down flashy displays of power. Since psionics are so common and magic is so rare, most people will by default assume that the powers being wielded are psionic in nature.

Only if someone already has a reputation of being a wizard or if their magic is clearly withering plant life to dust is it assumed that they are a defiler.

Even then, while Defilers are cursed and reviled, the sorcerer-kings do employ them and unless you have overwhelming numbers on your side and/or the defiler is clearly incapacitated and unable to cast is anyone going to do anything other than cower in fear or flee when one comes by. Magic is feared and the average commoner or slave knows they are no match to a wizard's power. Any caster they see is either an agent of the sorcerer kings or a dangerous Veiled Alliance terrorist. They don't want to get mixed up in that.

Most commoners make little distinction between preservers and defilers and really don't care. All magic is dangerous to them.

In my game, the Veiled Alliance were terrorists known for magical bombings, ambushes and terrorist attacks against the templars, sorcerer-kings, and other defilers. While the Veiled Alliance wouldn't go out of its way to hurt innocent people, they also considered such collateral damage acceptable if they could hit a big target. As a result, while many sympathizers did exist who would harbor Veiled Alliance agents, many common people would readily turn them in as well and they were not necessarily preferred over templar rule. After all the sorcerer kings did provide some civic order and societal structure and put out a lot of propaganda against the Alliance.

As far as Coins in the Coffer, it was awesome!

Played through it with my group. They opened up with the wizard casting Sleep and nearly putting all the elves to sleep. Very good opening move.

Then they started hauling coins like crazy. Especially the thri-kreen. Since he had extra arms he could carry two at a time though he still only got three actions and it took him an extra minor to pick up the extra coin. It did make them more efficient.

I ruled that the stack of coins in the arena was essentially unlimited and that the players could use all their powers and could voluntarily choose to do no damage to avoid disqualification but could still impose all their status effects or forced movement on the elves without being disqualified. I also ruled the elves were not minions and gave them all HP.

Due to the Sleep spell, the players got way ahead. They had 7 coins by the time the elves got 2. So I had two of the elves go over and start emptying the player's coffer. In one round they took out 6 coins. The players started freaking out as now the elves were ahead 2 to 1. I described the crowd roaring at the elves dastardly come back!

Then the Battlemind cleverly used one of his powers to induce one of the elves dumping their coins to attack him which got the elf disqualified. Then they all bullrushed out the other elf and picked all their coins back up. Now the crowd roared for the players!

Two of the elves kept failing their saves from the sleep so when the monsters came out, the monsters went after the fallen elves. I could have made them more of a factor, but I figured being a neutral DM that would be their logical attack. One monster tried to engage the party but got bogged down fighting one of the PCs.

Anyway, the players really loved this one. After putting all their coins back, they spent round 5 protecting their coffer while taking out all the coins from the elves coffer so they could get the shutout victory.

The match ended with the PCs winning 13 to 0. I'll definitely run that arena game again somebody. All the players said it was the highlight of the whole adventure.

 

[TheClone]

I ruled that the stack of coins in the arena was essentially unlimited and that the players could use all their powers and could voluntarily choose to do no damage to avoid disqualification but could still impose all their status effects or forced movement on the elves without being disqualified. I also ruled the elves were not minions and gave them all HP.

I haven't thought on how many coins there'll be yet. But unlimited sounds like a good idea to allow more flexible approaches. Regarding the powers I already had decided to do the same. Sounds like a good approach to allow flexibility. The weapons should be wrapped in cloth, I think, but that can be done in advance or so, because 5 rounds doesn't sound long to me. I'd never expect so much to happen as it has done in your session, Dragonblade. Apparently 5 rounds is longer than I though.

Thanks for all the really good information on the magic-evilness. I guess, I'll rethink on my solution and maybe modify it a little to restrict magic even more. But I'm not sure where to draw the line and I like to have a hard written rule, so I don't have to rely on gut feelings or guessing during the session.

 

[Taed]

We had a 2-week break from our normal campaign so I ran the second half of Bloodsand Arena with the pregens, and it was really good. The arena battle was probably the best battle we've ever had (the line of sight issues due to the webs really added to it), and the skill challenges examining the body were actually decent (I'm not a fan of skill challenges in general).

Since it was just the second half, I changed the scenario a bit. The PCs were shopping in the market (use the market map) when they hear someone say, "That's them, officers -- those are the murderers!" They're thrown to the ground by a bunch of goliaths (I forget the Dark Sun name), tied up, hooded, and knocked out. They wake up in the arena and are told that they are on trial for the murder of Telleman. The battle commences, they eventually (but barely, after 3 of the 5 are knocked out) prevail, and they are declared innocent of the charges. However, it is now their responsibility to find the murderers. What a nice system of justice they have in that fair city!

 

[Shroomy]

One of my player's got a copy of Bloodsand Arena and ran it as a one-shot for us last week. It was awesome, especially the arena fight; I loved the challenge of not doing any damage to our opponents (we faced the gith), even if my battlemind (and our party) got stuck in a sticky situation and ended up wiping out all the minions with a fully augmented iron fist. Before that, I pulled a fast one on my DM by emptying the gith's container and throwing the coins into the crowd, nearly starting a riot and currying their favor. We won at the very last second by the very slimmest of margins. Good times.

 

[Dragonblade]

One of my player's got a copy of Bloodsand Arena and ran it as a one-shot for us last week. It was awesome, especially the arena fight; I loved the challenge of not doing any damage to our opponents (we faced the gith), even if my battlemind (and our party) got stuck in a sticky situation and ended up wiping out all the minions with a fully augmented iron fist. Before that, I pulled a fast one on my DM by emptying the gith's container and throwing the coins into the crowd, nearly starting a riot and currying their favor. We won at the very last second by the very slimmest of margins. Good times.

That's cool! I like them throwing the coins to the crowd. Nice touch!

I had a slightly different approach when I ran it. I ran under the assumption that the coins weren't really coins per se, but rather big heavy ceramic disks. Sort of like the big heavy 45 pound wheels that weightlifters would use in a gym.

Any player holding a coin couldn't do anything else unless they dropped it first since it took both hands to carry it. That also made it so they couldn't carry more than one at a time. Except for the thri-kreen who had 4 limbs. I ruled he could carry 2, but it still took two minor actions to pick up two coins.

I also positioned the coin pile slightly closer to the elves coffer so they could pick up a coin as a minor, make it to their coffer with their move 7 in one move action, drop the coin in their coffer as a free, and then still have a move action left to get back to the coin pile again ready to pick up another coin when their turn came around again.

Since the elves didn't really have the ability to inflict status affects on the PCs but the PCs could inflict a lot on them, I figured this would make it more fair. And it turned out that I made a smart choice. The sleep spell really took me by surprise and gave the PCs an almost insurmountable lead.

 

[Dragonblade]

I haven't thought on how many coins there'll be yet. But unlimited sounds like a good idea to allow more flexible approaches. Regarding the powers I already had decided to do the same. Sounds like a good approach to allow flexibility. The weapons should be wrapped in cloth, I think, but that can be done in advance or so, because 5 rounds doesn't sound long to me. I'd never expect so much to happen as it has done in your session, Dragonblade. Apparently 5 rounds is longer than I though.

Thanks for all the really good information on the magic-evilness. I guess, I'll rethink on my solution and maybe modify it a little to restrict magic even more. But I'm not sure where to draw the line and I like to have a hard written rule, so I don't have to rely on gut feelings or guessing during the session.

My general approach to Dark Sun is that there are very very few altruistic people and lots of shades of grey. There are many that could be considered evil, but few who would be considered good.

The Sorcerer-Kings are evil, but very far removed from the PCs at least until the PCs get into much higher levels. They are more concerned with accelerating their path to godhood/dragon transformations and jockeying with their fellow sorcerer-kings.

Pretty much any Defiler could be considered evil, since their blatant disregard for the environment in their pursuit of power is a significant contributing factor to the current state of the world.

Some Defilers find security in the employ of the Sorcerer-Kings, others seek out their own path to power by looking for masters to apprentice with, kind of like the Sith in SW, or by going out to the desert to look for ruins and ancient artifacts or lost magical knowledge.

The Veiled Alliance is highly factionalized in my game. Each faction has a different view and often times the factions war with each other as often as not. Some believe they should be looking for ancient magic to restore the world, some believe the world is past saving and that their duty is simply to avenge nature by destroying the current order and all who support it (including the commoner rabble who won't join the cause), others believe its better to educate people and defilers, to bring them on the right path of preserver magic, or to kill them if they don't listen.

The Elemental priests care only about advancing their element, regardless of any consequences that wreaks on the world. Air, Earth, and Fire are dominant and have become arrogant and complacent. Water is struggling and weak, but also most likely to ally with Preservers or the Alliance.

I don't know how 4e will handle these groups yet so my approach may change.

Also, there is The Order. The super secret cabal of uber psionic masters. They are more concerned with self-perfection and their own advancement into a higher being than in the state of the world. Still they are powerful enough that they frequently are involved in the intrigues of the sorcerer-kings.

 

[TheClone]

My general approach to Dark Sun is that there are very very few altruistic people and lots of shades of grey. There are many that could be considered evil, but few who would be considered good.

That is the thing I like very much about Dark Sun. It's not that black and white approach that D&D has. With that in mind, I think I'll stick to my former rule concerning magic in public. But I will think again on how people react in detail. E.g. they will at least run and cower on significant use of magic, but do not much more. In the arena they might cheer or something. And they try to avoid being asked by the watch about those things, but if asked very directly, they will tell what they know. Especially if the watch knows there was something and if they fear personal harm. I hope that'll do as guidelines for my session.

 

[ourchair]

I couldn't find the appropriate thread, so I figured this thread is good enough...

..does anyone know how I can secure all the pregens for Dark Sun? I know that there were a bunch for DDXP, a bunch for Free RPG Day and another more for Encounters. (although IIRC, some of those were recycled into the other)

Furthermore, does anyone know if they have the versions with the corrected math? I recall that ppl had problems with the shiny cards being all full of bugs and math errors.

 

[Mithreinmaethor]

I couldn't find the appropriate thread, so I figured this thread is good enough...

..does anyone know how I can secure all the pregens for Dark Sun? I know that there were a bunch for DDXP, a bunch for Free RPG Day and another more for Encounters. (although IIRC, some of those were recycled into the other)

Furthermore, does anyone know if they have the versions with the corrected math? I recall that ppl had problems with the shiny cards being all full of bugs and math errors.

You can try HERE

 

[umrandom]

7 Coins

The second paragraph of the Coins in the Coffer read-aloud text says there are "seven giant ceramic coins."