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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Najo" data-source="post: 3696281" data-attributes="member: 9959">The brom era is a ruined world, ruled over by tyrant sorcerer kings. It is full of mystery and a lost past. The dragon is as much a myth as reality, since no one has seen the great beast, just heard folklore of travellers or know of the offerings sent out by the kings into the desert to appease the fury of this monster. The world is unforgiving and secrets lie in its  ruins, secrets that hint at a lost age and a more noble past. Each of the races all hint of this past, and show the scars of whatever ruined the world in their blood and cultures. Subtle differences set the mood of Dark Sun from typical D&D. Scavenged armor, weapons made from bone and obsidian, slave tribes, the thri-kreen as a player race, unqiue monsters (no typical vampires, werewolves, dragons etc). A world where water and metal are more precious than honor. Another aspect of Dark Sun that is overlooked is the political agendas. Scheming Sorcerer Kings with secrets of an ancient and dark magic. The templars and their control over the social levels within the city states of their kings. The nobles and freemen, and their conflicts with the slaves and nomads of the wastes. The races with their varied differences.Wizards are outcast and hunted. Secret Societies seeking power keep their ancient secrets protected or selfishly coveted. I can go on and on.When they revised Dark Sun, many of these story elements were ruined or turned into something silly. A planet ruled over by psionic halflings with organic cybernetics. Killing the one and only dragon (who would be a 20th level wizard/ 20th level psion/ 10th level dragon and is the mythic symbol of the setting) by stabbing him in the nose with a magic sword by a 18th level gladiator. Bringing in bird and lizard men (taking something from the Thri Kreen and making the other races lose their hints of a previous age where their ancestors had honor and nobility). Windsurfing (yes windsurfing - one surfboards with sails and all) halflings in a hidden last sea. Artwork that lost the mood and feel of Broms work. Killing off half of the Sorcerer Kings (beings that defined the setting and were the most power creatures upon the world who lived for over a thousand years are slaughered one after another by dumb choices and low level heroes in the last book of the prism pentad). You can look at the artwork on the covers of Slave Tribes, Valley of Dust and Fire, Dragon's Crown and Dragon Kings and then look at books like the Will and the Way, Preservers and Defilers, Mind Lords of the Last Sea and the Revised Dark Sun setting and see exactly what I am talking about. If after that you still don't get it, well...not much hope your will <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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