Dark Sun 5e, A minimalist conversion. (full) [OC]

[Evilhalfling]

Dark Sun Campaign

"I live in a world of fire and sand. The crimson sun scorches the life from anything that crawls of flies, and storms of sand scour the foliage from the barren ground. This is a land of blood and dust, where tribes of feral elves sweep out of the salt plains to plunder lonely caravans, mysterious singing winds call to travelers to slow suffocation in the Sea of Silt, and selfish god-kings squander their subjects lives building gaudy palaces and garish temples. This bleak wasteland is Athas and it is my home "
-The Wanderers Journal


Dice Roller
Rogue Gallery
In-Character Thread [IC}
CoyoteCode Dice Roller v. 2.0

Dark sun is an amazing D&D world, but the rules weren't great. Since I am currently without an RL game, I have time and energy to try a PbP game again. It will use lightly modified 5e rules. The biggest change is adding psionics as a spell list, using existing or re-fluffed spells. Everyone can pick a wild talent (cantrip or L1 spell) from the list

I don't see the need to make rules for stuff we aren’t using directly - until it comes up (like defiler benefits and the templar class. )

I am open to starting city and positions
PCs as slaves being sent from point A to point B is a good beginning for Dark Sun, but if you want to be nobles, traveling merchants, or other have other ideas that could work. Gladiator campaigns are a little too tactical for a good PbP game.

If you are not familiar with metal-scarce desert world here are some good background links: We will be using the fluff rather than most of the rules from these links.

Dark Sun Player's Guide 5th Edition D&D by Toucanbuzz

Dark Sun Player's Guide 5th Edition D&D by Toucanbuzz - Created with GM Binder.

www.gmbinder.com

The Burnt World of Athas

www.athas.org

The game will have a lot of Narration, and player written montage scenes. I have found this works better in PbP than lots of combat.

I have run several games before both here and on RPG.net. The longest one lasted 18 months before falling apart. The shortest was 2 months. I consider these games temporary, enjoy the moment as much as possible when playing, for tomorrow it may end.

If you're interested let me know here, with a character concept if you have one.
Also let me know if you are new to Althas – I don’t want to type too much background if y’all already know it.
I will try and post every other day, a medium speed game.
Seeking 4-6 players + alternates.

 

[Salthorae]

I'm getting back to PBP gaming.

I'd be interested in this. Maybe a Mul Barbarian or Fighter (Freed Gladiator)? I don't want to mess with the defiling/preserving mechanics for my PC so I'll leave that open to others.

 

[tglassy]

I'm in! I know little about the setting, though, but I've always wanted to try it. I'll have to do some research to see how it all fits together, but I typically do a magic user of some kind. Not sold, though. I'll see what I come up with.

 

[tglassy]

Ok, I've read up on things, and I'm excited! I'd forgotten that I'd looked into it once a few years ago, but haven't played anything to date.

What class/race restrictions would there be? Evil allowed or no?

To be honest, I'm tempted to try an Arcane Spellcaster, just for the added challenge of keeping it a secret. What Sorcerer bloodlines or Warlock Pacts would be available? I'd assume all Wizard Schools are good to go. Just trying to see what my options are.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I don't think there are any warlocks. Pacts dont work well with Darksun.

Sorcerer bloodlines- Divine Soul is out - and dragon might have to be reflavored. (as just elemental)
- all the elemental bloodlines would work great. Wild magic would be fine too.

I don't have much fun playing evil games, so let's stick with preservers and good-neutral alignments
all the wizard schools are in.

 

[tglassy]

So, I love Sorcerers. The concept has always drawn me in. Born with innate power that they don’t understand. Good stuff.

But I’ve done them. And I’ve never really done a Wizard past lvl 1. So I’m going to do a Wizard. I need to see how it’s different at higher levels.

I’m thinking a young Wizard who hates one of the Sorcerer Kings with a passion and wants to overthrow him and take his place. Obviously, the character is young and stupid, but talented. Probably sold as a slave and was taught the first few spells in secret by another slave that was secretly a wizardess. She probably got executed by the mob, and my character was left alone to fend for himself.

His main goal will be to gain as much power as possible, while staying good and decent. He wants to replace a Sorcerer King, not become them.

That said, how regular will I be able to find scrolls or spell books to copy spells off of? The Wizard’s Spell Book is a big draw for me. It’s still ok if I can’t find many, but having a plethora of spells to pick from as time goes on makes life easier.

 

[JustinCase]

I've always wanted to play in Dark Sun, but never had the opportunity. I'm not super well-versed in the lore, but I know enough to start playing.

I like the idea of being a (former) slave or prisoner, and to keep thing simple I'd like to go for a martial class like fighter or barbarian.

Are you putting restrictions on the races we can play (I know some PHB races don't exist on Athas and others are rare or culturally difficult to insert as a PC)?

 

[Evilhalfling]

Great! we are totally headed for slaves in a caravan start. at 2nd level there are few attempts to have already won your freedom as a gladiator, and lots of chances to escape on the road.

Races:
Humans, elves(wood), half-elves, Muls, cannibalistic halflings, & dwarves, there are also tri-kreen (insect men) and Half giants - but the last two have only fan-created rules.
Genasi are rare but fit in well (except water)

Muls (dwarf/human hybrids) will use rules for mountain dwarves with the relentless endurance of a half-orc.
Halflings have the savage attack feature of half-orcs


We will start at level 2.
High point buy for stats 31 pts, or an array of 15,14,14,12,12,8

If your playing a wizard there will certainly be scrolls& small collections of spells found as treasure.

 

[tglassy]

I saw a suggestion to just use the Goliath race for Half Giants. There might be something in one of the guides that'll work for Tri-Keen, but let's see if anyone wants that before worrying about it.

What about backgrounds? Is there a "slave" background, or should we do something that would be before we were slaves?

 

[tglassy]

Also, what about languages? Are languages a big thing?

Because, as a Slave who is studying to be a Wizard in a world where people will string me up because I dare to do magic, or even if they think I'll do magic, like if they find my spell book, I was really thinking of being a Variant Human and taking the Linguist Feat, not just for the extra +1 to Intelligence, which I need, but also so I can create Cyphers. My spell book would be written in a Cypher, so nobody else could read it. It would just look like doodles or stories or something that is NOT instructions on how to cast a spell.

But it also comes with 3 more languages known, which could be really useful...if languages are a thing. If they aren't, then it's a ribbon. Comprehend Languages is a stop gap for languages, but only lets you hear it. Tongues is great, but tells everyone around you you're a magic user, because everyone hears their own language. Just knowing languages will better allow him to hide what he is. I figure, Elvish, Draconic, maybe Dwarven or Giant are good options.

I also plan on taking the Keen Mind feat at lvl 4, again for the +1 int (getting me to 18), but also so I can remember everything I've seen or heard in the past month, such as my spell book, which I may have to throw away or light on fire at some point to keep from getting caught.