[Dark Sun, any edition] New Athas

[Mouseferatu]

I was just rewaching the end of season 3 of the (new) Doctor Who on DVD--the episodes where the Master takes over Earth. And that got me thinking about D&D (because, well, almost everything does), and the pseudo-destruction of the world.

So... What about a Dark Sun campaign where the whole campaign setting is a brand new event? The desolation of Athas into a blasted, barren desert wasn't a slow, gradual process, but something that happened in one fell swoop--a natural disaster, an arcane war, a curse, whatever. And it's something that happened recently, only in the past few years.

You still have the city-states and the Sorcerer Kings, but they're new societies, still establishing themselves, still working on enslaving the populace to the power of their rulers. You have people traveling to them and willing to be enslaved, because these are the only civilized parts of the world left. You have bands of refugees, the survivors of entire cities, roaming the deserts in desperate search of a home, still trying to adapt to the loss of the only world they ever knew. And you have multiple resistance groups--both inside and outside of the city-states--fighting against the Sorcerer Kings who are slowly usurping control of what remains of society, and spreading their influence out toward the wandering tribes and the last lingering villages.

You might even still have religion, but it exists only in dying pockets as people abandon the gods, either for "allowing" this to happen, or as the Sorcerer Kings prove more potent than the priests of old.

How else would that change a campaign? What kind of story ideas does it open up? Anyone find the idea intriguing, or is just me?

 

[The 1 and the Prime]

Ok, ok, ok... (cracks knuckles)

This actually makes more sense than the retconned by committee history of Athas in 2e canon, and probably was close to the original intent of the creator of the setting. I think they needed a long time degradation time scale to explain the unusual prevalence of psionics.

Based on the cover art and the fact that A dragon was running around (and only ONE dragon) I assumed the blasted landscape BECAUSE of the dragon. It would be cool to run the campaign as "What happens when someone summons a big evil outsider and SuperPCs aren't around to squash him?"

This sends the masses running to the protection of the few small enclaves left where powerful arcanists have developed ways to deter the dragon. Little do they know that the dragon is simply biding its time as there are easier targets to be had: the city-states will make a nice dessert.

Of course, being a highly intelligent creature the first thing it did was seek out and destroy the centers of magical knowledge in the civilization, ensuring that the greatest threats were eliminated. A few high level wizards squirrelled themselves away for the initial onslaught in the high fantasy equivalent of a bomb shelter, and now there are so few left that they must spend all their time preparing for the dragon rather than teaching new mages.

I guess the most important thing left out of Canon Athas is its Illithid age. They never explain all those half retarded Githyanki running around. Athas was an outpost in the Spelljammer setting Illithid Empire, which would also explain the culture of slavery and psionics: the planet was chosen for its special affinity for psionics as an experiment with various slave races (this makes it kinda like Tantooine where all the most powerful Jedi come from apparently). This could be used to explain the unusual absence of certain races from Athas: the Illithids never brought them. The Illithids could be the guys who summoned the Outsider/Dragon. A few or all of the City State heads could possibly be Illithids (and this explains why the Dragon wants to get rid of water). There are interesting interactions between former slaves and former masters in some of these cities where the balance of power has shifted away from the Illithids, still others manage to preserve the dominion of Illithids. Some other city states could be these new societies of composed entirely of former Illithid slaves, trying to cobble something new together but also falling into the patterns of domination imprinted on them by the Illithids (Never mind the powerful life-draining magics required to deter the Dragon).

The absence of the deities is due to the oppression of the Illithids over their slaves (we could throw metal working in as another deprivation on the part of the Illithids, making it a knowledge deficit rather than a resource deficit). No sophisticated religions were ever allowed to develop. Now the humanoids are slowly building up a pantheon from the ground floor, gluing together parts of spirits and abstract conceptions formerly only patronized by animals and other lower life forms that were beneath the notice of the Illithids. This explains why these deities seem like elementals and nature spirits.

An interesting conflict inherent in this setting would be that there was a destruction of a world, but an evil world to begin with, and now there is a (somewhat terrible) chance of a new beginning.

 

[D'karr]

How else would that change a campaign? What kind of story ideas does it open up? Anyone find the idea intriguing, or is just me?

Mad D'ax, Desert Warrior journeys to Barter Town and discovers that it's run by half-giant named Blaster and a Gnome Wild mage called Master. A thri-kreen by the name of Auntie is the original power behind the "throne."

 

[Pbartender]

How else would that change a campaign? What kind of story ideas does it open up? Anyone find the idea intriguing, or is just me?

It is the resulting devastation of the War of the Worlds!

Welcome to Earth in the year 2010.

 

[Nagol]

Sort of like Desolation with Athas IP?

I don't own the game yet, but it's on my list.

 

[RangerWickett]

It is the resulting devastation of the War of the Worlds!

Welcome to Earth in the year 2010.

Wait, so were some Athasian mages drilling for mana, and there was a disaster, and mana spread across the globe and wiped out most of the ecosystem before they could manage to cap the leak?

 

[Pbartender]

Wait, so were some Athasian mages drilling for mana, and there was a disaster, and mana spread across the globe and wiped out most of the ecosystem before they could manage to cap the leak?

Yeah. That's it exactly.



Let me try this again...

It is the resulting devastation of the War of the Worlds!

Welcome to Earth in the year 2010.



In other words, a little over a hundred years ago, Martians invaded Earth, decimated the population and ecosystem using poison gas and the red weed, strip mined out all the usable mineral resources, stole all our water, and then built spaceships and left for greener pastures.

Now, the Martian overlords that were left behind in exile squabble over what little is left, while Earthling resistance fighters futilely try to reclaim their world and independence.

 

[Riley]

I do like Ari's idea here, and if someone wanted to tie it in to a modern apocalypse, you might as well steal some stuff from the forthcoming Gamma World 4e while you're at it.


<digression>

They never explain all those half retarded Githyanki running around.

Well, for better or worse, they did explain that in the adventure "Black Spine."

</end digression>

 

[Riley]

Disclaimer: I think Pbartender and I have already covered that ground elsewhere.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Well I've ran it that the Illithids caused it all ages ago, but moving time frame up would be ok

1) Illithids wanted ot put out the Sun, one of their main goals everyplace, see "The Illithiad" (damn that's a great book!)

2) to get energy for that, they gave other races pisonics, and harvested some of that secretly over millenia.

3) went to put the Sun out and...screwed up

4) Sun went into a Nova phase, expanding to a red giant then collapse and BOOM!

5) Gods barely managed to stop that, but got either killed or shut off from Athas in the resulting cataclysmic mayhem, this also cut Athas of from the planes, and caused it's nearby planes to get screwed up (hence Black and the Grey)

6) The outburst of psionics, in milllenia previously, caused all kinds of huge changes, and wars. During the wars, living weapons of mass destruction were common, like the so-uts: scorched earth weapons.
Designed to destory the very things civilization needed: iron, buildings, writing even. Such weapons though, got out of control and some still exist.

7) Defiling came about by a wizard with psionic power dablling in combing them, plus the attention of a major demon or deity who wanted to make Athas a wasteland.
Becoming a Dragon was much akin to, but far worse than, becoming a death knight.

hence, Athas is now roasting under a red giant sun, not an ordinary red giant, but a literally warped one, it's rays cause mutation.
the Sorceror-Kings are not just "draconic humanoids", but nightmarish abominations, who's creation was originally touched by the hands of Orcus, Yeenoghu or some far worse thing.

Works for me!

The 1 and the Prime
luvz the Spelljammer!!