D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[mamba]

I'm not a fan of 'look at what I'm taking from you' as a centerpiece of a campaign setting.

I agree, I also do not think that it needs much more than some reflavoring. Much of what DS took with one hand, it gave back slightly altered with the other…

No gods, let’s have elemental clerics then. Arcane magic defiles the place, let’s call it psionics and pretend it is not basically the same

 

[Maxperson]

Like I said, the 2e box read to me like a pizza cutter: all edge and no point. You were a supposed badass character. You were a half-giant with double HD, weapon specialization in multiple weapons and psionic powers guaranteed but you spent much of your time stealing water so as not to die. Ultimately you ended up either joining the system or simply exploiting it because changing it was out of the question.

I don't agree with the bolded portion. I mean, you literally got to roll better stats than usual and had to make a stable of backup characters because your PC was expected to die, probably more than once.

 

[Corinnguard]

I don't agree with the bolded portion. I mean, you literally got to roll better stats than usual and had to make a stable of backup characters because your PC was expected to die, probably more than once.

Not only that, but the starting level for a character playing in 2e Dark Sun was 3rd level. If this role-playing element was kept for the setting's 5e successor, everyone would be starting out the RPG writing down their class and their subclass in session zero. That's a bit of a win IMO.

 

[Remathilis]

Well 5E isn't good for Darksun.

Dungeons and Dragons isn't good for Dark Sun because Dark Sun asks D&D to be something it's not. Even 2nd edition was bad for it. It's just AD&D's concept of balance was so nebulous that house-ruling it into oblivion wasn't as complicated a task.

Alternatively use 5E as a base and spin it off as inspired by D&D stand alone RPG. 5E is espically crap at doing it anyway to much Magic, healing and easy mode survival eg goodberry.

I've been saying for years that "Dark Sun Adventures: An Game based on the World's Greatest RPG" with its own PHB, setting book/DMG, and Monster Guide (all compatible with 5e) was the best was to satisfy all the mechanical changes needed to make Dark Sun work. You create no expectations that other D&D (even the core books) are available, you can up the maturity content without affecting D&D's "all ages" branding and it would open the door to other 5e based game like Gamma World.

But if Dark Sun is going to be under the D&D banner, be prepared for a reinvented version.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't agree with the bolded portion. I mean, you literally got to roll better stats than usual and had to make a stable of backup characters because your PC was expected to die, probably more than once.

Bad ass in relation to standard PCs from other worlds. Which I thought was a clever bit of bait and switch: your character is far more powerful compared to the PHB, but it's not going to stop you from dying of dysentery.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Dungeons and Dragons isn't good for Dark Sun because Dark Sun asks D&D to be something it's not. Even 2nd edition was bad for it. It's just AD&D's concept of balance was so nebulous that house-ruling it into oblivion wasn't as complicated a task.

I don' think this is true personally. Dark Sun was quite popular and demonstrated how far you can take D&D if you push the system. If you don't like 2nd edition, it probably isn't going to land well. But I recall having a blast playing Dark Sun and being enormously impressed when I first got the boxed set. It worked for a lot of people.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Well 5E isn't good for Darksun. I think they should focus on the mechanics eg defining, survival, hard bans and errata for spells eg water and metal ones.

Darksyn specific archetypes say 1 or 2 each class. Psionics or replacement.

A chapter could cover what's allowed in classic, revised or modern Darksun.

Traditionalist would he fairly minimal. I would say wind it back to the 1991 set. Post kalak eg 4E is easy enough to include in revised part.

It's the mechanics that make running 5E Darksun a pain.

Alternatively use 5E as a base and spin it off as inspired by D&D stand alone RPG. 5E is espically crap at doing it anyway to much Magic, healing and easy mode survival eg goodberry.

I think you can do Dark Sun with just about any edition, because you are going to modify the system anyways. But the 4E version was great (I was a player in a 4E Dark Sun campaign despite hating 4E and not generally playing 4E). Fifth edition seems like an even better fit than 4E. As long as they make modifications to fit the system to the setting, it could work. The bigger issue I think would be WOTC likely would file down the rough edges of the setting too much these days

 

[Remathilis]

I don' think this is true personally. Dark Sun was quite popular and demonstrated how far you can take D&D if you push the system. If you don't like 2nd edition, it probably isn't going to land well. But I recall having a blast playing Dark Sun and being enormously impressed when I first got the boxed set. It worked for a lot of people.

It worked because the box set was practically a PHB in itself, and could do that because AD&D classes were no where near as complicated mechanically as later edition classes. In an era where classes have greater mechanical balance, multiple subclass options, and open multi classing, you can't just say "let's get rid of bard spellcasting and give them proficiency in poisons, that looks to be about equal" and be done with it. You'd have to build a whole new class, with multiple subclasses, to emulate the spell-less Dark Sun bard. Lather and repeat for every class that gets changed and you pretty soon have a new PHB's worth of rules.

 

[Steampunkette]

Hopepunk in a nutshell:

 

[Bedrockgames]

It worked because the box set was practically a PHB in itself, and could do that because AD&D classes were no where near as complicated mechanically as later edition classes.

That is fair enough. I am not familiar enough with 5E's complexity to say whether it would work there. Personally I might push back on the boxed set being a PHB in itself, but agree it is pretty extensive (there are 90s pages of rules covering material and changes to the PHB). I think that is how it ought to be done though. It is the same core engine but it showcases how you can take D&D and retool it towards other ends.