D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[Chaltab]

Dark Sun is deliberately different that's it's appeal.

And no you don't need to be a purist. Adding Tieflings and Dragonborn is silly. Add new races that make more sense. Genasi, Aaarackocra, Yuan Ti for example.

Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Aarakocra are already part of the setting. Not sure about Yuan-Ti but I know the Looking For More 5e games used them as creatures from the Moons.

 

[TwoSix]

Yes, this, exactly. I also, again, imagine there's a bigger audience for people looking for new OGL-inspired games than there are looking for new third party setting books.

At least, not unless you're already an established name with a built in audience.

I would be more way willing to shell out $60-$70 for a book with 10 new classes, than one that's just a gazetteer.

 

[Zardnaar]

Okay but that's kind of missing context. Almost nothing of 4E released under an open license so it has extremely limited support compared to the numerous retroclones of every other edition. It's just not easy to play 4E anymore compared to every other edition.

4E books are cheap on the secondary market. Outside a few rare titles.

Player's Handbook (4th Edition) - D&D 4e - Wizards of the Coast from Wizards of the Coast

The World's Largest Selection of tabletop games!

www.nobleknight.com

$12

Hmmnn

Player's Handbook 3.5 - D&D 3rd Ed - Wizards of the Coast from Wizards of the Coast

The World's Largest Selection of tabletop games!

www.nobleknight.com

$65

 

[Gradine]

Dragonborn and Tiefling are both base heritages in A5e, as well. So it's still not 100% easy conversion. Though you could slap on a simple disclaimer instead of forbidding them:

"Dragonborn, Tiefling, and other heritages not presented in this book, all exist as wastelands mutants due to the lingering magical forces that wracked the world. While they may be accepted into society if they're useful and productive characters, expect to stand out like a sore thumb on someone's foot."

See, that's the kind of thing I'd like to avoid; see: @Remathilis's post above. Because once you set that at the baseline, where do you stop? Do Clerics still make sense in a world without deities? What about literally every spell that would make life on Athas (or its off-brand equivalent) substantially better?

I'm not saying that I don't think it's possible to make a Dark Sun or inspired setting utilizing everything in the PHB (<side-eyes create or destroy water, a 1st level spell), but it would be significantly easier (and less disappointing to the @Remathilis's of the world) to have your own list of species/heritages/classes/spells (borrowed or not from the OGL) rather than handing them a list of what's forbidden.

 

[Remathilis]

Maybe someone can answer my continual pet peeve of "why do entirely dissimilar gods provide their champions 90% of the same spells?"

Because classes have roles.

In 2nd edition, I played a crusader. They were a class of priests who had a small amount of spell choices in exchange for better martial skill. (Think of it as a paladin with better spellcasting). I was the group's priest, but man did a limited spell list bite us in the butt.

Can you raise dead? No. Can you cast remove curse? No. Water breathing? No. Detect magic? No. Command? No! Listen, it's cure x wounds, flame strike and spiritual hammer, that's it. My magic either gives HP or takes it away (or protects against losing it).

And that was a fairly mild example. I remember 2e specialty priests who couldn't cast healing spells, but could cast stuff like Know Time (time of death: exactly 4:46 pm from bleed out).

Personally, I don't mind that cleric's have a dedicated list because every deity having their own list was a headache.

 

[TwoSix]

See, that's the kind of thing I'd like to avoid; see: @Remathilis's post above. Because once you set that at the baseline, where do you stop? Do Clerics still make sense in a world without deities? What about literally every spell that would make life on Athas (or its off-brand equivalent) substantially better?

I'm not saying that I don't think it's possible to make a Dark Sun or inspired setting utilizing everything in the PHB (<side-eyes create or destroy water, a 1st level spell), but it would be significantly easier (and less disappointing to the @Remathilis's of the world) to have your own list of species/heritages/classes/spells (borrowed or not from the OGL) rather than handing them a list of what's forbidden.

At a very basic level, I'm a lot more interested in books that build the setting up by adding new material, even if that new material is intended as a replacement, rather than just telling me to subtract options.

 

[TwoSix]

Because classes have roles.

In 2nd edition, I played a crusader. They were a class of priests who had a small amount of spell choices in exchange for better martial skill. (Think of it as a paladin with better spellcasting). I was the group's priest, but man did a limited spell list bite us in the butt.

Can you raise dead? No. Can you cast remove curse? No. Water breathing? No. Detect magic? No. Command? No! Listen, it's cure x wounds, flame strike and spiritual hammer, that's it. My magic either gives HP or takes it away (or protects against losing it).

And that was a fairly mild example. I remember 2e specialty priests who couldn't cast healing spells, but could cast stuff like Know Time (time of death: exactly 4:46 pm from bleed out).

Personally, I don't mind that cleric's have a dedicated list because every deity having their own list was a headache.

I mean, I understand why at a gamist level. I was more curious about an in-depth justification at the cosmological and narrative layers.

 

[Zardnaar]

Because classes have roles.

In 2nd edition, I played a crusader. They were a class of priests who had a small amount of spell choices in exchange for better martial skill. (Think of it as a paladin with better spellcasting). I was the group's priest, but man did a limited spell list bite us in the butt.

Can you raise dead? No. Can you cast remove curse? No. Water breathing? No. Detect magic? No. Command? No! Listen, it's cure x wounds, flame strike and spiritual hammer, that's it. My magic either gives HP or takes it away (or protects against losing it).

And that was a fairly mild example. I remember 2e specialty priests who couldn't cast healing spells, but could cast stuff like Know Time (time of death: exactly 4:46 pm from bleed out).

Personally, I don't mind that cleric's have a dedicated list because every deity having their own list was a headache.

Warpriest these days. Crusader was a good class imho. Definite trade off though.

 

[Gradine]

Tieflings, Dragonborn, and Aarakocra are already part of the setting. Not sure about Yuan-Ti but I know the Looking For More 5e games used them as creatures from the Moons.

Hang on, I'm gonna need to dig out the 4e Dark Sun book to see what they have to say about them...

Huh, Dragonborn as Dray. I guess that works. Now what do they have to say about Tieflings...


...oh

Yeah I think I would have gone in a different direction there.

 

[Chaltab]

4E books are cheap on the secondary market. Outside a few rare titles.

Which is great if you have a group willing to dig through books and such, but there's no OGL supported database, no legal way to to get all the options in a character builder anymore. If Insider still existed I'd probably run a 4E game in addition to my 5E games, but as it stands it's just too much hassle.