Spelljammer Dark Sun confirmed? Or, the mysterious case of the dissappearing Spelljammer article...

[Charlaquin]

I stopped playing RPGs for about a decade and managed to skip 4e in it's entirety, purely by chance. The only experience I've had of the setting was in 2e - though in fairness, I've gotten the impression that a lot of people who were otherwise really down on 4e all seem to begrudgingly admit the Dark Sun books from that era were pretty great.

The biggest thing to me - at least as I recall the setting - was how much your character was defined by what they couldn't do: no gnomes or paladins, no doing magic in public, etc. WotC for good or ill doesn't seem to want to do anything where you can't use all of the bevy of races / classes / subclasses from across the books.

Do they not? I’m not sure. The Magic the Gathering settings have different races available than the typical D&D faire, so it seems to me like they’re willing to change those kinds of assumptions when it suits a setting.

 

[pukunui]

The biggest thing to me - at least as I recall the setting - was how much your character was defined by what they couldn't do: no gnomes or paladins, no doing magic in public, etc. WotC for good or ill doesn't seem to want to do anything where you can't use all of the bevy of races / classes / subclasses from across the books.

As @Charlaquin points out above, you need look no further than the Ravnica and Theros books to see examples of WotC being willing to restrict options in the 5e era. Theros has a very small number of playable races (most of which are unique to that book). Only red and blue dragons exist in that world as well.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I actually find all of that good reason to believe that Athas is a good destination for a Spelljsmming Adventure: like a deserted island full of magic and treasure in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle.

As @Charlaquin points out above, you need look no further than the Ravnica and Theros books to see examples of WotC being willing to restrict options in the 5e era. Theros has a very small number of playable races (most of which are unique to that book). Only red and blue dragons exist in that world as well.

Do that with a non-Magic setting, and we'll talk.

 

[pukunui]

Do that with a non-Magic setting, and we'll talk.

Why does it need to be a non-Magic setting to count? Those are now official D&D 5e worlds.

I guess you can wait and see if they allow orcs and tieflings and the like in the upcoming Dragonlance book.

 

[humble minion]

Do that with a non-Magic setting, and we'll talk.

We'll see what they do with Dragonlance, I guess. I don't think Krynn canonically has orcs, right? So we'll see what they say about half-orc PCs.

Edit: oof, ninja'd by about 3/4 of the EnWorld user base...

 

[Demetrios1453]

Do that with a non-Magic setting, and we'll talk.

I guess we'll see with Dragonlance in a few months, where orcs and half-orcs (barring a single exception that was presumably a writer not knowing any better) have never existed, as well as quite a few subrace options (all halflings besides kender, and actual drow, as "dark elves" on Krynn are just individual regular elves kicked out of elvish society for being naughty)

 

[Yaarel]

I speculate ...

Each of these "wildspaces" is a setting that 5e is working on, and will be revealed in the future.

Realmsspace. The default setting is already revealed.

Eberron. Apparently, Eberron cannot be reached by the astral plane?

Athasspace. Athas of Dark Sun was revealed accidentally. It has a dark sun in the center of the system. Possibly even a black hole.

Doomspace. Alternate name for Athas. Athas is − nearly − impossible to access. However there was a difficult way to do it via the gray plane, which is now shadowfell in 5e. So the "doom" is this shadow route.

Wildspace (top). The "wildspace" at the top of the astral plane map has a planet (black circle) at its center. This is Oerth of Greyhawk. Like the ancient Ptolemaic cosmology, the sun and other planets revolve around the earth. The decentered sun is currently hidden off the edge of the image.

Astral Dominions are the outer planes, including farrealms and so on. Spelljammer = Planescape. Namely, Planejammer. That said. Spelljammer focuses on the astral sea. The lore that is in Mordenkainens Tomb of Foes and Volos will show up in a future Planescape product, possibly as part of Spelljammer dominions, or possibly as separate adventures.

 

[Shardstone]

I speculate ...

View attachment 255635

Each of these "wildspaces" is a setting that 5e is working on, and will be revealed in the future.

Realmsspace. The default setting is already revealed.

Eberron. Apparently, Eberron cannot be reached by the astral plane?

Athasspace. Athas of Dark Sun was revealed accidentally. It has a dark sun in the center of the system. Possibly even a black hole.

Doomspace. Alternate name for Athas. Athas is − nearly − impossible to access. However there was a difficult way to do it via the gray plane, which is now shadowfell in 5e. So the "doom" is this shadow route.

Wildspace (top). The "wildspace" at the top of the astral plane map has a planet (black circle) at its center. This is Oerth of Greyhawk. Like the ancient Ptolemaic cosmology, the sun and other planets revolve around the earth. The decentered sun is currently hidden off the edge of the image.

Astral Dominions are the outer planes, including farrealms and so on. Spelljammer = Planescape. Namely, Planejammer. That said. Spelljammer focuses on the astral sea. The lore that is in Mordenkainens Tomb of Foes and Volos will show up in a future Planescape product, possibly as part of Spelljammer dominions, or possibly as separate adventures.

Black Hole Dark Sun!!!

Theories

1. Its "the Black" and a prison for the halfling or whatever that trigged all this.
2. The sun was defiled into a Black Hole.
3. naughty word I don't know...

 

[bedir than]

Black Hole Dark Sun!!!

Theories

1. Its "the Black" and a prison for the halfling or whatever that trigged all this.
2. The sun was defiled into a Black Hole.
3. naughty word I don't know...

Won't you come

 

[Yaarel]

Black Hole Dark Sun!!!

Theories

1. Its "the Black" and a prison for the halfling or whatever that trigged all this.
2. The sun was defiled into a Black Hole.
3. naughty word I don't know...

My understanding of Dark Sun is, they fundamentally split the element of water, analogous to splitting an atom for its nuclear energy. The process utterly annihilates the element of water but releases extreme magical energy. The annihilation of water thru all of the elements out of balance. This imbalance decreased positivity and increased negativity.

So the sun is disturbed by the elemental imbalance of fire, but also by excessive negativity, and is indeed a black hole − or perhaps in the process of collapsing into a full-on black hole.