D&D 5E Dark Sun in 5E?

[Werebat]

An improvement, but it didn't go far enough back.IMHO The way things were at the start of the original box set are a far better starting point. Maybe I'm alone, but I kinda liked Kalak for as little we got of him. I don't mind if he is set up to fall, but if he's going down, then it better damn well be player characters putting him down.

My sentiments exactly.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

I agree with the sentiment above: the books should be treated as a novelization of someone's campaign, the way things could go, not as the way things did go. If you want to play Rikus/Sadira/etc. as PCs, maybe in an alternate universe where Rikus bites the dust in a fight with a Mekillot early on, knock yourself out--but whatever happens to Kalak/Nibenay/etc. should ideally happen on-stage, or what's a campaign for? [1]

Alternately, you can be the bad guys, and treat the novel events as "what will happen if you don't do something to change it." Save Borys! Overthrow Dregoth! Keep Rajaat locked up forever! Take over Free Tyr, and then the world!

Incidentally, Werebat, are you by any chance the same Werebat (Ron something) who used to post in rec.games.frp.dnd back in the 1990s?


[1] My sandbox leanings retort, "Not everything should happen on-stage, bozo, in a living world that doesn't revolve around the PCs," but then I remind myself that "DMs are allowed to invoke the laws of narrative to cause the PCs to stumble into important dramas which, strictly speaking, are none of their business." It's up to the PCs whether they want to get involved or not, but there's nothing wrong with giving the PCs a heads-up that Kalak is in danger rather than presenting it as a fair acompli. In GURPS terms, all PCs can have the Weirdness Magnet trait for free if they want it.

 

[Werebat]

Incidentally, Werebat, are you by any chance the same Werebat (Ron something) who used to post in rec.games.frp.dnd back in the 1990s?

One and the same. And who might I remember you as, good sir?

 

[KidSnide]

An improvement, but it didn't go far enough back.IMHO The way things were at the start of the original box set are a far better starting point. Maybe I'm alone, but I kinda liked Kalak for as little we got of him. I don't mind if he is set up to fall, but if he's going down, then it better damn well be player characters putting him down.

+1

Seriously, I like how Dark Sun is a big enough world where you can run dozens of types of campaigns, but the campaign built up in the opening adventures (and the novels) is such the prototypical "standard Dark Sun campaign," I can't imagine why you would want to set the campaign setting where that takes place in the past. When you write a game world, the best adventures should be in the future. You don't want a game world in which the most interesting events just took place.

Anyway, Free Tyr is a much more interesting place if the PCs were involved in making it free.

-KS

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

One and the same. And who might I remember you as, good sir?

I mostly just lurked, but if you remember a Hemlock, that would be me. I've been away from (A)D&D for a while but 5E pulled me back in.

It's good to see you're still around. I always enjoy your perspective even when I sometimes don't share it.

 

[Werebat]

I mostly just lurked, but if you remember a Hemlock, that would be me. I've been away from (A)D&D for a while but 5E pulled me back in.

It's good to see you're still around. I always enjoy your perspective even when I sometimes don't share it.

Thanks. And I do remember you.

I sorta dropped out of r.g.f.d. when I had a kid and got divorced (around about the same time). I've since met someone wonderful and had three children with them (and my oldest son basically lives with me, although I pay child support to his mother, which is another story entirely). It's been an interesting decade and a half, but I can't complain overall.

These days a lot of my writing goes into letters to local papers about the bad things going on with public schooling policy at the state and national level. I actually got put on temporary administrative leave last year for one of the letters I wrote to several local papers, in which I pointed out a serious flaw in the local state graduation requirement involving standardized tests. Essentially, as the policy was written, it was in the best interests of any student who tended to score poorly on the battery of standardized tests being used as a barrier to high school graduation (and they knew who they were, as the same tests were used periodically throughout their school careers) to intentionally bomb said tests in their Junior year in order for it to be easier for them to show "improvement" on the retake. The administrator responsible for putting me on leave never mentioned the article, of course (he accused me of "coaching" students to bomb the test, but was never able to produce any such students), but everyone knew what the action was really about, and as I hear it he ended up getting reprimanded (freedom of speech and all that -- in fact, the editor of one of the local papers offered to run a story about the situation, which I discretely let the district's lawyer find out about).

It's worth noting that the policy was scrapped last year when a young woman from one of our wealthier districts missed the cut score by 2 points and was denied a diploma, and it was pointed out that many other students who scored lower than she did on their retakes but had demonstrated adequate "improvement" from their original scores WERE given diplomas. This was essentially the exact flaw I had pointed out in the letter that led to my administrative leave.

Interesting times for public schools, these. That's another discussion, of course.

 

[Mephistopheles]

It's worth noting that the policy was scrapped last year when a young woman from one of our wealthier districts missed the cut score by 2 points and was denied a diploma, and it was pointed out that many other students who scored lower than she did on their retakes but had demonstrated adequate "improvement" from their original scores WERE given diplomas. This was essentially the exact flaw I had pointed out in the letter that led to my administrative leave.

Interesting times for public schools, these. That's another discussion, of course.

Dungeons and Dragons players: spotting loopholes in the rules since '74.

Jokes aside, I spent a few years working in the education sector and the experience was an eye opener - not in a good way, either. Good on you for trying to improve things.

 

[dwayne]

D&D Psionics What Will It Look Like in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2wRun3gglQ

 

[dwayne]

D&D Psionics What Will It Look Like in 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2wRun3gglQ