Dark Sun in Dragon magazine

[Ranger REG]

In case anyone is wondering, David Noonan -- who did a Dark Sun article on Dark Sun #315 -- is doing Dark Sun 3.5e for Paizo's magazines.

We now resume to the conversation.

 

[Mach2.5]

The darksun setting was good pre fall of Kalak, but once T$R decided to get politicaly correct and try and reduce the slavery in the setting it lost something.

The first novel and first adventure published for the setting delt with the fall of Kalak, right after the box set was released. These were the very first things printed for DS. The intention wasn't to 'lighten up' the setting, but to give the PCs a base of operations (every setting at the time had one, Sigil, Rock of Bral, Waterdeep, Free City of Greyhawk). Not that I agree with the events themselves, but Tyr still wasn't a utopian vacationer's paradise after the Sorceror-King's fall. In many ways, it got much, much worse, losing the stability it once under the Tyrant's rule.

The Prism Pentad was the death knell for Dark Sun. Everything that you knew about the setting from the original boxed set was thrown right out the window. Half the sorceror-king's died along with the world's only dragon.

I agree with you on that, at least mostly. Granted, Borys surely wasn't Athas' only dragon, but it did bite the big one to have his demise occure in a novel rather than an adventure. I don't like that the SKs were killed off, but I do like a few of revamped cities (like the anarchic and civil war-torn city of Raam). The thing is, everything you knew from the original box was about a grain of sand in the desert. You really didn't know jack from the start. You had a lot of assumptions to go one (like originally thinking that there was only one Dragon, or that the SK's were immortal gods, or that the Green Age was just like any 'normal' fantasy setting, etc), so its only inevitable that when you find out a little more about the setting, it may not have panned out the way you wanted it too, which is to be expected. Surely didn't hit all the marks I had hoped either.

 

[HarryFlashman]

Well having bought every single supplement for Dark Sun and buying the original boxed set thw very month it came out i suppose i must bea big Fan. I read every Novel and I do agree, the Prism Pentad's resolution ruined the Game's flavor. Don't get me wrong, the books gave tons of interesting tidbits, I even madea listing of plants, their morphology, and their properties gleaned from the books. But why develop a system where the PCs are always at a disadvantage then get rid of the disadvantage?

Dark Sun did need a Revamp. Clerics were severly underpowered and No one ever chose to be a Fighter so long as the Gladiator class was available. Specialist mages were allowed, then not allowed. Halflings were capable Illusionists then not, etc, etc.

I agree that the Current Websites do not adequately capture the feeling of the setting, at least not to my tastes.

The Dark Sun setting could be this side of excellent with the new Feat system, unlimited ability score tables and so on.

I ran several Dark Sun Campaigns and i never advanced time any farther than Kalak's Death (thus giving the PCs a Home Town). I thought that it was nonsensical that only Hamanu would recognize a Free Tyr as a threat. Balic should have marched on Tyr followed by Nibenay.

The addition the new areas in Dark Sun II was interesting but unfortunately TSR failed shortly afterward.

I agree that the inclusion of kingdoms of Halflings beyond the Forest Ridge and kingdoms of Thri-kreen, particularly since they were such LARGE kingdoms, was silly.


i will no doubt pick up both issues, as it is but a small hit tot he pocketbook.

Now, is anyone going to be precluded from trying to publish a Dark Sun setting following 3.5/modern/ogl rules thanks to Paizo's move?

 

[Derulbaskul]

I'm wondering whether UA's gathering mechanic for spellcasting might be modified for preserving/defiling?

 

[Dave Turner]

In threads like this, the overwhelming fan sentiment always seems to be in the "pre-novels/pre-Revised" version of the setting. Since the setting is essentially a dead one and is essentially immune to concerns of continuity, I hope that the authors listened to the fans on this one.

While I liked the idea of a Kreen Empire, I also thought it could have been a bit smaller than it appeared to be. I certainly could have done without the hafling biotechnology stuff.

 

[jessemock]

Troy Denning created the setting but he also destroyed it.

Word.

Dark Sun was the only truly original setting D&D ever produced.

But the product support treated the setting as if it were a novel. I mean that it's perfectly acceptable to present some far-out setting in a novel and then follow a plot that turns it inside out.

An RPG setting is something you want to hang around in, explore for a while. And if anybody's turning it inside out, it's gonna be you.

Now, that I think about it, all "progressive" products suck.

Athas.org's take is ok, but they just didn't recapture the feel of the setting for me.

My beef with athas.org is that they can't write worth a damn.

 

[Carcerian]

Dark Sun is now been dubbed "problematic", but i highly disagree...

 

[Carcerian]

 

[overgeeked]

Exactly. It’s a thematically pitch perfect D&D setting for modern times.

 

[aramis erak]

Exactly. It’s a thematically pitch perfect D&D setting for modern times.

Are you intimating that the world is darker now than Dark Sun???