D&D General Dark Sun Nostalgia Thread [+]

[CleverNickName]

Do you remember seeing this full-page ad on Page 33 of Dragon Magazine #170, back in June 1991?
Did you wait with bated breath for months, checking the shelves at your local game store (or Waldenbooks!) for the official release?
Did you and your friends cannonball into the world of Athas, and spend the long winter months fighting the merciless desert and running from the thri-kreen?

Then tell us about it! I'd like to hear everyone's stories of how they enjoyed the Dark Sun campaign setting, what they thought of it, and whether or not they are still playing it more than 30 years later.

(And please note that this is a positive-only thread; please avoid dumping all over everyone's good time. If you didn't particularly enjoy, or even play, the Dark Sun campaign setting, that's fine and I want to hear about your experiences also...but we don't need insults and threadcrapping.)

 

[Charlaquin]

I was three months old in June of 1991, so I missed out on original Dark Sun. My first experience with the setting was the 4e conversion, but I absolutely loved it. I never did get to run it myself, but one year in college there was a freak blizzard that shut everything down for 2 weeks. I happened to live on campus, and the on-campus housing had its own generator, so we weren’t affected by the power outages that were all over the rest of the town. So, my apartment became the hangout for the gamer crowd, and we played D&D every day for two weeks straight. And that campaign was 4e Dark Sun. One of my all-time fondest gaming memories.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I didn't get into it right away, simply due to lack of info until a few years afterward. But when I got into it, I got really excited. I even bought Thri-kreen of Athas (I didn't have a credit card and had to mail a cheque to an outfit in the US).

I didn't get to play much. I DM'd more than I played. But that's life. I like the setting, and from a rules perspective preferred 4th Edition for it.

I've read all the novels. I only knew about the Prism Pentad and Tribe of One until a few years ago, and when I learned of the others (Chronicles of Athas, plus three newer ones) I bought all of them in ebook format.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Dark Sun was awesome. It was the first real "slam dunk" setting they published that both had a distinct viewpoint and played with the standard expectations of D&D players.

In the Gygaxian+ era (pre-2e), there Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance. Sure, there were some other settings, and 3PP, and glosses (Kara Tur) ... but nothing too wild or distinctive.

Dark Sun really put down the gauntlet and let to later settings like Planescape and Birthright.

While I always return to Greyhawk as my go-to default, Dark Sun holds a special place in my heart.

 

[pukunui]

I own the original Dark Sun box set and the first two of the boxed adventures but I haven’t ever gotten to use them in actual play.

My only experience playing Dark Sun came via the Shattered Lands PC game (which was a lot of fun but also really hard - I don’t think I ever managed to finish it).

 

[Bolares]

Do you remember seeing this full-page ad on Page 33 of Dragon Magazine #170, back in June 1991?

I wouldn't be born for two whole months

 

[CleverNickName]

My Dark Sun experience was...a bit different from most people, I think.

At the time Dark Sun was released, I was wrapping up my senior year in high school and getting ready to move off to college. My high school gaming group had disbanded, and we wouldn't ever play D&D together again.

Fast forward almost a year later, when I ran across the Dark Sun: Shattered Lands computer game in the campus bookstore. My poor computer could barely run it, but I spent every free hour I had playing it. I thought it was one of the best D&D games ever published by SSI.

If you haven't played it, and if you're a fan of the Dark Sun setting, it might be worth your time.

EDIT:

My only experience playing Dark Sun came via the Shattered Lands PC game

I worried that I was the only one!

 

[Bolares]

I've never got to play it. in 3e and 4e setting support for Brazil was basically the Forgotten Realms so my group never came in contact with Darksun, or any other setting. It was a stroke of luck that I found Eberron books when searching for 4e supplements one day. I'm eager for Darksun support for 5e so I can finally give it a shot.

 

[Fenris-77]

My first DS character was a Mul Gladiator with dimension door. The DM ruled that DD could be produced on any axis, not just upright. Shenanigans ensued.

 

[pukunui]

Oh, I have also read the first of the novels (The Verdant Passage). It was all right. Haven’t read any of the others.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I played it a bunch when it came out. I own everything made for it except the pc game. I even bought multiple sets of the lead minis.

I got to interview Troy Denning for an hour after his Gencon panel for his latest FR novels at the time. I shared most of his answers in the main Dark Sun fan forum. (I think they’re archived on Athas.org somewhere?)

I have high hopes to run my next Dark Sun campaign using Worlds Without Number plus psionics from Stars Without Number.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've never got to play it. in 3e and 4e setting support for Brazil was basically the Forgotten Realms so my group never came in contact with Darksun, or any other setting. It was a stroke of luck that I found Eberron books when searching for 4e supplements one day. I'm eager for Darksun support for 5e so I can finally give it a shot.

Unfortunately, that might be a very long wait indeed. Rumors abound on the Internet, but there has been no official statement from Wizards of the Coast that they are working on a 5E Dark Sun campaign setting. It would be cool if they were, and they are clearly developing some rules for psionics in their Unearthed Arcana projects, but there hasn't been an official line on Dark Sun (that I'm aware of.)

There are lots of unofficial resources out there, though. The Dark Sun campaign setting has a large fan base, and the folks over at GM Binder have put together a 5th Edition Dark Sun Player's Guide that you can enjoy.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Oh, I have also read the first of the novels (The Verdant Passage). It was all right. Haven’t read any of the others.

I recommend the Lynn Abbey novels as possibly the best of the Dark Sun line.

 

[pukunui]

I recommend the Lynn Abbey novels as possibly the best of the Dark Sun line.

OK. The covers look familiar. I must have seen them at the bookstore back in the day. I'll have to see if I can get them from the library or something. (I do need some new books to read at the moment ...)

 

[Marandahir]

I was 2 years old when that add came out, so no, I don't remember it.

I do remember encountering Dark Sun 2e books a bit later in my childhood, and then much later in 4e falling in love with the setting, though.

Can't wait for the setting to return to the forefront in the next few years. I highly expect it now that we got UA for Thri-Kreen, even if Planescape or Spelljammer comes first.

 

[CleverNickName]

Wasn't there a Dark Sun-inspired Kickstarter floating around last summer? I ended up getting sent away on a long deployment for work and I sort of fell out of the loop.

EDIT: I found the thread. It's...not good news.

D&D 5E - Dark Sun Spiritual Successor on Kickstarter: Red Dawn: Into the Dawnlands

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burningstargames/red-dawn-into-the-dawnlands?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=Red%20Dawn%3A%20Into%20The%20Dawnlands Just interested if anyone has got any more information on this other than the Kickstarter page Has anyone backed this?

www.enworld.org

 

[Bolares]

There are lots of unofficial resources out there, though. The Dark Sun campaign setting has a large fan base, and the folks over at GM Binder have put together a 5th Edition Dark Sun Player's Guide that you can enjoy.

That's very cool to know! One of my players backed the kickstarter for a spiritual sucessor of Darksun (forbidden something I think, can't remember) but we weren't able to play it yet.

 

[Marandahir]

Unfortunately, that might be a very long wait indeed. Rumors abound on the Internet, but there has been no official statement from Wizards of the Coast that they are working on a 5E Dark Sun campaign setting. It would be cool if they were, and they are clearly developing some rules for psionics in their Unearthed Arcana projects, but there hasn't been an official line on Dark Sun (that I'm aware of.)

There are lots of unofficial resources out there, though. The Dark Sun campaign setting has a large fan base, and the folks over at GM Binder have put together a 5th Edition Dark Sun Player's Guide that you can enjoy.

Psionics were in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything Else. Thri-Kreen were in UA in October 2021. Psionics haven't been in UA since early 2019, though they first emerged into UA way back in like 2016.

Half-Giants and Dray are essentially playable as is (Goliath and Dragonborn). Muls are easily modelled with Dwarves or Custom Lineage. Templars are just a Warlock Pact away from existing again (or, sure, I guess they can be a Paladin Oath or a Cleric Domain IF THEY MUST). The Wilderness survival kit's rules are a nice first step towards Everything-Is-Trying-To-Kill-You Athasian Desert survival. And Plane-Shift: Amonkhet is another useful resource to mine for elements of the setting, even if not a perfect fit.

All the 2e, 3e, and 4e resources are still out there and available as well for homebrewers.

Dark Sun is a-coming. Just you wait!

 

[overgeeked]

Dark Sun and Spelljammer are two of my all-time favorite D&D settings. I skipped 2E as a system, but played the hell out of those settings and collected every bit of them I could. Loved the bronze age, sword & planet, science fantasy feel with psionics everywhere. Loved the set up. The world ended centuries ago. The bad guys won. But there are still survivors. Read all the novels and still not happy with the outcome of the original series as it pulled the rug out from under the setting. That aside, still one of my favorite settings.

I got to interview Troy Denning for an hour after his Gencon panel for his latest FR novels at the time. I shared most of his answers in the main Dark Sun fan forum.

Any chance he said when the original novel series was set? There’s not much in the way of dates mentioned in the novels. Obsessive nerds need to know.

 

[HammerMan]

Do you remember seeing this full-page ad on Page 33 of Dragon Magazine #170, back in June 1991?

I don't remember seeing the ad, the first time I remember seeing was the box set in Walden Books in the mall... it was the first setting I bought.

I remember thinking it was so different then the D&D me and my friends were playing. I remember Becky got the Psionic handbook not long after and the two of us sat in her room for hours making up psionascists.