D&D General Dark Sun Nostalgia Thread [+]

[Fenris-77]

Outraged fanboys are my last concern in terms of a new DS book. Someone's going to get their knickers in a twist, so whatevs.

 

[cbwjm]

Outraged fanboys are my last concern in terms of a new DS book. Someone's going to get their knickers in a twist, so whatevs.

Didn't the designers have some sort of threshold for new content, something like if 70% of players thought something was good then they'd continue to develop something? I think that's probably a good idea, especially for something like psionics or dark sun, just accept some people (likely to be very vocal online) aren't going to like the adaptation and create it anyway.

 

[cbwjm]

Something I liked about Dark Sun, that I wish I had a chance to play, was that it supported high level play via the transformations into dragons, avangions, elementals, and spirits of the land. Ideas that seemed to perfectly mesh with 4e's epic levels. I actually really liked the 4e books, I thought it was a very good adaptation of the 2e material.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I was born in 1990, so a little to young to care much about DS at that time, but let say something like 20-ish years late? I adored the 4e conversion of it.

With the general success of post-apo games and other ''back to basic'' settings like Horizon Zero Down and Mad Max, I think DS would be the most ''2020'' setting WotC could publish.
The themes of Environmental crisis and breaking the bonds of oppressions (all while slinging spells and breaking the neck of dragons with your hands!)

 

[Marandahir]

Borys the Butcher was a full on Dragon with wings in 4e.

 

[Fenris-77]

Borys the Butcher was a full on Dragon with wings in 4e.

Heavy is good, heavy is reliable.

 

[pukunui]

Borys the Butcher was a full on Dragon with wings in 4e.

OK. I don't think I've ever bothered to look at the 4e Dark Sun books.

 

[overgeeked]

What is Divine Magic, What is Divine Magic in a world without Gods, what is a Divine Domain, what is a Sacred Oath? These are big picture questions that Athas usually doesn't answer because Divine Magic just doesn't exist anymore (at least outside of Elemental priests are are more like Druids). Templars might USE the structural chassis of a Cleric or Paladin class but are fundamentally a different thing.

In standard D&D 5E you don't need to worship a god to be a cleric. It can just as easily be about personal belief in a cause, or one's self, as a deity. Same with paladins. No gods required. Make a sincere enough oath to a cause that you believe in enough and blam...you're a paladin. Uphold that oath or fall. To me, the elemental priests are the best example of nature and tempest domain clerics you could hope for.

I think the baseline assumptions of the Warlock in the PHB lines up more with what a Templar is and what a Templar does than the baseline assumptions of the Cleric and/or Paladin, even though there are subclasses of Cleric and Paladin that narratively line up with what a Templar DOES.

I'd argue that the Warlock chassis is a MORE useful way of the telling the story of the Templar, even if the Paladin and Cleric classes also touch on the same concepts.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I'm more interested in replicating what's in the novels and the Campaign Setting Box Set than matching the fluff of 5E classes. But, to each their own. It's far less work to have templars as clerics and paladins...as their powers and abilities and spells almost perfectly line up with what was originally presented in 2E. If "but the sorcerer-kings aren't gods" is more important to you, knock yourself out. That's just not the route I've taken running Dark Sun in 5E. And I haven't seen a compelling argument to change that. But hey...Dark Sun is awesome.

This is sort of like the idea that there are Shifters, Circle of the Moon Druids, Path of the Beast Barbarians, and Werefolk (whose curse means taking the character away from the PC and turning them into an NPC). All of these touch on the same narrative concept and COULD be used to tell the story of a Werewolf, but depending on the story we're trying to tell, different ways of doing it are more or less useful. I wouldn't want to use the Werewolf monster stat for the situation if a PC wanted to be a Wereperson. But if they wanted to change full-on into a wolf, and not just gain wolflike abilities when they shift, I also wouldn't use the Shifter lineage from Eberron. The context matters.

I think that's more an argument for D&D having too many rules and too many bizarre subdivisions between similar concepts to fill pages of splats.

 

[Mind of tempest]

Borys the Butcher was a full on Dragon with wings in 4e.

do you mean like this?

 

[LordEntrails]

Any attempt at an "official Dark Sun 5E" publication from Wizards of the Coast would be met with cries of outrage, no matter how well it is done. Because few of us agree on what "well done" means.

Eh. Not that you are wrong. But you are really only talking about less than 0.1% of the 5E fan base. Sure, they will make a stink in their small communities, but it wont significantly affect 95% of the current 5E fans/customers. Because most just don't follow the little spats on the internet They have other things to keep them busy.

Now, back to fun stuff! More artwork please