D&D 5E (2014) Dark Sun, problematic content, and 5E…

[Micah Sweet]

Big Darksun fan here with most of the product line on PDF.

The Darksun adventures pretty much are utter trash. All of them.

They're tied to the events of the Prism Pentad and/or heavily railroaded, metaplot heavy or are more grand tours of Athas.

Remember the post 1985 AD&D adventures are not well regarded for a reason.

It was a thing at TSR for a while. Good 2E adventures are few and far between.

Good thing published adventures never really mattered to me. My love for 2e is untarnished.

 

[Zardnaar]

Good thing published adventures never really mattered to me. My love for 2e is untarnished.

I like 2E alot. Not for the adventures though.

 

[Raduin711]

Getting you on-side isn't a golden ticket to slavetown though.

What now? I wasn't looking for a "golden ticket to slavetown." I hope none of my posts have given that impression.

 

[Suicidy]

I've always hated the blanket term "problematic" because it's too vague, but I hate even more that it's part of my vocabulary. It's okay for fiction to examine problematic things, and it's okay for role playing games to cover anything a work of fiction might cover.

It’s mean to represent anything a wokie decides they don’t like. Just ignore them and do whatever the Hell you want. Wokie are going to bitch no matter what.

Mod Note: Folks, this poster was dealt with. You can stop reporting this. ~Umbran

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I think all this talk overlooks a very key element:

No company can tell you what to do at your table. Even if Dark Sun is never published again, no one is keeping anyone from running Dark Sun.

People that want to tell Dark Sun/etc tales will find the time and effort to put that game together, and then put forth the effort to find people who want to play it. As an abstract, it's not any different than me saying 'I want to play Twilight 2000' and being unable to find a group that wants to play.

If Disney were to stop producing Star Wars as a response to all the hatred, people would still have access to all the SW merch they own, and be able to run Star Wars tabletop even if a system weren't available.

 

[MGibster]

I think all this talk overlooks a very key element:

I don't think anyone overlooked this. I haven't read through this thread in a while, since 2023, but some people, either in this thread or others on the subject, have argued against republishing Dark Sun because it might allow some tables to play it the wrong way. i.e. Maybe in someone's game the PCs might dabble in the slave trade themselves. I think we all realize we're free to do whatever we want at our own game table, so it's not been a particular area of discussion, we've been more focused on whether it's a good idea to publish anything for Dark Sun.

Social mores change as the years progress. Some things that are acceptable now might not be acceptable in 15 years. In 15 years, maybe the market will be ready for a Dark Sun setting. I'm not entirely convinced the problematic elements are what would keep people from buying the game. I think its biggest problem is it's too different from standard D&D for most groups.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't think anyone overlooked this. I haven't read through this thread in a while, since 2023, but some people, either in this thread or others on the subject, have argued against republishing Dark Sun because it might allow some tables to play it the wrong way. i.e. Maybe in someone's game the PCs might dabble in the slave trade themselves. I think we all realize we're free to do whatever we want at our own game table, so it's not been a particular area of discussion, we've been more focused on whether it's a good idea to publish anything for Dark Sun.

Social mores change as the years progress. Some things that are acceptable now might not be acceptable in 15 years. In 15 years, maybe the market will be ready for a Dark Sun setting. I'm not entirely convinced the problematic elements are what would keep people from buying the game. I think its biggest problem is it's too different from standard D&D for most groups.

U tried playing it again recently. Its a lot to digest and you need around 6 books.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Dark Sun could be "played in the wrong way" but that is also possible with the rest of settings.

I can understand in the name of good sense somebody asking to avoid certain elements that could make somebody to feel too unconfortable, or for respect of victims from the real life, but some times there are serious suspects some sensibilities are too fragile.

Why to delete anything that could simply be omitted?

Why not to create an "utopian" Athas where there is a "timecop" with psionic powers (and some biopunk gadgets) working to avoid the creation of "distopian Athasian timelines"? Maybe Athas was chosen like the battlefield of some confrotation of multiplanar factions because in their desert areas the risk of collateral damage or ecological impact was lower. Then the region of Tyr wouldn't be erasured but only "replaced" with other region with more creative freedom to add crunch-options about PC species and classes among other things. Or the Athaspace was altered because in the next wildspace something happened like the event of the Sundering of Forgotten Realms. Maybe the next wildspace, the "Crimsonspace" was the battlefield between a two rogue factions, the githyankis and vodoni empire, being a " secret proxy war" between a alliance of time-dragons and chronomancers against an alien invader faction.

DS is a too potential valious IP to allow this to fall into oblivion. It is too original and with its own visual style.

 

[Mind of tempest]

damn thred necromancy not seen it properly in years

 

[Riley]

First post = last post, I guess. Very efficient.

I do like Dark Sun, and still wish for a chance to play the 4e version of the Dark Sun rules. I feel it could be used for a great wahoo version of the old Thundarr The Barbarian cartoon!