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

[SteveC]

I think we've had this discussion a few times already. There's plenty of great stuff out there for Dark Sun in 5E that has nothing to do with WotC. WotC has decided to listen to folks who find parts of Dark Sun problematic, and those issues are pretty core to the setting, so if they did release it, I suspect that the people who are interested in it would gripe about it and the people who aren't interested wouldn't suddenly become enamored of this very off-beat setting.

 

[king of the ceaders]

I think disposable is the wrong way to look at it. I don't expect D&D to cater to my particular preferences and I'm perfectly fine with that. I imagine they might think of my demographic, but I suspect they won't lose a lot of sleep over agonizing about making sure they keep me interested. Even though I've got tons of disposable income and 5th edition is my favorite edition, I've bought very few books over the last 11 years. I bought more 2nd edition products from 1989-1994 than I have 5th edition books.

Sigh, again my comments have NOTHING to do with WotC and everything to do with posts by individuals in this specific thread. I'm not sure how this disconnect is persisting, but it is frustrating to say the least.

 

[tetrasodium]

I think we've had this discussion a few times already. There's plenty of great stuff out there for Dark Sun in 5E that has nothing to do with WotC. WotC has decided to listen to folks who find parts of Dark Sun problematic, and those issues are pretty core to the setting, so if they did release it, I suspect that the people who are interested in it would gripe about it and the people who aren't interested wouldn't suddenly become enamored of this very off-beat setting.

A lot of folks who complain about it's "problematic" aspects ime tend to have little actual exposure to a setting so many years out of print. Ididn't expect it from him of all places but dndshorts did a great "I read darksun and..." Quick little review recently
He leaves out or misses a couple details important to the setting like what it was before rhajaat kicked off the cleansing wars or how it tends being to reward creative "fixes" like sealing him and the (wish powered?) time traveler with something awful getting tacked on but I don't think much of that made it into the 4e book he read. Some of that might have been in thri kreen of athas blackspine mountains and other older books not coming to mind

 

[seebs]

But, hey, we're not about evidence or actual facts anymore. Let's be brutally honest. This is about "feelings".

Well, yeah. Because humans have feelings, and feelings affect them in a lot of ways, and that itself is a fact...

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I'd say his difinition is pretty solid to be honest. I'd pretty much agree that there is only one image of the first ten non-dice images in the PHB that could even remotely be called "twee".

But, hey, we're not about evidence or actual facts anymore. Let's be brutally honest. This is about "feelings".

Words like "twee" are of course subjective, I think we should be all acknowledging that.

 

[Maxperson]

They're rough approximates based on the conversations WotC's had about D&D's growth in the 5e era as shared in shareholder meetings.

And yes, I remain thinking that catering to a staunch, unchanging and unchangeable group that demands media never change is a marketing mistake. Those people already have the material they need.

The modern game and fiction should be built for the modern audience. There's a reason the game is more popular now than ever, and it's not because of people who haven't touched their Dark Sun books in three decades

Your premise is flawed. Those conversations and meetings didn't say that the many millions of new players who love post-apocalyptic media and have a thing against slavery and tyrants, would not want a setting where they could explore those things.

This is not nostalgia vs. new 5e players. It's nostalgia plus a portion(probably a good portion) of the new 5e players.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Mortal Kombat is a franchise famous because its high level of violence but there was a MK cartoon for all the audiences that could be watched by children. There was a cartoon of Rambo and others about Robocop. The Toxic Avengers was also a cartoon for children. A franchise for mature audiences can be softed.

The Athaspace is totally isolated and it is desertic but these are good reasons to be used like key for a new adventure. It is the best place in the multiverse to hide some cursed artifact because nobody will visit the dungeon. Or the Athaspace can be chosen like battlefield in some multiplanar confrotation because the risk of collateral damages is lower. Maybe the D&D gods knew the risk of the Phyrexian invasion and to stop them they used the Athaspace like a firewall.

Maybe after the events of Black Spine adventure a civil war started in Yathazor, the city of calamity, or something happened and then somebody become a new dark lord and his new domain was a clone of Yathazor. Or maybe Rajaat had created a clone with the hope to be the way to return to the life if some time something happened, but this had got his own soul... and after this became a new dark lord in Ravenloft.

Or Kas the vampire suffered the revenge by Vecna in a different way. He was abducted and sent to a new domain, but this was created by Vecna, a dark domain but out of the demiplane of the dread. This domain would be like the region of Tyr, but with clerics and churchs, and Kas is repelled by all the sacred symbols of all "real" religions (whose deities haven't to be real, only faith is necessary). At least Kas feed on fiends (not only gnolls) and even he enjoys drinking blood from infernal and catastrophic dragons.

Or survivors of the cleasing war created their own "domains of delight" within the "land-within-the-wind", and from here they traveled to other zones to explore. Maybe they found an astral domain based in "Jackandors" but with visitors from other places.

Or Vecna, deity of secrets, created his own astral realm like a clone of the Athaspace. What a best secret?

* I wonder if a section of DM-Guild could be opened for titles focused mainly into art. Some profesional artists and graphic designers could use the setting to show their own creations.

 

[Zardnaar]

Alot of the problem DS came in later product.

If you focus on the 1991 set (the classic one) there's no Rajast and the past is a mystery. Leaves slavery and way Muls are written for the most part.

And as previously referenced it's about PG levels if it's a movie. BG3 had slavery in it as well so there's precedent in modern era for it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I believe @Paul Farquhar is looking at the question from the soulless corporation point of view.

I do feel that people are too frightened to talk about death. We all die, if you treat it as casually as eating and pooping it takes away the fear.

 

[king of the ceaders]

I do feel that people are too frightened to talk about death. We all die, if you treat it as casually as eating and pooping it takes away the fear.

I'm not frightened to talk about death but that is not what the posts are about, they're about disrespect and discrimination due to ones age.