DARK SUN - Your Plans?

[Silverblade The Ench]

Um, if I was a player and the DM broke a magic item I had on a fumble, I'd be pretty damn PO'd...so would most folk.
They are *magic*, so even if it's fragile porcelain it could be stronger than steel!
People HATE having precious things broken at whim, a deliberate sunder or special event is another matter.

And even for mundane items, it depends on what the item is, for example, a wooden quarterstaff is NOT going to break very often...unless it's made from poor quality wood, or gets sundered by some seriously major attack.
Obsidian sword = likely to break, obsidian spear, less chance.
And as I've said before, psionics = folk making psionically "tempered" items as strong as metal....and psionically tempered metal could = magic items.

giving the bonuses ot defences, attack/damage makes sense, though

I'm currnetly playing a 4th ed homebrewed Dark Sun game, so be nice to see what they do.

 

[Mark Hope]

I'll be buying the DS4e books - unless previews/reviews indicate that they have changed the setting beyond easy recognition. Then I'll be reading them cover-to-cover and stealing ideas and artwork for use in my Pathfinder DS games. Not interested in 4e at all - they'll be the first 4e books that I've bought - but what I've heard so far has piqued my interest enough to force me to hand over a few ceramic pieces to check it out. Added bonus if they can get Brom to do some more cool art!

 

[Jack99]

My players are hitting epic level soon, so I am thinking that the campaign be done sometime around the release of DS.

Which is why I am guessing we will start a new campaign in DS when this one is done.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

My plans are to keep reading previews and follow the statements by WotC divining them for intent and comparing them with all my DS research.

Secondly, try harder to find a group that can teach me 4e, that doesn't necessarily include LFR (though I'm reluctantly willing).

[Tangent] Speaking of DS research, here is some trivia. Did you know that the original DS creators first showing of their plans include ZERO core races, except humans? No halfings, no elfs, no dwarfs. TSR management told them to go back to the drawing board and put in elfs, dwarfs, halflings, because fantasy without elfs, dwarfs, and halflings is too strange. Most of original races the designers proposed make an appearance in the final gladiator battle in the first Prism Pentad book. Bazraag, nikaal, and tarek.

With the redesign, bazraag became DS half-giants, nikaal became DS elfs, tareks became mul. I think I recall that the jozhal was another race in the original design, but they didn't make it in the gladiator battle. I think the jozhal was replace with the DS halfling.

Here's to hoping that WotC considers dropping in those of the original proposal races for 4e playability!

 

[weem]

Howdy. Returned from my long hiatus, because I've had this question burning in my coconut brain for some time now (since before DS was announced as the new setting, in fact). Namely - what will I do?

Basically we will just use what we like from it via the Character/Monster Builder etc. We won't be playing there as I have recently developed my own setting, but there are some things in there that will be used for sure

 

[Wik]

Um, if I was a player and the DM broke a magic item I had on a fumble, I'd be pretty damn PO'd...so would most folk.
They are *magic*, so even if it's fragile porcelain it could be stronger than steel!
People HATE having precious things broken at whim, a deliberate sunder or special event is another matter.

Oh, fully. If I lost my magical weapon for good, yeah, I'd be ticked. BUT...

as I said above, magical items would be repairable on a short rest. So, you'd be without your weapon for the rest of the fight (better use your spare!). And, you wouldn't be losing any attack or damage modifiers (since those are factored into your character already) - just your extra critical damage, and the daily.

Just a little tweak I threw in to make metal items more desirable, but not the be-all and end-all. And yes, I plan on having "Metal Quarterstaffs" (or, basically, quarterstaves made with metal tools, and therefore are "better" - not the most realistic, admittedly, but it helps keep the curve going).

Eric: I've heard that "races" comment before, too. I like where they went with the DS races, but I do wish the Tarek became a PC race. When I was considering a Savage Worlds' Dark Sun conversion (I have about twenty pages of work), I put in a bunch of those races, and came close to losing the D&D races. Ssurans rock!

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

Wik,
Well there's a form of wood in Athas that's hard as bronze, "agafari" it's claled, iirc
Personally, for simplicity, I'd just have weapons categorized as standard, and "Inferior", and make players note inferior weapons. Inferior weapons break on a roll of 1. If you wish a -1 attack/damage roll penalty too (though I like simplicity in 4th ed)
Magic weapons are never inferior, unless the DM wants to say it's peculiar (ancient enchantment is hardly working etc).

Technically, obsidian edged weapons would do MORE damage than steel ones, but would break easily if too long (say a shorsword or longer) due to their crystalline nature.
Obsidian knives, spears, morningstars (wood inset with obisidian shards), "wrist razors" (bladed gauntlets) and handaxes would all be reaosnably common and useful.
You'd also have, oh, forge tname, "machitutil" ? ths swords edged with chips of obsidian.

Armour could be made form mekillot and braxat hide for plate
I also have ceramic chain mail in my DS games, the rings are fired like normal pottery, and psionically "tempered", then psionics is used ot pass each ring through the other , making a light weght, cool armour. See the many useful and odd psionic powers in 2nd ed Psionics handbook.
Chitin, and various hides are used for leather and hide.

I appreciate Dark Sun is a barbaric apocalyptic place, but, as noted before, the folk who live there aren't stupid, or they'd be dead!
Psionics being somehwat common (but weak in most NPCs), existance of magic and the libraries of the templars and psionc academies (both only for the priveleged) would give rise to high demand for psionic crafters.
But since such would be indivuduals lucky enough to be born with a specific psionic power, or actual psions, they aren't common, compared ot how much easier it is to learn metalcrafting.

People with such skills would form small crafting families, each very secetive of their techniques (no written word is allowed for non-templars/nobility, so, knowledge is incredibly precious and contained)
Outside Tyr, iron is extremely rare, so adventurers in Urik would use their money to buy "psionically tempered" weapons, but IMHO, they'd cost ten times normal, and they'd be in short supply 'cause everyone else wants them too.

That lets in good RPing, with PCs needing to earn favours to get such gear, gives reason for "Athasian bards" to spy (as trade secrets = very valuable) etc

ALchemy should also be common, Athas is rich in minerals needed for such and again, necessity is the Mother of invention Adventurers in Athas need an edge, since arcane magic is rare, the various useful things alchemists give are important.

I see Athas as sort of like Howard's vision of Conan's world mixed with Earth's Bronze and early Iron Age....but, smatterings of ancient knowledge, lethality of the wilderness, the great powers of the sorceror kings etc, mutations and psionics, but it's also incredibly ancient world (the sorceror kings are thousands of years old) = very peucliar setting indeed.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

I plan on buying the player's guide, and using any new crunch in my current game.

I might buy the campaign guide, and then take the current party (when they are high epic level) show up in Dark Sun and fix everything wrong with the world. It's what I did in first ed. None of my players like dark and depressing settings, so the only use it would be is as something to fix.

 

[avin]

Preorder is my plan.

 

[BluSponge]

Anyways, I'm Interested in hearing about other people's plans for how they want to run Dark Sun (and what they hope to see/plan on replacing).

I'm watching this one closely. I'm a big DS fan, but not so much a fan of 4e. I've long been returning to Athas via Savage Worlds! The two seem like a very nice fit. So I'm interested to see what the new books have to offer. The 3.5 conversion in Dragon/Dungeon was a travesty, mostly (apparently) due to meddling by the editors (Dammit, Erik! Leave well enough alone!). If 4e DS goes down the road of "Paladins and gnomes are a-ok! Look, there goes one now!" then I'll pass and be very vocal in my disgust. If the new books still close to the original concept and spirit, as the developers have suggested it will, I'm hoping the 4e books will have plenty to mine for details, and I won't have to wear out my old boxed set any more than I already have.

Tom