Dark Sun

[Wik]

Yeah. I second the meta-plot hate.

Really, DS 4e would be awesome. And since I'm really not excited about 4e, at all, DS 4e would be THE product to get me buying those D&D books.

I would like to see something similar to what Paizo did with their Dragon/Dungeon crossover, but maybe with a bit more rules flavour (ie, sure, have a paladin, but at least give it options to make it seem more... athasian). Psionics can stay or go, I don't really care - but I'm sure they'll be in there, if only to make use of the PHB 2 (or whatever book psionics will be in).

About the only real change I'd like to see is an introduction of new Sorcerer Kings, advance the timeline a few hundred years, and make all of the cities (except Tyr, of course) ruled by dragon kings once more. Oh, and let PCs become able to gain templars of their own, because that's just EPIC.

And get rid of all that revised DS "Halflings in the Blue Age" and "life-shaping" nonsense. Same for Kreen empire, The last Sea, and the Jagged Cliffs. Buh bye.

 

[Jack Colby]

I also think 4E and Dark Sun are a perfect match, and it's the setting I most want to see released. Make it so, WotC!

Since I know they'd never do a total reboot of the setting's timeline, I would like to see time advanced sufficiently that Athas has come full circle and is more-or-less back to the way it used to be when we thought it was cool. All it takes is someone willing to write up a reason for it to "revert", and we can have our original Dark Sun world back again.

Basically, I want to see the canon and metaplot stuff (baggage from novels) to be made irrelevant, and a fresh start made, using the original campaign set concepts as a guide. If they can make Forgotten Realms new and mysterious again, they can surely revise Athas and take it back to it's savage roots.

 

[Jhaelen]

I guess my issue was that the general feel and theme behind 4e - at last how I've seen it - seems the opposite of Dark Sun. What I've seen of 4e so far seems to place the importance on the characters being awesome heroes, whereas Dark Sun has, to me, been about the heroes trying not to die.

I disagree with your conclusion. Actually Darksun was about awesome heroes trying not to die. Which makes 4E a perfect match for the setting - it's also about as much points-of-light as it can get.

It was difficult to survive the Darksun setting because of the harsh environment and extremely tough monsters. In 4E you can simply start with a standard 1st level character (they're pretty much exactly as powerful as the 2E 3rd level Darksun characters were).

To get a more 'gritty' feeling, maybe change the math to make the game more swingy by increasing damage all over and reducing hit points (I vaguely remember Mike Mearls mentioning toying around with something in that direction).

 

[arscott]

Dark Sun characters...

...started at 3rd-level to increase player character survivability.
...used 5d4 for stats, resulting in scores of 5-20 instead of 3-18.
...were often wild talents, which could make a character ridiculously powerful.
...were often non-traditional races, such as thri-kreen and half-giants.

I think a 4th Edition version would work just fine.

And don't forget. The first Dark Sun supplement was a book that increased the maximum level to 30 and provided epic destinies.

You mean Dim Sun, a depressingly unlit world delivered by a fast talking person on a dinner cart.

(Oh, I am so witty).

Entirely off-topic, but my former roommate designed a cardgame called Dim Sum. It was fun--You rotated a lazy susan around so that you got the tasty dishes and your opponents got the nasty ones.