D&D 5E Darksun Inspired Setting?

[Zardnaar]

As the title says.

My idea is harsh desert setting similar to DS but without psionics.

Major themes desert, heat, survival be and the environment.

Defiling doesn't have to be used but doesn't have to be written out.
Races are pretty much anything goes except flyers, aquatic types or anything that can ignore the survival aspects to easily. Maybe no arctic type things.

6-12 major races, anything else is a mutant if they don't have some sort of npc type place.

Humans are a shoe in anything else is up for consideration as a major race. Kreen, Muls and Half Giants don't exist in 5E and Goliath not fit for purpose as it's arctic themed.

Dragon Monarchs can just be refluffed metallic dragons that cast spells at least for now.

How would you do it and what would you do?

Tentative Race list

Human
Elf
Halfling
Dwarf
Half Elf
Tosculi (Midgard insect race)
Mutants (everything else).

 

[aco175]

You could look at Al-Qadim or the Auraroch supplement in DMsGuild. Both are FR related, but I'm sure there is a lot in both of them to steal. I would be sure to place several non-desert areas where there may be large oasis' or even grassland or ponderosa pines. You do need someplace to grow food.

 

[Don Durito]

I'd probably do it as a hex map to begin with, with one city state and a region around it. The Valley of Dust and Fire had lots of great stuff for filling out a hex map - some of which made it into the 4E campagin setting.

Begin with the PCs escaping from slavery and fleeing into the desert to survive.

 

[tetrasodium]

As the title says.

My idea is harsh desert setting similar to DS but without psionics.

Major themes desert, heat, survival be and the environment.

Defiling doesn't have to be used but doesn't have to be written out.
Races are pretty much anything goes except flyers, aquatic types or anything that can ignore the survival aspects to easily. Maybe no arctic type things.

6-12 major races, anything else is a mutant if they don't have some sort of npc type place.

Humans are a shoe in anything else is up for consideration as a major race. Kreen, Muls and Half Giants don't exist in 5E and Goliath not fit for purpose as it's arctic themed.

Dragon Monarchs can just be refluffed metallic dragons that cast spells at least for now.

How would you do it and what would you do?

Kn eberron the menectarun(sp?) Desert is affected by the traver's curse and has thri kreen so pretty darksinish in some ways. The blade desert has dinosaur riding halfling tribes that are probably a lot more friendly than the halfling tribes of athas. And the demon wastes ish burned out desert once the place eberron's demon overlords called their seat of power so again some very dark sun vibes with a twist there. I think at least some of those have a bit on exploring eberron & rising from the last war along with 3.5 &4e stuff for inspiration

 

[cbwjm]

I'd definitely use city-states working on a points of light type setting, though even then there is danger in the cities. Would keep the templars as the people keeping the dragon-king's order.

I'd alter some spells like create water and goodberry to make them less impactful to the setting (if you have them, look at how they altered spells in dark sun).

Metal armour is not as common, due to the extreme heat of the region (whether you use the metal poor conceit of dark sun or not). If keeping the weird creatures of dark sun with the various giant beetles then that would be what medium and heavy armour is made from. I wouldn't use any sort of item breakage rules due to the material.

I might leave defiling out of it, the world can still be a wasteland due to arcane magic if needed, could be due to wild magic that was tamed by the dragon kings.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'd definitely use city-states working on a points of light type setting, though even then there is danger in the cities. Would keep the templars as the people keeping the dragon-king's order.

I'd alter some spells like create water and goodberry to make them less impactful to the setting (if you have them, look at how they altered spells in dark sun).

Metal armour is not as common, due to the extreme heat of the region (whether you use the metal poor conceit of dark sun or not). If keeping the weird creatures of dark sun with the various giant beetles then that would be what medium and heavy armour is made from. I wouldn't use any sort of item breakage rules due to the material.

I might leave defiling out of it, the world can still be a wasteland due to arcane magic if needed, could be due to wild magic that was tamed by the dragon kings.

Yeah pol cities is the idea.

Templars might not exist but they'll have something similar.

 

[Rune]

The hard part is having a system of defiling magic that is balanced with preserver magic. Since, narratively speaking, defiling is done because it’s more powerful.

I guess the best thing to do is always default to defiling and then always give the caster the option to cast responsibly at some cost. HD burned or higher-level slots, probably (yes, that second option means you could only cast a 9th-level spell by defiling). If the spell is a combat cantrip, it could be treated as a lesser tier.

Then make sure the narrative consequences of defiling are explicit and horrible.

Other than that: hmmm. Assuming a low-metal world, I’d have a buy-in mechanic for breaking mundane gear. A player can choose to turn a hit into a crit, but it breaks the weapon.

Similarly, a player can choose to negate a hit against them by sacrificing their armor, shield, or weapon. The armor might be repairable out of combat; the shield or weapon probably shouldn’t be. Unless the mending cantrip is an option.

Obviously, this approach doesn’t work as well with magical arms and armor (which will almost certainly never get willingly sacrificed), but those enchantments could be shifted to talismans, totems, or fetishes instead, allowing you to make the vast majority of, if not all, weapons and armor mundane.

 

[TwoSix]

Dark Sun without psionics? I thought we just had a thread about that saying it was no bueno.

 

[cbwjm]

Dark Sun without psionics? I thought we just had a thread about that saying it was no bueno.

A dark sun inspired home campaign is different to wotc releasing a 5e version of dark sun.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

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