Darksun titles are now in the WotC product catalog

[Shroomy]

I don't mind paperback books, especially for niche subjects, as long as they are somewhat sturdy, similar to how Paizo does the majority of their books. I guess we'll see when WotC releases the Dragonborn book in February.

 

[Hawke]

Yeah, I think the really good settings let the DM figure out what the secrets are. The speculation about what the mourning was all about or the prophecy would be known to any character in the setting anyway. It's up to the DM to come up with the "answer" if that's the part of the setting that suits them. Really what secret would a campaign guide have about Dark Sun (other than monster stats) that the player wouldn't speculate about anyway?

All I was worried about was page counts

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Really what secret would a campaign guide have about Dark Sun (other than monster stats) that the player wouldn't speculate about anyway?

Depends on whether the authors are going to take the opportunity to fill in the history of the setting deeply or just cursorily.

In the original boxed set, the sorcerer kings were just immortal evil godlike rulers.

With the revised boxed set, players also discover they were also Champions of armies that laid the world to waste in genocidal wars exterminating various species, under the guidance of an insane being that discovered the arcane spellcasting of defilers; then betrayed their mentor, imprisoned the mentor in an extraplanar prison, used the mentor's tools to transform one of them into The Dragon and the rest into mini-dragon-like beings.

I don't see how any of that revised set history should to be player knowledge, it shouldn't be PC knowledge when only the sorcerer kings themselves would be aware of it.

If the history and cosmology are only presented in ways that actual inhabitants of the world would know it, then merging it into a single book makes no difference IMO.

 

[hailstop]

The thing is...people like me are DMs...yet we might play in someone else's campaign. If I DM and play in an Eberron campaign is it that big of a problem that I know some of the secret knowledge from the ECG? In fact, I get more enjoyment out of playing if I know some of the backstory...even if my character doesn't.

And if it isn't that big of a problem, and in fact, increases the fun aspect of playing for me as a DM from another game to know secret knowledge, it's just a small step for increasing the enjoyment of the players themselves.

 

[AverageCitizen]

It sounds to me that this setting is just going to get less attention than the others, hence the low page count and the paperback book. It's unfortunate, because I really like the division in FR and Eberron. In the 3.5 manuals I'd have to carefully restrict my player's reading to avoid spoilers. Even in the so-called "Player's Guide to Eberron" I had to stick post it notes all over to cover up plot details.