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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zardnaar" data-source="post: 7443393" data-attributes="member: 6716779"> IntroductionWhat is Darksun? Darksun was a world invented for 2E AD&D that came out in 1991. It was a ruined world where water and metal were scarce, and evil had already won. It was very gritty with PCs that were more powerful than the PHB equivalents (ability scores, races, start at level 3) but you tended to be less powerful via your equipment (non metal weapons, less magic items than default D&D). The world was not a nice place as such with the ruined environment, psionics, slavery and a lack of knowledge about the world and magic being prevalent themes. Sorcerer Kings ruled city states and one of the most powerful creatures ever printed for D&D, The Dragon was the settings big boss. Athas only had 1 full powered Dragon whoise stats were only beaten in 2E terms by the most powerful avatars of the most powerful Forgotten Realm Deities. In 5th ed terms think of Tiamats stats combined with level 20 (or 30) spellcasting and psionics. The Dragons 2E stats were more powerful than Tiamats avatar.  The world was also a lot more restrictive and different than other worlds even by the standards of the time. Things like Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms existed which were a lot more sandbox than Darksun while other setting like Dragonlance and Greyhawk were not quite as open as Spelljammer and the Realms. This conversion focuses on the original 1991 boxed set essentially ignoring the original TSR metaplot and the 4E version. THis is the orignial Darksun<a href="http://www.rpgnow.com/product/17169/Dark-Sun-Boxed-Set-2e?it=1" target="_blank">http://www.rpgnow.com/product/17169/Dark-Sun-Boxed-Set-2e?it=1</a>or<a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17169/Dark-Sun-Boxed-Set-2e?it=1" target="_blank">http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17169/Dark-Sun-Boxed-Set-2e?it=1</a>The Conversion So why ignore the latter material? IMHO a DM can easily add that stuff back in but back the main reason is that back in day the original designers of Darksun moved on to new projects and towards the end of the product line freelancers were brought in with no quality control as TSR was in the process of going under. This is how we ended up with surfing Druids on Athas. Also the original Darksun adventures are also heavily railroaded, often of low quality, and the epic rules in Dragon Kings were almost unplayable. The events of the Prism Pentad also revealed a bit to much of the past to fast and to early and if the world was to be a better place the events of that plotline should have been accomplished by PCs not NPC Mary Sues. Alot of TSR worlds fell victim to heavy handed metaplotlines that often blew up the world the Dragonlance setting being a prime example. In effect I am rebooting the setting back to the original time frame. If you liked the old metaplots its easy enough to add it back in for your home games and using the 4E timeline means advancing it by a few days or months. Either way its your Darksun IMHO Kalak doesn't have to die or the players could have a hand in disposing of him. Why the 4E conversion is being ignored? Basically I think they messed up the conversion and that the 4E rules were not suited for Darksun anyway. Things such as healing surges for example and adding all of the PHB races to the world and cutting things like elemental clerics probably due to the amount of work required to make 4 new elemental cleric subclasses. The rigid 4E power sources also played a part as well as it was to hard to change a clerics power source from divine to primal I suppose where 2E was a lot less restrictive on where clerics power could come from. Additionally they sort of went with a sandbox generic feel with a touch of Arabian Nights which I felt missed the entire point of the setting and races like Dragonborn should either not be allowed or only allowed if the PCS complete the City by the Silt Sea adventure. A new races should be a major event on Athas and the reward for that adventure can be the PCs can roll up PC of that race their old NPCs discovered. The key difference was the 4E designers rewrote Darksun to fit the 4E PHB, the 2E designers rewrote the PHB to fit Darksun. And that falls into the 4E was not suited for a good Darksun conversion or at least an easy Darksun conversion mechanically (requiring large rewrites of the classes) or thematically (healing surges and sandbox).The Exclusions Just because something is new doesn't mean it should automatically be excluded from Darksun but it doesn't mean it should be automatically allowed either. Darksun was never a sandbox setting and that was a major point of difference with the more gneric D&D settings. I take kind of a minimalist/originalist take of the setting. The mechanics can change of course but you should make an attempt to faithfully convert the themes and feel of a setting that more or less define the setting. For example the 2E Barbarian was a good fit for the 2E Darksun despite not being in the 2E Darksun rules. Some of the new classes (and returning classes) of the last 25 years do not really fit into Darksun or if its plausible they exist should be NPC only. Other races and classes are to good at getting around the themes of feel of the setting, Warforged being a prime example as they can ignore things like water requirements. Note some things could exist but should be NPCs. Arcane Spellcasters That Are Not WizardsA major theme of Darksun was the binary nature of Arcane magic. You were simply a defiler or a preserver but all of them were wizards. The 2E Bard for example cast spells but the class was changed to be more of an Assassin than a spellcaster on Darksun. Pact magic on Darksun was explicitly the elemental clerics which excludes the modern warlock thematically. 4E did let the Sorcerer Kings act as patrons for Warlocks and used them as Templars but this also contradicts the 2E cannon, lore and theme of the setting that being arcane magic is rare and hard to learn. There are other things on Darksun that could perhaps have have special servants but they fall into the villain category and would be so rare even the Sorcerer Kings themselves would not know about them so should not be available for PC play in any event as it contradicts the murky past theme of Darksun. Sorcerers being a bit more of a variant wizard are a stronger case for inclusion into Darksun but the 5E PHB ones do not fit thematically (wild mages were not recommend for DS in 2E, traditional Dragon bloodlines do not exist on DS). Non PHB sorcerers also do not make for great fits on Darksun (storm, divine soul). IMHO the duality and struggle of preservers and defilers (as wizards) is to major a theme IMHO to water down with more options for PCs. Monks Monks kind of existed in 2E but they were more a title than a class like the christian Monks. Monks also get round the inferior materials rules 2E used and the class was not in the 2E PHB so I think they are not a good fit for the setting. Paladins. Paladins do not exist on Athas either. A lack of gods and the harshness of the setting excluded them. Even with the rules loosing up with Paladins alignment the devotion the class requires has evaporated from DS IMHO. Subraces. Darksun did not use subraces as such and the 5E ones do not really fit the setting anyway. In very late Darksun metaplot new Halflings were added and stated out along with ancient elves predating the modern Athasian which were not statted out. Much like the Dray those races were not players options in the original Darksun material and should be either NPCs or rewards for the PCs discovering cultures left over that predate modern Athas. General Guidelines on New Races/Classes. As I said before just because something is new doesn't mean it is excluded from Darksun as long as it doesn't contradict the themes of the setting (environment, magic being hard, psionics, etc). A Yuan Ti Pureblood (Volos Guide) PC on Athas makes more sense than a Drow for example as it is reptilian, Yuan- Ti exist, and its psionic. Some races do not exist full stop except as undead (Orcs, Goblins, Gnomes) or are otherwise unavailable to be PCs (Lizardmen being "extinct"). Just because you can justify some things doesn't mean you should (my Drow is an off world visitor, my Half Orc has been in stasis for 2000 years). Generally inherently magical races with spell like abilities should not exist on Darksun or at least be available as a PC race. Some races could be added if PCs complete certain adventures (City by the Silt Sea, Mindlords of the Last Sea, Windriders of the Jagged Cliff's come to mind). Such PCs should be reward races and unique to your group which I think is a good thing if you want to include them. Alot of those adventures and sets came towards the end of TSR's life where things really fell apart.</blockquote>

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