D&D 5E "Doom Sun" − reconstructing a 5e Dark Sun setting for the DMs Guild

[TheSword]

Well, when Gertrude says it in Hamlet, she is referring to the Player Queen in the show she is watching being too free with her criticism of the Player King. Gertrude doesn't know the Player Queen is supposed to represent her though, so by saying the Player Queen is treating her late husband harshly, she is saying more about herself than she knows.

All that goes to say that if you think WotC didv all this to slap Dark Sun fans (and yourself specifically) in the face, it says more about you than it does WotC.

Ahh right… that line is more used to suggest insincere criticism. Usually when a strong denial actually means the opposite. Stress on the ‘too’. I’m very familiar with the phrase as it’s my go to response to homophobia.

Whether it was an intentional slap, or an accidental one… fans have been slapped. This isn’t an Easter egg… a pleasant drop in as a nod to fans.

Maybe the next product release will feature the setting of Darkhawk where a dungeon beneath a city has imploded and the planet is crumbling in on itself. The ruling council of 8 wizards has been turned into liches and trapped in the vortex. The wizard Mendlekainen is travelling the multiverse trying to find a new home for the people of the world because it’s demise is Inevitable. I’m sure that won’t rock any boats.

 

[Charlaquin]

We should bear in mind of course that Doomspace is an adventure location in Light of Xarxyris, and there's probably a bit more detail on the place that'll be revealed in the actual adventure material - what the PCs are expected to do there, what hazards they encounter, who they meet, etc. So far we've only seen a bit of fairly general background material, I'm sure more specifics will be forthcoming.

Good point!

 

[Charlaquin]

Now that you mention it, you've just hit on something that had bugged me about the 4e Dark Sun, but that I'd never quite put my finger on before - that in that version of the setting much of the trouble comes because the gods lost their war with the primordials in that setting. And you're right; it's better if the setting is messed up because of something mortals did, rather than divine bollocks.

4e Dark Sun is still messed up because of the actions of mortals. The gods losing to the primordials is just the reason there’s no gods or divine magic.

 

[Charlaquin]

Interesting. I'm not that familiar with 4E DS, but that sounds like a very bad change. The whole point with Dark Sun is that your own ancestors, together with people today, created this situation, and it's only people today and in the future who can fix it or even survive it. If you turn all that to an external deal where everyone is just a "victim" of beings that were never human, never people, it's a lot less compelling, and isn't the obvious analogy for climate change that Dark Sun has always functioned as. That'd be like making Vampire a game where didn't need to drink blood to survive or something.

In general I'd say settings/games that make the PCs part of the problem/solution, i.e. active participants, were much more compelling than ones which make the PCs into mere victims or tourists. I actually think this was long of the issues with Ravenloft as a setting (rather an adventure destination - tourism/victims is fine for an adventure, even a long one)

It would have been a bad change, but it’s a misreading of 4e Dark Sun.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Maybe the next product release will feature the setting of Darkhawk where a dungeon beneath a city has imploded and the planet is crumbling in on itself. The ruling council of 8 wizards has been turned into liches and trapped in the vortex. The wizard Mendlekainen is travelling the multiverse trying to find a new home for the people of the world because it’s demise is Inevitable.

I meeeeeaaaaaan, I'd play that...

That sounds... awesome? Like Battlestar Galactica the campaign - which reminds me, like ten+ years ago I started basically writing a campaign a bit like that, I should probably dig it out of my Gdrive!

Thanks!

Also please can you do these for more settings!

 

[dave2008]

Whether it was an intentional slap, or an accidental one… fans have been slapped. This isn’t an Easter egg… a pleasant drop in as a nod to fans.

Well, you can only really say that about 1 fan - you (I am assuming). I am sure there are as many opinions about this from fans as there are from non-fans. We are all different after all.

 

[TheSword]

Good point!

Perhaps DoomSpace will turn out to be the dreamscape of a certain burried Dragon Kaisharga slumbering on the shores of a silt sea.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

4e Dark Sun is still messed up because of the actions of mortals. The gods losing to the primordials is just the reason there’s no gods or divine magic.

Oh so that's just like a totally needless clarification of the Dark Sun situation, which was intentionally mysterious? I mean, that's still a bad thing, in my books (even if it's supposed to be "DM knowledge", it won't stay that way), and indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of why Dark Sun didn't tell you that in the first place, but it's not as bad as it sounded. Still nothing new about that - even the second Dark Sun boxed set indicated a misunderstanding of elements of the first for my money.

 

[humble minion]

4e Dark Sun is still messed up because of the actions of mortals. The gods losing to the primordials is just the reason there’s no gods or divine magic

There always were gods in the far distant history of Dark Sun way back to the original of course. The gods weren’t worshipped and may have never actually even had clerics like regular d&d gods do, but there were ancient lost temples etc to be found, even right under Tyr in some of the first books. And i THINK the backstory of athasian wraiths was that they were undead servants of the old lost gods.

I never liked the whole primordial war concept personally, but when used as a epochs-old bit of setting history, it was certainly not incompatible with the original 2e dark sun lore.

 

[dave2008]

Maybe the next product release will feature the setting of Darkhawk where a dungeon beneath a city has imploded and the planet is crumbling in on itself. The ruling council of 8 wizards has been turned into liches and trapped in the vortex. The wizard Mendlekainen is travelling the multiverse trying to find a new home for the people of the world because it’s demise is Inevitable.

Wouldn't that be Doomhawk?