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

[GMforPowergamers]

Ahh, the pitfalls of science fantasy. The closer you get to something scientific, the greater the risk of someone like me “um, actually”ing your magic black space sarlac.

magic black sarlac for the win

 

[Charlaquin]

Fyreen is Athas that froze over when the sun was destroyed, or that's what I'm gleaning from it originally. It was defiled by tyrannical dragons (end-state of the Sorcerer-Kings), has thri-keen, has gladatorial colosseums, and so on.

I believe that Athas being made into an ice world and about to be destroyed with no recognizable city-states probably made them realize they might as well make this a separate setting. It was already so different that, with a name change, you'd have to be aware of DS to see the similarities.

Yeah, had the poster mix-up not happened, I don’t think anyone would have guessed Doomspace was ever Athaspace. We’d just be wondering if the presence of Dark Sun monsters indicated an upcoming Dark Sun product.

 

[Charlaquin]

Well, that would fix the five-minutes-work-day!

Or you keep playing the same day over and over again in a mix of groundhog day and outerwilds?

I’d be down for it. Groundhog Day adventures can be a lot of fun!

 

[darjr]

Yeah, had the poster mix-up not happened, I don’t think anyone would have guessed Doomspace was ever Athaspace. We’d just be wondering if the presence of Dark Sun monsters indicated an upcoming Dark Sun product.

I wonder if (and I do mean if) does that indicate a better chance of Dark Sun coming?

 

[Charlaquin]

@Yaarel: Why are you so certain it was the FR gods? The text doesn’t imply that at all.

Yeah if anything I would assume the Dawn War gods, since the background about the primordials kicking them out is straight-up 4e Dark Sun.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The term "supermassive black hole" means something specific to anyone who knows more than a pittance about astronomy. Supermassive black holes are not created from single stars. These are the things found in the cores of galaxies, and have masses ranging from millions to billions of normal stars.

So, really, don't use that word.

okay for those of us that are NOT into real world science, is there a reason that a super massive black hole (the millions or billions of stars in the center of the galaxy) would not just be a bigger still succk to be the planet problem? I assume it can't pull things faster... but I may be wrong

 

[Charlaquin]

I wonder if (and I do mean if) does that indicate a better chance of Dark Sun coming?

I assume it means a worse chance, personally, but you never know.

 

[darjr]

I assume it means a worse chance, personally, but you never know.

Why?

My argument is they saved it for future use. Maybe?

 

[Laurefindel]

Why?

My argument is they saved it for future use. Maybe?

I too am starting to doubt the release of a Dark Sun after such an obvious Not-Dark Sun...

 

[Charlaquin]

okay for those of us that are NOT into real world science, is there a reason that a super massive black hole (the millions or billions of stars in the center of the galaxy) would not just be a bigger still succk to be the planet problem? I assume it can't pull things faster... but I may be wrong

A supermassive black hole is pretty much what it sounds like: a black hole with way more mass. But I think people underestimate the difference of scale. A normal black hole has mass comparable to a star - in fact, it has the same mass as the star it formed from, the mass is just all concentrated into an infinitely small point with infinite density. At least initially - as more stuff “falls in” that stuff’s mass gets added to the total. So, if we really want to “um, actually” this, there’s no reason that turning Fyreen’s star into a black hole should have meaningfully impacted Fyreen’s orbit, unless the gods also increased the mass.

But a supermassive black hole is on a whole other scale. It’s fundamentally the same thing - tremendous mass concentrated into an infinitely small, infinitely dense point. But we’re talking many, many stars worth of mass. A planetary system could orbit a regular black hole same as it would a star. Supermassive black holes have galaxies orbiting them.