I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
I'm personally less interested in "remaining faithful" then in "being awesome." I don't have much use for historic purity or nostalgia, but awesome in any form is always welcome. The original had indisputable awesome in that brutal world. Isolation enhances that awesome. Low-level 2e didn't have blink elves, after all. And without traditional D&D magic, planehopping player characters weren't much of a concern. If you can run away to a better place by being a 1st level blink elf, it's not much of a Crapsack World, it's just a crapsack neighborhood. Which is nice and evocative, until you move out.
I mean, that's part of why "the gods are silent" has such potency for a player: you are alone, a happy afterlife does not await you, and there is no escape from the brutal world you were born into. That's what motivates you to do Heroic Things like kill sorcerer-kings. The planar isolation goes hand-in-hand with that, I feel.
And, yeah, I'm a little disappointed about how the Feywild is a "magic desert," and the eladrin are basically psionic magicians instead of arcane magicians. For the first, I don't get why magic deserts have to be on an all-new plane (Athas can't have magic deserts without it being the Feywild? Isn't the whole setting basically a giant magical desert? Aren't all those mysterious places he mentioned as inspiration in the real-world deserts?), and for the second, it seems overly cosmetic (I am still a shiny spellcasting teleporting squishy elf, even if my damage + status effects have a slightly different name).
Not that I can't do what I want with the place, of course. And I certainly will, because this is hardly a deal-breaker.
Just that, for me, a game of heroic survival sort of requires a large amount of isolation to make the survival significant. Years of survival horror fiction would agree with me: it is important that the protagonists cannot reach the outside. Years of postapocalyptic fiction would also concur: it is important that, as far as the protagonists know, there is no escape from this brutal existence (save perhaps death or perhaps heroic change or, sometimes, one legendary Promised Land). And to that guy at my table who always plays Eladrin, I will say this: "Why do you play eladrin? What's your archetype here? Shiny, aloof, wise, nature-friendly, squishy mage? Try a Noble who is also a Preserver. Nature-mage? Have you given the Primal power-source a look? Wanna be Legolas? Try a standard Elf. Just love the mobility mechanics? I hear Thri-Kreen have an awesome jump ability. Just want the ability scores, act all superior, and hug trees? Heck, use the stats, I'm calling you a 'human,' and we're both happy. You're weird for a human, but whatever. "
I'd rather help them realize how their preferred character elements, whatever they really love about their blink elves, fits into Dark Sun without the need for world elements that I think disrupt the feel, like a Feywild, or a whole race of squishy mages (not arcane mages, but still...).
It's kind of a downer for Dark Sun, but I can presumably ignore it there. It's kind of a bigger downer that even in a world that deliberately and gleefully violates all sorts of standard fantasy tropes, sacrificing sacred fantasy cows like there was a hamburger shortage, the team won't dare to put their own sacred cows on the butchering line. It makes me a little cautious of settings from WotC in general. If everything is just going to essentially look like the PHB with a fresh coat of paint, then it's not really delivering what I, as a voracious consumer of settings, am looking for: a unique play experience. Different adventures to go on. Different kinds of heroes to be. Different realities to understand. Different worlds to explore. If even a world without nature and magic needs a Feywild, for whatever reason (appeasing Eladrin fangirls, ensuring PHB compatibility, or just maintaining Brand Identity across settings), the chances of getting a setting that is compelling and unique enough to demand my attention (and, ultimately, purchase) appears to drop.
At the moment, though, all I can really say is that Rich Baker's post about the Eladrin of Athas sounds like it takes a bit of the awesome of the setting and sells it up the river in an attempt to placate PHB purists. Which is a bit disappointing. Though not the end of the world.
