Forked Thread: What should Darksun 4e include?

[megamania]

Forked from: With new novel reprints, will we see Dark Sun for 4e?

Does this hint that there will be some Dark Sun support in 4e? Have they been reprinting Dark Sun books with new covers this whole time, even throughout 3.x?

I'd be interested to see how this setting is updated to the new ruleset.[/QUOTE]

It has been strongly suggested that Darksun would be the third campaign world given the full 4e treatment. There has been a lot of interest expressed as of late that lead to discussions of the assessories and novels.

What should make the cut and what should we ignore?

Should the world be "reset" and if so- do it during the Cleansing Wars? Freedom of Tyr redone? The end of the Prism Pentad novel series? After Rise and Fall?

I want to know what you loved and hated in Darksun and what should be in the 4e core if it is released.

 

[Dausuul]

Should the world be "reset" and if so- do it during the Cleansing Wars? Freedom of Tyr redone? The end of the Prism Pentad novel series? After Rise and Fall?

I would like one of two things:

Option 1: Revert to the start of the Prism Pentad, at the time of the original boxed set. Pretty much every Dark Sun fan I've seen on these forums agrees that Dark Sun jumped the shark with the release of the very first adventure and went straight downhill from there.

Option 2: Set the new Dark Sun a couple hundred years after the events of the Prism Pentad, and have some cataclysmic events take place in the intervening years that effectively wipe out the garbage introduced by the Prism Pentad, Spellplague-style. Destroy a couple cities, add a couple new ones, introduce another sorceror-king or two, whatever.

But whichever option they pick, please, please, for the love of God, avoid incorporating any of the Prism Pentad or revised boxed set lore. Leave the history of Athas a mystery for individual DMs to elaborate as they please. I don't want any baloney about Rajaat and Champions and an age when halflings ruled the world. DMs who like that stuff can use it if they want, but I don't want it taking up page count in my Dark Sun sourcebooks, and I don't want to have to go through the setting excising it.

I want to know what you loved and hated in Darksun and what should be in the 4e core if it is released.

I'm almost certain that all official 4E settings will be required to incorporate all core races and classes. So they will find a way to work in dragonborn, tieflings, and so forth. I'm fine with this. Dark Sun is actually a very appropriate setting for creatures like tieflings and dragonborn; in a world where people ride bugs and have wagons drawn by monster lizards, it's not so jarring to have some citizens walking around with horns and tails, or scales and dragon heads.

The one 4E element I don't want them to include is standard D&D dragons. The whole deal where Athas has only one dragon, and that dragon is an apocalyptic uber-defiler threat on par with a demon lord or a minor deity, is just too damn cool to get rid of.

(Suddenly I feel an impulse to homebrew the Dragon of Tyr as a level 33 solo monster... heh.)

 

[Jack99]

There has recently been two threads talking about 4e and Dark Sun. I do not know if you have read them, but if not, maybe there is something interesting in them.

Thread 1

Thread 2

Cheers

 

[Jhaelen]

What should make the cut and what should we ignore?

Should the world be "reset" and if so- do it during the Cleansing Wars? Freedom of Tyr redone? The end of the Prism Pentad novel series? After Rise and Fall?

I think the setting should be described the way it was at the start of the first Prism Pentad novel. I.e. with all sorcerer kings still in place.

I wouldn't mind if they included the option to let the campaign start with Tyr being freed (i.e. right after the conclusion of the first novel). This might be an interesting option for DMs who feel it would be too harsh to have a setting without a city-sized 'point of light'. Naturally, I wouldn't use such an option

 

[frankthedm]

Option 1: Revert to the start of the Prism Pentad, at the time of the original boxed set. Pretty much every Dark Sun fan I've seen on these forums agrees that Dark Sun jumped the shark with the release of the very first adventure and went straight downhill from there.

Agreed.

I definitely feel preservers should have to give up power rather than give defilers a bonus. I am also against any system for 'punishing' defilers. IMHO the Taint of a defiler is that they have blasted athas to barren wasteland, can never be good, and cause all wizards to be hated. Dark sun was not about using supernatural punishments for the unheroic, that was Ravenloft. Brom era Dark sun was about survival in a blasted land ruled by wicked sorcerer kings where the very concept of paladin had gone extinct long ago. Defilers even earned XP notably faster than preservers to boot. What balances that out? Nothing other than how much your allies are willing to put up / be seen with you.

Being a preserver means you are taking the moral high road on a world where that is not rewarded. If the DM wants to reward that, make the Veiled Alliance more helpful.

 

[Scribble]

They should totally turn the world into a water covered world with only a few places of dry land... just to piss a ton of people off.

then they can also make the elves look like Kevin Costner.

Dry land is a myth yo!

 

[Crothian]

I want it set after the space Halfings come back!!

 

[thundershot]

Dark Sun needs more than one class and one race dedicated to it...

The Athasian Bard alone is so completely different from a standard bard in 2E that it deserves inclusion.

 

[I'm A Banana]

DB and tieflings should be able to fit in DS with some different fluff. But they NEED TO CHANGE THE FLUFF. Tieflings can't be beholden to the Nine Hells. Dragonborn can't be...y'know...dragons. They should almost be given different names, just to reinforce that there is this disconnect (and perhaps show an example of the "reskinning" that most DMs of DS will have to do with the standard D&D fare at one point or another).

 

[Monkey Boy]

Option 1: Revert to the start of the Prism Pentad, at the time of the original boxed set. Pretty much every Dark Sun fan I've seen on these forums agrees that Dark Sun jumped the shark with the release of the very first adventure and went straight downhill from there.

This please. I would like the oppressive atmosphere back, it would suit the points of light theme WOTC originally promoted then did very little with. Bring back the Dragon Kings.