D&D 5E How would you wish WOTC to do Dark Sun

[jayoungr]

True, but the Barovia they went with is very different from earlier depictions.

I don't think it's that different. And it was written by the original authors.

 

[Nebulous]

I don't think it's that different. And it was written by the original authors.

They're actually listed as creative consultants. Chris Perkins was the designer. Although I'm sure they had a massive influence on how it turned out.

 

[jayoungr]

They're actually listed as creative consultants.

Ah, right. And I have the book just 10 feet away, too. That'll teach me to be lazy.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

DS is a fabulous setting, but it's maybe the hardest one if you want to add new things, for example PC races or base classes from the last editions. What if I want to add a shaman, or a wardern, a primal-spellcaster paladin who defend the nature? Or to play with a psiforged or a shardmind, but they would be broken because those living construct don't need neither food nor water, or breathing.

Other matter is if time travel is possible in D&D, extremely rare, but possible, then fandom would allow a "reboot" of the lines, like the last videogames or Mortal Kombat.

 

[Bacon Bits]

lol they would just turn the Sword Coast into a desert and place it there!

Welcome to Sanddeep!

 

[Nebulous]

Welcome to Sandwind Dale!

 

[Richards]

It seems to me that if Wizards of the Coast were to release an updated Dark Sun campaign setting they'd almost have to come out with a Dark Sun Monster Manual, even if it was only a large chunk of the sole campaign book published instead of a separate book. After all, so many of even the "common" creatures on Athas aren't found anywhere else, and so many "common" creatures in most D&D campaigns simply don't exist on Athas. Sure, you've got your normal PC races (humans. elves, dwarves, halflings), but so many of those are almost unrecognizable from more "standard" game worlds you'd likely need entries for them as well as for the cistern fiends, dwarven banshees, kanks, silt horrors, Athasian sloths, rampagers, and whatnot that populate the Dark Sun campaign.

Johnathan

 

[Nebulous]

It seems to me that if Wizards of the Coast were to release an updated Dark Sun campaign setting they'd almost have to come out with a Dark Sun Monster Manual, even if it was only a large chunk of the sole campaign book published instead of a separate book. After all, so many of even the "common" creatures on Athas aren't found anywhere else, and so many "common" creatures in most D&D campaigns simply don't exist on Athas. Sure, you've got your normal PC races (humans. elves, dwarves, halflings), but so many of those are almost unrecognizable from more "standard" game worlds you'd likely need entries for them as well as for the cistern fiends, dwarven banshees, kanks, silt horrors, Athasian sloths, rampagers, and whatnot that populate the Dark Sun campaign.

Johnathan

Most definitely. I'd also like a 1st to 10th separate campaign adventure. Or 1st to 5th.

Edit: what about a combo Monster Manual and 1st to 5th campaign? Half and half in length? i know that's a weird idea.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Unless I missed something since 2E, i.e. 3E and 4E, Dark Sun is not cut off from the multiverse. It can be reached by planar travel by navigating through the Grey. I think that this was actually detailed in a Planescape book because I just flipped through the 2E DS revised boxed set and didnt see it. It has a Crystal Sphere so therefore can be reached by Spelljamming. My opinion is that it would be more correct to say that finding it by doing either is a miniscule percentage at best though, so its there, just hidden if you will.

Yes, you missed Defilers and Preservers, which adds a lot of detail about the Grey and the Athasian cosmology.

Here's a summary. The Grey is virtually impenetrable. The Grey exists (1) to explain why the Gods aren't there and elements are worshiped instead, and (2) as a narrative to give DMs an excuse to bar Athasian characters from their non-Athasian campaigns.

Yes, you can spelljam, but (1) Athas doesn't know how to do that and can't easily learn or construct a spelljammer, (2) the Gith on Athas are there because they tried using "astral ships" (which might mean spelljammers) to pierce the Grey but they crashed and were stranded on Athas and mutated, and (3) anyone who owns a spelljammer does not want to take it to Athas anyways. It's a dead wasteland of a world, with a bloated, dying sun, literally toxic magic, deadly psionic enemies, etc. Oh, and if you happen to die on Athas, you don't go to the afterlife. You go to the Grey where your soul is slowly aborbed into the Grey in an eternal purgatory with every other soul from Athas. It's like going to Gary, Indiana. Nobody goes there, and everybody else is only there because they can't escape.

 

[Haldrik]

Dark Sun has features that I like.

Psionics.
No deities.

I hope the Dark Sun setting has zero connection to the Forgotten Realms setting. Please allow Dark Sun breathing room to be its own thing. Prevent Forgotten Realms from assimilating and suffocating everything.

Among genres, I like a post-apocalyptic setting less. I find it intellectually lazy, and luddite, in the face of reallife acceleration of technology and societal change.

So, Dark Sun is challenging for me to get into because of its post-apocalyptic tropes.

I personally would be able to enjoy Dark Sun more, if. There are technological utopias, here and there around the planet. It is ok if these technotopias are oases within a wasteland. At least some cities have gotten their societies into a functional cooperation, even if the rest of the societies are still a mess. I myself would focus on one of these technotopias as a regional urban setting.

A magical - especially psionic - technological society, of course.

The technotopias that dot the planet, are essentially a points-of-light design.

These technotopian regional settings would help me enjoy Dark Sun enthusiastically.



I just finished bingwatcing the Brave New World setting. I absolutely love this scifi. The New London technotopia can easily be done in Dark Sun. Citizens would go online psionically, telepathically. And the genetic engineering would be done magically, psychometabolically. Awesome! Heh, New London is supposed to be a dystopia. And, yeah yeah, oppressing the epsilons is wrong. But a more just version can easily be accomplished by robots, magical constructs. Add in some freedom to choose to reengineer ones own DNA, by choosing to undergo a transmutation ritual, and there is even freedom and meritocracy. The overall society of Brave New World is AWESOME. I would love Dark Sun with a handful of cities like New London.