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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steampunkette" data-source="post: 9583390" data-attributes="member: 6796468">1) Make a go of Sunset Riders as an official campaign setting.Sure, there's not a ton of push, right now, for an Americana setting in the community. But it would provide novelty and something significantly different from "Traditional Fantasy" for one-shots and the like. It would also introduce just SO MANY MONSTERS that a bunch of us know in passing that have never been statted out in D&D terms.You also get into new weapons and ideas about armor and get to play with expectations... The biggest stumbling block is Native American representation... and you can hire on Native American writers and designers and advisors to help ensure the Native Acadians aren't directly contemporaneous to any specific tribe or group or include offensive stereotypes.2) Narrative ConsistencyI'm guessing their big narrative goal is managing a storyline that spans multiple settings, probably through the use of a Multiversal or Deific threat. Sort of an "Age of Worms" concept or maybe a new Illithid-Gith conflict. And you know what could be super great for that? Breaking open the "Impenetrable" barrier around Athas and have the result be Defiling coming to other worlds. Wouldn't -that- be a hoot and a half? Make Feats and Subclasses for Sorcerers, Warlocks, and Wizards that Defile to gain extra impact at the cost of the world around them, or even themselves in the form of fatigue-manipulation.3) Old SettingsYup. Dark Sun. The setting would be redone with an eye toward making evil actions obviously evil, and the common people terrified of speaking out against that evil while under the oppressive structures of the Sorcerer Kings. Set in a 4e styled "Points of Light" structure, leaning heavily on Sword and Sorcery tropes.Yes. Athas would, in some ways, become a gonzo setting as people will want to play their Kenku Bard and their Summer Eladrin or whatever. So make room for it. When the "Impenetrable Barrier" comes down it wreaks havoc across the planes with teleportation accidents resulting in thousands of outsiders being thrust into Athas not as "New Civilizations" like the hamfisted addition of Dragonborn to Athas through adding in a whole subcontinent or whatever, but as lone individuals cut off from their worlds and dumped into a blistering wasteland they might mistake for one of the Hells... Congratulations, Athas steals a bit from Ravenloft but with less "Malicious Will" and more "Random Chance". Also: Psion Official Class. (It would be very Espery)How to reconnect Athas? Simple. 1499DR. The Year of the Desperate Gambit.Dendar the Night Serpent, eater of dreams, existing in half-death of the Shadowfell has found her way through the Shadowfell into the Black. The dark plane that Athas surrounds like a leathery egg. And within it, she coils about the Hollow, the prison of Rajaat, squeezing upon it to draw forth horrible nightmares to consume alongside the nightmares of the Athasian people.How long has Dendar been in the Black? None can say. But she grows strong on the horrors she consumes. And it won't be long before either the Hollow hatches, or the Black does, revealing an Elder Evil risen to true godhood by eating the dreams of powerful Psionicists.Shar searches for Dendar in the Shadowfell and eventually finds her in the Black. Angry beyond mortal comprehension that Dendar would seek such power for herself, Shar works to manipulate the Gods of Fury (Talos, Umberlee, Auril, and Malar) to destroy the impenetrable barrier around Athas so their minions can work to unseat Dendar. When it breaks, the Grey is unleashed to slowly spread out like a viscous fog into the Ethereal and Astral planes, thick as soup and almost impossible to navigate while it drains away your essence...Players plopped on Athas have to figure out how the hell they got there, what's going on, who is behind it, and how to get home. All of which lead them, ultimately, to the Black and a reckoning with Dendar to keep her from breaking open the Hollow and send her back to Shar's prison.A chapter or two of the adventure is just "Here are some Athasian Encounters and also some remnants of Elemental Priests killed by the thing you had to fight" and "Holy crap those adventurers have steel! GET IT FOR THE SORCERER KING!" type stuff, before they actually learn what's really happening and work their way toward the Black. Probably while having to ally with evil clerics toward a greater good, really driving home how terrible Athas is, since the Sorcerer Kings would try to steal Dendar's power and/or escape Athas rather than help) and the threat of Dendar.Meanwhile the metaplot of defiling leads to adventures in Faerun where enemies, mostly Undead who don't care about plants and animals and water, are using Defiling to destroy their enemies and salt the earth at the same time. Thayan Defilers would be an absolute nightmare, too. The Emerald Enclave and various Elf Kingdoms work together to fight against the defiling of Faerun in a separate adventure that centers around exploring what this uniquely Athasian mechanic can -do- to other worlds, and how those worlds respond to the threat.Add in some Adventurer's League style short-form content with adventures into various Elemental Planes dealing with the incursion of Paraelementals in numbers no one has ever seen, Eberron facing a massive empowerment of Far Realm activity as they sense Dendar's growing power and their own potential liberation, etc...Call it "The Age of Nightmares".</blockquote>

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