Is Dark Sun Coming To D&D?

WotC staff are dropping cryptic hints about campaign settings again! A couple of week ago it was Spelljammer; this time, it's Dark Sun. At Gary Con this year, during a D&D panel, WotC's Mike Mearls said of the psionic Mystic class -- "we don't need that class until we do Dark Sun."

He followed it up with with the usual note that he can't make product announcements and that all settings were part of the multiverse. You can hear the seminar on the Plot Points podcast. "Ben recorded a seminar wherein six game designers who worked on Dungeons and Dragons (Skip Williams, Jon Pickens, Zeb Cook, Ed Stark, Steve Winter, and Mike Mearls) talk about game design. During the talk, current lead designer Mike Mearls may very well have let slip what the next classic D&D game world he will be reviving next!"

Dark Sun was a campaign setting released back in the 1990s, and was a post-apocalyptic desert world called Athas, with psionics in abundance and dark survivalist themes. It made a reappearance in 2010 for D&D 4E.

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[Werebat]

How about not having to deal with the hassle of opening the door to accommodations for Large size? How about not presenting blatant power-gamer fuel? How about not returning to the days of old when a race being pigeonholed as good for absolutely only one thing and terrible at everything was somehow supposed to be good game design?

Accommodations for Large size? Meh.

Blatant power gamer fuel? Meh.

Good for absolutely one thing? Meh.

Playing a Large character would be fun, a character able to do some things easily and have a bit of difficulty with others because of their size. I see no reason to poo on that.

"Power gamer fuel" only makes sense if power gamers want to play them. Again, what's the huge advantage that being Large affords when you take Reach off the table?

Pigeonholed? Half Giants of old and as we're discussing them could make great fighters, sure, but also decent psionicists and clerics. Decent druids too (Circle of the Moon would be fun).

I find your reasons unconvincing.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

Based on what Mike Mearls is working on in his free time and talks about in podcasts, I would say Nethir Vale will come sooner than Dark Sun.

How so? Has Mearls been talking about Nerath?

 

[MechaTarrasque]

How so? Has Mearls been talking about Nerath?

He has been making a 5e version for his home game (not a direct conversion, for example Lolth is an archfey [complete with special warlock pact], and he is looking at Torag as a demon lord) and it has made its way into his twitter and podcast appearances: he has mentioned a desire to do something with primal spirits and the warden several times, and the reason Enworld has been inflicted with a recent upsurge in warlord threads is because he is building one on a podcast. And that doesn't get into things like the Raven Queen in MToF.

I don't know if anything official will ever come from any of that (except for the MToF)....

 

[QuietBrowser]

I find your reasons unconvincing.

Be that it as it may, I think you're deluding yourself if you think we're going to even get half-giants in 5e, never mind them being large.

I don't have a stand in this argument either way, but you got to face facts:

• WoTC has, for the last two editions, gone with Half-Giants being "not Large" (or "not Huge", whichever they were in AD&D).
• 5e sells itself as the "simple edition", which means it's unlikely to add Large PC races specifically because that goes against their stated game design direction.
• 5e also sells itself as a "balanced edition", which further downgrades the chances of it including Large PC races.
• If Half-Giants can't be Large, or really gain any mechanical benefits from their size, there is no real point to including them.

IF we ever get a Dark Sun 5e, I would sooner lay money on them taking a leaf from 4e and just reskinning Goliaths with an adjustment to their native terrain racial trait than I would on them making Half-Giants into a new race for the setting.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

One thing to consider from the original design of Dark Sun, is a player character of a given level is expected to be more powerful than a player character or equal level from a standard setting.

This is explained through the harshness of the environment - only the tough survive.

 

[Bitbrain]

[*]WoTC has, for the last two editions, gone with Half-Giants being "not Large" (or "not Huge", whichever they were in AD&D).
[*]5e sells itself as the "simple edition", which means it's unlikely to add Large PC races specifically because that goes against their stated game design direction.
[*]5e also sells itself as a "balanced edition", which further downgrades the chances of it including Large PC races.
[*]If Half-Giants can't be Large, or really gain any mechanical benefits from their size, there is no real point to including them.
[/LIST]

IF we ever get a Dark Sun 5e, I would sooner lay money on them taking a leaf from 4e and just reskinning Goliaths with an adjustment to their native terrain racial trait than I would on them making Half-Giants into a new race for the setting.

Pretty much agree with all of the above.

 

[Yaarel]

A Large character is an important archetype. Especially in fantasy.

5e makes a Large character more mechanically balanced than ever. I hope to see some playable options.




It seems to me, Size should correlate directly with Constitution. Huge creatures are brutes with more hit points. Tiny creatures are fragile with few hit points.

Therefore make characters with high Constitution *bigger* than characters with low Constitution.

Make investment in Constitution the prerequisite for gaining any benefits from Large size.



Roughly speaking, any character over 300 lbs (or over 8 feet tall) is Large. This can be doable.



Constitution score: Approximate Size
• 25-26, 27-28: Gargantuan
• 22-23, 24-25: Huge
• 18-19, 20-21: Large
• 14-15, 16-17: Heavyweight (Medium)
• 10-11, 12-13: Lightweight (Medium)
• 6-7, 8-9: Small
• 2-3, 4-5: Tiny

 

[SkidAce]

He has been making a 5e version for his home game (not a direct conversion, for example Lolth is an archfey [complete with special warlock pact], and he is looking at Torag as a demon lord) and it has made its way into his twitter and podcast appearances: he has mentioned a desire to do something with primal spirits and the warden several times, and the reason Enworld has been inflicted with a recent upsurge in warlord threads is because he is building one on a podcast. And that doesn't get into things like the Raven Queen in MToF.

I don't know if anything official will ever come from any of that (except for the MToF)....

Hmmmpth, I had already made Torog a demon, it was a natural and obvious fit.

 

[rgoodbb]

Size in't everything............

Dark Sun is.........

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

The main problem with Large size is optimization that exploits reach.

Yet this seems something that is easy to balance around.

And yet we have a PC race that flies from level 1. Put an asterisk next to the race to indicate it isn't balanced to a razor's edge, but anything other than a large half giant is just lame. They should use heavy weapons one handed (and lose the heavy trait when doing so). Let them grapple huge monsters. This isn't a balance problem, this is a feature of the campaign.