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]

You can build a 'psionic' character by carefully picking Wizard spells. And of course you can re-fluff anything into whatever you want.

But I'd like to see a class that is built to work well with whatever the psionics rules are, and fits smoothly into Dark Sun.

I think Sorcerer is a better choice for making into a psionicist. In fact, I did just that a while back on these boards...

Meanwhile, I like the Mystic conceptually, for the most part. I think it has a few kinks that need to be worked out.

And I'd be TOTALLY behind a new Dark Sun! LOVED that campaign setting! But this time, Wizards, please -- LARGE half-giants, not this "powerful build" crap. And ditch the antlike medium sized "thri-kreen" with their little butt-pods -- back to the LARGE mantis-folk we remember and love -- REAL mantis folk with REAL mantis abdomens! There's a Sir Mix-a-Lot joke in there somewhere...

 

[Werebat]

As far as Dark Sun is concerned, psionic subclasses for existing classes makes way more sense than a new class that is supposed to cover all of the possible psionic characters of that setting. It was far too ubiquitous in my opinion.

Perhaps a feat would work to add minor psionic "cantrips".

I think psionic "cantrips" are the way to go with portraying wild talents, mechanically. And every PC gets one...

 

[AmerginLiath]

I think that the question of “new settings” is going end up being different in an edition that so openly talks about “the D&D multiverse” while focusing on one world qua world. Some former settings are likely to end up becoming part of the broader multiversal setting — we’ve had mentions already of Sigil and aren’t likely to see a separate Planescape but rather see it’s elements, and perhaps Spelljammer, brought into 5e’s take on the planes and planar adventuring (likewise, Ravenloft — via CoS — looks to be integrated into the Shadowfell cosmology).

Where that leaves other Prime Material Planes is the 64,000GP Question. We saw, especially in 2e how dividing the line divided the fanbase. Especially with the plethora of old material now available again for sale (and info on settings online), I really don’t expect campaign setting books of the sort seen in the past. What I could see for many of the other “medieval” settings (Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Mystara, Nentir Vale) is a shared book with some narrative focus a la Volo and Mordenkainen that shows a dimensional travelogue and covers key mechanical elements and introductions to some small region and time (like SCAG does with FR’s Sword Coast), with an appendix showing DMs where to find more information if a setting peaks their interest.

That leaves settings like Eberron and Dark Sun, settings that stretch the usual assumptions (I’d expect a 5e Eberron to be even weirder in tone and ideas than 3.5 to further differentiate it). I honestly don’t know how those would be released in terms of format (something like ToA, with guide and adventure in one? Perhaps a short series of related guide/adventure books?). But I think that WotC is going to be careful not to “split the line,” even as they as fans/gamers might want to see their old favorites back, knowing how 5e has worked with new players and the AL.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I agree with the poster above arguing for Psionic sub-classes. I'm fine with having a dedicated Psion class, but there should be psionic equivalents to the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster.

Sort of unrelated, but I hope the 5E Dark Sun bases the Templars off of the Warlock instead of the Cleric. Each Dragon-King could be a unique Warlock patron.

Soul Knife is supposed to be the EK equivalent. But the UA Mystic messed up.

 

[Werebat]

I agree with the poster above arguing for Psionic sub-classes. I'm fine with having a dedicated Psion class, but there should be psionic equivalents to the Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster.

Sort of unrelated, but I hope the 5E Dark Sun bases the Templars off of the Warlock instead of the Cleric. Each Dragon-King could be a unique Warlock patron.

The xp I gave for this post, and I suspect the xp that others gave as well, was mostly for the "make the Templar a type of Warlock" idea. Absolutely.

 

[Barantor]

Ideally I would like to see a Planescape or Spelljammer release tied in with opening up all the WotC IP held settings on DMsGuild. This would created a glut of new content on that venue and also allow WotC to cherry pick good ideas out of it if/when they make their own setting books. Linking all the settings together makes it a 'collective D&D' that they have heavily hinted at in the last year or so.

 

[vogless]

They’ve said in the past setting material would be one product each. I’m assuming that means a book, but damn I’d love to see a big ol’ Greyhawk boxed set with hex mats done in the style of the JG Wilderlands. Plus a book for Castie Greyhawk pieced together from extensive interviews of those who played it.

My GUESS is still Spelljammer next to lay the ground work for the other settings. It seems obvious to me they’ll be sticking the different worlds into a cohesive multiverse. Can Spelljammer be combined with Planescape? I never bought into either.

I had also heard in an interview somewhere that they wanted to hit the big campaigns hard early to build a library of playable material. Now that there’s a bunch, I’m again guessing future big books will be settings?

I’ve been re-reading the core 5e books and listening to Dragon Talk. The Feywild and Shadowfell pop up all over the place. Seems to me the designers are chomping at the bit to move into the wider multiverse and beyond just the Realms.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I love this setting, it was exotic, different, but not too strange.

The question is the canon background after the novels. And what happened to the rest of the world? If the sorcerer-kings are the most powerful beings of Athas then the tablelands are too "small" for them.

And what about the new things from later editions, like races or classes? Some DM could want to create a module with vestige pact binders, favored soul, incarnum totemists, psionic ardents, asheratis(race from 3.5 "Sandstorm"), seer and warden classes, gladiators martial adepts (3.5 "Tome of Battle: book of nine swords").

- Does "Dark Sun" need a little retcon or a total reboot? And how to avoid the "jump the shark"?

- Are the spynewyrns monster type "dragons"? In the article of Dungeon Magazine told that.

 

[Jacob Lewis]

I do not like this business of "hints" and "name-dropping" and "ooh, something is coming in the future" of this dreary, desolate, product-barren landscape that has become 5th Edition D&D. WotC has moved on from being caretakers of the game to babysitters of "all-editions-that-must-not-be-named". But I gotta believe that all this buzz-generating catch-phrase era is the only way to keep people interested and talking about the product while waiting 6-8 months for a new product.

You know what's nice about having a lot of products and settings? Choices! Innovation! These settings didn't spring out of nowhere to fill a gap or niche. They offered something different. Something new. Something outside the box.

I love Dark Sun, more than any other D&D setting. So much, in fact, I printed out my 1e pdfs into half-size, double-sided pages, and created small binders for several boxed sets and supplements. (I have an amazing printer. It is awesome!) But there are far better systems (and developers, to be quite frank) that could really do something great with it. Not just another dressed-up, bare bones, no-support flash product for the year.

I'm talking a complete overhaul. The main theme of Athas isn't psionics, or high-level, or appropriately sized monstrous races as player characters. It is survival. All resources are scarce. Not just food, water, and metal. Magic is scarce. Shelter is scarce. Allies are scarce. And above all, Freedom is scarce. The game system does not reflect this with mechanics as written. It is designed to power up, reward, and recharge at a constant, cyclic rate of play. Kill, loot, rest, repeat. Weapons and armor are not a given commodity, they are a rare and vital resource. Magic (i.e. spells) is not readily available to whomever just chooses the right class, and few classes in 5e are precluded from tapping that magic vein.

I want to say how Dark Sun is a real "hot button" for me, but that's just too much of a pun. A real Dark Sun world deserves better than playing it safe.

 

[Dausuul]

The xp I gave for this post, and I suspect the xp that others gave as well, was mostly for the "make the Templar a type of Warlock" idea. Absolutely.

You are correct, at least in my case. The templar concept fits warlock like a glove. Just introduce a "Sorcerer-King" patron, and you're good to go.