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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[lordstimpy]

I'd love both Ebberon and Dark Sun, and I kind of expecting of getting both with a book covering several settings and classes from those. A book of the Planes.

 

[delericho]

As much as I loved Dark Sun back in AD&D 2E, I honestly can't get excited about this for 5E.

Why? Because quite honestly, we're never going to receive anything like the old Dark Sun Campaign Setting of yore. I don't just mean because boxed sets have gone the way of the dodo, either. Rather, the 5E model is to put out a hardcover adventure for a setting, and if it does well simply release more hardcover adventures, slipping new crunch in the appendices. Maybe there'll be a combination monster book/sourcebook or two, but those are comparatively unlikely. So we'll get a hardcover adventure titled "Day of the Defiler" or something similar, and that will likely be it, just like we did for Ravenloft. (And we won't see the Dark Sun logo either; 5E is far too tightly focused on "Dungeons & Dragons" as its own brand to do that.)

While that's true, it's also worth bearing in mind that they're likely to open the setting up to DM's Guild at the same time as they publish something. Which means that all that other good stuff may well be forthcoming - just not directly from WotC. Indeed, it's not entirely impossible that the original designers could jump on it, once they're able...

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Since Darksun is a setting where the environment itself is out to get you, I hope that we'll get some rules that reflect the the harshness of the world.
- Travel rules like the one from Middle-Earth D&D: no long rest while traveling unless you roll specific events that allow a safe rest in an unexpected shelter.
- An adapted spell list (maybe with new spell) with spells that fit the setting: no create/food water, no mending etc
- A simple rule for breaking weapons/armor/items
- Rules (not Feats) for Defilers with a real impact on the player for taking the easy road to power, something like a roll on a Taint table with penalties.
- a wild talent table that give a cantrip (or the equivalent if we have psionic rules) at character creation

In short, I think the devs should not be afraid of saying ''Darksun use an altered set of D&D 5e rules''; the success of a Darksun setting book will be based on how much it helps the DMs to play the setting as it was meant to be. That why AiME is such a good book: its not just a bunch of new character options and refluff that may fit a setting different from FR, its a completely different take on the same basic rules made to inspire the feel of the setting. I know this wont happen, but that's what I'd like the most.

 

[DM Howard]

Give me Eberron and I will be eternally happy!

 

[Hjorimir]

I'd love it if Dark Sun came to 5e as I've never played in that setting. As a general rule, I love settings with a strong identity that differs from the standard kitchen-sink approach of most D&D settings.

 

[QuietBrowser]

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...

You do know that Half-Giants were A: never formally sized as "Large" in either of the Dark Sun campaign setting sourcebooks for 2e, and B: were actually presented as Medium sized with the Powerful Build feature in 3e?

 

[DeanP]

Greyhawk needs psionics. Okay fine, it doesn't. I just want a Greyhawk setting book for 5e and making the setting available for use on DMs Guild.

 

[Werebat]

You do know that Half-Giants were A: never formally sized as "Large" in either of the Dark Sun campaign setting sourcebooks for 2e, and B: were actually presented as Medium sized with the Powerful Build feature in 3e?

You do know that A: there was no "Large" size distinction made in 2e, so your first point is meaningless, and B: I in fact referenced the "Powerful Build" crap in the post you are referring to?

 

[Demetrios1453]

You do know that A: there was no "Large" size distinction made in 2e, so your first point is meaningless, and B: I in fact referenced the "Powerful Build" crap in the post you are referring to?

Of course there was a "Large" size distinction in 2e. Weapons (usually) did more damage if you were to hit something Large, so it would be to your distinct disadvantage if your character would be categorized as such...

 

[Werebat]

Of course there was a "Large" size distinction in 2e. Weapons (usually) did more damage if you were to hit something Large, so it would be to your distinct disadvantage if your character would be categorized as such...

Are you asserting that Half Giants were Medium in 2e Dark Sun?

Edit: Size distinctions were not typically used for PCs in 2e. However, for monsters it was a different matter. In the 2e Monstrous Compendium, monsters are indeed sorted into size categories. Size "Large" is designated to those creatures between 7 and 12 feet tall. In the Dark Sun boxed set, Half Giants are described as being between 10 and 12 feet tall. So you can either say that half giants as a PC race had no official size, or that half giants as a monster were size Large.

Ya done got schooled, son.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZHvd0ks7Es