Is Dark SUN Sword and Sorcery?

[Imaro]

This was spawned by the "Why won't WotC let somebody publish..." thread. Just wanted to get a general oppinion about people's take on Dark Sun.

1.)Does it fit in the Sword and Sorcery genre?

2.) Why or Why not?

3.) If not what genre would you classify it as?


A quick caveat: I am talking about Dark Sun in it's original form as published by TSR, not the redone Dragon Magazine articles.

 

[Aus_Snow]

IMO? No, it isn't.

 

[Imaro]

IMO? No, it isn't.

Uhh... I was looking for a little bit more than that. ie 1,2, and 3

 

[Darth Shoju]

I think it is pretty close. Granted I haven't read a lot of sword and sorcery beyond Conan, but Dark Sun always reminded me of the Conan stories. It has pretty strong fantasy elements too, but I'd say the brutality of the setting with the unique sacrifice to cast magic system (well sacrifice the life of the planet anyway) seemed very Sword and Sorcery.

IMO anyway.

 

[Pozatronic]

I don't think it fits in nicely to any single genre. It definitly has some S&S tropes, and you can lodge psionics into the sorcery part of that. But it's maybe a little to "alien" to fit snuggly. I always kind of saw it akin to John Carter of Mars. I think that's considered "Planetary Romance". Whatever it's considered, I always liked Dark Sun.

 

[Nightfall]

Agreed Dark Sun isn't one or the other. It's kind of a blending much like say...David Eddings work with "sorcery" was more psionic in nature than it was "magic".

 

[jeffh]

It'd essentially a mix of post-apolcolypse and D&D (which is a genre unto itself having precious little to do with S&S).

 

[Nightfall]

But they can be workable!

*see Scarred Lands for details*

 

[Melan]

It is definitely the most Sword&Sorcery TSR setting out there. Dark Sun is somewhat different from the best known S&S settings, and that tends to mislead people. But the underlying themes - strength as the only thing to save you in a brutal world, the corruption of authority, a harsh environment, etc. - are there. I don't think all S&S "has to be" exactly like Hyboria, or Lankhmar, or Leigh Brackett's or C. L. Moore's Mars. That's genre-ification, like saying that high fantasy is only high fantasy when it is about a diverse set of human and nonhuman characters collaborating to destroy the doo-dad of some sinister Dark Lord.

 

[Nightfall]

Melan,

Yeah but it does help to be a little closer to the source some times.