Is Dark SUN Sword and Sorcery?

[Desdichado]

I was gonna type a longish response, but settled for saying "ditto".

So, "ditto".

Me too. And for fun, here's how Wikipedia defines Sword & Sorcery: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery

 

[heirodule]

Some of it reminds me of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique.

 

[Desdichado]

Like I said, IMO it's as sword-and-sorcery as they come; in some ways moreso than things like Middle Earth, Dragonlance, or Black Company.

Black Company has a lot of S&S conventions, but injects a military vein to it that was pretty unique at the time. And it does have pretty epic consequences after it gets off the ground, too.

I'd still call Black Company closer to S&S than to any of the other major and commonly recognized subgenres of fantasy, but I'll happily agree that it isn't a "pure" representative.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Some of it reminds me of Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique.

Ooooooo! Very good point!!! Zothique is definitely a strong post-apocalyptic sword & sorcery setting. I like the story with the evil monks. First written appearance of what would be called heucuvas?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

QFtT

1. Yes Dark Sun is Sword and Sorcery seasoned heavy with alien landscapes from the Frazetta paintings, comparativly light on the cheesecake.

Pretty much. It's more Sword & Sorcery than Tolkien, that's for sure. S&S, as I understand it, draws very heavily from the Sci-Fi pulp novels of the mid-20th century, which my dad collected and I grew up reading. Anything that reminds me of Conan is S&S, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Shadeydm]

Wonderful insight. Have any other pieces of blinding wisdom to share with us?

Yes the character generation methods were just plain stupid and overpower to the nth degree. The races had similar issues see Mules and half Giants for example totaly overpowered. The Gladiator class rendered fighters completely obsolete. The list goes on and on.

Dark Sun was a powergamers delight.

*edited for subpar typing skills

 

[Desdichado]

Yes the character generation methods were just plain stupid and overpower to the nth degree. The races had similar issues see Mules and half Giants for example totaly overpowered. The Gladiator class rendered fighters completely obsolete. The list goes on and on.

Dark Sun was a powergamers delight.

Well, that's a complete non sequiter though. Not only is it not relevent to the question at hand (although if it was, it would probably support the identification of Dark Sun with S&S, actually) but it's completely irrelevent anyway.

Dark Sun wasn't supposed to be balanced against the other settings and whether it is or not is completely unimportant. It was supposed to be balanced internally.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Yes the character generation methods were just plain stupid and overpower to the nth degree. The races had similar issues see Mules and half Giants for example totaly overpowered. The Gladiator class rendered fighters completely obsolete. The list goes on and on.

Dark Sun was a powergamers delight.

*edited for subpar typing skills

My hat of Dork Son know no limit.

 

[Ourph]

I have to agree with Melan's assessment. The only thing that kept Dark Sun from being absolutely true to S&S tropes was the inclusion of non-human races as protagonists. S&S is almost universally humanocentric, so including non-humans as PC races is a deviation from the genre IMO.

 

[Tarek]

The concept of Dark Sun is very much sword and sorcery.

The game mechanics, however, were a little lacking.