Is Dark SUN Sword and Sorcery?

[Imaro]

Dark Sun is munchkin.

Is this like...how you get your jolies? I was just over in the city survivor thread and you did this exact same thing only about planescape. Poped in and made an irrelevant and negative comment like this for no reason. So please, I'm really trying to understand the purpose of this in the thread, can you explain it please?

 

[Ourph]

So please, I'm really trying to understand the purpose of this in the thread, can you explain it please?

He's auditioning to be the next Hong?

 

[Heathansson]

what are the other choices?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Is this like...how you get your jolies? I was just over in the city survivor thread and you did this exact same thing only about planescape. Poped in and made an irrelevant and negative comment like this for no reason. So please, I'm really trying to understand the purpose of this in the thread, can you explain it please?

Just click the "report post" button in his posts in both threads and let the mods deal with him.

 

[Aaron L]

He's auditioning to be the next Hong?

Minus the humor?

I love Dark Sun. If it was actually a munchkin setting, there wouldn't exist the possibility of your superhumanly strong Mul Gladiator being eaten by a random, seemingly innocuous, psionic, meat eating desert plant. Just because characters are very powerful, it doesn't matter when everything else is also very powerful. And actively out to get you.

Mul Gladiators laying waste to peasants and normal Fighters from Oerth is munchkin. Mul Gladiators struggling to survive in slave pits and fighting Half-Giant Gladiators even stranger than they is far from munchkin.

 

[Sir Elton]

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.

I like DARK SUN. It's Frank Herbert's Dune meets Dungeons and Dragons meets Jongor to put it simply. It's nothing like Barsoom, though. Barsoom was more like a Valhalla with people in harnesses or those that have gone naked. Barsoom is a world with an escaping atmosphere, and they needed a machine to maintain the atmosphere. Sure, it got hot, but for some strange reason, Barsoom isn't about physical survival.

DARK SUN is extremely different. It's like the Blue Planet RPG, but you need to take the water away. You can do anything in DARK SUN. But the environment is very harsh, and very desert like. The best technology one can get is moisture farms. Spells with a Savage World flavor works wonders in DARK SUN. Also, the magic of DARK SUN is very flavorful. Preserving and Defiling, you can get some very interesting Wizards and character concepts. From those Wizards looking to restore the planet to a Garden World, to those Wizards who want to destroy the mutant plants, DARK SUN is very unique.

DARK SUN is very brutal, with only Khurn being the only safe haven for any character with some moral standing. It's also very Dark Ages. Technology, Knowledge, and Enlightenment are at an all time low in Dark Sun. However, now that could be changing.

 

[Desdichado]

It's nothing like Barsoom, though. Barsoom was more like a Valhalla with people in harnesses or those that have gone naked. Barsoom is a world with an escaping atmosphere, and they needed a machine to maintain the atmosphere. Sure, it got hot, but for some strange reason, Barsoom isn't about physical survival.

The setting's creators would disagree with you. They cite Barsoom as in immensely significant influence on the development of the campaign in the "Campaign Classics" Dragon article on Dark Sun.

 

[Geoffrey]

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.

I agree completely.

 

[Sir Elton]

The setting's creators would disagree with you. They cite Barsoom as in immensely significant influence on the development of the campaign in the "Campaign Classics" Dragon article on Dark Sun.

Whether or not they disagree, it's beside the point. DARK SUN is different from John Carter's Mars. It has a different feel and is a lot more like DUNE than A PRINCESS FROM MARS. In A PRINCESS OF MARS, the main character's love interest is introduced as a textiled adolescent's wet dream: completely naked and a prisoner of the green martians, Dejah Thoris.

The feel is completely different in DARK SUN. No naked princesses, no swashbuckling adventures to defend the life of Dejah or any other love interest, but a battle for your own survival on a planet that was once a beautiful Garden world. Although Athas may be a desert planet like Barsoom, and the creators got their inspiration from John Carter's Mars, DARK SUN has a lot more in common with DUNE.

 

[JVisgaitis]

*see Scarred Lands for details*

Bah. No way any of those pansies from Scarn can survive 10 minutes on Athas.

It has a different feel and is a lot more like DUNE than A PRINCESS FROM MARS.

That may be true, but I really don't see why you think its like Dune unless your going for the whole desert planet thing. That is of course unless I'm way rusty on my Dark Sun as I just finished up the Dune series and have that fresh in my mind.