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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 3309134" data-attributes="member: 2205">I still don't understand why you're getting hung up on little details and missing the big picture.  Off the top of my head, Athas and Barsoom--or at least portions of both that the authors have chosen to focus on have the following in common:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dying planet, desert environment (duh)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Few major nations, rather a collection of warring city-states ruled by powerful warlords</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Prevalence of a large, greenish vaguely insectoid humanoid race (Green Men of Barsoom, thri-kreen of Athas)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Pseudo-scientific "magic" on Barsoom--telepathy and other applications as the novels progress compared to psionics on Athas</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Lack of many standard earthlike animals in the environment and instead a focus on alien, unearthly fauna</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Gladiatorial arenas featuring very prominantly in both settings</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Importance of slaves in both settings</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Dark Sun was originally slated to remove all familiar D&D races, which would have granted an even more alien, Barsoom-like feel, but it was decided that that might have been a step too far and would alienate D&D players from the setting</li> </ul>Granted, many of those items are not unique to Barsoom (or Athas) but most of them  certainly are unusual in a standard "Tolkienian" setting. That's just off the top of my head.  With a little more effort, I could probably do more.</blockquote>

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