It's Dark Sun

[SkidAce]

The Planes
I actually see Dark Sun as being a world adrift in the Elemental Chaos.

There's no Astral Sea.

There's no Feywild, no Shadowfell.

There's just earth, fire, wind and water, all around.

That kind of fits with the "primordials" angle mentioned in the interview. Elemental forces replace the divine. Psionic forces replace the arcane.

This I like...

 

[RandomCitizenX]

If the feywilde and the shadowfell are anchored to the prime, then they would get dragged down into the Elemental Chaos as well... which would change them drastically I imagine.

 

[Page]

Awesome!

 

[Kobold Avenger]

I was really annoyed at what happened with the Prism Pentad novels, it effectively ruined the setting, and I just didn't like the fact there was a "good" sorcerer-king introduced in the revised set. While I didn't find some of the revised books to be that bad, with the expansion on the Thri-Kreen and even something as weird as Windriders of the Jagged Cliffs, there was something definitely wrong with Lords of the Lost Sea.

 

[WanderingMonster]

I want to see power level of PCs be more in line with the 4e philosophy as mentioned up thread. That said, the world should be a threat that only a fool PC would take lightly, but no character trees please.

I want to see psionic feats that let you use psionic equivalent of rituals akin to what dragonmarks do in Eberron 4e.

Advanced beings as Epic Destinies.

Lastly, I'd like to see defilers as a separate class, but also have the option of preservers to defile as an encounter power that maybe reduces healing surges of nearby allies in proportion to the level spell cast. I think defilers should remain controllers with really nasty debuff effects to nearby enemies. Of course, obsidian orbs would be the preferred implement.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm so, so pleased by this news. I've waited a long long time for this day, to see Dark Sun brought back to actively supported status. New novels. New minis (I own multiple cases of all the Ral Partha lead Dark Sun figures). New articles.

I hope WotC Logan or Scott Rouse is still lurking about . . . , can you tell us any author names who have been lined up for the new DS novels?

Is there a chance the revitalized DS novel line will last longer than the single year the RPG books will be in the spotlight, and continue many years afterwards like the FR and Eberron novels?

 

[ProfessorCirno]

I'm wondering how they're going to do the poisons and addictions. Elf flesh is addictive to Thri-kreens. The act of defiling itself is addictive. And poisons were emphasised in part to help give non-combat methods of killing people.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I'm wondering how they're going to do the poisons and addictions.

How about the active and ubiquitous slavery?

Quite a lot of brutal, non-PC themes central to Dark Sun.

Oh, and to head off another one. DS Halflings aren't cannibals. Halflings don't eat each other, they eat everyone else. I loved that twist on traditional fantasy halfling appetites.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I'm wondering how they're going to do the poisons and addictions. Elf flesh is addictive to Thri-kreens. The act of defiling itself is addictive. And poisons were emphasised in part to help give non-combat methods of killing people.

Normal addictions can be covered using the Disease rules quite well I think, just need to tweak it a bit. Defiler addiction I dunno, that will depend on how they handle Defilers on a whole.

Poisons could be made using poison-based rituals (like alchemy brewing). Then delivered using whatever creative measures one can think of.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I've never played a Dark Sun campaign or even seen a Dark Sun book, so this is rather exciting for me. I'm looking forward to this one.

Still, I am of the camp that you shouldn't just isolate Dark Sun from the general 4E world axis cosmology. Things like the Athas Feywild or the Athas Shadowfell could be really interesting. Similarly, just ignoring the newer 4E races seems like it would be making the 4e version too subordinate to the older version, when you could do so many more interesting things simply by making the new races fit the setting.

For example... Give the Eladrin their scattered verdant Feywild oases and beautiful magic castles, except make it so they have to be magically maintained, and the Eladrin almost all use powerful Defiler magic. Thus the Eladrin are creatures who continually accelerate the demise of all living beings in order to create a false image of the green world that Athas once was. The Blood Elves of World of Warcraft and the figure of Yu Yevon from Final Fantasy X both come to mind for various reasons... With such a change, you could make it so the average Eladrin is totally evil, and most PC Eladrin are the good exceptions who stand against their own kind, making them a twisted mirror image of traditional Drow.