It's Dark Sun

[Andor]

Aren't the races of Athas horrible prone to mutations and sports anyway? So why not just list the standard Dark Sun races and suggest anything else someone wants to play is a mutant?

Also I'm not sure how Eladrin are a problem anyway, just refluff their feywild teleportation as being a psionic talent. Done.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm 100% satisfied.

I hope they improve graphic layout to fit the setting.

Yeah! I don't want a bland "textbook." I want a cool-looking GAMEBOOK.

 

[D.Shaffer]

There is nothing natural about any of Dark Sun's environments. (Bunch of stuff edited out)

What would a Feywild offer that Athas itself couldn't offer? Why can't you have whatever brutal hellscape you imagine being in the feywild, on Athas itself?

Nature is always going to be there so long as life still exists. It might be a twisted mockery of what existed before hand, but you're still going to have ecosystems and cycles that happen in somewhat predictable cycles. Nature still exists because of this and so the archetype of an exaggerated version of the land is still a valid one.

As for the actual argument itself, how is this different from arguing against the Feywild in ANY setting? There's just as valid a reason to have the Feywild in Athas as it is in any other setting. As is, one reason I can think of off the top of my head is that it offers you a way to have those really big, wierd bits of landscape/weather that would be odd even for Athas. Sandstorms are not an uncommon occurence in Athas, but ones that blot out the sun for days, sucking all the moisture out of anything it encounters like some living terrible thing? That's an exaggeration of 'normal' that would apply to the Feywild. Do you NEED it? Probably not, but I think it would make an interesting and easilly placed addition to Dark Sun as is.

Hang on.
Didn't the haflings live in some verdant, gorgeous rainforest area- nature turned up to 11- that was a) almost utterly inaccessable and b) horribly dangerous?

Wouldn't this do as a Feywild substitute?

Eh, not really. Remember that to some of us, the feywild is an exageration of what already exists. The Athasian feywild is thus going to be an exagerated version of what's mostly desert. There would be a feywild equivalent of the jungle too

 

[TheFan]

People keep picking on the Feywild, but can you imagine the Athasian Shadowfell?

 

[The_Fan]

Strange. I didn't know I had two accounts.

 

[amysrevenge]

I mean, neat ideas, I just don't see why there's a need for the Feywild to realize these ideas, especially when the existence of some "nearby plane of nature" would fly in the face of two of Athas's most interesting setting elements (for me): it's unnatural, and it's not really connected to other planes.

I think the motivation for trying to make these things work is to be able to use as much of the standard 4E cosmology as possible in a way that doesn't compromise the "feel" of Dark Sun. "Feel" is a pretty ephemeral thing, and short of simply reprinting the original 2E box set they WILL fail to entirely recapture the feel for some players. The trick is to get it close enough to satisfy as many fans as possible.

I think that a desert-refluffed Feywild and Shadowfell attached to Athas will a) keep the setting more inline with established 4E cosmology, requiring less refluffing of other things and b) maintain much of the Athas "feel" for a large proportion of Dark Sun fans.

This would also make the setting a bit more accessible to new people. You can describe the world sucinctly and capture most of what is different, without having to list all of the individual changes instead: "Dark Sun is about a world that has been turned into an unnatural desert by the irresponsible use of arcane magic. The Feywild and Shadowfell are now reflections of this sand-blasted land, with all the changes this would imply about their denizens." An example of the kind of thing that you wouldn't have to explain further with this setup, but would have to explain otherwise: Eladrin can still step into the Feywild to teleport.

 

[Wolfwood2]

Wondering if it'd make any sense to have Templars be 4e-implemented as warlocks with the 'Sorceror-king' pact?

Here's my take on Templars. It's not a class; it's a job description. Anyone who is a direct servant of the sorcerer-kings gets called a Templar, no matter what sorts of powers or skills they have. Some draw power directly from prayers or pacts with the Sorcerer-Kings and some are just brutal thugs skilled with a sword. The benefits of this are obvious.

It means that any PC, regardless of thier class, can have the cool ex-Templar or renegade Templar background. It means that NPC Templars built as monsters can have any sort of powers. And it means that "Templar" is a great generic term for someone serving the SK's.

 

[darjr]

Come, rest in the shade, out of the sun.

Set down your weary bones and breathe deep the cool air.

Rest, sleep, for eternity.

Welcome to the Shadowfell.

 

[Mort_Q]

Come, rest in the shade, out of the sun.

Set down your weary bones and breathe deep the cool air.

Rest, sleep, for eternity.

Welcome to the Shadowfell.

Nice.

 

[The_Fan]

Come, rest in the shade, out of the sun.

Set down your weary bones and breathe deep the cool air.

Rest, sleep, for eternity.

Welcome to the Shadowfell.

Very nice.

Most if it is probably already written, but still I wonder if they are mining us for ideas.