It's Dark Sun

[Hawke]

I think Dark Sun always allowed for lots of freedom of creatures. I mean so many odd creatures exist there, trying to figure out a reason for RaceX to be there (even if you stick with the alien last of your kind schtick) is pretty easy and less offensive than perhaps other settings. I felt the bizarreness of the world creature-wise wasn't from disallowing things, but from 1) allowing strange things and 2) taking the traditional and making it strange. So, throwing in mentions of 4E races could easily fit that.

The key restriction is ideology - those dark terrible things exist making it harder for your typical adventuring party to operate as in other games. Even benign things in other worlds - like magic - can be hostile and scary.

That said, I was never on board with the idea Paladin's couldn't exist ever no way no how on Athas... sure, a world where open goodness would mean quick slaughter - but considering you can take a godless world and figure out a cool way to include Clerics, I always thought the right player (or designer) could include paladins in a neat way. Never ran into a player interested in playing on in my games, though.

 

[Stormtalon]

I saw the announcement whilst on break at work today -- one of the "break-time" pcs that's on its own DSL line and outside the corporate firewall showed me a picture of brutal desolation.

I felt a chill run down my spine as I stared, enraptured, at the two words in front of me. I've been bouncing off the walls ever since.

Dark Sun has come back to me.

Come 2010, my players will learn to fear the endless heat of the wastes and even moreso the looming eyes of the Sorceror Kings.

Their characters' deaths will not be easy, pleasant or painless.

But we all will have one hell of a lotta fun.

 

[Andor]

Having read the thread now, as well as the link (thanks Dausuul), it seems that my pessimism was rather hasty. If they really stay true to the original and won't try to shoehorn 4E concepts into the setting, than they won't ruin the setting. Heck, if they go back to the original boxed set as the baseline, they will even undo the damage done by the later 2E supplements and might have a positive impact on the setting's future - an opposite outcome to what I had assumed when I read the announcement.

Hopefully, the setting will attract more fans and then reappear in future editions (more amenable to my playstyle than 4E) when they come.

And what would a 'Realms changing disaster' look like in Dark Sun anyway? The Sorcerer Kings lay down sod? A Halfling population explosion? Elves invent running shoes?

I think most of the races will work for Darksun, you just refluff them. Maybe Half-orcs are human nomads who worship scorpians and exposure to too much venom has given them great strength but also berserker tempers. Tieflings are from a line of oracles who forsaw the catastrophe coming and in ancient days imbued their line with devilish blood to protect them from the desert heat before the astral links went boom. Fire resistance is pretty damn handy on Athas after all.

 

[Jack99]

It makes me sad that these horrible things are attractions for some fans. Features like those in a setting will drive me away. I could never enjoy a setting in which I can't play my beloved heavily-armoured knight characters. The setting's appeal seems to revolve around "Whee! It's not Tolkien! It's Different!" Too different for me, I'm afraid...

I do not like Dark Sun, and for me, this is unwelcome news. I hate to see WotC devoting resources to something like this when they ought to be cranking out more heavily-armoured awesomeness. I still feel cheated that they have so far released very little in the way of new classes/features/feats/options in 4E for those of us who like the knight in shining armour character archetype. I hold out some feeble hope that Martial Power II will finally bring the awesome that I crave for my heavy armour PCs, but if not, then I will abandon the D&D brand; WotC will have at last demonstrated to me that they want to leave my playing style behind.

Please do not let the door hit you on the way out.

I don't know Darksun well, but I don't think the the Feywild is a bad fit. The Feywild is not a plain of verdent forests, it's wild unpredictable tricksy nature. The DS Feywild is a desert like the world but full of mirages and untrustworthy fey, it's a place of madness and lies.

I love this idea.

Hmm, if there was some manner of Feywild type plane, or any kind of plane beside Athas. I would love to have mirages be the entrances and exits to it. Just imagine blindly following a mirage thinking it leads you to shelter, and you end up in a entirely different world. Perhaps a even harsher one (Feywild is nature extreme, so that would mean really harsh in Dark Sun).

I love this too, and think it could work.

Put me down as cautiously cautious. Not much can be said until details start to come out. Their talk of keeping it the same as the old school Dark Sun moves me up from irate to cautious, for what it's worth ;p

Try not starting out irate over such things. For one, it's easier to get to *positive* and two, it's much better for your health.

He's not the only one.

I said one in a million - with 6 million players that means there should be around 5-6 current D&D players that liked the revised box set. I guess you were one of the others. What are the odds

 

[Center-of-All]

So what does that make someone who prefers the "continuation"/reset that Paizo did for 3.5?

 

[Jack99]

So what does that make someone who prefers the "continuation"/reset that Paizo did for 3.5?

Just shows there is no accounting for taste

Just kidding. To be honest, I do not recall the articles. But to be honest, the Paizo years have was the decade where I read the least issues, so maybe I have not read the article(s).

 

[Korgoth]

They're rebooting back to the first boxed set?

I'm impressed.

 

[Vaeron]

They're rebooting back to the first boxed set?

I'm impressed.

Me too... A great decision.

 

[Dausuul]

Me too... A great decision.

The obvious one really... everybody's happy. Those who like the material added in the Prism Pentad and the revised set can say it happens. And those of us who loathe that material can say it was all a bad dream. Rajaat? Cleansing Wars? No such animals.

 

[vagabundo]

We haven't seen the players handbook cover because it will spoil the races...