Starting a Dark Sun campaign

[Jack99]

So, after another tuesday night wipe, we have decided that the next campaign will be set in Dark Sun.

I have the 4e books, but am curious of what else is out there for 4e. I have the DDI sub, but must admit it has been many months since I have read Dragon/Dungeon. In short, I am looking for maybe a list of recommended DS articles, or perhaps even a list of all DS articles, if one exists. Also, if there are any cool 4e DS blogs around, I would love a link.

Thanks in advance

 

[Aegeri]

One of my games is a Dark Sun game and it's gone from level 1 and is currently at level 5.

In terms of DS articles, Dark Sun gets a surprising amount of support in Dungeon and even a bit in Dragon.

Eye on Dark Sun: Mahin'drazal is more than worth a read.

Familiars of Athas is a good player crunch article.

Genasi of Athas article, although I feel it is a bit of a mixed bag personally.

Beneath the Dust is a very classy adventure and a recommended read. Just avoid the two bloodied tembo encounter, which is NOT equivalent to one tembo. Two tembos, even bloodied =/ one tembo wizards.

Primal Spirits of Athas is another player crunch article. can't remember if it is any good or not.

Eye on Dark Sun with Silt Elementals, they are pretty brutal and there are also some magma elementals to join them.

There is quite a fluffy article about a dune trader here.

Dark Sun Slave theme was also released.

That's the stuff I tend to like or remember off hand anyway.

 

[Obryn]

I started mine at Level 1, and they're part-way through Level 7 now. It's been going awesomely, so far.

Stuff I've used...

Well, we started with Bloodsand Arena - specifically Betrayal at Altaruk.
This got them in position for The Tomb of Darom Madar.

I strongly recommend both of these. There's not much to Bloodsand Arena, but it will give a good taste of the Dark Sun atmosphere to your players. The Tomb is a great way to kick off a campaign, too.

I had a few character-centric plots running concurrently, too... After they made it back to Tyr, they did some other mostly free-form stuff (including a Gith tomb I could send you, if you're interested) and ended up in Balic due to more character-related reasons.

We just finished up another Dungeon adventure - Beneath the Dust - which turned out to be both a ton of fun and a pain in the ass. Specifically, there are several combats with both allies and huge amounts of enemies, which can get to be a bit much. Nevertheless, my players seemed to love it.

I have Mahindrazal on the back-burner, but they're too low-level as it stands. That's fine; it can literally get dropped in anywhere.

Yeah, the amount of DDI support for it is stunning. I'm guessing the guys at WotC can see how many people are playing Dark Sun games from their CB stats.

-O

 

[Raunalyn]

I also started a DS campaign from level 1.

I began with a heavily modified HS1: The Slaying Stone, and I am currently running them through an updated-for-4e version of the 2e DS module Merchant House of Amketch. Currently they are level 3 (soon to be level 4). I have had a blast running it.

Here's the thread where I discuss it:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-discussion/302516-my-dark-sun-d-d-4th-edition-game-experience.html

I have a few player-centric plots I've been teasing them with. For example, one of the players is an escaped gladiator who killed his master and then fled into the desert. Another character (the new guy) is the son of the master killed by the gladiator and is looking for his father's killer. The Gladiator knows who he is, but the new guy has no clue who the gladiator is. I expect some interesting role-playing when the cat gets let out of the bag.

2e DS has a wealth of material that is just begging to be converted. I've already started converting Black Spine (this was a 2e DS super-module) that I am hoping will get the characters close to Paragon. Once I hit paragon, I will start using my own material.

Here's an excellent site that lists a bunch of the DS material from 2e, reviews it, and gives his comments on how easily it can be used in a 4e campaign.

Big Ball of No Fun: Dark Sun

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Jack99]

Thanks for all the links. The HS:1 conversion has me intrigued, mostly because I really liked the adventure.. I might just do something similar.

 

[Raunalyn]

Thanks for all the links. The HS:1 conversion has me intrigued, mostly because I really liked the adventure.. I might just do something similar.

It's not that hard. I just looked for a place in the Tyr region that potentially could house a small village like that (I used a valley in the Black Spine Mountains). Then, I changed all of the Kobolds to silt striders, the Severed Eye mercenaries to just mercenaries hired to look for the stone. The goblins and such were just slavers. The dragon I changed to a scary guardian spirit. Krayd wasn't an orc, but a Tarek. Other than that, it really didn't take much to fluff things out.

 

[Aegeri]

Silt striders are a lot scarier than kobolds... to say the least :O

 

[Jhaelen]

Silt striders are a lot scarier than kobolds... to say the least :O

Oh, yes - and the Brute is in need of errata.

What I found curious about the 4e silt striders is that they technically cannot run across silt... ouch!

 

[Aegeri]

Yeah I fiddled with them a while ago to make them more reasonable. The first series of the Dark Sun encounters with the Silt Striders attacking was bananas (to say the least). I am hoping that some of the errors in the Dark Sun monsters will be corrected in the june errata at some point. I wouldn't mind seeing the Dragon pick up action recovery as well - he's amazing with that.

 

[Jack99]

It's not that hard. I just looked for a place in the Tyr region that potentially could house a small village like that (I used a valley in the Black Spine Mountains). Then, I changed all of the Kobolds to silt striders, the Severed Eye mercenaries to just mercenaries hired to look for the stone. The goblins and such were just slavers. The dragon I changed to a scary guardian spirit. Krayd wasn't an orc, but a Tarek. Other than that, it really didn't take much to fluff things out.

Sounds easy. Definitely considering this.