Tell me about YOUR DARKSUN campaign

[Jhaelen]

Lots and lots of changes, most of them to the mechanics:
- I turned every remotely humanoid monster into pc/npc races and added them to the reincarnation table.
- I created custom spell lists for clerics and druids. Clerics received a variant of summon elemental on every level for their chosen element (including my own take on para- and quasi-elementals which could transform into standard elementals under certain conditions).
- I rebalanced many of the existing psionic powers and added lots of new ones. I also never adopted the totally silly psionic combat rules with MAC and MThac0. Instead I used a system based on harbingers and mindscapes (inspired mostly by the novels) which involved a certain amount of roleplaying.
- All undead were created as npcs with a set of special powers chosen from several tables.

- I modified the planes and metaphysics. It was possible to summon extraplanar creatures but impossible to get rid of them again after their service was done (similar to Ravenloft: you could get in but not out).
I used a simplified version of the great wheel, one plane for each alignment and created a group of nine 'races' with a common theme (e.g. the chaotic evil were lovecraftian beings, the neutral evil beings were inspired by the apocalyptic horsemen, etc.).

- I also changed the official history: Kalak wasn't killed, he was just forced to retreat and (much) later returned as a dracolich (because of the botched ritual). Rikus was killed during the attack on Kalak, so Neeva basically continued to play his part. This was, so the players (most of whom had started reading the novels) would get a hint, that things probably wouldn't happen the way they expected them to.
My main reason, though, was that I didn't want them to have a 'safe' base in one of the city states.

We all had a great time for a couple of years but some time after the revised setting had been published I decided to end the campaign. It just wasn't the same after that. There was also no way to incorporate any of the new material because our Darksun setting had diverged from the official one in so many ways.

 

[Najo]

Well, as much as I agree with this, my players aren't much for political stuff. That's fine, don't get me wrong. I tend to have it but more in the background. But, I agree with everything else you say, whole heartedly! And there is lots of room for adventures!



This is an awesome description! As powerful as the SKs are, the Dragon is what makes them scared! And there is so much fun in the myths you can do with them and the dragon!

Good ideas!

edg

Well, if the politics aren't grabbing you, focus on the adventure and action. Don't focus on the survival elements until you are using them as plot devices. Just having heat and dehydration always hanging over the players gets boring if it is used non-stop. The thing about Dark Sun, from the outside it looks like a setting of brutish warriors killing stuff but in truth it is also about wizards hiding from persecution, ancient evil powers coventing dangerous magic, a dying world that has suffered an apocolypse and with its socities that serve their false gods and are ruled over by immortal sorcerers who hold the answers to the secrets of the world.

All in all, the setting is amazing. Its jewels are just easy for casual observers to overlook.

 

[Najo]

This gave me an interesting idea. What if, using only the main boxed set, the dragon WAS the cause of the devastation? What if the SKs ARE trying to return the world to the Green Age? What if it is the dragon that has templars, spreading the rumors about the SKs and making life tough on Athas for most people? And the SKs stopped trying to explain themselves because it only got worse.

Now, no idea about the fact that they are defilers. I suppose that could be changed with little problem. Or, perhaps only a few are defilers, the others are preservers. Some want the power for themselves and others are looking to reverse it.

They are most definately defilers. All of the sorcerer kings are a 20th level Defiler/ 20th level Psionicist who is now proceeding with their transformation into a dragon (dragon levels add on after the class levels). Borys underwent rituals performed by the Sorcerer Kings to excelerate this process and went insane doing so.
In the verdant passage (Dark Sun book 1) Kalak has found a way to transform in a safer fashion, but it leaves him vulnerable. The heroes exploit this and kill him. The most tranformed of the SK's is Nibenay, which is why he has gone into his temple and not been seen in years. He was a 3rd level dragon (which is the level of the dragon on the cover of the Dragon Kings book), Borys is a 10th level dragon, Dergoth (the undead one) is a 9th level dragon. All the rest of the Sorcerer Kings are 1st or 2nd level dragons.

The preservers become avangions (gossamer wing, angelic alien creatures). Eventually turning into a creature that is one with the life force of Athas.

 

[Wik]

Hunh. Too bad this thread is getting swallowed up by 4e Threads. I will do my best to carry it on.

What I did to change to the setting:

1) Templars could worship any Advanced Being. If you were a SK, you granted spells to Templars. Easy enough.
2) Elemental priests were persecuted, just like wizards. The average joe didn't know enough about magic to tell the difference; I figure this was intended, since clerics had the Somatic Concealment option as well.
3) I changed the weapon materials table, so that there was a bit more choice in weapons - it wasn't just "bone is the best material".
4) I always kept the simplified Defiling Rules in the original set - it works much better.