D&D General Tell me about your experiences playing Dark Sun

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I didn't get to play it a lot. I got to run it quite a bit, though.

I only briefly ran 2e Dark Sun. Great setting but based on 2e rules. Not balanced. I routinely converted 2e adventures into 4e, since many of those adventures had cool themes. Also, more balanceable.

I liked the 4e version, except the Character Builder made it nearly impossible to keep stuff that didn't fit out of the game. I had to reflavor a paladin, because someone really wanted to play one. (4e templars didn't suit their previous flavor. Making them warlocks was pretty inspired, IMO, and making them secondary leaders suited them too, but they became too magical and not warlord-ish enough, IMO.)

Stuff like half-giants and thri-kreen needed balancing. They got that in 3e and 4e. Unfortunately half-giants lost their unique flavor. Eventually so did pterrans and some of the other more obscure playable races. Halflings didn't lose their flavor though

For the non-metal weapons, I recall that players would rather gain bonuses than take penalties. So instead of inflicting penalties, a metal weapon is effectively a +1 weapon. I also wasn't going to deal with broken weapons, since the game didn't have hero points, action points, fate points, etc that could be used as a metacurrency to compensate a PC for a broken weapon.

 

[Unwise]

Setting was explained a bit. And then promptly ignored

The official D&D adventures did this too. I remember a much hyped set of 4e D&D adventures, where the first room of the first dungeon had the PCs come across a pool of water about 10x25x25 feet in size. This was not a treasury, or a city's well or anything, just a random room in a dungeon so they could put in a water monster/trap. The PCs were rich before they did anything. They had obviously just got a dungeon from elsewhere and transplanted it into Dark Sun without thought or context. I found this to be pretty typical.

Also, Dark Sun had issues around believability with the lack of metal, wood and water. Most adventures still had locks to pick, chests to open etc. Are they really making all these locks from ceramic or bone? Where did the wood for the door and chest come from? There is no forest for hundreds of miles. How did we even make the mud houses without water?

It is just not a setting where cities or even villages would realistically exist for long. I found myself scaling down the scarcity of resources. I also made enchanted wells, where the water would refresh you, but only if you drank it right away or it disappeared. So the water scarcity was what limited travel, as people cluster around these wells to build cities. Water was a precious resource as it allowed travel and convenience.

 

[Ath-kethin]

My introduction to D&D (well, AD&D Second Edition) was Dark Sun; it was the first setting I ever played in.

It was glorious. I played a thri-kreen psionicist/ranger, and this was back when thri-kreen were depicted as mantis warriors, not humanoid looking dudes with four arms. The rest of the group consisted of a Halfling gladiator, a half-elf fighter with a flame tongue bastard sword, a human Preserver, and a mul gladiator.

I think the DM was running the modules, but I don't know how closely he followed them. He was a very good DM and gave our group a LOT of freedom to do as we would. I remember the Halfling and I had a combat tactic where I'd throw him at our enemies, and I don't recall it ever actually working well (poor die rolls every single time; it became a running joke).

But the tone to the world, where magicians are distrusted due to the massive havoc and damage they'd caused over the millennia, was exquisite and the DM established it well. I remember having to cover for the Preserver at one point when hi blew his "conceal the fact that I'm casting a spell" roll and I had to pretend it was my doing. And since my character had a Charisma of 9, convincing anybody of anything was a Herculean task for me.

I never ran Dark Sun myself, but I bought and loved the novels and many of the supplements (Dragon Kings for the win!). And that first campaign (over 25 years ago now) absolutely impacted the way I view and run D&D regardless of the setting.

 

[DnD Warlord]

In 4e I played a Templar pact warlock who was empowered by a dead dragon sorcerer king. The game was weird though because the DM used normal animals and monsters a lot... like horses and carriages instead of those big stone things with the bettle things.

 

[Bitbrain]

I think the DM was running the modules, but I don't know how closely he followed them. He was a very good DM and gave our group a LOT of freedom to do as we would. I remember the Halfling and I had a combat tactic where I'd throw him at our enemies, and I don't recall it ever actually working well (poor die rolls every single time; it became a running joke).

My first group of players killed the BBEG with this tactic!

The Druid turned into a giant tortoise creature, picked up the halfling in his mouth, flung him at disadvantage, and hit. Cue death from flying halfling wielding an iron longsword in both hands.

 

[Wrathamon]

I love the setting for its grit and makes for an interesting experience but it isn't the easiest game to run because it has so many moments were classic tropes dont work and players can get the wrong idea in their head. it requires really good DM to keep the setting in the forefront and not let it fallback on classic D&D darkage tropes.

 

[Wrathamon]

"The game was weird though because the DM used normal animals and monsters a lot... like horses and carriages instead of those big stone things with the bettle things."

sounds like your character was awesome but the DM didnt know the setting ... too bad makes me sad

 

[TarionzCousin]

I played a year-long campaign in 2E, several times a week for up to six hours per session. There were three of us total.

The other player and I built custom classes from the DMG. He was a fighter/magic user with psionics and an 18/99 strength. I was a thief/cleric without any healing spells. We were both very overpowered compared to regular classes.

We were also both playing characters with evil alignments; that was agreed upon with the DM before we ever rolled any dice.

I remember ceramic pieces as currency, no metal armor or weapons. Nobody had a good AC. Survival rolls were brutal so we traveled mostly at night. Athas was full of weird monsters we had never seen before, and weird takes on regular races: cannibal halflings. Life was harsh.

I think we played through forty or fifty sessions, gained maybe six levels--we started at third level, like the setting recommended. At the end of the campaign we might have had three magic items between us.

Our campaign involved a great deal of traveling. We experienced several of the different cultures. Ultimately, we freed a greater devil in disguise, choosing to believe its promises of power. When we failed to help it succeed in regaining all of its former abilities it killed us and ate our souls.

It was definitely different. I liked that.

 

[Wasteland Knight]

I appreciate all the responses!

 

[Wasteland Knight]

The official D&D adventures did this too. I remember a much hyped set of 4e D&D adventures, where the first room of the first dungeon had the PCs come across a pool of water about 10x25x25 feet in size. This was not a treasury, or a city's well or anything, just a random room in a dungeon so they could put in a water monster/trap. The PCs were rich before they did anything. They had obviously just got a dungeon from elsewhere and transplanted it into Dark Sun without thought or context. I found this to be pretty typical.

Also, Dark Sun had issues around believability with the lack of metal, wood and water. Most adventures still had locks to pick, chests to open etc. Are they really making all these locks from ceramic or bone? Where did the wood for the door and chest come from? There is no forest for hundreds of miles. How did we even make the mud houses without water?

It is just not a setting where cities or even villages would realistically exist for long. I found myself scaling down the scarcity of resources. I also made enchanted wells, where the water would refresh you, but only if you drank it right away or it disappeared. So the water scarcity was what limited travel, as people cluster around these wells to build cities. Water was a precious resource as it allowed travel and convenience.

So, one of my thoughts on Dark Sun was that with so many aspects of the typical quasi-Medieval-Renaissance-Tolkienesque D&D settings going out the window, a good portion of existing source material would no longer be applicable.

Which would put more onus on the GM to develop material.

I recently started running a Forgotten Realms campaign. I basically perused my library of sourcebooks and adventures, picked pieces that fit my concept, reskinned a few things and I had a campaign plotted out for 10 levels of play. It took me a few hours spread out over a couple evenings. Easy to do because so much existing material fits easily within the parameters of “default” D&D.