D&D 5E (2024) Unconfirmed Dark Sun World Book

[Libertad]

I believe I said as much in another thread (or site, can't keep track), but I personally don't have much faith in Wizards of the Coast handling Dark Sun in a thoughtful manner. This is mostly due to seeing their earlier bungles of worlds, like Spelljammer.

That being said, I still want an official 5e release for Dark Sun. Why? Because much like Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Eberron, it is a setting with a very passionate fanbase who I know will create stellar content for it on the Dungeon Master's Guild. I actually like DM's Guild fan books more than WotC material these days.

My main hangup re: the Guild is the proliferation of AI art, which I have reservations against due to plagiarism concerns.

 

[Zardnaar]

I believe I said as much in another thread (or site, can't keep track), but I personally don't have much faith in Wizards of the Coast handling Dark Sun in a thoughtful manner. This is mostly due to seeing their earlier bungles of worlds, like Spelljammer.

That being said, I still want an official 5e release for Dark Sun. Why? Because much like Dragonlance, Ravenloft, and Eberron, it is a setting with a very passionate fanbase who I know will create stellar content for it on the Dungeon Master's Guild. I actually like DM's Guild fan books more than WotC material these days.

My main hangup re: the Guild is the proliferation of AI art, which I have reservations against due to plagiarism concerns.

Well 5E Darksun will probably come with a nice map. 4E butchered the FR map and DS one was ok. Might buy it for that and see what the Guild comes up with.

Being a defiler should kill plants and have some sort of mechanical effect. Maybe free upcast xyz per day and disadvantage on cha checks.
.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My main hangup re: the Guild is the proliferation of AI art, which I have reservations against due to plagiarism concerns.

I think it's possible to filter out AI-generated content on the site. And I noticed some AI slop for Keep on the Borderlands that I saw previously has apparently been delisted. So there is hope.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

Well 5E Darksun will probably come with a nice map. 4E butchered the FR map and DS one was ok. Might buy it for that and see what the Guild comes up with.

Being a defiler should kill plants and have some sort of mechanical effect. Maybe free upcast xyz per day and disadvantage on cha checks.
.

I legitimately don't think that there are any 5e rules for living plants that aren't also animated creatures that can kill you like a treant or vegepygmy. RAW there is absolutely zero difference between a living tree and lumber, they're both objects. Having some way of "defiling" and getting a bonus would require WotC to create a whole new system, and limiting defiling player options to only working on plant-type monsters is naughty word hilarious.

 

[Zardnaar]

I legitimately don't think that there are any 5e rules for living plants that aren't also animated creatures that can kill you like a treant or vegepygmy. RAW there is absolutely zero difference between a living tree and lumber, they're both objects. Having some way of "defiling" and getting a bonus would require WotC to create a whole new system, and limiting defiling player options to only working on plant-type monsters is naughty word hilarious.

Well a small amount of damage or exhaustion would work on plant monsters caught in defiling.

Arch defilers or the like could drain normal creatures (NPCs, high level defiler subclass).

 

[SableWyvern]

I played in a 4e Dark Sun game.

I'm not a huge expert on Dark Sun lore, but my experience was generally fine. A little disappointed by the exploration/survival aspect being so small in scope, and a little disappointed by the defiler mechanic being not super enticing, mostly.

With the survival aspect, I'd expect the wilderness on Athas to be able to kill PC's with the weather well into 5e's Tier 3. I'd expect even well-worn trade roads to challenge Tier 1 characters, and most wilderness areas to be a reasonable risk for Tier 2, with maybe the more extreme zones in Tier 3. 4e Dark Sun's weather wasn't a major issue for us ever. Just an aesthetic.

That seems to align with my, "the problems are 4e, not Dark Sun" theory.

With the defiler mechanic, I'd expect a rule where arcane magic kills things by default and you have to do something EXTRA (make some effort) to stop doing that. The 4e rules made defiling an opt-in thing rather than an opt-out thing, which hurt the vibe because then arcane magic was just normal for the party and no one really had an issue with it. Which isn't what I'd expect in this setting, where to be an arcanist is to be complicit unless you know some secret and do hard things.

I don't think the official material has ever had good rules for defiling. As with many great 2e era settings, the writers worked hard to adapt AD&D to the setting, but they're still taking rules with a very specific feel and trying to get them to do something very different without actually being too different. It's why Mythras is my preferred ruleset for games in D&D settings that vary from the typical D&D defaults.

 

[bergec]

My solution for 4e Dark Sun was that magic was defiling by default and you needed to expend your Bonus Action to avoid it. This reflected the extra effort needed and give a mechanical temptation to do defiling when you really needed to use your Bonus Action for something else.

 

[humble minion]

That seems to align with my, "the problems are 4e, not Dark Sun" theory.

One of my main concerns with a 5e Dark Sun is that it’s likely to have the same problems. Goodberry make wilderness survival trivial, and Create Water is a trivial option to fill your water skins at 1st level too. WotC have been supremely unwilling to disallow spells on a setting by setting basis so far, but you simply can’t make hunger and thirst a challenge when basically every party has access to these two spells. Similarly, the whole old-school ‘arcane magic is rare and hidden’ thing is hard to manage when every spellcaster has at-will cantrips, and probably well over 50% of the published MARTIAL subclasses have flashy magical abilities.

Dark Sun was written around a different set of assumptions as to magic availability than modern D&D uses.

 

[Zardnaar]

Ne if my main concerns with a 5e Dark Sun is that it’s likely to have the same problems. Goodberry make wilderness survival trivial, and Create Water is a trivial option to fill your water skins at 1st level too. WotC have been supremely unwilling to disallow spells on a setting by setting basis so far, but you simply can’t make hunger and thirst a challenge when basically every party has access to these two spells. Similarly, the whole old-school ‘arcane magic is rare and hidden’ thing is hard to manage when every spellcaster has at-will cantrips, and probably well over 50% of the published MARTIAL subclasses have flashy magical abilities.

Dark Sun was written around a different set of assumptions as to magic availability than modern D&D uses.

2E rewrote those spells. You could have a section on recommendations of hardcore mode when what's available is very limited.

7 or 8 races, 12 subclasses etc.

 

[SableWyvern]

Ne if my main concerns with a 5e Dark Sun is that it’s likely to have the same problems. Goodberry make wilderness survival trivial, and Create Water is a trivial option to fill your water skins at 1st level too. WotC have been supremely unwilling to disallow spells on a setting by setting basis so far, but you simply can’t make hunger and thirst a challenge when basically every party has access to these two spells. Similarly, the whole old-school ‘arcane magic is rare and hidden’ thing is hard to manage when every spellcaster has at-will cantrips, and probably well over 50% of the published MARTIAL subclasses have flashy magical abilities.

Dark Sun was written around a different set of assumptions as to magic availability than modern D&D uses.

It would certainly take some effort (and the desire) to deal with all that.