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

[Staffan]

That's all fair, but after giving a fair hearing to these arguments and knowing the topic, I'm still not sure which ethnic group the Dark Sun Athasian would be parodying, and thus who would be the victim and target of the stereotype here. The trope of the "tribal cannibal" has an unpleasant history, when it was used as an accurate description of how certain real world people engaged in cannibalism and with an implicit negative moral connotation (and it was always wrong anyway because real cultures were some forms of cannibalism are socially accepted always have it involved in the context of specific religious or social rituals), but the trope doesn't have to be used like that nor it is used like that in Dark Sun.

I always thought man-eating halflings were just an extension of the "normal" halfling fondness for food. "Normal" dwarves love work, so Dark Sun dwarves are bonded to their work to the point where they can become undead if they abandon it unfinished. Elves are a bit flighty, so Dark Sun elves become nomads (with a fair bit of Roma stereotypes latched on, though it's hard to separate general distrust of non-settled people from specifically Roma stereotypes). And regular halflings like eating, so Dark Sun halflings like eating... people.

Another aspect is that eating people isn't the point of the halflings. The point is that they're xenophobes, and will likely kill anyone entering their territory. And hey, if you're going to kill them anyway, there's no point in letting all that meat go to waste...

 

[Zardnaar]

I always thought man-eating halflings were just an extension of the "normal" halfling fondness for food. "Normal" dwarves love work, so Dark Sun dwarves are bonded to their work to the point where they can become undead if they abandon it unfinished. Elves are a bit flighty, so Dark Sun elves become nomads (with a fair bit of Roma stereotypes latched on, though it's hard to separate general distrust of non-settled people from specifically Roma stereotypes). And regular halflings like eating, so Dark Sun halflings like eating... people.

Another aspect is that eating people isn't the point of the halflings. The point is that they're xenophobes, and will likely kill anyone entering their territory. And hey, if you're going to kill them anyway, there's no point in letting all that meat go to waste...

They did get fished out a bit later. Rain/water clerics and survivors of the ancients. Theyre not Xenophobic to the extent you can't approach them. Helps to be a Druid or water/rain cleric.

Very interesting I thought way better than not Hobbits.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There are jokes about D&D lizardforks eating people, and gnolls as PC specie is relatively possible.

Even if enemy humanoid corpses aren't eaten my anthropophagous PCs maybe they are by monster allies. Why not your wolf mount couldn't eat the body of the killed bugbear?



* Even if WotC oficially said only states can own slaves (the nobility could pay a special tax as a form of rent) some players could want to buy slaves for their harem of monster girls (yes, they are sick because they have watched too many isekai animes).... but may there is a way to can justify only the highest spheres of the hierarchy can own slaves... and if a slave owner has been too cruel then the souls of their victims could become wraiths with desires for revenge. Maybe this is the reason because mind-controlled parasites aren't used with slaves.

* What if Borys used his psionic powers of clairvoyance to see his future, but what he discovered drove him insane? Maybe the destruction of the ecosystem by Borys the dragon was intentional because he suffered botanophobia (fear to plants) when a vision of the future showed him being killed by plant-like feys, or some alien monster eating all the vegetation to become a kaiju-level threat.

* How had been Athas if Rajaat had killed himself accidentally while he investigated the magic?

* What if there is an Athasian version of the demiplane of the elemental wood but this suffered a plan-like zombie apocalypse style "the last of us" or "Splinter"(2008)? Some domains are like a crossover of all horror movies about fungus or plant monsters but there are some zones with "no-evil" plant humanoids. And the elemental plane of the metal would be like the Athasian version of Mechanus but withtout that clockwork touch. The bad new is this would be suffering a planar invasion by borg/phyrexians-like "wicked mechano-celestials". The irony is these invaders would be rejected by the formian empire.

Or the Athaspace could have got its own demiplane of the dreams, the final destination of the pure and innocent souls. But there are also nightmare realms with its own lords.

* Officially, the Athasians are Maltheists, meaning that although they accept the existence of gods as true, they do not worship them because they consider them evil and therefore unworthy of their loyalty and devotion.

Some players would rather a "sword&sandal" style where not only the faith of the true divine possible even it is totally necessary but they are persecuted by the sorcerer-kings. Others can't believe a society without hope of comfort in the afterlife could survive for a long time. I would allow cults to the ancestors and some kaijus-like titans like quasideities.

PCs are offered the opportunity, or temptation, to become living legends and thus quasigods. Some psionic ardents could be the followers of these quasigods.

 

[BrokenTwin]

Bluebeard murdering his wives is a stock fairytale plot and backstory, it doesn't come into play and isn't scary, its just a wall of text backstory that you immediately know about the moment you hear he's called Bluebeard, the mad scientist turning animals into people will just get people going 'ah so its just doctor moreau (but without the part where his creations destroy him)', they're just leaning off more popular work. Frankly Bluebeard has all of the energy of the old "You step into Wonderland" module in its sheer not even just trying to do anything to make a unique D&D concept of it, like Strahd is

Trying not to continue the Domains of Dread aside (though I will say D&D is terrible for horror in general), but I did find it interesting/funny that Bluebeard is the example you used, when there's a well-known (in indie circles) ttrpg called Bluebeard's Bride, which is exactly what it sounds like (a horror RPG where you play as one of Bluebeard's brides).

 

[Mecheon]

Trying not to continue the Domains of Dread aside (though I will say D&D is terrible for horror in general), but I did find it interesting/funny that Bluebeard is the example you used, when there's a well-known (in indie circles) ttrpg called Bluebeard's Bride, which is exactly what it sounds like (a horror RPG where you play as one of Bluebeard's brides).

I reckon it ties into your point about D&D being awful for horror. Bluebeeard's Bride? You OOCly know the tale but you're buying into the idea of playing the bride specifically. Its leaning into the horror movie 'don't go in there!' type of vibe.

D&D though? The way the game is doesn't support horror, so trying to use the same type of horror that works in another game won't work in D&D due to that different buy-in. Your character in D&D is some skilled adventurer, so a lot of the threat of Bluebeard (and frankly all of the threat of a certain other darklord, cough cough Vlad got replaced for a good reason) is kind of lost

 

[Kurotowa]

D&D though? The way the game is doesn't support horror, so trying to use the same type of horror that works in another game won't work in D&D due to that different buy-in. Your character in D&D is some skilled adventurer, so a lot of the threat of Bluebeard (and frankly all of the threat of a certain other darklord, cough cough Vlad got replaced for a good reason) is kind of lost

Yeah, I'd put it that D&D supports a different flavor of horror. It's a sort that's more of the Conan lineage. One where the horror is that a twisted eldritch creature has crawled out of a dark corner of the cosmos and it wants to eat your face, and you don't know if your puny sword and weak spells will be enough to save you. Or where the horror is that the Arch Necromancer has raised a legion of the undead to ravage the countryside, and you have to battle through the horde to get a band of survivors to safety while the Death Knight that used to be your beloved mentor harries you.

This isn't the Lovecraftian horror of abject helplessness in the face of overwhelming forces that you are but an ant to. It's also not the horror of folktales where you're an ordinary peasant who never picked up a weapon in their life. But you can still do horror where the idea is that you can fight back, you just aren't confident that you'll win.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

D&D is not for standar horror genre but for action or survival horror. The games don't work in the same way. "Evil Within" is a good example of how in the first stages it starts more survival and focused into stealth but the last ones are more battlfield when the main character has got enough weapons and ammo.

It is not only but horror settings by 3PPs.

The adventure in the castle of Ravenloft against Strahd the vampire is a good example horror can fit within D&D.

The Tomb of Horrors is a good example of how characters with a great power can suffer a TPK if they don't follow the right steps.

* Players may want different things. For example some ones wants DS to be very grimmdark but others would rather more grimm in the cover but hopepunk in the core, stories with space for the hope.

Some players would be happy with the sorcerer-king Tectuktitlay (lord of Draj) being killed in a coup d'etat as soon as possible but others would disagree. Some events could be right for the novel but wrong for the gameplay in the tabletop.

Other players would like to create PCs with a mutations table from Gamma World. In your own tabletop you choose what is your right way to play DS or other D&D setting. And WotC knows a lot of effort to create the canon may be useless if after the players create their own versions.