Wizards of the Coast Re-Registers Dark Sun With USPTO

Wizards of the Coast recently filed an application to register Dark Sun in the US, a sign that D&D could be bringing back the campaign setting in the near future. The trademark claim was filed on October 13th, 2025 and is poised to replace a previous trademark that was cancelled by the USPTO in 2024. The trademark, like most involving D&D properties, covers both "downloadable electronic games," "games and playthings," and "entertainment services." Similar active trademarks exist for other D&D campaign settings such as Spelljammer and Forgotten Realms, although neither of those have lapsed in recent years.

We'll note that, as the previous Dark Sun trademark lapsed a year ago, this could be a case of simple paperwork, or it could be the latest sign that a Dark Sun product is eminent. Earlier this year, Wizards released an Unearthed Arcana for the Psion class and several subclasses that all but spelled out a return to the setting, complete with mentions of sorcerer-kings, gladiatorial fights, and preservers and defilers.

 

[mamba]

there's a group of DS fans who will definitely never agree with that.

But I don't think that matters.

and I agree with that I didn’t say no one would complain

 

[Zaukrie]

Honestly the lack of ship battle rules isn't even the most frustrating part to me. If you give it any real depth then you're basically adding a whole other game on top of the game, and that's not something that interests many players.

What really bothers me is all the setting elements excluded. Bionoids, Spirit Warriors, Scro, Dracons, Crystal Spheres. A lot of great gonzo space fantasy stuff ripped off from anime--which may be the reason. Still they didn't have to make them look like Guyvers in the new art.

I don't mind the fact that it wasn't a one-to-one translation of 2E Spelljammer, there was stuff that was painfully retrograde even back then (Aperusa, for instance. Did D&D really need another racist Romani stereotype species?)

At least Giffs made it in.

Crystal spheres sucked. Glad they're gone.

I felt like the SJ set was short of interesting though. I agree stuff was missing, just not sure what.... But the adventure missed for me, and a series of two page encounters, maybe five, showcasing cool SJ things would have been way better

 

[tetrasodium]

Then there's already a problem if you're looking through the UA. It appears that they're tying defiling to sorcerers as a subclass. This was never how arcane magic worked on Athas. Even the 4e Dark Sun books at least recognized that, albeit, implemented it in a rather unsatisfying way.

Inferior weapon materials has kind of already been covered in some of the older 5e books. Probably wouldn't need a whole rules subsystem to manage it again.

But there was a necessity to rewrite some. A lot of ideas put forth in the orginal Dark Sun didn't have mechanics yet in 2e. Those rules innovations became central to the theme and tone of the setting. By removing them, or simplifying them to the point of being "fluff" you end up watering down the setting as a whole.

If still true at publication that's probably a good thing. Charisma is way overbuffed in 5e with orders of magnitude too much easy multiplicative synergy between charisma based classes. I've seen endless variations of warlock paladin sorcerer bard and multiclass bingo between the three across my AL games and would be surprised if I needed more than one hand to count the number of wizards or artificers§. Having a solid mechanical foundation like that supporting "nobody likes defilers and you are obviously a defiler" would be a good choice for darksun even if it's a sidebar supporting the gm who chooses to point at it.

§ the dip synergy and opportunity cost needed for solid benefits is awful. Doubt I've ever seen one multiclassed both.

 

[Azzy]

And yet it is.

Saying it doesn't make it so. The evidence that we do have does not point to Doomspace being revisited and looks more likely that a DS product is in the works.

 

[Superchunk77]

agreed, let’s see what the final product is though. The preserver was a problem altogether, it did not preserve anything.

The point of preserving magic was that it didn't defile. Thereby preserving the plan life that already exists instead of killing it. Restoring plant life to athas was usually the domain of the druids. However, preservers did get specific spells that restored plant life as well.

The fact that the defiling sorcerer subclass released in the UA doesn't even kill plants at all, is a swing and a miss.

there isn’t really much that is needed. Have 10 pages of additional (not replacement) mechanics if you think they are needed, not counting races and subclasses.

90% can be handled in the fluff, and that would have been true for 2e as well

Not so sure on that. The 4e Dark Sun book had one really good list of 8 characteristics of Athas that make dark sun unique.

1. The world is a desert: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
2. The World is Savage: Not sure WotC will be able to support any of this one. WotC won't even print the word "savage" in a book, let alone add slavery.
3. Metal is scarce: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
4. Arcane magic defiles the world: WotC already has this one wrong.
5. Sorcerer-kings rule the city-states: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
6. The gods are silent: Have yet to see anything on elemental clerics in UA. 4e was able to do it using themes, but I doubt WotC will even try.
7. Fierce monsters roam the world: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
8. Familiar races aren't what you expect: I fully expect goliaths to stand in for half-giants (its still a cop-out), but muls and cannibal halflings will definitely get the axe, and elves being portrayed as nomadic raiders, peddlers, and thieves could even be phased out.

So unless WotC decide to do a complete 180 on points 2, 4, and 8 (and 6 to a smaller degree) then I have serious doubts about any kind of Dark Sun book they release. You'd be better served just opening up the setting on DM's Guild and letting some of the authors there take a crack at it.

 

[pukunui]

1. The world is a desert: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
2. The World is Savage: Not sure WotC will be able to support any of this one. WotC won't even print the word "savage" in a book, let alone add slavery.
3. Metal is scarce: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
4. Arcane magic defiles the world: WotC already has this one wrong.
5. Sorcerer-kings rule the city-states: Easy enough to do with any RPG.
6. The gods are silent: Have yet to see anything on elemental clerics in UA. 4e was able to do it using themes, but I doubt WotC will even try.

Regarding point #2, as has been mentioned upthread, the new FR books mention drow enslaving surface dwellers.

Regarding point #6, it’s already possible in the default 5e rules to be a cleric without a deity, so that’s not an issue.

 

[Gradine]

That’s not grimdark. In grimdark every attempt to do good and make things better ends up making things worse instead. See Game of Thones. It’s not that the world is dark - it may not be particularly - it’s that good can’t win.

Sounds exhausting. And thoroughly unappealing.

I think Baldur's Gate 3 and the continued popularity of gritty and mature RPGs kind of blow up the whole "modern audiences are too weak for Dark Sun" argument. Curse of Strahd is still the most popular 5E adventure, after all. The two new Forgotten Realms books didn't make any effort to "sanitize" the setting. Why would Dark Sun?

I am once again forced to find myself asking how in the Nine Hells anyone would walk away from BG3 while giving it the label "gritty".

 

[FitzTheRuke]

WotC will probably avoid the word Savage due to its historical use as a slight against indigenous people, but that doesn't really change much. The world can still be a nightmare by another name. "Harsh", I think, is probably most descriptive.

 

[Superchunk77]

Regarding point #2, as has been mentioned upthread, the new FR books mention drow enslaving surface dwellers.

It's more the matter of scale for Dark Sun. One race enslaving a few hundred people versus a whole portion of the planet relying on mass slavery to run entire cities, or serve as annual sacrifices to a defiler dragon to power world shattering magic.

Regarding point #6, it’s already possible in the default 5e rules to be a cleric without a deity, so that’s not an issue.

I was more talking about having elemental and para-elemental domains for clerics.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I am once again forced to find myself asking how in the Nine Hells anyone would walk away from BG3 while giving it the label "gritty".

I assume they mean full of dark imagery, not grounded and naturalistic.