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.

 

[BenjaminPey]

I mean, the Ten Towns gazetteer, the Baldur's Gate Gazetteer, the Waterdeep gazetteer... The now very detailed area around Phandalin (LMoP, EK). The sandboxy savage north in Storm King's Thunder? Chult in Tomb of Annihilation? The underdark in Out of the Abyss? Maybe they're not FR books as their primary purpose, but they are definitly FR books in big parts. We could almost say that presenting the settings through adventure is kinda the signature style of the 5E era of DnD. Same with Ravenloft and Stradh, same with Planescape and Spelljammer, same with Dragonlance (with various degrees of success, obviously, but still): all settings presented through adventures. And why not? Aren't adventures exactly what these settings are for?

 

[Parmandur]

I really dislike this misconception.

Avernus is NOT a BG3 tie in adventure.

It is not a misconception at all: they were announced together, and it was marketed as a tie-in through the release of Early Access. Was it a particularly well-executee tie-in? No, but it was nevertheless specifically a tie-in.

 

[Parmandur]

I just hope they don't try to pass Goliaths as Half-Giants nor Dragonborn as Dray

I mean...they will. And they will probavly get away with it, too.

 

[Remathilis]

You're conveniently forgetting the adventures that are very setting specific. And whether or not you count the FR iconic character titled books...

You can easily convince me about the old APs, but Volo's and Xanathar's has nothing unique to the Realms. You might as well claim there was five Greyhawk books (Mordenkainen's twice, Bigby, Vecna and Tasha) by that metric.

 

[Superchunk77]

How many of them starting at low levels? How many were actually "good"? Having too many cooks for the soup is not always a good thing.

Quite a few and quite a few.

 

[Superchunk77]

Good Darksun adventures. Hmmn theyre around........0.

TSR was pushing those metaplot heavy railroaded ones back then.

That's completely untrue.

The metaplot adventures were limited to "Freedom" and "Road to Urik". I believe there was one small adventure in "Beyond the Prism Pentad" that was also metaplot related. The rest of them, and there were a lot, were not related to the metaplot whatsoever.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

There are people who will be really happy if Dark Sun happens. There will also be a lot of people that will be really unhappy with whatever WotC does with it.

I just wish they would do something NEW.

Yeah i am looking forward to a 5e style DS book. Maybe it will help me convince my wife to give the setting a second chance after the bad impression she had during a 4e game that was run very classic grimdark edgelord style.

But i too would love something new

 

[JDazzle]

That's completely untrue.

The metaplot adventures were limited to "Freedom" and "Road to Urik". I believe there was one small adventure in "Beyond the Prism Pentad" that was also metaplot related. The rest of them, and there were a lot, were not related to the metaplot whatsoever.

Weren't most of the adventures happening AROUND all the metaplot going on... like the premise was, "Well, THIS happened and now you guys are off doing your own thing in the chaos that event caused."?

 

[Superchunk77]

It would be nice if they could get Brom back to at least do the cover/alt cover for a Dark Sun book and Tom Braxa to do some of the interiors.

I'm honestly nervous about what WotC might come out with for a 5E Dark Sun, but I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'd certainly like them to hew as close as possible to the original boxed set and incorporating what they can of those initial round of supplements updated to 5E.

I just hope they don't try to pass Goliaths as Half-Giants nor Dragonborn as Dray and go the extra step to give us unique races for these two. Muls would be nice, but I very much doubt they'll even be mentioned. I'd be happy to be wrong, though.

Brom won't do it. Baxa? Maaaaybe. I think the only setting WotC did where they had one of the original writers/artists involved was Planescape and that setting's main artist, Tony D. Maybe Eberron was as well.

If you want to know what WotC would do to Dark Sun, take the 4e Dark Sun books, remove all mentions of genocide, slavery, racial prejudices, and brutality. Then inject a good amount of modern-day political and ideological BS, and wrap it up in a cheap glue bound hardcover with a mediocre cover.

 

[Superchunk77]

Weren't most of the adventures happening AROUND all the metaplot going on... like the premise was, "Well, THIS happened and now you guys are off doing your own thing in the chaos that event caused."?

Nope. The only part of the metaplot that was even hinted at or included in the adventures were the death of Kalak, Tyr becoming a free city and the following war with Urik. The rest of the stuff happened well off camera and didn't have a direct impact on the Tablelands until much much later, with the Dragon and a couple more Sorcerer-Kings being killed as well as the creation of the Cerulean Storm. But those later events wouldn't even be noticed by a group unless they were adventuring at those precise locations at the time of the events.