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.

 

[Parmandur]

I mean, you are correct there!

I do appreciate the frustration with the lack of non-Small/Medium player options after a whole 11 years of 5E: a really weird flaw in the game, IMO.

 

[Parmandur]

I wonder how they are going to handle elf lineages being baked into the elf species...

I mean, easy enough to just handwave the differences as fluff, they amount to alternate Feats.

 

[Von Ether]

For me, as long as it is deadly world of psionics, swords and a touch of sorcery, then I'll be happy.

 

[Kurotowa]

DMsGuild is where it is at.
IMO fan's are producing better content.

Fans on DM's Guild are producing more specialized content. Niche products with limited audiences because they're narrowly focused material or deliberate throwbacks to older styles. The sort of thing that WotC can't justify making with a high production budget, but are happy to let other people make on smaller budgets and margins for a modest cut.

So you know, I'm not surprised that it's popular with ENworld. We are, shall we say, not representative of the major D&D demographics. By which I mean we're bloody old. But the magic of DM's Guild is that we can get the throwback stuff a lot of people here want, while the mainline books are designed to primarily focus on today's audience. That's a win-win.

 

[Tonguez]

People shout at WotC when they do anything new. Or anything old.

Eberron was new, it did well

Putting out material might have just been to prove the copyright for renewal Dark Sun.

If Athas does come back, its going to be a different beast to what it was, but at least there will be psionics

 

[Professor Murder]

So what I need is crunch but given the lack of it in Spelljammer and Planescape, I am very warry.

 

[Distracted DM]

People shout at WotC when they do anything new. Or anything old.

You can't please everyone, but I think it's easy to forget that The Internet is not one conglomerate of fans that hate everything released... Some people will cheer the new release, others will want old stuff brought back. They're typically not the same people.

 

[MGibster]

You can't please everyone, but I think it's easy to forget that The Internet is not one conglomerate of fans that hate everything released... Some people will cheer the new release, others will want old stuff brought back. They're typically not the same people.

Even with this news, I'm going to be a little surprised if a WotC released another version of Dark Sun. Mainly because some of their employees said in the not too distant past they couldn't release a version true to the original without angering many of their customers.

 

[Zardnaar]

Even with this news, I'm going to be a little surprised if a WotC released another version of Dark Sun. Mainly because some of their employees said in the not too distant past they couldn't release a version true to the original without angering many of their customers.

Thise employees are gone. Theres not much in OBS thats not in BG3 for example. BG3 went further tbh.

 

[MGibster]

Thise employees are gone. Theres not much in OBS thats not in BG3 for example. BG3 went further tbh.

Yeah. I thought the same thing when I played BG3 myself, but the counter argument is that video games are different from table top role playing games. I think D&D is many things to many different people. For some people, D&D can be a video game featuring some hot bear on humanoid action. For others, D&D shouldn't have anything in it that's inappropriate for a 12 year old. It's tough to make everyone happy.