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.

 

[Distracted DM]

D&D more popular, ergo is more attractive to people who want to make a quick buck rather than actually create something. The less popular the ruleset, the more dedicated you have to be to want to make something for it. DMG in effect filters out the less popular rulesets.

That makes sense, though I never equated the ttrpg market with "make a quick buck."

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That makes sense, though I never equated the ttrpg market with "make a quick buck."

Yeah, I doubt it's lucrative enough to attract scalpers, but there are plenty of people who think posting AI slop is "being creative".

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Spelljammer confirmed! sorry, the force the habit!

I imagine a future DS videogame like a "Conan Exiles" with psionic powers.

My theory is we will see a sourcebook about player's options mainly, and maybe other more focused into monsters. The metaplot will be not touched. It will be unlocked in DMGuild and here the web Athas.org should enjoy complete freedom to publish its own 3PP content.

I suggest to allow some space to allow artists to show their own fan-art.

Maybe the tari(ratfolk) will be added like PC specie.

We could ask more details about the "land-within-the-wind" (Athasian Feywild, also afected by the defilers). I feel curiosity about the "secret" faction from the adventure "the black spine".

Oficially Athas is in other material plane.

I would like to know about possible new PC species: Athasian genasi (official in 4e), xephs, elans, maenads, dromites, synads(3.5 complete psionic), shardminds. Are there aasimars in Athas? Maybe they are from other worlds within the same wildspace. Or the Athaspace could suffer some cosmic event like the "sundering" in FR.

Are spinewyrms true dragons? Paizo's Dungeon magazine said they were.

The time-travel was canon in 2nd Ed, and this means some serious consequences. The timeline could be rewritten by chrononauts or time-travelers or we could discover a new time-line.

* Athas could be perfect to hide cursed artifacts from other worlds.

 

[AnderNGmx]

Dark Sun was lots of fun, it would be great if they used the old artists as well for the illustrations.

 

[tetrasodium]

Dark sun would be a great opportunity to give us optional drop in rules f death at zero linear recovery and vancian spell prep/ slit progression... Maybe even dropping unlimited at will cantrips with it

People can only handle so much.

Nah we know what happened to Pirate Queen Valeria since both those pictures looked like Conan.

Spoiler: Quite a lot

She was an unusually well fleshed out warrior∆ for the era

∆ of either sex

 

[Hussar]

There's still folks on this forum arguing that Dark Sun will Never Happen.

I'm one of those. Or, at least I used to be. I didn't think that they'd put out a setting like Dark Sun simply because it's asking for too much trouble. But, times change and the social winds blow in different directions, so, it's pretty likely we're going to see it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I'm one of those. Or, at least I used to be. I didn't think that they'd put out a setting like Dark Sun simply because it's asking for too much trouble. But, times change and the social winds blow in different directions, so, it's pretty likely we're going to see it.

Yeah, it could just be simply that if Jeremy and Chris were the two that felt Dark Sun wouldn't be good business for 5E while they were in charge of D&D while at WotC (either because of the public perception of the subject matter or because they themselves had specific ideas about how DS should be made based upon the 2E version and they couldn't get the go-ahead from the higher ups on it, or any other reason)... with a new team in place in charge of D&D maybe they have different ideas on how they think they can do the setting and do it justice without causing any issues.

Chris had things blow up in his face after the release of Tomb of Annihilation and it could be he just became leery of stepping into those dangerous waters of art versus societal reaction once more. Perhaps the new folks running the department now are not gun-shy about stuff like that yet.

And I stress 'yet'. ;-)

 

[TiQuinn]

Yeah, it could just be simply that if Jeremy and Chris were the two that felt Dark Sun wouldn't be good business for 5E while they were in charge of D&D while at WotC (either because of the public perception of the subject matter or because they themselves had specific ideas about how DS should be made based upon the 2E version and they couldn't get the go-ahead from the higher ups on it, or any other reason)... with a new team in place in charge of D&D maybe they have different ideas on how they think they can do the setting and do it justice without causing any issues.

Chris had things blow up in his face after the release of Tomb of Annihilation and it could be he just became leery of stepping into those dangerous waters of art versus societal reaction once more. Perhaps the new folks running the department now are not gun-shy about stuff like that yet.

And I stress 'yet'. ;-)

This is a good point. Not that I know Crawford or Perkins were actively against or had hesitation towards Dark Sun, but that sometimes a particular setting or idea just doesn’t resonate with an author creatively and they don’t feel they can do it justice. It’s why fresh blood is often what is needed to get an idea off the ground. Perkins was a massive fan of the original Ravenloft, and that inspired and motivated him to create Curse of Strahd, practically writing the first draft of the campaign over the course of the Christmas holidays year back.

I’m a bit curious about what blowback Perkins encountered after Tomb of Annihilation though. I hadn’t heard about that.

 

[Parmandur]

Chris had things blow up in his face after the release of Tomb of Annihilation

And Curse of Strahd...and Spelljammer.

But anything released in the next two years will probavly still have Perkins and Crawfords fingerprints, given the production timeliness. Mofe likely the earlier changes in management over them changed the possibilities of what could be done.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I’m a bit curious about what blowback Perkins encountered after Tomb of Annihilation though. I hadn’t heard about that.

The quick answer (so as to not derail the thread with discussions about it) was that Chris was a white writer writing for Black characters in a setting style that could be thought of as a potential for caricature, and no Black writers were ever asked to check the project for authenticity or the avoidance of what might be considered racist tropes.

Chris wrote it with the best of his own intentions, but a white writer doesn't know what he doesn't know about the Black experience. And some Black critics found issues with the project. Needless to say, Chris felt really bad about it.