D&D 5E WotC: Why Dark Sun Hasn't Been Revived

In an interview with YouTuber 'Bob the Worldbuilder', WotC's Kyle Brink explained why the classic Dark Sun setting has not yet seen light of day in the D&D 5E era.

I’ll be frank here, the Dark Sun setting is problematic in a lot of ways. And that’s the main reason we haven’t come back to it. We know it’s got a huge fan following and we have standards today that make it extraordinarily hard to be true to the source material and also meet our ethical and inclusion standards... We know there’s love out there for it and god we would love to make those people happy, and also we gotta be responsible.

You can listen to the clip here.

 

[Yaarel]

Western and especially American action adventure stories have always been steeped in violence.

Heh, the only thing that bothers me about American style violence is:

The hero can kill hundreds of bad guys, but at the end of the story it suddenly becomes unethical to kill their leader who is responsible for everyones deaths.

 

[Yaarel]

I can't say I'm shocked by any of this - Wizards isn't interested in settings, period.

I suspect WotC will now be all about settings and flavor.

After the ap-OGL-ypse, it became clear that settings are pretty much exactly what WotC can trademark, copyright, and monetize.

 

[ChaosOS]

Ajit affirmed interest in Dark Sun. I really think the Radiant Citadel team could handle the lore side of things just fine; my actual concern remains the mechanics side, which is why I use Savage Worlds instead of 5e for my weekly Dark Sun game.

 

[Yaarel]

Athas didn't suffer climate change in any way like what is happening on Earth. It suffered climate destruction via defiling magic. No different than if you made a setting where a nuclear war happened and the climate was desolate because of past radiation. It's simply a post-apocalyptic setting.

Maybe the Dark Sun climate change is more like deforestation. The defiling magic was destroying the element of water faster than it could replenish. Thus all of the elements were thrown out of balance.

 

[Eubani]

Modern culture has neutered evil in fiction and too many people cannot grasp the idea that fiction is not real.

 

[Maxperson]

Maybe the Dark Sun climate change is more like deforestation. The defiling magic was destroying the element of water faster than it could replenish. Thus all of the elements were thrown out of balance.

It was more an experiment gone awry. Athas originally had a blue sun, but they tried to harness it's power magically and warped it to yellow and allowed psionics to develop. Then at some point it warped to red and the defiling destroyed most life and water on the planet. It is the way it is due to a magical catastrophe and defiling magic, not climate change.

 

[MGibster]

Athas didn't suffer climate change in any way like what is happening on Earth. It suffered climate destruction via defiling magic. No different than if you made a setting where a nuclear war happened and the climate was desolate because of past radiation. It's simply a post-apocalyptic setting.

Or using fossile fuels for your energy needs. In most D&D settings, magic really doesn't have a cost beyond material components. It's safe and predictible, which is fine for a heroic fantasy game, but it was dangerous in Dark Sun.

 

[Maxperson]

Or using fossile fuels for your energy needs. In most D&D settings, magic really doesn't have a cost beyond material components. It's safe and predictible, which is fine for a heroic fantasy game, but it was dangerous in Dark Sun.

Fossil fuels slowly alter the environment and if unchecked can be problematic. Defiling magic is sudden and complete. It's more like a small nuclear hand grenade that makes a small section of the planet inhospitable.

 

[MGibster]

Fossil fuels slowly alter the environment and if unchecked can be problematic. Defiling magic is sudden and complete. It's more like a small nuclear hand grenade that makes a small section of the planet inhospitable.

I'll be honest, I completely forgot that the cataclysm was sudden. Hell, if I revamped DS I'd probably make the magic something that slowly changed Athas, but the powers-that-be just couldn't or wouldn't give up the magic.

 

[wellis]

Wouldn't it be better to homebrew a Dark Sun game if you want to change its backstory that much? That way, you're not bound by any legacy issues.

EDIT: Thinking on it more, why couldn't WotC simply build a 5e "like-Dark Sun" setting from the ground up? That isn't the old Dark Sun and doesn't have any connections or even a title that connects, so that it can build its own scary, dangerous, survival punk-style grim setting?

That way, no one has to see anything get sanded down on an old classic, and instead can enjoy a new setting.

Has WotC actually built any original D&D settings? I'm not talking about adapting someone else's work or adopting from MtG, but like actually built their own, for D&D, settings?