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.

 

[aco175]

I always find it funny that they seem to have no problem taking shots at WotC for being lazy/scared/unskilled to do it... and yet they don't step up to the plate to do it either.

I do find drive-by shooting to be the best kind. Swoop in, drop something about how you suck (not you specifically) and I hope you get cancer, and then run away before people can respond. Although I think there is a bit more onus on them over an individual to make a game. That is their company model and have paid writers and staff who do this as a job.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

In light of some recent discussion about a slippery slope and how overblown the possibilities are…

I am wondering what else will be off the table. I assume this is about bad guys taking slaves or the world being baked due to environmental damage? I mean can fiends drag people to hell and servitude? I am curious about where their line is going to be.

Are we wanting to play in a rough world of adventure? I guess heists are ok as long as we don’t kill the dungeon denizens?

I will take the suggestion upthread: why not homebrew? I have some good stuff but many people don’t want to take the time or simply don’t have the time to build it all from scratch. Or they are not great at it…and want something polished and ready.

I am glad to have the 5e rules but suspect future purchases will be rarer and third party stuff will become more of a likelihood for me. A lot of this is disappointing to me as a fan and consumer.

 

[John R Davis]

If they took away all the 'not good in 2023' things from Dark Sun would there be enough cool stuff left to make it unique.
if they made a similar thing to Spelljammer (with a better adventure), and then left it to GMsGuild to do the rest.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I see the possible solution is a sourcebook about the crunch part, without lore, and a module working as a spin-off of the original setting. Maybe a group of defilers discovered, explored and conquered a zone, a demiplane, but by fault of their infight they almost destroy themself. Then a group of renegage githyankis, who broke links with Vlaakith, conquer the zone, and all around the planet of Arthas. the "Crimson-sphere" is their. This "astral empire" discovers other "demielemental" demiplanes within the elemental limbo created/conquered and ruled by (other) sorcerer-kings.

Maybe the sorcerer-kings from Athas are "dark lords", and the "Tablelands" are a variant of dark realms(Ravenloft). It was not created by the Dark Powers, but more like a secondary effect of chronomancers altering the timeline to avoid distopian futures or to fix some time paradox.

Or WotC can create a special label for titles style "Book of Vile Darkness".

 

[James Gasik]

I see the possible solution is a sourcebook about the crunch part, without lore, and a module working as a spin-off of the original setting. Maybe a group of defilers discovered, explored and conquered a zone, a demiplane, but by fault of their infight they almost destroy themself. Then a group of renegage githyankis, who broke links with Vlaakith, conquer the zone, and all around the planet of Arthas. the "Crimson-sphere" is their. This "astral empire" discovers other "demielemental" demiplanes within the elemental limbo created/conquered and ruled by (other) sorcerer-kings.

Maybe the sorcerer-kings from Athas are "dark lords", and the "Tablelands" are a variant of dark realms(Ravenloft). It was not created by the Dark Powers, but more like a secondary effect of chronomancers altering the timeline to avoid distopian futures or to fix some time paradox.

Or WotC can create a special label for titles style "Book of Vile Darkness".

There was, at one time, a Domain of Dread that resembled Athas..ah yes, Kalidnay.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Let’s not pretend the lore is some big problem. I mean I’m sure it is for WotC but any book they churn out would be pretty lore light as usual.

Like the new Dragonlance, a new Dark Sun book would have 5 pages of cleaned up surface lore and the rest would be adventure.

Not every setting is going to get the attention that new Ravenloft did.

Heck they can’t even get good lore books out for their flagship setting, Faerun.

Critical Role probably has more setting lore in an official D&D book and that’s not even wholly WotCs.

 

[Minigiant]

Honestly they're out of other settings that people much under 50 are actually nostalgic for at this point. And DS is (as PS is on the way) the only setting which has much of a legend around it among younger people. So I don't know about that.

But my actual expectation is we just get MtG settings or outside possibility of a painfully bland and underdeveloped new setting which appears to serve no purpose whatsoever but theoretical novelty.

They've been low of nostalgia bait for a while.

I don't know how they will support ODND without either restarting the nostalgia bait or creating actually new stuff.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There was, at one time, a Domain of Dread that resembled Athas..ah yes, Kalidnay.

You are right, and I hadn't forgotten at all. And even I suspect the metaplot was linked with both, DS and Ravenloft, but I don't know how.

Some body said the shadar-kai from DS are from Kalidnay.

 

[James Gasik]

You are right, and I hadn't forgotten at all. And even I suspect the metaplot was linked with both, DS and Ravenloft, but I don't know how.

Some body said the shadar-kai from DS are from Kalidnay.

The Shadar-kai have so many origin stories by now I've lost track.

 

[humble minion]

Not every setting is going to get the attention that new Ravenloft did.

Heck they can’t even get good lore books out for their flagship setting, Faerun.

Critical Role probably has more setting lore in an official D&D book and that’s not even wholly WotCs.

It's worth noting that there seems to be a distinct trend of shrinkage in WotCs settin (or quasi-setting, or part-setting books)

Wildemount, early 2020, 304 pages
Ravenloft, early 2021, 256 pages
Strixhaven, late 2021, 224 pages
Spelljammer, late 2022, 192 pages

(Not including SotDQ here, it's an adventure and doesn't even pretend to be a setting book)

And the amount of these books devoted to lore of any sort has dropped progressively at the same time.

It looks to me a lot like WotC is deliberately trying to get out of the lore business.