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.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The designer who headed Radiant Citadel, and who has been stating on social media he would love to modernize Dark Sun.

Cool. Wish WotC would let them. I want Dark Sun on the DMsGuild, and I don't care how it gets there.

 

[Parmandur]

Cool. Wish WotC would let them. I want Dark Sun on the DMsGuild, and I don't care how it gets there.

He's good enough that he could probably adequately thread the needle between making changes and bringing older fans along for the ride.

 

[Minigiant]

Sure: doesn't mean it can't be made to work, and given the right people pushing for it in time it probavly will.

It could. But I keep saying, WOTC doesn't want to put in the effort until they have to

 

[Parmandur]

It could. But I keep saying, WOTC doesn't want to put in the effort until they have to

Yeah, the risk-reqard versus doing something new will make it difficult.

 

[Micah Sweet]

He's good enough that he could probably adequately thread the needle between making changes and bringing older fans along for the ride.

It would be nice if the official product is solid, but like I said I care about the Guild. Its by far the best thing WotC has done in a long while.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That was because the writers were an all non white club.

Mod Note:

Your request for vacation time has been approved.

 

[Imaro]

I'm confused. Is there a problem or isn't there?

What exactly are you confused about? All the parties involved in the exchange understood...

 

[Imaro]

It doesn't take a minority to recognize what equal is.

Not sure this is true... can you really be counted on to recognize equality and fairly distribute it when you've not only benefitted from the imbalances but created them in the first place... its like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

 

[Imaro]

Either slavery is an issue due to real life concerns or it isn't. If it is, then people whose ancestors were slaves could be found to write it. If it's not, then there's no good reason for it not to be remade with slavery in it. They don't need to be Athasian any more than anyone making a D&D module has had to be elvish or dwarvish.

That went way over your head... no worries though.

 

[Maxperson]

Not sure this is true... can you really be counted on to recognize equality and fairly distribute it when you've not only benefitted from the imbalances but created them in the first place... its like putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

Yes you can, and no it isn't. It's only like that if you still want to abuse the minority. And while I'm sure there are some still out there like that, there are far more than enough who aren't to raise hell if they try.