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.

 

[Maxperson]

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

No, it didn't. I gave it the appropriate response.

 

[Imaro]

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.

It is still happening in America...currently.

Edit: Serious question are you American? I just need some context her.

 

[Imaro]

No, it didn't. I gave it the appropriate response.

Sure you did.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe it doesn't the label of "mature content" but "potentially sensible content", or "it shows distopian society where innocent people suffer serious injustices". Please, let's be sensible.

Maybe modern sensibilities have changed, but we could try to find a solution to fix it, and we don't need too radical measures.

Quite possibly this setting is going to be rebooted, but mainly because gameplay reasons. The main reason should be WotC should await until after the update of the core rules. And they have to choose if they are going to add space for future new classes and species. This is very important, because this setting could help very much to sell those sourcebooks where new classes use special game mechanics (psionic manifesters, martial adepts, vestige pact binders, shadowcasters+elementalists, incarnum soulmelders..).

* Maybe DMGuild should create an age rating, with +7(kid-friendly), +10(level Star Wars or Indiana Jones), +12(Buffy vampire slayer),+16(Miami Vice) and +18(Book of Vile Darkness or Book of Exalted Deeds).

 

[shadowoflameth]

Names aside, they didn't change what they were.

What did they call them before? are we not saying demon and devil anymore?

 

[Micah Sweet]

What did they call them before? are we not saying demon and devil anymore?

For a time during 2e, they changed the names, basically saying that demons and devils were mortals called them. Over time, the new names faded but remained, while the old names came back into common use.

 

[James Gasik]

Yeah, they got tired of people saying D&D was "evil" because it had demons and devils, so suddenly we had Tanar'ri, Baatezu, and Yugoloths (instead of daemons).

 

[Scribe]

Yeah, they got tired of people saying D&D was "evil" because it had demons and devils, so suddenly we had Tanar'ri, Baatezu, and Yugoloths (instead of daemons).

OK, funny story, to me.

My father in law is an older guy, not just because I'm old now, but he was old when my wife and I got married (young).

He saw my Warhammer models when he was visiting, and I overheard him whispering to my wife 'Are these satanic?!'

Chaos for life.

But yes, people do exist, that actually do feel strongly, about the concept of their kid saying "I'm going to summon a Devil."

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My opinion is before allowing the cancelation we should try to find some alternate solution. If we give up too easily or too soon, then they aren't going to stop and they will demand more, and we will face harder criterias, maybe even reaching ridiculous levels.

Shouldn't be enought the label "possible sensitive content" or "the plot shows a distopian society where innocent people can suffer serious injustices"?

Sorry, but one of my rules is you shouldn't trust anybody who doesn't trust my good sense.

Maybe the sensibilities are changes, but this doesn't mean so radical measures to be really necessary. We should search other options.

Hasbro could make money with a new section for artists (but clearing some rules if the artistic works are created with help of AI).

Some times I imagine WotC creating an event style crisis of the infinite earths where the D&D is rebooted.

* If the Gray it is the afterlife, maybe it shouldn't be too grimm. Some zones really are "heavy metal", in the sense these have been conquered by infernal forces, catching as slave the souls with a bad karma by fault of their sins. But they are hidden other domains what are practically almost utopies, closer to hopepunk+biotech. Here Athasian civilitation is being rebuilt thanks souls of druids, shamans and other primal spellcasters who could use clonning or reincarnate spells. These domains are closest to an Athasian version paradise. Usually they are hidden, they can't be senses by infernal outsiders and souls with a "tainted karma" but sometimes these green domains of hope are attacked by kaijus and meneater giants (something style "Attacks of the Titans"). Other domains could have been discovered and settled by the giths, and love-hate relation with the Athasian natives because a neccesary (temporal?) alliance as freenemies.

 

[Laurefindel]

But yes, people do exist, that actually do feel strongly, about the concept of their kid saying "I'm going to summon a Devil."

To be fair, "I'm trying to summon a devil" is on the same moral level of "I'm trying to contact a slaver". Both of them are context-dependent but from an external eye they're not that far off.

Obviously it's different in the sense that a lot more people in real-life are dealing with the repercussions of slavery than satanism [edit] and you could make a case of "devil" being an imaginary concept whereas slavery is real [/edit] but as far as ethics go, both are willful cooperation with Evil with capital E.