D&D General Would you like there to be a new publication of Dark Sun?

[Corinnguard]

Dark Sun Player's Guide 5e by JayStripes The DM's Guild isn't the only place one can find homebrewed material for a setting as Dark Sun for 5e. GM Binder is another good place IMO of finding such material.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Are you kidding? If I wanted to bother, I'd find the post I made before the Spelljammer book was released where I said "Be careful what you wish for"... because I knew even then that a lot of the posters who were jumping for joy about Spelljammer getting released were going to end up disappointed with what WotC made... and that they were better off just using their old SJ stuff and bringing it up to 5E use on their own.

And hey? Guess what happened?

And yet EVEN NOW we have people still saying they want 5E Dark Sun. When all of us know full well it AIN'T gonna end up being what they want if WotC ever decides to make such a product. But some people just can't help themselves I guess.

I mean, you weren't wrong that people were disappointed.

I'm just contending that it wasn't a good release for many reasons, none of which really have to do with with its similarity ( or lack thereof) to its previous incarnation.

I didn't see many people hate on it for that reason, did you?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Damn straight I want a Darksun book!

but...

I'm not shy about admitting that the Darksun I want would displease many fans of the classic setting.

 

[delericho]

I mean, you weren't wrong that people were disappointed.

I'm just contending that it wasn't a good release for many reasons, none of which really have to do with with its similarity ( or lack thereof) to its previous incarnation.

I didn't see many people hate on it for that reason, did you?

In fairness, my biggest objection to the new Spelljammer is exactly that. And my condition for wanting a new DS is that they don't make those sorts of changes. (And I acknowledged that they almost certainly would, up thread.)

 

[SteveC]

My only comment is this: cannot the current generation of creators just make a new world/campaign that works off what is best in the current rules? Isn't that how we got Eberron with the new 3rd edition of D&D?

I want nothing to do with a reimagining of Dark Sun.

Eberron was created in 2004 if memory serves me right, so it's almost 20 years old. Since then we've had nothing. I know this might sound dismissive (and it's not intended that way) but the truth seems to be that the current generation of creators at WotC can't just make a new world/campaign. Whatever the reason, they haven't done it. I suspect that's because that level of design requires resources that they're not willing (or able?) to dedicate.

Dark Sun was a big product. There were two highly successful video games (if not more, but I played two of them) and novels ... the whole suite of products for it.

DS wasn't my favorite game to play, but I have really fond memories of smashing the Dragon Kings and liberating some portion of the world. That isn't for everyone (obviously) and it doesn't seem to be for WotC. I think the best thing to do is just open things up to designers and let them have a go at it. I think that would be the end of the story. If you're not into DS, okay ... just play what you like, I suppose.

 

[SteveC]

Dark Sun Player's Guide 5e by JayStripes The DM's Guild isn't the only place one can find homebrewed material for a setting as Dark Sun for 5e. GM Binder is another good place IMO of finding such material.

Thanks for this, looks pretty sharp!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I love DS and I voted "Yes", but I would also be okay with a "Deserts of Desolation" adventure remake (like how ToA remakes Tomb of Horrors and SKT remakes Against the Giants) that goes nice and "the environment is your enemy".

 

[DEFCON 1]

I mean, you weren't wrong that people were disappointed.

I'm just contending that it wasn't a good release for many reasons, none of which really have to do with with its similarity ( or lack thereof) to its previous incarnation.

I didn't see many people hate on it for that reason, did you?

I guess it depends on what you would define as similarity? There was quite a lot of complaints based upon the lore-- mainly in quantity but some in quality. The books were just not big enough to contain the amount of lore that a lot of players seemed to be looking for. It was the same sort of complaints many people had with the Van Richten's Guide.

Of course... the only way they would know that those books were lacking in lore would be if they already had read and/or owned a lot of the previous Ravenloft/Spelljammer material to recognize how much lore the 5E books didn't include. But if that's the case, then they didn't need the 5E books in the first place for lore, they only needed them for any mechanical updates they didn't want to make themselves.

And the same thing is going to happen with Dark Sun. We already know that if DS gets made, quite a lot of changes regarding so-called "problematic" material will be glossed over or removed. But if that bothers anyone, it's only because they owned/played the previous DS material from other editions-- and as a result they can just USE that material in their new game. They do not in any way, shape, or form need WotC to rubberstamp their desires by including it in the new books too.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

If a special event is going to happen to explain the reboot of the D&D multiverse

Considering how badly the spellplague was received, I see close to 0% chance that there will ever be an explicit reboot of the D&D multiverse. Any rebooting will be in the style of how Ravenloft was rebooted with van Richten's guide; the old version will silently be put away, and the new version will be presented as the way it's always been.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't use the guild though so.......

Well, then I hope that whatever official products come out work for you then. I have never seen the point of restricting myself or my game in that way.

 

[SteveC]

Well, then I hope that whatever official products come out work for you then. I have never seen the point of restricting myself or my game in that way.

Exactly. If you are waiting for just WotC to make product ... you're going to be disappointed. I remember all the stuff I found when I was running Curse of Strahd. Just hearing about some of the products that are there now has started me going down a rabbit hole of nostalgia. Thanks to everyone who's mentioned the worlds that have gotten so Guild support!

 

[Micah Sweet]

Are you kidding? If I wanted to bother, I'd find the post I made before the Spelljammer book was released where I said "Be careful what you wish for"... because I knew even then that a lot of the posters who were jumping for joy about Spelljammer getting released were going to end up disappointed with what WotC made... and that they were better off just using their old SJ stuff and bringing it up to 5E use on their own.

And hey? Guess what happened?

And yet EVEN NOW we have people still saying they want 5E Dark Sun. When all of us know full well it AIN'T gonna end up being what they want if WotC ever decides to make such a product. But some people just can't help themselves I guess.

Like I said, I just want it for the Guild.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe the plan is to create parallel multiverse, one for each edition. Then you could choose between the one among different continuities.

 

[Vaalingrade]

Nice.

Do you think the complaints people had about Spelljammer were at all related to what you are talking about?

Almost nobody I've seen critiquing it mentioned its similarity or lack of similarity to the 90s version as a any sort of point.

RAVENLOFT HAS ENTERED THE CHAT

 

[nevin]

no because it will be the same in 2023. The setting is more like Gamma world than most traditional fantasy settings and thus will never be popular enough to be supported.

also they'll change it so much to make in less noticeable by twitter mobs that it won't really be the same anyway. If they want it to live just turn it over to another company.

 

[beta-ray]

I voted yes because even if it was something that turned out I didn't like, I'd like to see them try and I'd be pleased if someone else ended up really liking it.

Now if the question was "would you want dark sun back at the expense of setting x?" That might change my answer.

 

[Deset Gled]

I'd consider benign indifference as falling in the lean "no" category, along with, for example, @Deset Gled 's disinterested apathy.

But go with whatever you're feelin'

FWIW, I have a baseline happiness for any setting that WotC releases. They don't do a ton these days, and I'm fundamentally a fan of more settings. So I definitely would not dis-like a new Dark Sun publication. I would enjoy it at the same level I would a new setting or reboot of any old one that I never played. For this reason, I have opted to not vote at all.

 

[ashenfrontiers]

Yes. This +1.

Sword & Sorcery and Sword & Planet are currently some of my favorite genres. While born of the adventure stories of a hundred years ago, I think they can grow much like Sci-fi has over the same span.

Yep. Ashen Frontiers is my attempt at taking the genres Dark Sun represents and using then as inspiration for a new 5e setting. There's absolutely no reason to repeat past material as long as you get the feeling right (c.f. my response on if there will be slavery in Ashen Frontiers). And I believe that 5e can definitely support more dangerous monsters and environments with appropriate adjustments. My work so far has made me very optimistic about what can be done, I'm just hoping enough other folks are interested enough to help the project come to life.

 

[Jasperak]

Yep. Ashen Frontiers is my attempt at taking the genres Dark Sun represents and using then as inspiration for a new 5e setting. There's absolutely no reason to repeat past material as long as you get the feeling right (c.f. my response on if there will be slavery in Ashen Frontiers). And I believe that 5e can definitely support more dangerous monsters and environments with appropriate adjustments. My work so far has made me very optimistic about what can be done, I'm just hoping enough other folks are interested enough to help the project come to life.

Link to material on drivethru or your own website would appreciated. Thanks for the FAQ link.

 

[ashenfrontiers]

Link to material on drivethru or your own website would appreciated. Thanks for the FAQ link.

I'm so bad at this marketing stuff! Link to the website has been added (here and above) and Patreon for the development process is coming soon. Nothing yet on DriveThru since the project is just beginning but our goal will be a full setting book in both 5e and Pathfinder Second Edition flavours and if folks think that intermediate materials like a Foe Folio for a dozen or so monsters would be a great extra way to gain support, that might be quite possible.