Dark Sun [Archive] - Wizards Community - Pages Merged by Solauren

Dark Sun [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
cosmikube
12-15-04, 04:38 PM OK, we all love Eberron (at least I do), but in my lurking time I've read a number of posts by former DS players/DM's saying it was their favourite setting ever!
Sooooo, my question is, how does Eberron compare? What attracted a Dark Sun fan to Eberron? And how many of you were tempted to make the Talenta alflings cannibals? ;)

Personally, I have been playing DS in and out since it got discontinued, but Eberron sure got my love for DMing back! I feel that you need to be an experienced DM (which I am not) to play DS properly, while Eberron allows for a wider range of styles of play! In fact, you can play almost any style of game in Eberron without ruining the setting flavuor! Eberron was a breath of fresh air and it was an opportunity to play standard fantasy WITHOUT the standard fluff!

Just interested in your opinions!

PS. Oh, and i'm still considering a remote tribe of "cannibal" halflings, maybe led by Holy Uldra! :P
Gilliard DeRosan
12-16-04, 03:24 AM What attracted me to Dark Sun was that it wasn't your typical AD&D. Until that time, I had played in a rather generic setting that could have been greyhawk, the realms, or anything else. They all had the willowy elves, cute furry halflings, oppressed half elves, etc etc. The system was troublesome and cumbersome, and I was getting fed up with AD&D. Then a friend of mine picked up the DS boxed set, and I was willing to check it out. I mean, after all the cool art from BROM, it was obvious that this wasn't your "typical" AD&D. Characters starting at 3rd level, 5-20 attribute range, dehydration rules. From the beginning you knew that the game was going to be brutal. Just the uniqueness of the world drew me into it and allowed me to tolerate the flawed game mechanics (Did you ever wonder if the DM decided whether you were rolling a save or a check after you rolled, based on whether you rolled high or low? You got a 17, or sorry, you were actually trying to roll under your Dex. You got a 7? Would have been nice, but you needed a 14 to save)

I actually fell more in love with planescape than with DS, but that was because with planescape, you could have anything from anywhere, any race or class from any other world, the possibilities were endless.

As for Eberron. When I first started reading about it on the web, I wasn't too enthused with it. It seemed like just another D&D. Kalamar, Forgotten Realms, countless 3rd party d20 worlds and supplements. who needs Eberron? But after actually reading through it, I do like the setting. I like the inclusion of action points for those dramatic moments (although, at higher levels I think I need to houserule in that you keep more than 1 dice of the rolls, because when you start getting into dramatic tasks that are near epic in scale, a mere 8 added to your roll may still not be enough.) I like the Artificer class, and I like the new races. I like the built in means of travelling far distances (Hated spending 3 game sessions, 15 in-game days of travel just moving from one city, to the next city about 40 miles down the road - but the way one of my old DMs used to do it, we'd wake up from 8 hours of sleep, get spells, travel for about an hour before a random encounter would pop up depleting all of our resources, requiring us to break camp yet again. Always with the random encounters, got very tiring.)

Anyway. It's like loving Pizza and pepsi. Each one offers you something that the other one doesn't, so nothing keeps you from loving both of them, instead of one or the other.
Ramses III
12-17-04, 12:38 AM I guess Dark Sun was off-the-deep-end extreme D&D, and Eberron is off-the-deep-end extreme D&D. Dark Sun has crazy PCs that start at higher levels with better abilities, to be sure. But both systems do something critical for every successful, original D&D setting: break the Tolkienian mold. They use the standard D&D races in ways Tolkien never imagined them. And both use new races that hadn't appeared in traditional fantasy literature up to their publication. I think these are the main parallels that set these worlds apart from others and will draw the same fans to both.

There are other commonalities, to be sure: different methods of transport are one, a well-developed world with a different political and economic background than medieval Europe is another. And of course both incorporate psionics as core, though DS is more extreme about it than Eberron.

And dragons. Dragons appear in prominent roles in both settings, giving them much greater status than merely great beasts you kill to get lots of treasure. Even Smaug had a great personality -- but few D&D settings have successfully played up the full mystique that dragons can grant to a gameworld the way DS and Eberron did.
jesterjeff
12-17-04, 09:51 AM What's drawn me to Dark Sun is it's uniqueness. The races have abandoned not only the pc stereotypes but alignment and racial stereotypes as well. You can have a party with the standard alaignment focusing towards evil, you do good for your own sakes or the sakes of those you care for and have no difficulty in that regards. alignments never come into play, no paladins giving you the 'scan of live or die.' Deeds count more.
You'll play an entire day, have a hell of a time and technically it was a situation that's always handled off scene in other games. You'll have a wizard spend an hour with his friends attempting to find spell componants without drawing the attention of the Templars.

What Eberron has to offer is as much a release from Tolkien's standard as it is a more freeing experience, where you can create next to any character and no one can say anything. Eberron offers a chance to be unique.

The games have much in common away from the tables. Eberron was created from the mind of a player, Dark Sun right now is seeking rebirth thanks to the effort of it's players.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
cosmikube 12-15-04, 04:38 PM	OK, we all love Eberron (at least I do), but in my lurking time I've read a number of posts by former DS players/DM's saying it was their favourite setting ever! Sooooo, my question is, how does Eberron compare? What attracted a Dark Sun fan to Eberron? And how many of you were tempted to make the Talenta alflings cannibals? ;) Personally, I have been playing DS in and out since it got discontinued, but Eberron sure got my love for DMing back! I feel that you need to be an experienced DM (which I am not) to play DS properly, while Eberron allows for a wider range of styles of play! In fact, you can play almost any style of game in Eberron without ruining the setting flavuor! Eberron was a breath of fresh air and it was an opportunity to play standard fantasy WITHOUT the standard fluff! Just interested in your opinions! PS. Oh, and i'm still considering a remote tribe of "cannibal" halflings, maybe led by Holy Uldra! :P
Gilliard DeRosan 12-16-04, 03:24 AM	What attracted me to Dark Sun was that it wasn't your typical AD&D. Until that time, I had played in a rather generic setting that could have been greyhawk, the realms, or anything else. They all had the willowy elves, cute furry halflings, oppressed half elves, etc etc. The system was troublesome and cumbersome, and I was getting fed up with AD&D. Then a friend of mine picked up the DS boxed set, and I was willing to check it out. I mean, after all the cool art from BROM, it was obvious that this wasn't your "typical" AD&D. Characters starting at 3rd level, 5-20 attribute range, dehydration rules. From the beginning you knew that the game was going to be brutal. Just the uniqueness of the world drew me into it and allowed me to tolerate the flawed game mechanics (Did you ever wonder if the DM decided whether you were rolling a save or a check after you rolled, based on whether you rolled high or low? You got a 17, or sorry, you were actually trying to roll under your Dex. You got a 7? Would have been nice, but you needed a 14 to save) I actually fell more in love with planescape than with DS, but that was because with planescape, you could have anything from anywhere, any race or class from any other world, the possibilities were endless. As for Eberron. When I first started reading about it on the web, I wasn't too enthused with it. It seemed like just another D&D. Kalamar, Forgotten Realms, countless 3rd party d20 worlds and supplements. who needs Eberron? But after actually reading through it, I do like the setting. I like the inclusion of action points for those dramatic moments (although, at higher levels I think I need to houserule in that you keep more than 1 dice of the rolls, because when you start getting into dramatic tasks that are near epic in scale, a mere 8 added to your roll may still not be enough.) I like the Artificer class, and I like the new races. I like the built in means of travelling far distances (Hated spending 3 game sessions, 15 in-game days of travel just moving from one city, to the next city about 40 miles down the road - but the way one of my old DMs used to do it, we'd wake up from 8 hours of sleep, get spells, travel for about an hour before a random encounter would pop up depleting all of our resources, requiring us to break camp yet again. Always with the random encounters, got very tiring.) Anyway. It's like loving Pizza and pepsi. Each one offers you something that the other one doesn't, so nothing keeps you from loving both of them, instead of one or the other.
Ramses III 12-17-04, 12:38 AM	I guess Dark Sun was off-the-deep-end extreme D&D, and Eberron is off-the-deep-end extreme D&D. Dark Sun has crazy PCs that start at higher levels with better abilities, to be sure. But both systems do something critical for every successful, original D&D setting: break the Tolkienian mold. They use the standard D&D races in ways Tolkien never imagined them. And both use new races that hadn't appeared in traditional fantasy literature up to their publication. I think these are the main parallels that set these worlds apart from others and will draw the same fans to both. There are other commonalities, to be sure: different methods of transport are one, a well-developed world with a different political and economic background than medieval Europe is another. And of course both incorporate psionics as core, though DS is more extreme about it than Eberron. And dragons. Dragons appear in prominent roles in both settings, giving them much greater status than merely great beasts you kill to get lots of treasure. Even Smaug had a great personality -- but few D&D settings have successfully played up the full mystique that dragons can grant to a gameworld the way DS and Eberron did.
jesterjeff 12-17-04, 09:51 AM	What's drawn me to Dark Sun is it's uniqueness. The races have abandoned not only the pc stereotypes but alignment and racial stereotypes as well. You can have a party with the standard alaignment focusing towards evil, you do good for your own sakes or the sakes of those you care for and have no difficulty in that regards. alignments never come into play, no paladins giving you the 'scan of live or die.' Deeds count more. You'll play an entire day, have a hell of a time and technically it was a situation that's always handled off scene in other games. You'll have a wizard spend an hour with his friends attempting to find spell componants without drawing the attention of the Templars. What Eberron has to offer is as much a release from Tolkien's standard as it is a more freeing experience, where you can create next to any character and no one can say anything. Eberron offers a chance to be unique. The games have much in common away from the tables. Eberron was created from the mind of a player, Dark Sun right now is seeking rebirth thanks to the effort of it's players.