I guess Rich Baker's recent blog answers quite a few questions out there.
One of the things that used to bug me about the old Dark Sun set was that you basically threw out the 2e Player's Handbook and substituted the Dark Sun Rulebook for almost all of your character generation. This time around, a lot more of your Player's Handbook (and PH 2 and PH 3) are still going to be relevant, but just about any "core" character you build should still find plenty of Athasian trappings. Sure, you might be a dragonborn fighter, but we've got ways to make that guy feel like he's just as appropriate in the setting as your thri-kreen ranger or mul gladiator.
You might want to quote the entire blog.
No, there's no point at all in doing that. Posing a link to it, however, would seem only sensible.
You might want to quote the entire blog.
No, there's no point at all in doing that. Posing a link to it, however, would seem only sensible.
That is valid, but people are generally lazy or pressed with time. Furthermore, I found that links (even those made by WotC) that link to hte forums/blogs/regular site generally fail and bring you to the main community site, despite using IE or Chrome. My suggestion is sensible. More sensible...would be doing both ;)
You might want to quote the entire blog.
You people are lazy 
. The blog is quoted by Razor, there's a bit more, but not much. Here's a link, hope it works:
Argh...Dragonborn in DS? The floodgates holding back the cheese are beginning to crack.
"We're working hard to finish up the design and development stages of the two Dark Sun books, and get them over to editing. It's a bit of a scramble, because we've got a lot of crunchy bits by a number of different contributors scattered across the books, including Rob Schwalb, Ari Marmell, Bruce Cordell, Chris Sims, Logan Bonner, and Travis Stout. As you might imagine, Dark Sun demands more crunchy bits than our previous two campaign settings: muls, thri-kreen, gladiators, templars, defiling, world-suitable paragon paths and epic destinies, weapons, items, and of course, buckets full of freakish desert monsters. At this point I can't say much about exactly how we addressed each of these elements, other than to say that yes, you're going to find all of these classic trappings of the Dark Sun world (and many more) in the new Campaign Guide. One of the things that used to bug me about the old Dark Sun set was that you basically threw out the 2e Player's Handbook and substituted the Dark Sun Rulebook for almost all of your character generation. This time around, a lot more of your Player's Handbook (and PH 2 and PH 3) are still going to be relevant, but just about any "core" character you build should still find plenty of Athasian trappings. Sure, you might be a dragonborn fighter, but we've got ways to make that guy feel like he's just as appropriate in the setting as your thri-kreen ranger or mul gladiator. I'll tell you more when I can!"
What I found interesting was the fact that he named all the classes and races. He has cleared up several questions that have been posted here. He did not mention Half-Giants, though they have been mentioned in the Eberron Campaign Guide.
And now we also know that Divine character will have a place in Athas.
"One of the things that used to bug me about the old Dark Sun set was that you basically threw out the 2e Player's Handbook and substituted the Dark Sun Rulebook for almost all of your character generation. "
Of course, many of us really enjoyed this. It is what made it a truly unique experience! And, it is what really wins gamers over who want something to refresh their batteries from the typical choices you have (though the onslaught of core content does this as well. Blink and you have a new race, class, etc. with DDI).
I can understand, in the 4E mindset, how they want to change that. For one, they aren't planning on supporting the unique DS setting with more stuff. So what you get in the two books is all you get. Anything you add in over time is from core. So, you might as well go ahead and find ways to add current core.
The key is how they do this. Do they pull off a conversion kit that works? Do they just ask us to hold our noses so we don't smell the stink? I'm leaning towards believing they will find a nice way to fill in all existing content, stressing DM approval, but with some mechanism towards conversion. As others have said, even a warforged can be changed to obsidian or stone. Whether they come up with an elegant solution that preserves setting/story... that's the big question!