If sweeping changes and additional (major)details are avoided to the point of an official guideline for submissions, it could happen. Regular contests could be run for submiting adventures to be put through the wringer and promoted. Of course, there is the whole business aspect of the upcoming official rerelease.
Properly sanctioned fansites should not only be supported but encouraged, however, unfortunately, this all may have to wait for 4EDS to wane from the bookshelves.
After all, not everyone has the opportunity to play DS tabletop, and I'd love to play a good campaign.... I just need people to play it with.
Truth is, we're not really sure what our standing with Wizards is, concerning fourth edition. They know we're out here (I've got the NDAs to prove it), but I don't really have a solid list of Can and Cannots.
I'm mostly thinking that we're going to move into the niche of providing deeper setting details -- city books and the like; maybe finally doing a Faces of Athas section (I think I've finally found a database that I can use to store that sort of thing, sanely). Wether it's worth it to keep the Arena alive, given that we've got top billing now, might be another question.
Maybe I'll turn it around: What do You guys want to see from Athas.org in the future?
I will have to admit, I don't know whether the site can legally do such a thing, but if it can and did, I know that it would quickly become one of my regular spots on the ol' interweb.
It's not just information about the dead lands either, it's also revelations about Athas' past, its ancient societies, details about the various wars. Not reading the fluff - whether you've ever played 3rd Edition - is like refusing to buy and read a genuine Dark Sun supplement available at your local store.
The same can also be said about Dregoth Ascending, as a lot of the fluff it contains is unchanged from its TSR days.
Play-by-board is an interesting thought that I hadn't considered.
Truth is, we're not really sure what our standing with Wizards is, concerning fourth edition. They know we're out here (I've got the NDAs to prove it), but I don't really have a solid list of Can and Cannots.
I'm mostly thinking that we're going to move into the niche of providing deeper setting details -- city books and the like; maybe finally doing a Faces of Athas section (I think I've finally found a database that I can use to store that sort of thing, sanely). Wether it's worth it to keep the Arena alive, given that we've got top billing now, might be another question.
Maybe I'll turn it around: What do You guys want to see from Athas.org in the future?
Probably more world building type articles and maybe a new era set in the past/future for people to play in. Think Star Wars maybe with its various timelines and eras. The classic era has been done by TSR and 4th ed wil presumably cover it as well.
Cleanisng wars or around the time of the champions becoming sorcerer kings would be interesting or an original setting in the future. That way you have freedom to design, can be almost editionless, and you don't have to worry about being contradicted and can retcon some of the continuity errors or build on 4th ed assuming its a reboot.
Using Star Wars as an exampple most of the material takes place around the films +/- 50 years or so. However they also have a Knights of the Old Republic era set around 4000 years before the movies and a Legacy Era set 130 years after the movies. I have played a future campaign before set 1000 years after the standard DS game and it focused on helping Athas recover, a past era game would focus Atha's destruction. Maybe a Cleansing Wars game wouldn't be the best idea (genocide/holocaust themes) but Having The Dragon as a rampaging beast may work.
Either way probably treat the upcoming 4th ed product as a reboot and build on it quietly dumping some of the more stupid ideas from the original setting.
@Nyarlathotep: Just one example: Unless you have a copy of the unpublished Secrets of the Dead Lands supplement that was never released by TSR...the only way to get some of the information it would have contained is to read the fluff within Athas.org's Terrors of the Dead Lands supplement, which is basically all of the monster information from Secrets taken out.
It's not just information about the dead lands either, it's also revelations about Athas' past, its ancient societies, details about the various wars. Not reading the fluff - whether you've ever played 3rd Edition - is like refusing to buy and read a genuine Dark Sun supplement available at your local store.
The same can also be said about Dregoth Ascending, as a lot of the fluff it contains is unchanged from its TSR days.
Oh, don't get me wrong,I never had any particular aversion to athas.org. I am sure that if I were playing Dark Sun during 3.x days I would have found it useful then too. But during 3.x days I was mostly playing in my own homebrewed world so it just never came to mind. But I plan to play it in 4e, and I hope it will be a useful resource for that.
Oh, don't get me wrong,I never had any particular aversion to athas.org. I am sure that if I were playing Dark Sun during 3.x days I would have found it useful then too. But during 3.x days I was mostly playing in my own homebrewed world so it just never came to mind. But I plan to play it in 4e, and I hope it will be a useful resource for that.
I wasn't implying an aversion, if I can make it clearer. No, I was only pointing out that all of the original fluff from the TSR days is not just contained within TSR's own publications but within Athas.org's releases of whatever TSR left unpublished. Everyone should read it to know all there is to know.
Like you hoped, I promise it will be much useful.
Well, we know that WotC won'tt be releasing much more material by itself, so we will need more material, say on a once every other month basis or something. Small articles, nothing world shaking, but enough to let us know that the setting is alive and well.
Then it would be nice to get something of weigth twice a year, city books, info on important NPCs, etc in a pdf or book format.
What would really blow my mind would be if you can convince WotC to find a way to add your material into the Character Builder. 4E is all about errata, new feats, new powers, new PPs, etc, so I also guess that part of your effort should go in that way as well. if you could integrate it into the CB, well, that would put DS a giant step ahead of everything else.
There's the living forum as well. Let the community participate and build Athas as they play. You could add a disclaimer that everything posted on such forum could and will be used on future material, that way you'll get tons of ideas and cero bills for them. Plus, I think the community will be pleased.
That's about all I can think. I hope things work better than in 3e
How about conversions from 2e to 4e for monsters and NPCs not found in the new published materials?
Conversion is mind-numbing work in my experience, not that much fun. Creating an adventure - when one has talent for the deed - in which you happen to convert some stuff you needed (a golem here, an undead there), is a lot more gratifying work for a designer, and provides a lot more for those reading the adventure.
From Athas.org I'd like to see adventures, whether arced or standalone, taking place within the (modified) Dark Sun being produced by WotC.
It wasn't until I started playing/running 4e that I even looked for Dark Sun references, and then found Athas.org. Had I i found Athas.org way back then, I probably would have never quit runnning Dark Sun.
I would like to see adventures, maybe some alternate weapons or equipment, or other cool usefull things like that.
Cleanisng wars or around the time of the champions becoming sorcerer kings would be interesting or an original setting in the future.
Personally I hope the cleansing war becomes just one possible version of the history of Athas. The 'looseness' of the original boxed set was the perfect level of world detail vs making it up for your own campaign to for me.
Play-by-board is an interesting thought that I hadn't considered.
Being someone that can't find a regular TT group in my area (one that is respectable anyways), let alone one for a Dark Sun campaign, I resorted to playing online and have been for over a year now.
I use to play and DM on a homebrew 4e site, but have left them and started my own thing: worlds-devoured.net/phpBB3/index.php which is just a generic 4e homebrew campaign.
However, I had pondered getting a Dark Sun chat going as well, but if athas.org wants to go ahead and try hosting it I wouldn't mind playing there and even helping on some level.
Just say the word..but honestly I think this is a good area for athas.org to branch out into as well.