I thought this sounded like a good idea, if for nothing else than to get creative juices flowing, so I proposed following the model for the new Campaign Setting Search from several years ago that produced the Eberron setting. Namely, start with a simple, short paragraph to capture the feeling of the world, and then expand that into a one page teaser and then further into a 10 page primer and finally a 100 page campaign bible.
So here is my attempt at an introductory paragraph and one page teaser. The ideas should of course be familiar to anyone who knows the setting, but there are some slight differences from the original. I've got some further ideas about how to expand this out into the 10-pager, but I thought I'd post this so people could see and comment and share their own versions.
So here goes:
Athas is a world where only the strong survive. All-powerful sorcerer-monarchs govern city-states filled with the beaten survivors of a thousand years of genocidal war. The god-like Dragon wanders the wastes between the cities, destroying all in its path with vicious magic that draws its power from the very life of the world itself. Psionic power is rampant, a necessary part of the survival of every creature beneath the burning red sun. Twisted monsters roam the endless tracts of desert, eking out a tortured existence on the remains of this shattered world.
The Tablelands is a vast wasteland situated near the equator of a large, nearly lifeless planet, Athas. Scattered throughout the Tablelands are the seven city-states of the Athasian sorcerer-monarchs: Tyr, Urik, Raam, Balic, Nibenay, Gulg and Draj. Each city-state is ruled by one of these immensely powerful beings and their bureaucrat-priests, the templars. The templars enforce the whims of the mighty kings and queens, all the while scheming and fighting amongst themselves to rise through the ranks of the templarate to gain the ear of their master.
The city-states are all that remain of a once flourishing civilization that covered the whole of Athas. In the distant past a war began, which grew over the years to engulf the entire planet in centuries of nightmarish conflict as each race sought to annihilate those it perceived as its enemies. Eventually the conflict drew to a close as the few survivors banded together around the only sources of stability remaining in the shattered world: the city-states of the Tablelands. Now, elf and dwarf, mul and thri-kreen, halfing and dragonborn and human struggle together under the relentless pounding of the merciless sun.
The world is not peaceful. The lords and ladies of the cities bicker among themselves over the meager resources remaining in the desolate valley, while the general populace is ground under the heels of the power-hungry templars and uncaring nobility. Lives are bought and sold in great marketplaces, while gladiators furnish gruesome entertainment in mighty coliseums to keep the citizens from considering their plight.
Standing above all these petty concerns is the awesome Dragon. A being of incalculable strength, magical, mental and physical, the Dragon is the scourge of the Tablelands. Even the sorcerer-monarchs, for all their power are cowed by the Dragon, offering a yearly tithe of a thousand living slaves to keep the great beast from running rampant through their carefully maintained holdings. Wherever the Dragon travels, it brings destruction and waste, drawing the power for its spells and rituals from the life of Athas and her inhabitants, so that few remain in its wake to tell stories of its passing.
But the Dragon is not the only one to use the power of life for magic. The arcanists of Athas are hunted creatures, concealing themselves from the public for fear of being torn limb from limb by an enraged mob. The reason for this is simple: the arcane forces of the world are intimately tied to the life force of its inhabitants. Simple spells suck the life from plants, leaving the ground weakened and unable to support complex life. Strong spells and rituals blacken the ground for feet, yards or miles around, so that nothing can grow there for years, if not decades. And the mightiest of epic magics drain life not only from the plants in the vicinity, but also from the higher life-forms, animals and men. It is for precisely this reason that Athas has become the wasteland it is, for the great wars of the past millennia were wars of sorcery and arcane might.
Not all magic is powered by the life force of unwilling plants and animals. Clerics wander the land, nearly crazed mystics who consort with the powers of the Elemental Chaos. Joining into a pact with these otherworldly beings, the clerics gain the power to manipulate the elemental forces of nature: fire, earth, air and what little water remains unguarded by jealous misers. And traders that pass through the deep wastes in the desperate search for profit tell tales of vicious druids who guard empty tracts of land; insane men and women whose minds have been corrupted by spirits of the land turned mad by the destruction of their world. These unstable guardians of the wastes draw strength from their spirit-patrons and turn their magic on all who would disturb their madness.
Finally, it must be remarked that the intense energies released by thousands of years of magical warfare have wrought changes on all the life of Athas. Once a rarity, now mental powers, psionics, are increasingly common among not only the intelligent species of the Tablelands, but also among the crude animals and even some particularly dangerous plants. Children are born with power to rival aged masters and simple beasts of burden require handlers skilled in the psionic arts to fully control them.
Now in the opening years of a new King's Age, Athas needs heroes, men and women of skill and cunning who can bring great change to the people of the Tablelands. If they can survive.
What I would love to see, CSK, is are your "teasers" for what the new races might look through after going through the "Dark Sun sift." Also, keep in mind, not all new races have to be incorporated. Just like gnomes were killed off for the AD&D Dark Sun, its perfectly acceptable to kill off a race for the 4e Dark Sun. For example, I would think that shifters would be killed off. They just do not fit Dark Sun flavor at all.
Here are some basic ideas for some of the "new races" and how they might fit into the new 4e Dark Sun reboot.
Goliath: The new half-giant.
Dragonborn: Half-breed creations of the Dragon Kings, designed to enforce their will, but often rebellious against their "parent" creators.
Here are a couple races that I think might have to be "killed off."
Tieflings: I can not imagine any Dark Sun flavored role for tielfings.
Gnomes: Killed in AD&D, and killed in 4e.
Eladrin: I have trouble imagining these in Dark Sun as well... though these would probably fit better then either of the above two. I actually once read an idea for them as "protectors of the oasis" which I kind of dug...
Anyways, these are my contributions for the day.
Dragonborn I sort of envision as thinking of themselves as distantly related to the Dragon, and hence being very full of themselves, often in templar roles.
Halflings are of course cannibals, dwarves are focused, elves are tall runners. I think the eladrin will have retreated to the "safety" of the Feywild, which will be mostly inaccessible to the natural world, or alternately have merged with the elven tribes.
I anticipate creating mul and thri-kreen races, though I have no plans for half-giants at the moment. I'll post things when I make them.
Halflings are of course cannibals,
So they only eat other halflings?
I think the eladrin will have retreated to the "safety" of the Feywild, which will be mostly inaccessible to the natural world, or alternately have merged with the elven tribes.
Or, you could look at it as the race splintering. The eladrin become city folk with a haughty or noble nature. The elves become the dune runners they are usually described as.
I anticipate creating mul and thri-kreen races, though I have no plans for half-giants at the moment. I'll post things when I make them.
I'm interested in seeing the goliath race to see if it can work as a half-giant.
Gone
Kreen (extinct maybe)
Half Giants (NPC)
New ones
Pyreen
something else.
Classes gone.
Gladiator (see Dragon article)
Templar (Paladin renamed)
And after Dregoths ascending the elemental planes erge and become the elemental chaos. Paraelemental clerics lose their powers as I always hated them anyway.
Also, I think that taking away the thri-kreen and the half giants is a big mistake. Keeping half giants as a large sized creature is a big mistake too... but making it work something like the minotaur, that would be a very good idea. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on goliaths having stats that would work for the half giants, and thus just renaming the half-giants goliaths. Kreen, or course, would require a new 4e write up... but I have seen some pretty good ideas on how to go about doing just that.
I'm in the process of hammering out a 4th ed reboot. In addition to advancing the timeline several races are gonna go bye bye to be replaced with some new ones.
Gone
Kreen (extinct maybe)
Half Giants (NPC)
New ones
Pyreen
something else.
Classes gone.
Gladiator (see Dragon article)
Templar (Paladin renamed)
And after Dregoths ascending the elemental planes erge and become the elemental chaos. Paraelemental clerics lose their powers as I always hated them anyway.
Designing a 4th ed race or tweaking one is really fast if you do it on MS word. A Half Giant could esiuly be a tweaked Minotaur mechanically speaking. Would you use the 4th ed core planes as well?
I see. I have some iodeas for that. Retcon Dragonborn ionto Dray for example. Essentially PHB races + Kreen, Half Giants and Mul? If it was a reboot Half Giants could easily be reduced to medium size as well.
Designing a 4th ed race or tweaking one is really fast if you do it on MS word. A Half Giant could esiuly be a tweaked Minotaur mechanically speaking. Would you use the 4th ed core planes as well?
Exactly! I mean, a medium sized creature with the ability to wield larger sized weapons is all you need for a half-giant 4e representation. I don't know if the minotaur reskinned would work. It could definitely work as a place holder. I'm holding out hope that the Goliath reskinned will be a perfect fit...:P ;)
I don't remember enough about the Dray to comment on the dragonborn as dray idea. Someone else will ahve to do that.
But, mostly, yea... PHB races, with kreen, mul, and half giant. Except, for flavor reasons, some of the PHB races might still be killed off (just like they were for the AD&D setting). The tiefling really doesn't seem to fit with Dark Sun in any shape or form.
There is no need to use the 4th ed core planes, when they don't fit. However, finding a way to nicely fit the Dark Sun cosmology into the 4th ed core planes would be a nice benefit. I personally don't think it should be so hard to do... I mean, the elemental chaos should be easy enough to connect to Dark Sun.
I'm not sure what to do with half-giants, but I've almost got some write-ups for thri-kreen and muls. I've played a little with the other races benefits, but they're largely the same.
I haven't figured out a way to deal with eladrin yet. As for dragonborn, I don't want them to be dray because I don't want Dregoth. YMMV in that regard, but I'm trying to focus on the basic 6 cities and basic races, etc. For me it's enough to say dragonborn think of themselves as somehow related to the Dragon and so have become haughty and proud, often becoming templars.
As for the classes, most can be unchanged. I'm working on a simple defiling mechanic for any arcane class. My idea for clerics is to develop a pact system where they get an elemental-themed at-will and have more elemental-themed powers, but they wouldn't be restricted to a single element, in keeping with the idea of the Elemental Chaos being a mix of all the elements at once. I won't be making paraelemental clerics, since I never liked them.
Templars I envision as a multiclass-only class. That way there can be fighter-templars, defiler-templars, warlord-templars, etc. I haven't seen the Gladiator article yet, but it sounds promising for that class. I have no plans to deal with druids or any other full class that hasn't been developed yet.
The last thing I'm concerned with would be psionics, but I think I'll put that off until I've got most of the rest of it dealt with.
Comments and criticism are welcome. :D
Exactly! I mean, a medium sized creature with the ability to wield larger sized weapons is all you need for a half-giant 4e representation. I don't know if the minotaur reskinned would work. It could definitely work as a place holder. I'm holding out hope that the Goliath reskinned will be a perfect fit...:P ;)
My sentiments exactly. I'd use the minotaur, but swap out the skill bonuses to Athletics and Intimidate. I'd also change the racial power as I did like the Stomp ability. I'd probably do something like this.
HALF-GIANT
Average Height: 7'6"-8'
Average Weight: 420-480 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Common
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Intimidation
Ferocity: If you are reduced to 0 hit points, you can make a melee basic attack as free action before falling unconcious.
Oversized: You can use weapons of your size or one size larger than you as if they were your size.
Stomp: You can use stomp as an encounter power.
As for Templars, I don't really know what we should do with them yet. I think that Paladins renamed might actually work best for Templars to be honest... I don't really see them as the sort of class "anyone" can be. Templars had a very specific set of abilities... combat, and "cleric" style spell casting. I really think Paladin is the best fit.
However, the gladiator article will, surprise surprise, make for awesome gladiators. :P
Here's a preliminary version of a mul and thri-kreen.
MUL
Average Height: 5'10” - 6'4”
Average Weight: 180-250 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Common
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Endurance
Thick Skinned: The first time you make an Endurance check against an environmental hazard, you may roll twice and take the better result.
Rallying Vitality: Muls may use rallying vitality as a daily power.
Rallying Vitality – Mul racial power
Surrounded by enemies, you force yourself to stagger back to your feet, ready to fight on a little longer.
Daily * Healing
Free Action; Personal
Effect: You may spend a healing surge.
THRI-KREEN
Average Height: 6'2” - 7'0”
Average Weight: 175-240 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-light
Languages: Common, Thri-Kreen
Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Nature
Thri-Kreen Weapon Proficiency: Proficiency with gythka and chatkcha.
Trance: As the eladrin benefit.
Poison Bite: Thri-kreen may use poison bite as an encounter power.
Poison Bite – Thri-kreen racial power
With a sudden lunge you snap your mandibles shut around your foe and pump deadly venom into his veins.
Encounter * Poison
Standard Action; Melee touch
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC, Constitution vs. AC, or Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 2 (save ends).
Increase to 2d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 5 (save ends) at 11th level and to 3d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 10 (save ends) at 21st level.
Special: When you create your character choose Strength, Constitution or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power. This choice remains throughout your character's life.
Interesting idea for the tieflings. That might work.
Here's a preliminary version of a mul and thri-kreen.
MUL
Average Height: 5'10” - 6'4”
Average Weight: 180-250 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Strength, +2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Normal
Languages: Common
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Endurance
Thick Skinned: The first time you make an Endurance check against an environmental hazard, you may roll twice and take the better result.
Rallying Vitality: Muls may use rallying vitality as a daily power.
Rallying Vitality – Mul racial power
Surrounded by enemies, you force yourself to stagger back to your feet, ready to fight on a little longer.
Daily * Healing
Free Action; Personal
Effect: You may spend a healing surge.
THRI-KREEN
Average Height: 6'2” - 7'0”
Average Weight: 175-240 lbs
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Size: Medium
Speed: 7 squares
Vision: Low-light
Languages: Common, Thri-Kreen
Skill Bonuses: +2 Endurance, +2 Nature
Thri-Kreen Weapon Proficiency: Proficiency with gythka and chatkcha.
Trance: As the eladrin benefit.
Poison Bite: Thri-kreen may use poison bite as an encounter power.
Poison Bite – Thri-kreen racial power
With a sudden lunge you snap your mandibles shut around your foe and pump deadly venom into his veins.
Encounter * Poison
Standard Action; Melee touch
Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. AC, Constitution vs. AC, or Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: 1d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 2 (save ends).
Increase to 2d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 5 (save ends) at 11th level and to 3d6+Constitution modifier poison damage and ongoing poison damage 10 (save ends) at 21st level.
Special: When you create your character choose Strength, Constitution or Dexterity as the ability score you use when making attack rolls with this power. This choice remains throughout your character's life.
I like the Mul. The Thre-Kreen somehow feels wrong. I think maybe the bonus to Cha needs to be changed to a bonus to Wis.
Heres my Mul.
Average Height 6’-6”
Average Weight 140-180lb
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Common, Dwarven
Skill Bonus: +2 Athletics, +2 Endurance
Battle Ready: You gain a +2 bonus to initiative
Mul Resilience: You can use mul resilience as a racial power
Mul Resilience Mul Racial Power
You shake off an effect that would cripple a lesser warrior
Encounter
Immediate Reaction Personal
Trigger: You suffer an effect that a save can end
Effect: You make a saving throw against the effect.
I like the Mul. The Thre-Kreen somehow feels wrong. I think maybe the bonus to Cha needs to be changed to a bonus to Wis.
Thanks!
Why do you prefer Wisdom? I used Charisma since I want my thri-kreen to be good at psionics and I'm guessing that will be the main psionics stat. I'm not opposed to a change though.
I don't really like the idea of trying to work around four useful arms. It's just too complicated with special cases of shields, etc. Plus I really want them to have a poison bite from the start, since I think it's cool.
Perhaps instead of 4 functional arms, TKs have 2 regular arms and two smaller arms that can't hold much weight, maybe just an implement or a potion or something. That way, they get a little multi-limb flavor, but no issues with too many benefits.
Something like this maybe.
Dragonborn: Taller and more spindly, but still strong and forceful of personality. Said by many to be descended from the Dragon itself, they consider themselves to be greater than most other races. They often find their way to work in the templarate of the city-states, bending others to their will. Mechanically the dragonborn as as presented in the Player's Handbook, except that their breath weapon options are acid, fire, lightning or superheated sand. The sand option is untyped damage, but otherwise follows the same rules.
Dwarf: Athasian dwarves are uniformly hairless. They exhibit an amazing ability to focus their minds of a specific task, and to hold steady to that goal. This should be reflected in one or more racial feats of heroic and paragon tier. Otherwise they are as the Player's Handbook describes.
Eladrin: During the millennia of war, the eladrin returned en masse to the Feywild, where most other races could not pursue. There the built strongholds to stand against all enemies and moved in with the intention of never leaving. As the natural world was destroyed, the Feywild became ever more dangerous and vicious, confining the eladrin to their citadels, which in time became little more than prisons and eventually tombs. Some few have now returned to Athas, slender, pale beings with haunted expressions. They are reluctant to discuss their flight from the Feywild, though rumors among other races suggest it is even more dangerous than Athas itself. They are as in the PHB.
Elf: The elves of Athas are amazingly tall beings, most standing over 7 feet in height. They are shifty and secretive and very fast on their feet. Their speed increases from the PHB to 8 squares. Instead of the Elven Accuracy racial power, they instead get the Shifty racial power of the Kobolds from the MM. Being untrusting and untrustworthy, they do not get the Group Awareness benefit.
Half-Elf: Half-elves are in an unfortunate position. They are distrusted by most races based on their elven heritage and they are unable to keep pace with their elven family. They do not gain the Group Diplomacy benefit, but instead gain a +1 to the Will defense, based on years of hardening themselves to the opinions of others.
Halfling: Halflings do not usually live in the cities, being part of a tribal people form over the Ringing Mountains. They live in one of the few remaining forests of Athas. They are not a peaceful people however, jealously guarding their forests. Some say they even go so far as to devour intruders to their lands, though no one in the Tablelands can say if these rumors are true. They are as presented in the PHB.
Human: As presented in the PHB.
Rip away!
Something like htis for elves?
Racial Traits
Average Height 6’-7’
Average Weight: 130-180 lb
Ability Scores: +2 Dexterity, +2Intelligence
Size: Medium
Speed: 8 squares
Vision: Low Light
Languages: Common, Elven
Skill Bonus:, +2 Perception, +2 Thievery
Elven Weapon Proficiency: You gain proficiency with the longbow and the shortbow.
Elven Will: You gain a +1 racial bonus to your Will defence. In addition, you gain a +5 racial bonus to saving throws against charm effects.
Wild Step: You ignore difficult terrain when you shift(even if you have a power that allows you to shift multiple squares).
Shifty: You can use shifty as an at-will power.
Shifty Elven Racial Power
You skitter and scamper through the ranks of your enemies,
much to their chagrin
At-Will
Minor Action Personal
Effect: You shift 1 square.
Thanks!
Why do you prefer Wisdom? I used Charisma since I want my thri-kreen to be good at psionics and I'm guessing that will be the main psionics stat. I'm not opposed to a change though.
I say a +2 to Wis instead of Cha because kreen typically received a penalty to charisma in older editions, because ranger should be their favored class, and because kreen are supposed to be naturally adept at skills that use the wisdom ability over skills that use the charisma ability. They are not great diplomats. They tend to be very perceptive. They also received a bonus to wisdom in earlier editions from what I remember.
Non of us know what psionics will be based off yet, but if we assume that it will be modeled off something like the warlock then there is no reason to assume Cha will be the only option. One warlock path uses Con.
I say a +2 to Wis instead of Cha because kreen typically received a penalty to charisma in older editions, because ranger should be their favored class, and because kreen are supposed to be naturally adept at skills that use the wisdom ability over skills that use the charisma ability. They are not great diplomats. They tend to be very perceptive. They also received a bonus to wisdom in earlier editions from what I remember.
Non of us know what psionics will be based off yet, but if we assume that it will be modeled off something like the warlock then there is no reason to assume Cha will be the only option. One warlock path uses Con.
Sounds good enough for me.
...And the mightiest of epic magics drain life not only from the plants in the vicinity, but also from the higher life-forms, animals and men....
Maybe instead of being mutants from the old wars, new tieflings are created whenever epic defiling is used; they're what remains when a creature's life force/soul is sucked out, leaving only a twisted shell. Instead of being hated and reviled as a reminder of the war, tieflings are pitied for being the innocent victims of an insane arcanist's lust for power.
I'm sure plenty of epic magic is done by the Dragon Kings on a quasi-regular basis to keep the cities running smoothly, so tieflings are constantly originating from the cities. Tieflings who resent this new life would take up arms against the dragon kings; those who for some reason like it better would form pacts with the Dragon Kings like a warlock.