But it was (will be) a unique environment.
Why should I be excited?
Educate yourself.
Read up on something you know nothing about.
Then make a judgement call on how "excited" you should be.
Educate yourself.
Read up on something you know nothing about.
Then make a judgement call on how "excited" you should be.
Rather than me scour the city or break the law by downloading a torrent for the books, would it be possible for anyone to tell me something they find unique and awesome about it?
Dark Sun (in 2E...I know nothing about the 3E one) was a gritty, gruelling world of thirst, starvation, psionics, dragon-kings, thri-kreen (mantis warriors), half-dwarves, half-giants, sorcerer-kings, city-states (a la Egypt), mean-as-Hell halflings, wild desert elves, gladiators...
Or you could just look here.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dark Sun
Designer Timothy B. Brown
Troy Denning
Publisher TSR, Inc.
Wizards of the Coast
Publication date October 1991
Genre(s) Fantasy
System AD&D
Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting featuring the fictional desert world of Athas. The Dark Sun campaign setting was released in 1991.
The themes of this setting could fit in the Dying Earth subgenre and include survival against the elements, ecological disaster, resource depletion, survival of the fittest, slavery and poverty, and the widespread use of psionic abilities. The political setting is similar to ancient Middle East, North Africa or Mesopotamia. Water and metals are extremely scarce. Survival against the elements has made it a harsh exotic world.
- It's post-apocalyptic
- Survival is important
- It's brutal and harsh
- It's a nearly complete refluff on conventional PC races and cultures
- It falls in very well with the Points of Light mentality
- It's very different from conventional medieval fantasy
Variety is a good thing. :P
You should be excited because Dark Sun is about as far from FR or Eberron as you can get and still be playing D&D.
Variety is a good thing. :P
It also enabled you to play in a world where you didn't have nutters running around using Gates, Spelljamming ships, or Planar travel to make for a cross-setting nightmare like you could just about anywhere else.
It also had cities where Lawful Evil was the norm, instead of the obligatory bastion of light concept used elsewhere.
Rather than me scour the city or break the law by downloading a torrent for the books, would it be possible for anyone to tell me something they find unique and awesome about it?
Its a post-apocalyptic planet wide desert wasteland, the remains of a magical society that was far more advanced than Eberron, but which plunged itself into massive destructive wars, and literally drained the life out of their planet with their magic (which is powered by life-forces surrounding it). Many races are gone (stuff like gnomes and orcs were exterminated in genocidal wars of the last age). Many are not the way you remember them (halflings have become tribes of cannabilistic homicidal maniacs, elves are vicious tribal hunters that roam the wilderness, and dwarves don't have a single hair on their body). The civilization that has rebuilt itself on the ashes of the near dead world is composed of a couple of city states, each of which is ruled by an extremely powerful sorcerer king attempting to undergo a transformation into a dragon. Slavery is rampant. Good exists in the cracks of society, buried under the deeds that the remnants of Athas's civilization must perform in order to survive. Metal is rare. Clothing is scarce (think pictures from the old Conan comics). People are mean. Oh, and thri-kreen and half-giants are playable races.
It also had cities where Lawful Evil was the norm, instead of the obligatory bastion of light concept used elsewhere.
Lawful Evil is actually the norm alignment in Eberron, for the record...
Dark Sun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dark Sun
Designer Timothy B. Brown
Troy Denning
Publisher TSR, Inc.
Wizards of the Coast
Publication date October 1991
Genre(s) Fantasy
System AD&D
Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting featuring the fictional desert world of Athas. The Dark Sun campaign setting was released in 1991.
The themes of this setting could fit in the Dying Earth subgenre and include survival against the elements, ecological disaster, resource depletion, survival of the fittest, slavery and poverty, and the widespread use of psionic abilities. The political setting is similar to ancient Middle East, North Africa or Mesopotamia. Water and metals are extremely scarce. Survival against the elements has made it a harsh exotic world.
It also jives with their new concept for Forgotten Realms which seems to have become some version of Paladium's RIFTS with all the stuff from other dimensions that keep falling from the sky via RIFTS in the Shadowfell.
It also jives with their new concept for Forgotten Realms which seems to have become some version of Paladium's RIFTS with all the stuff from other dimensions that keep falling from the sky via RIFTS in the Shadowfell.
I don't quite see how that works since Athas should still be cut off from all other dimensions and planes barring limited access to the elemental chaos.
I don't quite see how that works since Athas should still be cut off from all other dimensions and planes barring limited access to the elemental chaos.
Yeah, anything that lands in Athas needs a much better reason than "dimensional rift booga booga" to be there. Dimensional travel is pretty much impossible as I recall.
Yeah, anything that lands in Athas needs a much better reason than "dimensional rift booga booga" to be there. Dimensional travel is pretty much impossible as I recall.
It is possible, but very very difficult. You have to get through the Grey (think mists surrounding ravenloft domains and the ethereal having a bastard child), and then you can reach the astral in 2nd ed.. Planescape did very occasionally make mention of Athasian characters.
I am really looking forward to this setting.. even if it does kind o make my last 6 months of converting dark sun kind of moot...
It is possible, but very very difficult. You have to get through the Grey (think mists surrounding ravenloft domains and the ethereal having a bastard child), and then you can reach the astral in 2nd ed.. Planescape did very occasionally make mention of Athasian characters.
I am really looking forward to this setting.. even if it does kind o make my last 6 months of converting dark sun kind of moot...
That just sounds like another case of Planescape trying to get it's grubby little hands on EVERYTHING in 2E. :P
It is possible, but very very difficult. You have to get through the Grey (think mists surrounding ravenloft domains and the ethereal having a bastard child), and then you can reach the astral in 2nd ed.. Planescape did very occasionally make mention of Athasian characters.
I am really looking forward to this setting.. even if it does kind o make my last 6 months of converting dark sun kind of moot...
If its like the Mists, there was no way out. None. Sure you could pray for spells and all that hoptedoodle, but it wasn't whatever god that would answer. It was merely the powers that controlled Ravenloft granting boons to their playthings.
If its like the Mists, there was no way out. None. Sure you could pray for spells and all that hoptedoodle, but it wasn't whatever god that would answer. It was merely the powers that controlled Ravenloft granting boons to their playthings.
The only way out was if you DM decided he needed a plot device.. but there was ways out, they were just extremely rare - one dark sun adventure did have Githyanki arriving to raid the city-states, and i believe another had Psurlrons living in the Astral, and also like i said, a couple of planscape products did make passing mentions to Athasian PC's.
and yea Bats, i think the Grey has a 2nd ed creation to keep Planescape and Spelljammer and anybody with a portal out of Dark Sun.
Yeah, anything that lands in Athas needs a much better reason than "dimensional rift booga booga" to be there. Dimensional travel is pretty much impossible as I recall.
Ah but that doesn't stop somebody from sending X from Athas to Faerun and this is 4ED where the Spellplague is responsible for everything. The Spellplague is respnsible for dropping all kinds of items, magic beasts, and creatures into Faerun via the Shadowfell.
Ah but that doesn't stop somebody from sending X from Athas to Faerun and this is 4ED where the Spellplague is responsible for everything. The Spellplague is respnsible for dropping all kinds of items, magic beasts, and creatures into Faerun via the Shadowfell.
I'd handle it more like GANTZ. The Spellplague works like a fax machine making flawed copies and dropping them into other worlds. So there is no escape from Athas, although the spellplague might decide to plant photocopies of you elsewhere.
Or heaven forbid it copies an entire city state. That would be tons of fun.
That scary giant being on the cover is The Dragon. THE Dragon. Meaning - only one. And one you never, ever want to meet. Some of the Sorcerer Kings wanted to transition into dragons, and there was an extremely high level ritual (L25 or so)... but only one actual Dragon, which was essentially the most powerful and destructive being on the planet (although there was an undead contemporary introduced after the revision, which may or may not appear since this is resetting to the original boxed set).
• The apocalypse occurred millennia ago, destroying much of the world except for a patch of land about the size of Colorado.
• Hanging in the olive-tinged sky, the crimson sun burns like a fiery puddle of blood over a bleak and harsh desert. Water is scarce. Forests are all but a fading memory.
• Metals are very rare. Gold, silver, copper, and iron are commodities of only the richest of the rich.
• Many traditional fantasy races (orcs, gnolls, gnomes, goblins, kobolds, lycanthropes, and others) were exterminated in genocidal wars waged long ago. Those that do exist have vast cultural differences from their equivalents in other worlds.
• Arcane magic is a curse, feared and hated by nearly everyone for the unchecked destruction it causes. Arcane magic draws its power from the life force of vegetation. Defilers leave inert ash in the wake of their spell which devastate the land so that nothing may grow. Preservers siphon only the energy they need in an attempt to leave the vegetation relatively unharmed.
• Minor psionic ability manifests in vast swaths of the population and many of the animals and plants of the shattered wastes.
• Horses, cattle, oxen, and other beasts of burden do not exists. Strange reptiles and huge insects serve their functions.
• Carnivorous psionic plants are as likely to kill you in the wastes as the psionic animal predators and roving tribes of marauders.
• The Sorcerer-Kings, beings of epic psionic and arcane power, rule over the few large bastions of civilization as tyrannical and despotic living gods. They squabble with each other constantly over the limited resources of the land.
• There are no gods. Divine power is wielded by clerics who devote themselves to the elements and by templars who gain spells from the sorcerer-kings so that they may perform their will. Druids stand vigilant and protect the last green places left in the world.
• Slavery permeates "civilized" culture, and gladiatorial bloodsport entertains the masses in grand spectacles of blood and violence.
• Athas is a world in its death throes. Mere survival is all that most ever hope to accomplish. The enslaved and oppressed masses cry out for relief from their suffering.
Why should I be excited?
you shouldnt.
I know the following of it.
cannibal halflings
dieing world
dead or left for greener pastures deities
virtual wasteland
massive amounts of psi-characters
back in the day on characters started at lvl 3
for a decent comparison, try its a prison world.
anyway, best just to take a look, and either run away from it, or get it.
Didn't keep death from finding our party rather quickly though. ;)
Nuff said, really.
The rule book actually had a rule suggesting a "character tree", which was basically multiple prepared characters. This is so if one died you would have another one available. THEY SUGGESTED YOU HAVE 4 CHARACTERS IN THE TREE, JUST IN CASE!!! One extremely long and violent gaming day, the DM pruned my character tree.
The goblin equivalent in this world is a gith. It was a 3HD monster that could leap 30 feet through the air and its leaders have psychic powers. Hell every thing has psychic powers. And to combat these things you get pointy sticks, rocks and pieces of glass.
It is easily the most unforgiving hard ass world I have ever played in. It is the Tomb of Horrors of campaign worlds and I really can't wait to go back.
Fantasy Mad Max.
Nuff said, really.
Pretty much. With the Savagery meter is turned up to about 11..
You've got psionics.
There's a big mantis in the party.
You used to be a gladiator.
You're trying to destroy the Dragon King thingy.
Those are pretty much the salient points of every Dark Sun campaign I ever saw, which is about 10 campaigns from 10 different groups.
Always found it kind of one-note, myself. But that's just my experience.
I remember box for this setting saying, "for intermediate to advanced players." The starting level for characters was 3rd level, because a if 1st level mage would try to walk across the street at high noon he only had about a 50% chance of living.
The rule book actually had a rule suggesting a "character tree", which was basically multiple prepared characters. This is so if one died you would have another one available. THEY SUGGESTED YOU HAVE 4 CHARACTERS IN THE TREE, JUST IN CASE!!! One extremely long and violent gaming day, the DM pruned my character tree.
The goblin equivalent in this world is a gith. It was a 3HD monster that could leap 30 feet through the air and its leaders have psychic powers. Hell every thing has psychic powers. And to combat these things you get pointy sticks, rocks and pieces of glass.
It is easily the most unforgiving hard ass world I have ever played in. It is the Tomb of Horrors of campaign worlds and I really can't wait to go back.
THIS!
This is why I love the setting.
Wait... so, place that USED to have a society more advanced than Eberron, wars destroyed the land, halflings have gone super ferral, dwarves have lost their hair, and only one dragon remains. Well that does it, I'm going to run Eberron then they'll time travel into the future somehow and find that Korvaire turned into Athas. Settled (basically I'm going to buy both and want neither to be a waste).
This is actually a great idea. The apocalypse that gave birth to Dark Sun could very well be the disastrous unfurling of the Draconic Prophecy.
Incidentally, the setup that leads to the desolation that is Dark Sun reminds me of the state of things in FF7: you have evil corporations drawing power from the life energy of the planet and, if left unchecked, it's bound to bring about only destruction.
You can actually mix and match these ideas for a long-term story arc or campaign. You have the PCs in turn-of-the-millennium Eberron try to stop an evil mastermind from using an eldritch device to travel into Khorvaire's future, bent on stealing their magical and technological advances to return to his time and assert dominance and ultimate power. Heroic adventures could be the ones where the PCs hunt down the villain throughout Eberron as he furthers his plan, with the capstone adventure (the one where the PCs gain their 11th level) resulting in a dramatic failure that sends both the villain and the PCs centuries (or even millennia) into the future. Paragon adventures could be the ones where the PCs wander about a strange and futuristic Khorvaire, discovering, to their surprise, that their opponent is there along with them, bent on getting his hands to secret magics and technologies of this age, and later returning to turn-of-the-millennium Khorvaire to achieve his plans. The capstone Paragon adventure could be a clash between the PCs and their enemy, resulting in the eldritch time-traveling device exploding mystically. The villain would've been successfully been sent back to his desired time, whereas the PCs would be sent millennia into the future, into a world where their villain has become immortal, an epic sorcerer-king, who is powerful and rules over the world supreme. Epic adventures could involve the PCs trying to survive through this dangerous world, now known as Athas, seeking to stop the monstrosity they failed to stop twice already, and undo the damage it has wrought upon the world.
You're in the desert.
You've got psionics.
There's a big mantis in the party.
You used to be a gladiator.
You're trying to destroy the Dragon King thingy.
Those are pretty much the salient points of every Dark Sun campaign I ever saw, which is about 10 campaigns from 10 different groups.
Always found it kind of one-note, myself. But that's just my experience.
I've played in three different DS campaigns. Two of them were pretty much like you said. The third was uniquely Dark Sun, and very different from the mold. We played a city campaign of intrigue and assassination. We had a neutral party who wanted the best for the city's citizens, but would do whatever it took to get it. We had a templar in the party who worked his way through the ranks and gave our group a lot of political clout. Our thief had fun running a group of street urchins and gathering info. Our fighter infiltrated the ranks of the city guard. And our magic users died. Often. It just isn't safe to use arcane magic in a city ruled by the sorceror kings=)
THIS IS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT DARK SUN
The original Dark Sun had rules for what to do for what happens when a party member runs out of water (which tended to happen a lot, what with it being a desert). In addition to having to make what was basically a Fortitude save to stave off the physical effects of dehydration, you had to also make a Will save to avoid a shift in alignment. The thirstier you got, the more desparate you became, and you had to make continued Will saves to avoid giving in to your baser urges and doing things like, say, stealing water from your fellow adventurer. Eventually, your alignment would shift to Chaotic Evil, and you would shiv your party members in their sleep and run off with their water.
Stabbing each other in the desert over water. This is all you need to know about Dark Sun.
Stabbing each other in the desert over water. This is all you need to know about Dark Sun.
I remember playing the original 2nd ed setting as a thri-kreen. The adventure went absolutely no where with the party being slaves or prisoners in a harsh camp of some sort. Eventually everyone died becasue we couldn't figure out how to get out of the camp or even get our hands on a bone shiv to knife each other in the dead of night and gank each others H2O.
Strangely though I remember the adventures being oddly compelling. Up until the whole death by dehydration thing.
To be honest, it sounds like dehydration was a little overdone on your DM's part. Sure water isn't easy to find, but I see no reason why the adventures should be derailed like that.
The basic Gith monster had 3 HD. You may be level 7 or so before yopu come across a metal sword, although if you are rich you might be able to buy a metal dagger at level 4 or so. If you were a Kreen you could go for around a week with no water and you could always eat any fallen PCs. Our PCs had a remarkable effective interrogation technique which involved threatening to feed the prisoners to the Kreen or Halfling. If the prisoners thought you were bluffing the Kreen would start eating their toes or fingers.
One of our PCs died while the rest ran for their lives. He was on a wreck of a silt skimmer while a group of giants bore down on him. They also lost 3/5 party members to repeated fireballs from a Defiler in Troll Grave Chasm. This wasn't to unusal.
Good times good times
So Dark Sun is basically a Warhammer 40k feral death world. With more or less Tyranids as a PC race? Awesomesauce! I'm definitely getting this book when it comes out.
Kinda its very brutal
Rather than me scour the city or break the law by downloading a torrent for the books, would it be possible for anyone to tell me something they find unique and awesome about it?
wikipedia?