My plans for Dark Sun. What's yours? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 sir_sparhawk Jan 11, 2010 16:54:58	The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan... Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable. I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr? If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches? Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak? With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans? This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this. So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from?
#2 JohnLynch Jan 12, 2010 0:00:25	I'm in a similar boat in that none of my players have been exposed to Dark Sun, but I'm going in a completely different direction. I'll be working on establishing a vision of the world based around Urik. I'll have information on: common-history (which may or may not be accurate) races classes local fauna and flora Urik customs including class structure City Layout and different districts Basic knowledge of the slums district where crime is rampant. Noble Houses Templarate Fighting Styles (I'm considering on basing this in the schools from Martial Power 2) Merchant Houses Urik economy and occupations Illnesses of Athas Slaves and Slavery Supersititions Legends including a mercenary company called the T'zai Byn that's been started over the ages, often being involved in legendary acts before they die horribly. A brief overview of the other city-states and geography. Local tribes native to the region. Then depending on what characters they make, will depend on whether or not they get a PDF of additional information. But ultimately the website should have a ton of fluff that is missing from most 4th ed products. I'll also be looking to set it out in an easy to read manner so they can read the "important parts" initially and then read the other parts as they desire. After glancing at the different ideas from the website, they'll need to decide what characters to make. Some possible ideas they could play as a group include: Elves from a desert tribe. Members of a thri-kreen tribe. A new version of the T'zai Byn Servants, guards for a nobleman (either an NPC nobleman or a PC one). A Unit in the militia that works for a templar (either NPC templar or a PC one). A company of hunters (possibly affiliated with a merchant house). A new gang of criminals. Registered Elementalists working for the same Templar. A coven of arcane users who may or may not be defilers. Or we might have a mixed party with one player being a thri-kreen, another player being a templar, one being a nobleman guard while another is an elementalist. I'll work with the players to ensure the party can actually survive together (a templar and a defiler would probably start combat against each other at the beginning). Then it will be a matter of determining how to mold the campaign around them. I'm writing up a campaign which will involve a group of factions. The players might choose to affiliate with any of these factions, and they can betray a faction they previously aligned with at any given moment. In this way I have no idea how the campaign will unfold. I know what the goals of each faction is. I know the strengths and weaknesses they have. How the players interact with these factions will determine how they respond and how they alter their plans and what plans succeed or fail as a result. So I'll be kept guessing how the campaign will end right up until it finally finishes. The players may succeed in their goals, or they may fail because they did the wrong thing. Ultimately the power is in their hands. Corruption, Betrayal and murder will definitely be present in spades though. A lot of it should be player driven. But to begin with the campaign will be set in the present time of the 4th ed books. I believe this is a few weeks after the death of King Kalak. It will open with Show Hamanu giving a speech about false sorcerer-kings and how he will lead his army to victory as they go south to conqueor Tyr and bring its people into the light beneath the protection of the benevolent and all powerful King Hamanu! Long live the Urikite Empire! This will result in quite a bit of opportunity for the players as they're left behind in the Urik region. With much of the army gone, anything could happen. And if the players are members of the militia, then why weren't they chosen? Are they not trusted? Is there a reason they're not trusted?
#3 sir_sparhawk Jan 12, 2010 13:03:47	John, that sounds really cool. I was never part of an Urikite campaign so that's definately an intriguing plan. In the Prism Pentad Book 2, "The Crimson Legion" Rikus takes the Tyrian army to the gates of Urik. Do you plan on using that event in your campaign?
#4 beej_silver Jan 12, 2010 21:51:07	I too, am very excited about Dark Sun, but my experience with the game is very different when compared to other fans of the setting. As someone who was indoctrinated to the game at the influx of 3.5, we played DS in that edition. And frankly, the game we played sucked. Fortunately, the setting wasn't what ruined it, IMO. It was the DM's inexperience that did it. We were placed in a heavily-railroaded track of a plot, and it seemed like we were mere spectators to some sort of confrontation between Borys and Rajaat (and I went through all the trouble of planning my character's wizard/psion/cerebromancer build, too). The DM is a friend of mine to this day, and I think he's better at DMing now. Nevertheless, we didn't play the setting again. The bad experience didn't keep me from getting interested in DS, however, and I was one of the people who fervently hoped that it will see official support in 4E. I'm mostly a DM these days, and with DS confirmed, I plan on re-introducing my players (and my former Dark Sun DM) to the setting in my own style. I bought books 1-3 of the Prism Pentad and downloaded the 3.5 e-book from athas.org to help me get a better feel for the setting. Can you believe that I never read Prism Pentad until recently? Like you, Sir_Sparhawk, I decided to place my game's timeline at around the fall of King Kalak of Tyr. Since I'll be doing this game as an intro, however, I plan on handing out the characters of the Verdant Passage as pore-gens, and have the game go from levels 8-12. (Our infrequent game schedule actually means that will last us until DS releases in August, though.) So here's my plan for the pregens: Rikus - Level 8 Mul Battlerager/Tempest Fighter: At first, Rikus seemed like a better fit for the barbarian class. But I already plan on Neeva being a barbarian, and two of them seemed redundant. So I thought that battlerager fighters are more or less barbarians anyway, and of the two gladiators, Rikus was the one who felt more defender-ish. Rikus does seem to use two-weapon fighting styles a lot, though, so I'm still undecided on whether to make him a tempest instead. Oh, he will definitely have the weapon-master feat from the most recent Fighter Class Acts. That way, he is good with any weapon he picks up. As for his race, I will probably reskin the half-orc for now. Str/Dex works well for a mul, while the (Mul) Half-orc Resilience racial trait quite adequately represents the toughness of muls. Besides, half-orc is half-right... >.> Neeva - Level 8 Human Barbarian - I'm still thinking if I should build her as a Thaneborn or not. While she's described as being quite attractive (then again, just about every human-blooded character in the Verdant Passage was described that way), she didn't seem to have a strong personality. So maybe Rageblood or Thunderborn for her. Oh, and I plan on avoiding powers with energy keywords to keep her nonmagical feel. Sadira - Level 8 Half-Elf Staffizard - While she's a staffizard, she's going to have good constitution and charisma, and would have a decent chance of going scond implement for an orb of deception later on. Interestingly, she wouldn't have a staff at first (so I guess she'll be really happy once she inherits the Staff of Nok from Ktandeo) I was very, very, very tempted to make her a sorceress instead. But hey, the party needed a controller. Agis - Level 8 Human Ardent - It's a good thing they released the ardent as a DDi preview recently. Otherwise I would have turned Agis into a warlord, and it just wouldn't have given him that psionic feel. Ah, and he's the only character that will start off with an actual metal weapon. 5th PC - I will allow one pleyer to build a DS character, with restrictions. I originally thought of adding Tithian (as a Kalak-pact warlock, however that works out) to the mix, but that didn't seem appropriate. >.> I plan on mostly sticking with the Verdant Passage, specifically after Rikus had his behind handed to him by the Gaj. I don't want to go through an encounter where Rikus didn't feel as awesome as he should have been. Hmm, I also want to introduce the fragility of bone and obsidian weapons somewhat, but I didn't want the gladiators to a significant disadvantage compared to Sadira and metal-sword Agis. So here's what I came up with: Stone and and obsidian weapons will get a point of fragmenting whenever a weapon attack roll results in a natural 1 or 20. Each point of fragment reduces the weapons proficiency bonus by 1. A weapon that has its proficiency bonus reduced to +0 in this way shatters. Bone weapons, otoh, get a point of fragmenting whenever a weapon attack roll results in a natural 1. Weapons can be repaired if they have fragmenting points, but not when they are shattered. Finally, I plan on using the inherent bonuses from DMG2. These inherent bonuses will act as magic tresholds, so that if Sadira with a +2 inherent bonus gets a +3 staff of Nok, it will only be a retroactive +1 to attack and damage. Items are thus mostly sought after for their Item Dailies, and the game will not break down even without a lot of these items around. I am currently most excited with the fight with Kalak. I think the whole business with the spear being thrown by one of the gladiators will work as a skill challenge, while the fight with the injured Kalak will be based on Dungeon's Colossus of Laarn Skill challenge (with the option of trying to kill a the level 17 solo Sorcerer-King that will take the place of the colossus).
#5 JohnLynch Jan 12, 2010 22:20:58	Do you plan on using that event in your campaign? Nope. For the past 8 years I've played in a "Dark Sun" inspired game, but having read the original boxed set and glanced over the later books, I discovered most of the elements I enjoyed about the game didn't come from Dark Sun. So in an effort to put those elements back into Dark Sun, I'm using a "back to basics" approach where I build upon the original boxed set. I'm doing my best not to contradict information in that original boxed set, but I am putting a different slant on it. For example I've written a brief outline for the history that players will know, and it will be along the lines of something like this: ???: The Old Council of Kings begins to decay. In the final meeting between the Kings, the Council unanimously votes to dissolve itself. Year 50 of the 79th King's Age: The Dragon invades and begins conquering kingdoms until he rules over the entire Tablelands. Disease and famine sweeps the land, with the once fertile kingdoms transforming into deserts. Year 23 of the 83rd King's Age: The Dragon, for reasons unknown, departs. He leaves behind his most loyal servants, known as Dragonthralls, to rule each of the major city-states in his place. Year 64 of the 85th King's Age: Hamanu arrives from beyond the Ringing Mountains, leading an army of halflings. He lays seige to the Dragonthrall Yanamuke's city-state. Yanamuke is defeated with the city completely broken down into rubble. The survivors join Hamanu as he marches into battle with the other Dragonthralls. Year 3 of the 86th King's Age: War continues for many years, with many powerful figures joining forces to lead tribes and survivors into battle against the Dragonthralls. Finally after more than an Age of battle, the Dragonthralls are no more. Year 4 of the 86th King's Age: King Hamanu begins construction of a new city-state dubbed Urik while the other leaders begin occupying cities in ruins or constructing their own city-states. Year 7 of the 86th King's Age: With no-one left to fight, the halflings begin turning on the refugees from the Dragonthrall War. Hamanu quickly subdues them before banishing them from the Tablelands altogether. A few of the halflings sided with Hamanu and helped him in bringing the feral halflings under control. In return they're allowed to remain as soldiers. Year 49 of the 160th King's Age: Although it is believed all of the Dragonthralls are long dead, its discovered one not only survived, but is still in charge of a city-state. Adropinis arrives from the south and frees the people of Balic from this evil ruler. A purge begins to remove all those loyal to the Dragonthrall. Year 74 of the 160th King's Age: The Great Purge of Balic finally finishes and elections are called to choose a new leader. Andropinis is elected for a 7 year term. Year 77 of the 160th King's Age: A referendum is held in Balic to make Andropinis ruler for life. After the refferendum passes with a strong affirmative decision, several families are raised to the position of Noble Houses. The election system continues with templars elected for life by vote. Commoners choose which Noble House the appointments will come from. Year 29 of the 170th King's Age: King Kalak is killed by a gladiator. Most of this isn't from the original boxed set and outright contradicts most of what follows that boxed set. But it sets up some themes and ideas I wanted to explore. First of all, I wanted the sorcerer-kings to appear less evil. The mere name "sorcerer-king" immediately makes it obvious they're suppose to be defilers. Also, they're described as being fairly evil. Teckitulay is described as capturing people in the desert simply to rip out their hearts and throw their corpses into the Arena. No reason other than he enjoys it. Andropinis is called Dictator for crying outloud. Why not just call him "General Baby Eater" and be done with it To me, no-one would want to live in a city-state with any of these people. And why bother when you've got the burgeoning democracy that is Tyr. So I beefed up the threat of the "Dragon of Tyr" from what he is in the original boxed set. He gets a couple of lines decsription with the rest stats or tactics. So based on that book he's fairly basic and undeveloped. I was able to make him the ultimate bogeyman. The game I use to play had the idea of Dragonthralls and the idea that modern society began after the Dragon disappeared. I tweaked those ideas to make the Dragon disappear, but keep the old society functioning by having Dragonthralls rule in his place. This makes the threat of the Dragon and his Dragonthralls much more iminent. The Dragon didn't disappear in some indeterminate time long ago. He disappeared in Year 23 of the 83rd King's Age. That makes the threat of the Dragon much more closer to home. The "sorcerer-kings" (which is a term I'll be moving away from) get to act the part of heroes as they destroy the Dragon's minions and give hope to the people. However the Dragon himself was never defeated. He could return at any moment. And so despite how cruel or terrible the city-states may be, people don't attack the sorcerer-king's because if the Dragon does return, the sorcerer-kings will probably be the only thing to protect them. And everyone just better hope they're enough. So instead of the sorcerer-kings being set up as villains to be overthrown, I wanted them to be considered omnipotent protectors, being the only thing to keep people safe from evil defilers that lurk in the desert. So I needed a city-state that had a warlike and powerful ruler. Many of the city-states would have qualified, but they didn't have the desert feel I wanted AND also have a ruler that it would be possible to create favourable propaganda about. Balic is in a fairly desert-atmosphere, but Andropinis is called a Dictator for crying outloud. That's not particularly easy to write propaganda about. Abalach-Re is worshipped by her citizens, but she lives next to a forest and her palace is in a giant tree. On a desert world! Urik fit the bill with not only having a warrior sorcerer-king in a desert ecology, but you can follow Hamanu and still feel like you aren't working for an evil moustache-twirling villain. Also Urik is barely outlined at all in the original boxed set, making it the perfect city to make my own. The assumption that the sorcerer-kings are omnipotent and omniscient is of course refuted by the Dark Sun books with King Kalak's death. My initial reaction was to ignore that and simply set the campaign just before his death so I could stop it from happening as a DM. But I decided to accept that part of lore and build a campaign exploring the issue. How is it Kalak could be killed by a slave? Can all of the sorcerer-kings be killed? Hamanu's response to these questions is to then try to conqueor Tyr. The time is perfect, after all. Thanks to this gladiator, the templars of Tyr have lost their source of power. Now there is nothing to stand in the way of Hamanu's forces. Nothing to protect the Tyrans from certain conquest. Assuming everything goes to plan I'll be exploring the issue of how powerful the sorcerer-kings are and how the world of Athas will react to the death of King Kalak.
#6 pavek Jan 13, 2010 8:13:15	The Oba of Gulg is worshipped by her citizens, but she lives next to a forest and her palace is in a giant tree. On a desert world! I like your take on the history although I would use it as the propaganda of the SKs with the true (published) history being hidden/lost. Good stuff.
#7 Alacryss Jan 21, 2010 23:42:39	The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan... Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable. I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr? If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches? Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak? With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans? This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this. So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from? This sounds almost exactly the plot of the "Freedom" module of 2e Dark Sun.
#8 sir_sparhawk Jan 22, 2010 0:00:35	The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan... Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable. I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr? If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches? Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak? With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans? This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this. So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from? This sounds almost exactly the plot of the "Freedom" module of 2e Dark Sun. The climax of it is, but if you read what I wrote in detail you'll find that the PC's aren't just slaves trying to escape the Arena when Kalak is draining the life of his people. Rather it's the PC's who are fighting directly against King Kalak at his moment of ascension. The adventure is going to begin in another place entirely as the PC's are not going to be starting in the City-State of Tyr. My goal is to have my players be a part of the events that lead to the beginning of the Prism Pentad. However I'm not going to be beholden to the demise of Kalak. If they're defeated and King Kalak becomes a full Athasian Dragon, the future of Athas could be far different than how we know it now.
#9 xlorep_darkhelm Feb 02, 2010 17:05:06	I too, am quite intrigued by and official re-release of Dark Sun. I hope they at least took some inspiration from Athas.org's people for some of the ideas on what to do with it, but even if they don't, it will most likely be good. I'm fully expecting Dragon and Avangion to be Epic Destinies. Seriously, that whole game mechanic in 4E just fits with those ideas (along with the other advanced beings, if they are retained).
#10 RalofTyr Feb 24, 2010 0:25:28	My plans for Dark Sun? Well, I really liked it when it first came out. I'm planning on keeping the concepts alive while I convert it to another system and run it based on concepts from that system.
#11 nimblegrund Feb 25, 2010 1:20:20	Here's an idea that I came up with... As is par for the course, the players start out enslaved in the pits. Maybe I should spice things up and do an introductory adventure or two where the PC's are free, and then put them in a situation where they are enslaved... dunno. Anyway, rather than escaping they survive the doom of the arenas, and then are purchased by a dune trader. This trader leads them back to his modest wagon, and then proceeds to free the PC's. He explains that he was once a slave himself and finds the idea to be abhorrent, and tells them that they are free to go... but first he has a proposition for them. He wants to offer them a partnership in his trading company. He says he chose them because he saw something special in the PC's, and he knew immediately that he wanted them for this partnership. Afterwards there is some haggling over percentage of profits, though the trader insists on a larger cut. It will later be revealed that he is a preserver (not nearly as powerful as the pc's... he knows a few low-level spells) and is funnelling part of his profits into the VA, which opens up more possibilities for adventures. While travelling in various desert villages and city-states they are free to take advantage of other plot hooks, from which they get all of the treasure. The money that they get from trading commodities is basically just icing on the cake. Eventually when they make enough money they can upgrade their wagon, hire more employees, and get themselves a full-on mekillot-pulled superwagon (whatever they call them) and form their own trading house of awesome. I would basically be using the commodity table from the dune trader supplement and let the players choose what commodities they want to buy and sell and where they want to go with them. Meanwhile I can tailor my adventures to happen along the way or wherever. Or they can just walk away from the trader who bought their freedom and do their own thing, which is fine, too, maybe he can show up again from time to time as a peripheral ally.
#12 dyssolve Feb 25, 2010 10:25:48	I could not wait. I started a campaign now. The players are starting in the brown age, before any thoughts of revolution are happening. Or so it seems. The players don't know, but the brotherhood of the mind and the order have essentially been dissolved for quite some time. A group of powerful psions have formed a group called the "New Order", which intends to accelerate what they believe to be natural evolution, mainly by eliminating the sorcerer-kings once and for all. They intend to create a world that is fully psionic, but it doesn't stop there. Their plans are quite evil. They intend to create an illusory prison world to keep most commoners (unknowingly) occupied in while they harvest their life force. Meanwhile, (as I mentioned in another post) a rhulisti druid is calling upon the druids of athas through dreams to re-organize and find a way to permanently destroy or banish rajaat before the psions succeed in killing to many SK's. The key to this could be an epic quest, involving diplomacy with the kreen empire and the obsidian lords. Another idea I had for a campaign would be to start as normal, in Golarion or Fae-run (your choice), with typical fantasy setting class/race options. Somewhere around level 4-5 the players start to notice some discrepancies. There are these indestructible guards. And some of them are noticing that the world seems to break apart at the seems in certain areas. To make a long story short, the players are, and have always been in, a huge psionic prison world created by a bunch of psionic madmen on Athas. Or perhaps it's one of Draegoth's projects, long after he became a true god....
#13 xlorep_darkhelm Feb 25, 2010 12:28:54	Another idea I had for a campaign would be to start as normal, in Golarion or Fae-run (your choice), with typical fantasy setting class/race options. Somewhere around level 4-5 the players start to notice some discrepancies. There are these indestructible guards. And some of them are noticing that the world seems to break apart at the seems in certain areas. To make a long story short, the players are, and have always been in, a huge psionic prison world created by a bunch of psionic madmen on Athas. Or perhaps it's one of Draegoth's projects, long after he became a true god.... I had Dregoth as a "wizened old man" who was a quest-giver for a couple of my campaigns before (one on Faerun, the other on Krynn). In both cases, he was secretly seeking artifacts connected to gods. Unfortunately for the Krynn group, the resident Knight of Solomnia decided to check the wise old man's alignment, which caused Dregoth to reveal himself and kill them all before the adventure really could have started. The same group of players decided that the next time they saw a wizened old man giving them a quest, to keep the Paladin away.
#14 big_goon Feb 25, 2010 13:05:17	My current ideas that I would love to try: 1. Conversion of the Adventure Path Story Arc "Scales of War": The original adventure path (if you don't care to read it) involves a fight between Gods, city-level intrigue, otherworldy raiders, and a lot of portal travel between the real world, the elemental chaos, the feywilds and the shadowrealm. I'm planning on converting it to something similar to the Black Spine adventure, which involves otherworldy Githyanki raiders. The adventure will begin in a made-up outpost in the Black Spine mountains. The characters can be scouts, mercenaries, merchant guards, traveling journeymen, wizards looking for Poortool, or pretty much anything else. The adventure starts with them discovering an invation from Gith in the Black Spine Wastes, being drafted by the Nibinese army, and stopping the force. Intrigue in Nibenay and betrayal in the Nibenese Tamplar Castes extending into the Black. Discovering an iron mine. Putting a stop to some Belgoi raiders... Heroic Tier: Mostly in and around Nibenay. The character can become chums of the Template, House of Shom, the VA or really any other power in the vacinity. Paragon Tier: After being exiled from Nibenay, the characters work with Siemhouk (disciple of Nibenay) and must investigate or save some towns and city-states from the Dragon. They can help/work with the Order, Salt View and builders in Ledopolus. Paragon ends with a confrontation with the Oba, meeting the Dragon and fighting Ur Draxa. Epic Tier: The death of the Dragon. Confrontation with Dregoth, Kalid-Ma and some Elemental Chaos goodness. It ends up being a Hodge-podge of adventures with a single developing storyline from level 1 to 30 and multiple possible endings: everything from one character becoming a new Dragon/Avangion, or electing for another SK to become the new Dragon. It would not follow the storyline of the PP, and the PCs would never really meet the characters from the PP unless they went out of their way. I don't know if I can DM that long though... so I don't think I'll ever actually play it . 1-2 years of gaming sounds like a long time. But it's fun to write the storylines. 2. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series became... convoluted, but the first 3 books I thoroughly enjoyed. There was one section where one of the main characters was captured and leashed because of her magic-casting abilities. I thought it was extremely well thought out - she was described as falling asleep crying. When she was finally freed, her vengence was extreme. 9 books later, she still hates her captors above anything else. Ever since that point, I've wanted to develop an adventure based on characters being captured by powerful psionists that leash the characters. They are put through the hurdles of enslavement similar to the Wheel of Time books. As a DM, it would be extremely challenging to completely frustrate and demoralize the characters. It's fun to have a player scan over their character sheet time and time again realizing that they have no powers that can save them. I think the trick is to never remove hope: make sure the characters do not understand the situation they are in. The objective of the adventure is to: Start: make the characters enjoy their characters, their powers, their equipment and their social position. Maybe start in Tyr, or Raam. The character go off and play a standard adventure like Freedom or Black Waters. Take all that away: Dominate the characters, force them to make choices and that the "wrong" choice leads to horrible consequences. The Order has foreseen great change (something about the removal of the SKs?) stemming from these characters, and has decided to take immediate action over their characters. They want this change to be controlled by themselves. Obedience leads to reward: When the characters finally accept the situation, they can go on adventures and become experienced. Always under the direct supervision of psions. Vengence: I like endings of revenge and reward above and beyond a +1 longsword. The players get to freedom and strike back at their captors. Revenge is encouraged.
#15 Nyarlathotep Mar 02, 2010 15:02:08	Well, I don't have an idea yet for an over-arcing lvl 1 to lvl 30 storyline. In fact, I doubt I will have one and the early adventures will be kind of episodic until I come up with something that 'clicks' for me and my players enough to want to pursue that idea up until the end. However, I do have an idea for an adventure around the first few levels that I am probably going to do. I think I am going to star the group in the immediate aftermath of the revolt in Tyr and have the group end up fighting a conspiracy by one of the former king's templars to take over and rule the city. Details are vauge in my head at this point, as I still have many months to hammer them out. I do think, though, that I will go low-magic and use inherent bonuses and such instead. Somehow, it seems to fit the world better.
#16 sir_sparhawk Mar 02, 2010 17:15:29	The idea behind my campaign (or Super-Duper 1-30 Adventure Path as I like to call them), is to tell the story of how the PC Heroes rise from slavery to eventually achieve the impossible and battle a Sorcerer King to free an entire city. (Yes that's Kalak and the City-State of Tyr) With the WotC statement that the Prism Pentad is "just one possible outcome" it allows me to now place the PC's in the roles of Agis, Rikus, Sadira & Neeva. Thank you WotC for that by the way. Skill challenges while they're in the pits at the start of the campaign will determine if they leave the House Jarko of Balic Arena in the hands of a Brown Elf member of the Slave Tribe "The Free," or if they're purchased by a greedy slave trader looking to make money off of their blood in the Tyrian Arena for the great Zigguraut games. A lot of things need to happen between that time of going from an Arena in Balic to the climactic battle against Kalak. However there is something I'm planning in the Paragon levels. Not sure if it'll be the climactic battle which sees them reach the Epic Tier afterwards or somewhere in the middle, but two things have inspired me to design a new unique solo monster. Reading the Prism Pentad there was a scene in Under Tyr where we discover that an ancient faith still holds power by the strength of strong will, not divine. It's stated that their pantheon had left and that only their faith kept the candles lit and their power strong. That opens the floodgates for me. What if there's an ancient man or creature that has been driven mad by the abandonment of it's god? For thousands of years this thing has been lurring people to it, to feed on their own life force, sorrows and dreams. That's where the second inspiration came in. If you play the game World of Warcraft, their was a raid encounter in the Black Temple called, "The Reliquary of Souls." Awesome encounter with very cool mechanics. 4e really allows me to create something of that nature. It's 3 faces representing different rechargable powers. The wierd floating three faced undead creature that is housed in a giant chest cavity. It'll be a while before I'm done designing it but once I'm done I'll be sure to show you all along with the backstory of the ancient insane monster. Incase you don't know what WoW encounter I'm talking about, here's the look and voices of the creature. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eypfi9Dsyzc Whew...wall of text there. Well I'm still coming up with more for my epic campaign. Thank goodness I have plenty of time to write it.
#17 ian.thomson Mar 02, 2010 18:09:37	I tend to do sandbox campaigns. I'm not just saying that for the pun, but I figure some sort of Grand Theft Athas while the players get used to the setting.
#18 Pennarin Mar 03, 2010 1:08:41	The timeline is a few years before The Verdant Passage. In the Heroic tier the characters start as lone Tyrian slaves and freemen and nobles, and are tasked with various missions by the Veiled Alliance - either as members of the VA or lone agents hired by the organization - until they are united for the first time and form the party, and face up to city officials and guards, commit assassinations and kidnappings, investigate ruins, and uncover an ancient pact of power. Along the way they face betrayal, and become pawns to a genial mastermind whose unseen tendrils blanket the city from UnderTyr. In the Paragon tier the characters discover the threats they have faced before were threads part of a larger tapestry, a plot of vast proportions involving a high templar and the ressurection of a bloodthirsty being of immense power from ages past. They face off with the watch-guardians of this being - his wraith servitors - and a cult that has arisen in anticipation of the revival of their master. They strive to prevent his old forces from consolidating again, and the retrieval of ancient weapons of war. At the end of the tier the party face off with the epic being, newly come back from the grave. Nowhere in there are they involved with the metaplot of the Prism Pentad, or face off sorcerer-kings or the Dragon. Instead they deal with a threat that would have affected the Tyr Region during the novels' timeline had it not been dealt with by the party.

Post/Author/DateTime

Post

sir_sparhawk

Jan 11, 2010 16:54:58

The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan...

Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable.

I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr?

If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches?

Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak?

With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans?

This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this.

So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from?

JohnLynch

Jan 12, 2010 0:00:25

I'm in a similar boat in that none of my players have been exposed to Dark Sun, but I'm going in a completely different direction.

I'll be working on establishing a vision of the world based around Urik. I'll have information on:

common-history (which may or may not be accurate)

races

classes

local fauna and flora

Urik customs including class structure

City Layout and different districts

Basic knowledge of the slums district where crime is rampant.

Noble Houses

Templarate

Fighting Styles (I'm considering on basing this in the schools from Martial Power 2)

Merchant Houses

Urik economy and occupations

Illnesses of Athas

Slaves and Slavery

Supersititions

Legends including a mercenary company called the T'zai Byn that's been started over the ages, often being involved in legendary acts before they die horribly.

A brief overview of the other city-states and geography.

Local tribes native to the region.

Then depending on what characters they make, will depend on whether or not they get a PDF of additional information. But ultimately the website should have a ton of fluff that is missing from most 4th ed products. I'll also be looking to set it out in an easy to read manner so they can read the "important parts" initially and then read the other parts as they desire.

After glancing at the different ideas from the website, they'll need to decide what characters to make. Some possible ideas they could play as a group include:

Elves from a desert tribe.

Members of a thri-kreen tribe.

A new version of the T'zai Byn

Servants, guards for a nobleman (either an NPC nobleman or a PC one).

A Unit in the militia that works for a templar (either NPC templar or a PC one).

A company of hunters (possibly affiliated with a merchant house).

A new gang of criminals.

Registered Elementalists working for the same Templar.

A coven of arcane users who may or may not be defilers.

Or we might have a mixed party with one player being a thri-kreen, another player being a templar, one being a nobleman guard while another is an elementalist. I'll work with the players to ensure the party can actually survive together (a templar and a defiler would probably start combat against each other at the beginning).

Then it will be a matter of determining how to mold the campaign around them. I'm writing up a campaign which will involve a group of factions. The players might choose to affiliate with any of these factions, and they can betray a faction they previously aligned with at any given moment.

In this way I have no idea how the campaign will unfold. I know what the goals of each faction is. I know the strengths and weaknesses they have. How the players interact with these factions will determine how they respond and how they alter their plans and what plans succeed or fail as a result. So I'll be kept guessing how the campaign will end right up until it finally finishes. The players may succeed in their goals, or they may fail because they did the wrong thing. Ultimately the power is in their hands.

Corruption, Betrayal and murder will definitely be present in spades though. A lot of it should be player driven.

But to begin with the campaign will be set in the present time of the 4th ed books. I believe this is a few weeks after the death of King Kalak. It will open with

Show

Hamanu giving a speech about false sorcerer-kings and how he will lead his army to victory as they go south to conqueor Tyr and bring its people into the light beneath the protection of the benevolent and all powerful King Hamanu! Long live the Urikite Empire!

This will result in quite a bit of opportunity for the players as they're left behind in the Urik region. With much of the army gone, anything could happen. And if the players are members of the militia, then why weren't they chosen? Are they not trusted? Is there a reason they're not trusted?

sir_sparhawk

Jan 12, 2010 13:03:47

John, that sounds really cool. I was never part of an Urikite campaign so that's definately an intriguing plan. In the Prism Pentad Book 2, "The Crimson Legion" Rikus takes the Tyrian army to the gates of Urik. Do you plan on using that event in your campaign?

beej_silver

Jan 12, 2010 21:51:07

I too, am very excited about Dark Sun, but my experience with the game is very different when compared to other fans of the setting. As someone who was indoctrinated to the game at the influx of 3.5, we played DS in that edition.

And frankly, the game we played sucked.

Fortunately, the setting wasn't what ruined it, IMO. It was the DM's inexperience that did it. We were placed in a heavily-railroaded track of a plot, and it seemed like we were mere spectators to some sort of confrontation between Borys and Rajaat (and I went through all the trouble of planning my character's wizard/psion/cerebromancer build, too). The DM is a friend of mine to this day, and I think he's better at DMing now. Nevertheless, we didn't play the setting again.

The bad experience didn't keep me from getting interested in DS, however, and I was one of the people who fervently hoped that it will see official support in 4E.

I'm mostly a DM these days, and with DS confirmed, I plan on re-introducing my players (and my former Dark Sun DM) to the setting in my own style. I bought books 1-3 of the Prism Pentad and downloaded the 3.5 e-book from athas.org to help me get a better feel for the setting.

Can you believe that I never read Prism Pentad until recently?

Like you, Sir_Sparhawk, I decided to place my game's timeline at around the fall of King Kalak of Tyr. Since I'll be doing this game as an intro, however, I plan on handing out the characters of the Verdant Passage as pore-gens, and have the game go from levels 8-12. (Our infrequent game schedule actually means that will last us until DS releases in August, though.)

So here's my plan for the pregens:

Rikus - Level 8 Mul Battlerager/Tempest Fighter: At first, Rikus seemed like a better fit for the barbarian class. But I already plan on Neeva being a barbarian, and two of them seemed redundant. So I thought that battlerager fighters are more or less barbarians anyway, and of the two gladiators, Rikus was the one who felt more defender-ish. Rikus does seem to use two-weapon fighting styles a lot, though, so I'm still undecided on whether to make him a tempest instead.

Oh, he will definitely have the weapon-master feat from the most recent Fighter Class Acts. That way, he is good with any weapon he picks up.

As for his race, I will probably reskin the half-orc for now. Str/Dex works well for a mul, while the (Mul) Half-orc Resilience racial trait quite adequately represents the toughness of muls. Besides, half-orc is half-right... >.>

Neeva - Level 8 Human Barbarian - I'm still thinking if I should build her as a Thaneborn or not. While she's described as being quite attractive (then again, just about every human-blooded character in the Verdant Passage was described that way), she didn't seem to have a strong personality. So maybe Rageblood or Thunderborn for her.

Oh, and I plan on avoiding powers with energy keywords to keep her nonmagical feel.

Sadira - Level 8 Half-Elf Staffizard - While she's a staffizard, she's going to have good constitution and charisma, and would have a decent chance of going scond implement for an orb of deception later on. Interestingly, she wouldn't have a staff at first (so I guess she'll be really happy once she inherits the Staff of Nok from Ktandeo)

I was very, very, very tempted to make her a sorceress instead. But hey, the party needed a controller.

Agis - Level 8 Human Ardent - It's a good thing they released the ardent as a DDi preview recently. Otherwise I would have turned Agis into a warlord, and it just wouldn't have given him that psionic feel. Ah, and he's the only character that will start off with an actual metal weapon.

5th PC - I will allow one pleyer to build a DS character, with restrictions. I originally thought of adding Tithian (as a Kalak-pact warlock, however that works out) to the mix, but that didn't seem appropriate. >.>

I plan on mostly sticking with the Verdant Passage, specifically after Rikus had his behind handed to him by the Gaj. I don't want to go through an encounter where Rikus didn't feel as awesome as he should have been.

Hmm, I also want to introduce the fragility of bone and obsidian weapons somewhat, but I didn't want the gladiators to a significant disadvantage compared to Sadira and metal-sword Agis. So here's what I came up with:

Stone and and obsidian weapons will get a point of fragmenting whenever a weapon attack roll results in a natural 1 or 20. Each point of fragment reduces the weapons proficiency bonus by 1. A weapon that has its proficiency bonus reduced to +0 in this way shatters.

Bone weapons, otoh, get a point of fragmenting whenever a weapon attack roll results in a natural 1.

Weapons can be repaired if they have fragmenting points, but not when they are shattered.

Finally, I plan on using the inherent bonuses from DMG2. These inherent bonuses will act as magic tresholds, so that if Sadira with a +2 inherent bonus gets a +3 staff of Nok, it will only be a retroactive +1 to attack and damage. Items are thus mostly sought after for their Item Dailies, and the game will not break down even without a lot of these items around.

I am currently most excited with the fight with Kalak. I think the whole business with the spear being thrown by one of the gladiators will work as a skill challenge, while the fight with the injured Kalak will be based on Dungeon's Colossus of Laarn Skill challenge (with the option of trying to kill a the level 17 solo Sorcerer-King that will take the place of the colossus).

JohnLynch

Jan 12, 2010 22:20:58

Do you plan on using that event in your campaign?

Nope. For the past 8 years I've played in a "Dark Sun" inspired game, but having read the original boxed set and glanced over the later books, I discovered most of the elements I enjoyed about the game didn't come from Dark Sun. So in an effort to put those elements back into Dark Sun, I'm using a "back to basics" approach where I build upon the original boxed set. I'm doing my best not to contradict information in that original boxed set, but I am putting a different slant on it.

For example I've written a brief outline for the history that players will know, and it will be along the lines of something like this:

???: The Old Council of Kings begins to decay. In the final meeting between the Kings, the Council unanimously votes to dissolve itself.

Year 50 of the 79th King's Age: The Dragon invades and begins conquering kingdoms until he rules over the entire Tablelands. Disease and famine sweeps the land, with the once fertile kingdoms transforming into deserts.

Year 23 of the 83rd King's Age: The Dragon, for reasons unknown, departs. He leaves behind his most loyal servants, known as Dragonthralls, to rule each of the major city-states in his place.

Year 64 of the 85th King's Age: Hamanu arrives from beyond the Ringing Mountains, leading an army of halflings. He lays seige to the Dragonthrall Yanamuke's city-state. Yanamuke is defeated with the city completely broken down into rubble. The survivors join Hamanu as he marches into battle with the other Dragonthralls.

Year 3 of the 86th King's Age: War continues for many years, with many powerful figures joining forces to lead tribes and survivors into battle against the Dragonthralls. Finally after more than an Age of battle, the Dragonthralls are no more.

Year 4 of the 86th King's Age: King Hamanu begins construction of a new city-state dubbed Urik while the other leaders begin occupying cities in ruins or constructing their own city-states.

Year 7 of the 86th King's Age: With no-one left to fight, the halflings begin turning on the refugees from the Dragonthrall War. Hamanu quickly subdues them before banishing them from the Tablelands altogether. A few of the halflings sided with Hamanu and helped him in bringing the feral halflings under control. In return they're allowed to remain as soldiers.

Year 49 of the 160th King's Age: Although it is believed all of the Dragonthralls are long dead, its discovered one not only survived, but is still in charge of a city-state. Adropinis arrives from the south and frees the people of Balic from this evil ruler. A purge begins to remove all those loyal to the Dragonthrall.

Year 74 of the 160th King's Age: The Great Purge of Balic finally finishes and elections are called to choose a new leader. Andropinis is elected for a 7 year term.

Year 77 of the 160th King's Age: A referendum is held in Balic to make Andropinis ruler for life. After the refferendum passes with a strong affirmative decision, several families are raised to the position of Noble Houses. The election system continues with templars elected for life by vote. Commoners choose which Noble House the appointments will come from.

Year 29 of the 170th King's Age: King Kalak is killed by a gladiator.

Most of this isn't from the original boxed set and outright contradicts most of what follows that boxed set. But it sets up some themes and ideas I wanted to explore.

First of all, I wanted the sorcerer-kings to appear less evil. The mere name "sorcerer-king" immediately makes it obvious they're suppose to be defilers. Also, they're described as being fairly evil. Teckitulay is described as capturing people in the desert simply to rip out their hearts and throw their corpses into the Arena. No reason other than he enjoys it. Andropinis is called Dictator for crying outloud. Why not just call him "General Baby Eater" and be done with it

To me, no-one would want to live in a city-state with any of these people. And why bother when you've got the burgeoning democracy that is Tyr.

So I beefed up the threat of the "Dragon of Tyr" from what he is in the original boxed set. He gets a couple of lines decsription with the rest stats or tactics. So based on that book he's fairly basic and undeveloped. I was able to make him the ultimate bogeyman. The game I use to play had the idea of Dragonthralls and the idea that modern society began after the Dragon disappeared. I tweaked those ideas to make the Dragon disappear, but keep the old society functioning by having Dragonthralls rule in his place.

This makes the threat of the Dragon and his Dragonthralls much more iminent. The Dragon didn't disappear in some indeterminate time long ago. He disappeared in Year 23 of the 83rd King's Age. That makes the threat of the Dragon much more closer to home. The "sorcerer-kings" (which is a term I'll be moving away from) get to act the part of heroes as they destroy the Dragon's minions and give hope to the people.

However the Dragon himself was never defeated. He could return at any moment. And so despite how cruel or terrible the city-states may be, people don't attack the sorcerer-king's because if the Dragon does return, the sorcerer-kings will probably be the only thing to protect them. And everyone just better hope they're enough.

So instead of the sorcerer-kings being set up as villains to be overthrown, I wanted them to be considered omnipotent protectors, being the only thing to keep people safe from evil defilers that lurk in the desert.

So I needed a city-state that had a warlike and powerful ruler. Many of the city-states would have qualified, but they didn't have the desert feel I wanted AND also have a ruler that it would be possible to create favourable propaganda about. Balic is in a fairly desert-atmosphere, but Andropinis is called a Dictator for crying outloud. That's not particularly easy to write propaganda about. Abalach-Re is worshipped by her citizens, but she lives next to a forest and her palace is in a giant tree. On a desert world!

Urik fit the bill with not only having a warrior sorcerer-king in a desert ecology, but you can follow Hamanu and still feel like you aren't working for an evil moustache-twirling villain. Also Urik is barely outlined at all in the original boxed set, making it the perfect city to make my own.

The assumption that the sorcerer-kings are omnipotent and omniscient is of course refuted by the Dark Sun books with King Kalak's death. My initial reaction was to ignore that and simply set the campaign just before his death so I could stop it from happening as a DM. But I decided to accept that part of lore and build a campaign exploring the issue. How is it Kalak could be killed by a slave? Can all of the sorcerer-kings be killed?

Hamanu's response to these questions is to then try to conqueor Tyr. The time is perfect, after all. Thanks to this gladiator, the templars of Tyr have lost their source of power. Now there is nothing to stand in the way of Hamanu's forces. Nothing to protect the Tyrans from certain conquest. Assuming everything goes to plan

I'll be exploring the issue of how powerful the sorcerer-kings are and how the world of Athas will react to the death of King Kalak.

pavek

Jan 13, 2010 8:13:15

The Oba of Gulg is worshipped by her citizens, but she lives next to a forest and her palace is in a giant tree. On a desert world!

I like your take on the history although I would use it as the propaganda of the SKs with the true (published) history being hidden/lost. Good stuff.

Alacryss

Jan 21, 2010 23:42:39

The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan...

Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable.

I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr?

If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches?

Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak?

With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans?

This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this.

So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from?

This sounds almost exactly the plot of the "Freedom" module of 2e Dark Sun.

sir_sparhawk

Jan 22, 2010 0:00:35

The release of DARK SUN 4e can not come any more soon for me. I was a die hard fan of DARK SUN when it first came out back in 1991 because it was such an original concept when it came to fantasy settings. I now have the privilage of showing my current players who have never run DARK SUN before, the splendors, mystery and brutality of Athas. So here is my plan...

Because I have new players, I want to teach them a bit about the history and nature of the setting and have them play a pivitol role in perhaps the most significant event in modern DARK SUN lore. The fall of King Kalak of Tyr. To prepare my writtings, I'm in the process of re-reading the Prism Pentad series of novels to see if there's anything that occures that I could have my players be a part of. I won't stray too far from the novels and the original happenings, but I'm sure some tweaks will be unavoidable.

I see the PC's starting off as slaves, perhaps as fodder for the gladitorial pits. However these small games will not be in Tyr. Think of Maximus and where and how he arrived to his first games in the movie "Gladiator." After a few games and some time to show the life of a gladiatorial slave to my players, the call is given to head to Tyr in preparation for the great games in the shadow of Kalak's mighty Zigguraut. Two paths decided upon the players will be in front of the PC's. Do they attempt escape while in the pits, or do they chance their fate in the arena of Tyr?

If they make an attempt to escape from the pits, they'll have to escape the village and survive in the desert. If they choose to test their fate they'll find their caravan attacked by marauding Elves and either make their stand, or their escape. It's at this time I show my players the harsh and brutal nature of the world. How do they survive the wastes of Athas? How do they escape savage beasts, carnivorous plants, savage raiding Elves and perhaps even worse...enough water to survive the heat of the crimson sun? It's during this time I can throw all sorts of things at my players. At some point during this part of their trek to Tyr, I'll have them stumble apon an ancient burial ground dating back to the Green Age. What horrors might lay within the tomb but also, what possible riches?

Finally they reach the City-State of Tyr. It's at this time that the Zigguraut is nearing it's completion and King Kalak is ordering his Templars to enslave all that they can to put them to work on the massive creation. Do the PC's avoid capture themselves or perhaps they save an important member of the Veiled Alliance from the pits? An introduction to the Veiled Alliance can lead to many intriguing adventures in direct defiance of King Kalak. Now at the Paragon levels, their decisions and success may now change the fate of Tyr. Do they help the Veiled Alliance in their fight against the tyranny of King Kalak?

With the Zigguraut now complete, the Great Games are about to begin. The Veiled Alliance has their agents in place and King Kalak is ready for his ascension as a full Dragon. The epic climax and the fate of Tyr will see the PC's reach their Epic Destiny. Are they successful in the defeat of King Kalak allowing Tyr to fulfill it's destiny as the only free City-State of the Tablelands, or are the citizens all sacrificed to fuel the power Kalak needs complete his hellish plans?

This is my plan for my players because they have never exprienced Athas before. I want to show them everything DARK SUN has to offer and in the process allow them to be a part of its history. Like I said in the opening of this thread, I just can't be more excited about this.

So what are the plans you have for your players, and if you're a player...what's your first character going to be and where did they come from?

This sounds almost exactly the plot of the "Freedom" module of 2e Dark Sun.

The climax of it is, but if you read what I wrote in detail you'll find that the PC's aren't just slaves trying to escape the Arena when Kalak is draining the life of his people. Rather it's the PC's who are fighting directly against King Kalak at his moment of ascension. The adventure is going to begin in another place entirely as the PC's are not going to be starting in the City-State of Tyr. My goal is to have my players be a part of the events that lead to the beginning of the Prism Pentad. However I'm not going to be beholden to the demise of Kalak. If they're defeated and King Kalak becomes a full Athasian Dragon, the future of Athas could be far different than how we know it now.

xlorep_darkhelm

Feb 02, 2010 17:05:06

I too, am quite intrigued by and official re-release of Dark Sun. I hope they at least took some inspiration from Athas.org's people for some of the ideas on what to do with it, but even if they don't, it will most likely be good.

I'm fully expecting Dragon and Avangion to be Epic Destinies. Seriously, that whole game mechanic in 4E just fits with those ideas (along with the other advanced beings, if they are retained).

#10

RalofTyr

Feb 24, 2010 0:25:28

My plans for Dark Sun?

Well, I really liked it when it first came out. I'm planning on keeping the concepts alive while I convert it to another system and run it based on concepts from that system.

#11

nimblegrund

Feb 25, 2010 1:20:20

Here's an idea that I came up with...

As is par for the course, the players start out enslaved in the pits. Maybe I should spice things up and do an introductory adventure or two where the PC's are free, and then put them in a situation where they are enslaved... dunno.

Anyway, rather than escaping they survive the doom of the arenas, and then are purchased by a dune trader. This trader leads them back to his modest wagon, and then proceeds to free the PC's.

He explains that he was once a slave himself and finds the idea to be abhorrent, and tells them that they are free to go... but first he has a proposition for them. He wants to offer them a partnership in his trading company. He says he chose them because he saw something special in the PC's, and he knew immediately that he wanted them for this partnership.

Afterwards there is some haggling over percentage of profits, though the trader insists on a larger cut. It will later be revealed that he is a preserver (not nearly as powerful as the pc's... he knows a few low-level spells) and is funnelling part of his profits into the VA, which opens up more possibilities for adventures.

While travelling in various desert villages and city-states they are free to take advantage of other plot hooks, from which they get all of the treasure. The money that they get from trading commodities is basically just icing on the cake. Eventually when they make enough money they can upgrade their wagon, hire more employees, and get themselves a full-on mekillot-pulled superwagon (whatever they call them) and form their own trading house of awesome.

I would basically be using the commodity table from the dune trader supplement and let the players choose what commodities they want to buy and sell and where they want to go with them. Meanwhile I can tailor my adventures to happen along the way or wherever.

Or they can just walk away from the trader who bought their freedom and do their own thing, which is fine, too, maybe he can show up again from time to time as a peripheral ally.

#12

dyssolve

Feb 25, 2010 10:25:48

I could not wait. I started a campaign now.

The players are starting in the brown age, before any thoughts of revolution are happening. Or so it seems. The players don't know, but the brotherhood of the mind and the order have essentially been dissolved for quite some time. A group of powerful psions have formed a group called the "New Order", which intends to accelerate what they believe to be natural evolution, mainly by eliminating the sorcerer-kings once and for all. They intend to create a world that is fully psionic, but it doesn't stop there. Their plans are quite evil. They intend to create an illusory prison world to keep most commoners (unknowingly) occupied in while they harvest their life force. Meanwhile, (as I mentioned in another post) a rhulisti druid is calling upon the druids of athas through dreams to re-organize and find a way to permanently destroy or banish rajaat before the psions succeed in killing to many SK's. The key to this could be an epic quest, involving diplomacy with the kreen empire and the obsidian lords.

Another idea I had for a campaign would be to start as normal, in Golarion or Fae-run (your choice), with typical fantasy setting class/race options. Somewhere around level 4-5 the players start to notice some discrepancies. There are these indestructible guards. And some of them are noticing that the world seems to break apart at the seems in certain areas. To make a long story short, the players are, and have always been in, a huge psionic prison world created by a bunch of psionic madmen on Athas. Or perhaps it's one of Draegoth's projects, long after he became a true god....

#13

xlorep_darkhelm

Feb 25, 2010 12:28:54

Another idea I had for a campaign would be to start as normal, in Golarion or Fae-run (your choice), with typical fantasy setting class/race options. Somewhere around level 4-5 the players start to notice some discrepancies. There are these indestructible guards. And some of them are noticing that the world seems to break apart at the seems in certain areas. To make a long story short, the players are, and have always been in, a huge psionic prison world created by a bunch of psionic madmen on Athas. Or perhaps it's one of Draegoth's projects, long after he became a true god....

I had Dregoth as a "wizened old man" who was a quest-giver for a couple of my campaigns before (one on Faerun, the other on Krynn). In both cases, he was secretly seeking artifacts connected to gods. Unfortunately for the Krynn group, the resident Knight of Solomnia decided to check the wise old man's alignment, which caused Dregoth to reveal himself and kill them all before the adventure really could have started. The same group of players decided that the next time they saw a wizened old man giving them a quest, to keep the Paladin away.

#14

big_goon

Feb 25, 2010 13:05:17

My current ideas that I would love to try:

1. Conversion of the Adventure Path Story Arc "Scales of War":

The original adventure path (if you don't care to read it) involves a fight between Gods, city-level intrigue, otherworldy raiders, and a lot of portal travel between the real world, the elemental chaos, the feywilds and the shadowrealm.

I'm planning on converting it to something similar to the Black Spine adventure, which involves otherworldy Githyanki raiders.

The adventure will begin in a made-up outpost in the Black Spine mountains. The characters can be scouts, mercenaries, merchant guards, traveling journeymen, wizards looking for Poortool, or pretty much anything else.

The adventure starts with them discovering an invation from Gith in the Black Spine Wastes, being drafted by the Nibinese army, and stopping the force. Intrigue in Nibenay and betrayal in the Nibenese Tamplar Castes extending into the Black. Discovering an iron mine. Putting a stop to some Belgoi raiders...

Heroic Tier: Mostly in and around Nibenay. The character can become chums of the Template, House of Shom, the VA or really any other power in the vacinity.

Paragon Tier: After being exiled from Nibenay, the characters work with Siemhouk (disciple of Nibenay) and must investigate or save some towns and city-states from the Dragon. They can help/work with the Order, Salt View and builders in Ledopolus. Paragon ends with a confrontation with the Oba, meeting the Dragon and fighting Ur Draxa.

Epic Tier: The death of the Dragon. Confrontation with Dregoth, Kalid-Ma and some Elemental Chaos goodness.

It ends up being a Hodge-podge of adventures with a single developing storyline from level 1 to 30 and multiple possible endings: everything from one character becoming a new Dragon/Avangion, or electing for another SK to become the new Dragon. It would not follow the storyline of the PP, and the PCs would never really meet the characters from the PP unless they went out of their way.
I don't know if I can DM that long though... so I don't think I'll ever actually play it

. 1-2 years of gaming sounds like a long time. But it's fun to write the storylines.

2. Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series became... convoluted, but the first 3 books I thoroughly enjoyed. There was one section where one of the main characters was captured and leashed because of her magic-casting abilities. I thought it was extremely well thought out - she was described as falling asleep crying. When she was finally freed, her vengence was extreme. 9 books later, she still hates her captors above anything else.

Ever since that point, I've wanted to develop an adventure based on characters being captured by powerful psionists that leash the characters. They are put through the hurdles of enslavement similar to the Wheel of Time books. As a DM, it would be extremely challenging to completely frustrate and demoralize the characters. It's fun to have a player scan over their character sheet time and time again realizing that they have no powers that can save them. I think the trick is to never remove hope: make sure the characters do not understand the situation they are in.

The objective of the adventure is to:

Start: make the characters enjoy their characters, their powers, their equipment and their social position. Maybe start in Tyr, or Raam. The character go off and play a standard adventure like Freedom or Black Waters.

Take all that away: Dominate the characters, force them to make choices and that the "wrong" choice leads to horrible consequences. The Order has foreseen great change (something about the removal of the SKs?) stemming from these characters, and has decided to take immediate action over their characters. They want this change to be controlled by themselves.

Obedience leads to reward: When the characters finally accept the situation, they can go on adventures and become experienced. Always under the direct supervision of psions.

Vengence: I like endings of revenge and reward above and beyond a +1 longsword. The players get to freedom and strike back at their captors. Revenge is encouraged.

#15

Nyarlathotep

Mar 02, 2010 15:02:08

Well, I don't have an idea yet for an over-arcing lvl 1 to lvl 30 storyline. In fact, I doubt I will have one and the early adventures will be kind of episodic until I come up with something that 'clicks' for me and my players enough to want to pursue that idea up until the end.

However, I do have an idea for an adventure around the first few levels that I am probably going to do. I think I am going to star the group in the immediate aftermath of the revolt in Tyr and have the group end up fighting a conspiracy by one of the former king's templars to take over and rule the city. Details are vauge in my head at this point, as I still have many months to hammer them out.

I do think, though, that I will go low-magic and use inherent bonuses and such instead. Somehow, it seems to fit the world better.

#16

sir_sparhawk

Mar 02, 2010 17:15:29

The idea behind my campaign (or Super-Duper 1-30 Adventure Path as I like to call them), is to tell the story of how the PC Heroes rise from slavery to eventually achieve the impossible and battle a Sorcerer King to free an entire city. (Yes that's Kalak and the City-State of Tyr) With the WotC statement that the Prism Pentad is "just one possible outcome" it allows me to now place the PC's in the roles of Agis, Rikus, Sadira & Neeva. Thank you WotC for that by the way.

Skill challenges while they're in the pits at the start of the campaign will determine if they leave the House Jarko of Balic Arena in the hands of a Brown Elf member of the Slave Tribe "The Free," or if they're purchased by a greedy slave trader looking to make money off of their blood in the Tyrian Arena for the great Zigguraut games.

A lot of things need to happen between that time of going from an Arena in Balic to the climactic battle against Kalak. However there is something I'm planning in the Paragon levels. Not sure if it'll be the climactic battle which sees them reach the Epic Tier afterwards or somewhere in the middle, but two things have inspired me to design a new unique solo monster. Reading the Prism Pentad there was a scene in Under Tyr where we discover that an ancient faith still holds power by the strength of strong will, not divine. It's stated that their pantheon had left and that only their faith kept the candles lit and their power strong. That opens the floodgates for me. What if there's an ancient man or creature that has been driven mad by the abandonment of it's god? For thousands of years this thing has been lurring people to it, to feed on their own life force, sorrows and dreams. That's where the second inspiration came in. If you play the game World of Warcraft, their was a raid encounter in the Black Temple called, "The Reliquary of Souls." Awesome encounter with very cool mechanics. 4e really allows me to create something of that nature. It's 3 faces representing different rechargable powers. The wierd floating three faced undead creature that is housed in a giant chest cavity. It'll be a while before I'm done designing it but once I'm done I'll be sure to show you all along with the backstory of the ancient insane monster.

Incase you don't know what WoW encounter I'm talking about, here's the look and voices of the creature. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eypfi9Dsyzc

Whew...wall of text there.

Well I'm still coming up with more for my epic campaign. Thank goodness I have plenty of time to write it.

#17

ian.thomson

Mar 02, 2010 18:09:37

I tend to do sandbox campaigns. I'm not just saying that for the pun, but I figure some sort of Grand Theft Athas while the players get used to the setting.

#18

Pennarin

Mar 03, 2010 1:08:41

The timeline is a few years before The Verdant Passage.

In the Heroic tier the characters start as lone Tyrian slaves and freemen and nobles, and are tasked with various missions by the Veiled Alliance - either as members of the VA or lone agents hired by the organization - until they are united for the first time and form the party, and face up to city officials and guards, commit assassinations and kidnappings, investigate ruins, and uncover an ancient pact of power. Along the way they face betrayal, and become pawns to a genial mastermind whose unseen tendrils blanket the city from UnderTyr.

In the Paragon tier the characters discover the threats they have faced before were threads part of a larger tapestry, a plot of vast proportions involving a high templar and the ressurection of a bloodthirsty being of immense power from ages past. They face off with the watch-guardians of this being - his wraith servitors - and a cult that has arisen in anticipation of the revival of their master. They strive to prevent his old forces from consolidating again, and the retrieval of ancient weapons of war. At the end of the tier the party face off with the epic being, newly come back from the grave.

Nowhere in there are they involved with the metaplot of the Prism Pentad, or face off sorcerer-kings or the Dragon. Instead they deal with a threat that would have affected the Tyr Region during the novels' timeline had it not been dealt with by the party.