For the new players Dark Sun is a post apocalyptic setting on a desert world ruined by magic. Arcane magic drains the life force out of the land ad can leave sterile ash behind. The races are alot different although in 4th ed they may be mechanically the same. Elves are 7' tall desert nomads who steal and raid, Halflings live in the jungle and eat other sentient races, Dwarves are hairless. New races such as the Mul (half human/half dwarf), Half Giant (human/giant magical creation BTW), Thri Kreen (insectoid mantis men) exist. Traditional races like Gnomes, Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds don't exist, gods dont exist and Clerics draw their power from the elemental planes or elemental chaos in 4th ed terms.
Theres only 1 dragon known as "The Dragon" although it was later revealed there are other proto dragons who don't have his power. The cities were ruled by Sorceror Kings who could grant spells to Templars which were a cleric like divine class in 2nd ed. Wizards were hunted by the Templars and the common population hated them due to the state of the planet. The average citizen didn't know the difference between a Defiler and Preserver. Defilers suck the lifeforce from plants to power their spells. Overall it was a very cool setting and the 1st boxed set seems to be remembered fondly.
My initial reactions of seeing the 4th ed announcement of DS was yay with a big
. Then I saw the art work for the new book. I would have to say I'm impressed with it. An old ruin, The Dragon and the Dark Sun of Athas burning in the back ground. It looked very similar to alot of the old art and the colours were great. Its all but certain the world will e slightly different from the 2nd ed version both to incorporate the mechanical changes and to fit in with the more inclusive 4th ed design philosophy. Odds are the world for example will use some form of the 4th ed cosmology as oppsed to the old 2nd ed Athasan planes which were different even from 2nd eds Great Wheel.On the "Its Darksun" thread much has been about fitting in the new races of the PHB and PHB2. I'm not exactly a purist but if you look hard enough alot of races can easily fit in DS. The setting has had Dray since 1994, and if the old purists of Darksun can get over it and treat them mechanically as Dragonborn, maybe the 4th ed crew could handle the fact tat Dragonborn on Athas are known as Dray. Who knows the designers my retcon the Dray as Dragonborn or they may not. For myself its going to be Dray(Dragonborn) whoile the designers may just stick with Dragonborn. Either way Dragonborn are a reasonably easy fit into Dark Sun. Tieflings are another easy fit without any planar wankery required. Tieflings= mutated humans. The only race I see that may be hard to fit in would be Eladrin which IMHO don't really fit the setting and they don't really have an equivilent.
Athas did have a place called the Last Sea and that area did have some elves that were different from normal Athasian elves and they were pale and never statted out mechanically. Its not to much of a stretch to locate Eladrin there I suppose although they would be a rare/unknown race in that event to the world at large. The Last Sea area is a long way from the Tyr region though and the designers may decide to add a lost Eladrin city somewhere else or have them located closer to home.
Even the Genasi may have a home as the original Dark Sun had a very elemental based sub theme. The Revised Boxed Set of 1995 had a place called Euripis (page 113 of the Wanders Chronicle) populated by half elemental beings. Apart form a few paragraphs to the best of my knowledge this was never fleshed out. Genasi IMHO are a no brainer race that should exist in Dark Sun and Euripis would be an obvious place they could come from.
You could easily reskin Half Orcs and Goliaths into Muls and Half Giants. Not every race should really have a place on Athas officially and some really don't fit at all (Warforged, Drow) but theres a place called the Pristine Tower which mutates organic beings into new races. Any race that is exotic or doesn't really fit can easily be explained as a mutant and be more or less unique, while other races that do kinda fit but never published as such can come from a remote area as not much of Athas was ever mapped out. And theres always the other side of the Sea of Silt. As long as they don't do stupid things like put Gnomes, Orcs, Goblins and Kobolds into the world I'm not to worried, and even then individuals of these races could be mutants as the sole survivor race story has already been done in Dark Sun as a remote colony of Lizard Men survived the cleansing wars which ravaged ancient Athas.
Most of the classes also have a home with a few adaptions for Dark Sun. The divine power source shouldn't exist IMHO but mechanically the Clerics and other divine classes can gain their power from the elemental power source. Old Dark Sun classes like the Templar and Gladiator should probably become a "role" as such. A Gladiator for example could be any martial class weilling to fight in the ring and Dragon magazine had a write up on gladiators. The old Templar class could be updated with some fluff changes and retconned into evil Paladins and Avengers serving the Sorcerer Kings. Paladins was one of the classes that didn't exist in 2nd ed but they are no longer limited to LG in alignment.
Overall I'm reasonably positive about a 4th ed Dark Sun and I can't wait until they release it.
A good read, and well written.
Your opening paragraph had me wondering (and worried) where you would be going with this. I'm glad I kept reading. A very thoughtful and deliberate approach to a 4e DarkSun, and a good overview for anyone unfamiliar with the setting.
Well some here know where I stand on it and I'm not exactly a DS purist as even in 2nd ed some of the metaplot and stories were stupid and contradictory. I own 4th ed and DDI and some of the later books I've read appeal to me alot more than the earlier material.
On various boards and here at the DS forums theres been discussion on how to incorporate the various races and classes into the established DS work. I know alot of obscure bits of DS lore as such. I'm interested in seeing how they fit Eladrin onto DS. It would be interesting on seeing what sort of culture they will have. Even in the early 90's the DS races were mechanically different and very culturally different from standard PHB races.
Dark Sun Halflins are the best Halflings ever IMHO and the history of the Halfling race on that world is alot different from the gods creation myths or elves= first race alot of fantasy worlds go with. Most races on DS are descended from mutated Halflings apart from the Thri Kreen.
I have just a little passing knowledge of the setting, but psionics are more common in Dark Sun than other settings.
Why no mention of psionics?
I have just a little passing knowledge of the setting, but psionics are more common in Dark Sun than other settings.
Psionic in Dark Sun is about as common as magic in FR, it is everywhere. In second ed every player had a wild talent. Magic is far less common, it is slightly more common than Psionics is in the average campaign..
DS. Not my first choice, but a good decision none the less.
I personally was a bigger fan, and wanted DL more, but I am not sour over this at all. I will buy the books, maybe run a DS campaign maybe not, but I will want to see the mechanics of what they release nad steal it for any other games I will be running.
DS. Not my first choice, but a good decision none the less.
Hey you can buy the Sivak Draconian miniature so that should be an indication that they will bring out Dragonlance at some point.
Eladrin are a tough fit but it depends on the direction of an Athasian Feywild. I like the concept of an entire plane defiled with Eladrin and gnomes running from Formorians and their über-defilers seeking out the last fey sentient life for a formorian apotheosis. Every time an eladrin fey steps he comes back slightly burned and covered in ash. Of course, the S-K's would want to use the eladrin as fuel for their own dark rituals. Maybe fey work like Trees of Life for a defiler?
but, it's easy to fit almost any race in, Athas has always had many mutations...why they occur, is up to you as DM.