...now that the boards have picked up again, and before we're flooded by clueless noobs in 2010!
I'll start:
I'm Alex, hit the big 30 this year, professional cube farmer, into DS since day one, working on a 4e DS adventure, and taking care of the Dark Sun Forum Archive when I feel like it ;)
I did work featured on Athas.org, co-authoring the Athasian Emporium, and was art director for a while as well.
I'm Lukasz, I'll become 30 years old in January 
, Graphic-Designer, into DS since 93' (through the Books), working on my first Dark Sun website (just have to figure how this html-stuff works) and the Dark Sun map of the Tyr-Region.
Hi Everyone...I'm Robert. I've been into DS since day one too, it was the first real campaign setting I GM'd, other than here and there with the Red Boxed set.
I started The Burnt World of Athas website around '96 or so, I was known as Chay0s back then. I moderated the Dark Sun List after Teos for a while. I created the "Dark Sun net logo" somewhere around the time TBWoA was voted the Offical Dark Sun site. Around 2000 or so I mostly stopped gaming and left the website in Flip's capable hands. Picked it (gaming) back up again around 2005 for a few Forgotten Realms and Eberron campaigns as a player.
I sold all my Dark Sun stuff in 2007 as I left my life as a Financial Analyst to become a Wilderness Instructor. I was doing that for the past two years.
Recently I've moved to Denver to study Aikido full time as an uchideshi(live in student). So while I don't have the time to game face to face, I have a lot of online time and am really excited for the re-release of Dark Sun.
Hello, I am Craig. I am 43 and I have been a DS junkie since it first came out, I purchased every DS product except Freedom, and still have it all in a box.
I ran a DS campaign while the the novels were still coming out so I set it just after Kalak's death but before anything else changed to setting dynamic. The story centered around the group helping Jebea Shom return House Shom to greatness, and getting mixed up in the machinations of a newborn Dragon named Xombra as she tried to capture Kalak's Vortex so she could grant spells to her 'templars'. Borys also had his fingers in the storyline but the campaign ended before that could come to full bloom (I don't even remember why I quit running it anymore now).
I now run a 4e campaign which I plan to run to 30th level, but I soo want to run DS when it comes out, but I'm not sure I'll have time to run 2 campaigns.
Hello.
I'm Jon. I am 37 and work as a computer programmer.
I was a TSR junkie, especially after I graduated from college, and so a lot of my (then) single income went to my local dealer, er, FLGS I mean. I had them all, Plansescape, Ravenloft, FR, Dark Sun, etc.
I really liked Dark Sun because it came out when FR was getting very complex. I think the second of three god books was being published at the time and I really liked the cohesiveness of Dark Sun from a religion perspective. However, I don't think I grokked it back then and never got to run a real Dark Sun campaign. The few I tried involved cross overs to try and get the players interested in the world but it never really worked out.
(There is a thread on enworld about DMs liking grim and gritty and players not wanting that. I don't know if it's true but my players didn't like how I ran Dark Sun back then.)
With the release of 4E, I immediately thought of Dark Sun and how it fit the points of light campaign model very well. In fact, it's layered, imo, as it fits for the world as a whole as well as the city states! So, I was very happy and excited when they announced Dark Sun would be the 2010 campaign setting. It can't get here fast enough.
Regardless, we recently went back to 4E and I jumped in and am running a Dark Sun game. I am having a lot of fun! It's been fun fleshing out the history and coming up with ideas that don't deal with SKs, Rajaat, etc. and instead deal with some history I have made up for the campaign. I am using Kalid-ma as my SK with Kalidnay as my city-state, having changed the history so that it was never destroyed. I don't have all of the history for the campaign figured out but am having fun working on it!
I am hoping to run them to Epic level and then run another Dark Sun campaign set in a different city state and give the contrast between SKs and other things. That's the plan at this point, anyway.
turlough
My name's Frank. I'm twenty six, and have been playing D&D since in some form since middle school... maybe late grade school.
First box set... was more then a little confusing to reflect back on, being a little bit caught up between first and second edition, surprising since I joined late in the lifespan of AD&D. After the box set, most of my first books were core books for second edition, so my exposure to Dark Sun was limited to looking at the inner cover of the hard cover books where TSR advertised it's other products. Also, outside of D&D there was a slightly glitchy DOS game, but that mostly demonstrated how easy it was to die in the game... particularly when the game decided to glitch you into the desert straight from the arena.
From there you sit back, let third edition come out during high school, and have me discover Eberron early in college. Eberron dominated the horizen until ironically before the release of Eberron in fourth edition where I decided to look up the actual look up information on the other gaming worlds from second edition to get my facts seperated from rumor.
And here I am now. A little more educated in the book sense, but without any actual play expierence. Admittedly Planescape attracts me most of settings, mostly due to smiliarities to Eberron and it's power groups, but Dark Sun has it's attraction as well. Personally I'm hoping the setting get's it's isolation out of it's [censored] if only for sharing the desolation with other worlds. Dark Sun would make a wonderful world to crash land on in a Planescape/Spelljammer setting.
At the moment all I'm really doing for Dark Sun is trying to make a reasonable cosmological arguements here on the forum every once and awhile. I have other things buzzing around in my brain and occasionally onto my keyboard that are D&D related, but you're mostly interested in things as they relate to Dark Sun.
Alrighty, My name is Phoenix, 38 years of age and 30 of them have been spent gaming in one form or another (Chainmail anyone).
Got involved in Dark Sun when my GM introduced me to the PP novels back in '91. I'm not affiliated with any of the DS resource sites, but do function as an archivist and idea sounding board.
My name is Angela. Been DMing the same DS campaign since I think 1995/6. Got introduced to D&D through Dragonlance and Ravenloft, but did not like the feel of either very much. But I immediately fell in love with Dark Sun I think in 1994. Later, I also started playing Planescape and other non-D&D games. We use our own gaming system, because when the group started, one half wanted to use the D&D system and the other a German system called DSA. So we just put what we thought was the best of both together. Because there is so much storyline/conversation to our campaign nowadays (a lot of VA/druid intriguing going on) and little combat, we hardly roll dice. If we do, it is mostly for skills/saves. Some stuff we haven't used for so long, I can hardly remember how we roll for it. So we're almost systemless... This is why I tend to stay out of D&D edition discussions.
Another thing about our campaign is that at the time we started none of us could afford the books, unless they ended up in the bargain bin - and there were no internet resources! So we initally modelled our campaign on how we imagined Athas from the book covers/blurbs and whatever else other gamers told us about DS. We gradually got hold of more books and our Athas gradually became more Athasian, although it is still quite different.
In 1999(-ish) I started the Dark Sun Freedom! page to house alternative resource material for the game. Now in its third incarnation, it has just moved to www.twinmooncircus.net . I update it as often as I can between working on my phd in geography, touring with my band, working as a chef etc. Hopefully, at some point during 2010, one of the aforementioned activities will pay for the new DS books that are coming out! ... *touch agafari*
I'm Rory 31, started playing DS in 95 in small town New Zealand. Just the original boxed set, no FLGS. Got a big shock when I read Dragon Kings at a gamestore out of town. Between us our group had most of the TSR gameworlds but tended to lack modules and much material as we just had the boxed sets being all of 15-18 ears of age or so. I liked Darksun, pre 4th ed FR, Eberron, I had a few of the FR novels and sourcebooks. Group broke up over college, women (one player got involved in drugs and dated all the females in the group including mates sister,treated them badly), families things like that. Occasionally run DS for new players but have more or less stopped playing D&D ATM. Got burned out on 3.5, and 4.0 is OK but didn't get into it. Basically only play Star Wars Saga these days. Current geek addictions involve SW Saga, a little Magic the Gathering on occasion, and Hearts of Iron 2 PC WW2 strategy game.
I'm Rob, back in 95 I got thrown in to the deep end of rp, after 2 LARPS, and 1 Rifts game (neather of witch I read any books for, or was allowed to make my own character mind you) I was asked to run D&D... I bought the then starter set (Oh freedale how I miss thy) and was getting started when I found out one of my players had been DMING for 10 years already, but refused to now.
So I took a bunch of his books, went out and bought 1 or 2 others, and made a world and started...with a Elven wizard, a Human Ranger, a Drow Theif, a Human cleric, and a Half elf Bard...wow was that fun. I managed to survive runing a game for many experanced role-players with little to no experence, and still have two of those players in my tuesday night group...
I ran into darksun early, in a tag sale the orginal box, witch I used in my world by having my own 'dessert kingdoms' were magic didn't work right...
Well well well.
I am Sébastien Gamache, alias Grummore. I've been playing Darksun since the first day too. I am the kind of guy that lurk and comment a few time. I am not a numbers crunchers, but more of the fluff rp type. The only official thing I made was to deliver an athas.org pdf (Terrors of Athas) with laying out the creatures picture for the 3.5 edition. I found this experience quite enlightning. It was easier to understand the difficulty to create 3.5 material when you are NOT paid to do it and when you do it in your spare time. Je lève mon chapeau to the athas.org for having been able to keep darksun alive all these 3rd edition years. The community have been VERY active and I think now we recieve the fruits of the seeds we planted years ago and took care of.
Most of the DS campaign I played were in a post Kalak death and pre Rajaat rampaging killing everybody. But when I first started DS, I played with everything in place, with the 1st boxed set.
I am currently doing what I never did, play after the Prism Pentad. I am playing too, for the first time, with PC with level higher than 13. I dont like high level campaign. Anyway, I am GMing DREGOTH Ascending. We have finished the second part and we are soon to start the third part. We should restart the game december end or early january. It's because we all are GM and we alternate our game (Darksun 3.5e, BattleStar Galactica Cortex, Mutants and Mastermind, Stargate d20, Cthulhu 2nd ed, Forgotten Realms 3.5e, Shadowrun 4th ed. and Eberron 3.5e).
Ah yes, I am a 36 years old daddy, math-science teacher and barn owner (25 horses).
I have been the first (and the only one) to have a bilangual Darksun web site. I have been famous for my HUGE links section. Which, unfortunatly will be decimated since the dissapearance of geocities... But still, I think I was the third DS web site ever made. Athas.org been the first, Traversing the sand the second and mine as third (I may be wrong). Though, with athas.org, I am the only one to have survived the 2nd, third and now 4th DS edition.
Which was previously www.siltskimmer.net
Now, I am please to meet all the new faces I can see here, it's quite refreshing! Of course, I am still very pleased to see the old farts that lurks around or that suddenly made an appearance!
IMPORTANT MESSAGE
I will redo a new thread soon, but I wanted peoples to know that if someone want to make use of the server that host the siltskimmer.org for a Darksun web site or if he want to TAKE charge of the siltskimmer.org (and to redo it), I would be quite pleased to lend some space or to have a partern to update a Darksun site.
Hey there. I'm Mark. Recently hit the big four-oh. Bought the original DS box on the day it came out and haven't looked back since. I used to be a developer and designer with athas.org but retired a while back following the birth of kiddie #3. I'm much less active on these boards than I used to be but still run an intermittent DS game with a houseruled variant of the Pathfinder rules. These days I also co-host the Darker Days podcast for the World of Darkness and am playing that system more than anything d20 based. Still have lots of time for Athas and all its cactal goodness, though. Looking forward to seeing what DS4e looks like. Unlikely to play it using that system, but good ideas and cool artwork are independent of edition, so there will likely be plenty of stuff to steal 
.
Hi All. My name is Bryan and I'm 37. I've been playing D&D since the original red and blue basic and expert boxed sets. I've been a devoted Dark Sun player since the first campaign boxed set was released back in 1991. I've played a myriad of other settings ranging from Red Steel to Spelljammer but Athas has always been my favorite hands down.
I've been a less active member of Athas.org for the last couple of years and have contributed to several product releases.
I'm not an advocate for 4e but still looking forward to seeing DS re-released.
Hi, I got my screen name from an arcade video game we used to play back in '92 when Dark Sun first came out(actually, I bought it in '91, but hadn't really gotten into it until summer of '92). The game was called Rai Den, but I thought it was Ral Den, so, my first character was a gladiator Mul, named Ral in the city of Tyr.
I live in Southern California. My group were really into Dark Sun back in '93, and that's when we purchased all the core books etc. You can say I'm a bit of a Dark Sun Grognard, as I only played the AD&D Second Edition Box set that first came out and I never included all the special events that appeared in box sets and books that followed.
I never used pscionics, in that, I didn't understand the rules. Now, using Cyberpunk 2020 Night's Edge, I do understand pscionics and want to use that rule system in a Dark Sun Style game.
I've always liked Dark Sun, ancient Sumeria and the desert in general. Though, I don't play it anymore. In fact, I think it's been over a decade since I rolled Dark Sun dice in anger. I continue to come up with ideas.
Hi all,
My name is Andrew, not Big Goon. I'm from Montreal. I started DnD with the original red boxed set, and enjoyed it immensely. In the early 90s, I played in several settings, including Ravenloft, Al-Qadim and Dark Sun, and read several novel series including the PP.
When I moved away from my gaming friends, I had a huge lapse in DnD play. Played some, on and off, White Wolf campaigns - but never enjoyed the experience like the ol' Dark Sun.
I've recently returned to the DnD community, and was completely overwhelmed by the number of new rules for 3.5. Took me forever to get to learn all the rules, the new classes and truly experience the new DnD system. 4e gave me a clean slate, and so I've adopted the system, and a new set of gaming friends who introduced me to Athas.org. Still haven't read half the material on that site
Psyched to see what comes out for 4e Dark Sun.
'lo all.
My name is Chris Flipse, better known as flip in these parts. I'm 30, living in the greater DC area. I make my living as a professional software developer, mostly web application these days.
I've been playing Dark Sun since the very early days, and originally joined the Dark Sun list sometime around 1993-1994. A few years later, I took up mantaining the mailing list FAQ.
In 2000, just prior to the release of 3e, I became one of the founding members of Athas.org and became heavily involved in the Dark Sun 3 project, and spearheaded the 3.5 update.
I am currently responsible for the programming and maintence of all of the technical aspects of athas.org, as well as being involved in product review and guidence.
I'm Eric, I've been part of the Dark Sun community for a long time. Joining the DS Mailing list long ago.
When WotC was just beginning to offer downloads of free material . . . before 3e was published . . . I contacted Jim Butler to inquire if anyone at WotC would protest my offering of a comprehensive spell list I compiled from the 2e spell compendiums. I scoured every 2e spell, evaluated them, and put in the list every spell I believed was flavorful for Athas. Jim Butler granted that I could freely distribute my spell list.
I gave my 2e spell list to Athas.org to host for free download when they were given the nod by WotC as the official fan website.
I became part of Athas.org's conversion team not long after 3e was announced, I believe due to my experience with my comprehensive spell list. I departed the team when personal life got too busy.
I had the honor to interview Troy Denning in a personal hour long sit down after his seminar at GenCon. This was followed up by an email back and forth correspondence. I posted some of the email correspondence to the Mailing List back then, and I regret not writing down anything of the hour interview later. It's all in my head.
For the past few years, I've been mostly an infrequent lurker, popping in and out for months at a time.
I'm not sure what to make of 4e. I haven't gamed with it yet, but the announcement had brought me out of lurkerdom . . . for now. ;)
Heya. My name is Raven. Another of the ancient grognards still hanging about. Four kids, a cat, a dog. Other critters have come and gone.
Purchased DS back when I was in high school, right after it first came out as well as sight-unseen (because the text on the back of the boxed set made me drool). Eventually introduced it to my play group and was lucky enough to run weekly campaigns using the setting for a number of years. Post-college, I was lucky enough to get a game of DS in here and there (and once even a short campaign using the setting with Donjon's rules, which was a blast).
Don't recall when it was I joined the old mailing list, but was there until everyone switched over to the early WotC boards, and I've been here almost ever since discussing and arguing about the setting.
I'm a member of athas.org's "Artisans' Quarter". Illustrated the covers for a couple of the modules they released, did a bit of interior work, done a bit of editing on some of the documents. Also maintain the Athasian Cartographer's Guild, and I write short fiction with a DS-vibe.
I'm not sure if I'm excited about 4E yet, or if I don't care. Still haven't had a chance to play it. I'll undoubtedly pick-up the DS books, though, being a fan of the setting. See what they've done with it and mine it for ideas. Might be enough to get me to play 4E, even, and convince my current group to give it a shot.
I am also re-reading all the DS novels and have caught myself sketching and thinking a lot about Athas lately. It's a great playground for an artist's mind.
I haven't been able to contribute a great deal to the Darksun community, to be honest. A few illustrations I think, but mostly my schedule and trying to build a business has affected my ability to contribute.
I would like to be more active here and be able to put together some images for the new DS, but time is running short and the bills and family have to come first. I would like to say, however, that these boards and most of you have been a great influence on my vision of Darksun. Thanks!
My name is Joe Carlock, I will be 40 in February.
I have been playing D&D since 1998 and I fell in love with
the Dark Sun in 1999 (see my page for more detail)
I mostly lurk around but will put in my two copper pieces
Married 20 years (my wife Kim is a player)
Two kids (daughter's 20 my son is 18)
both gamers.
I work in a cube (I work to live and I live to game)
My gaming group, the SGC (sadistic Glee Club) has been together
since 1998 gaming just about every weekend since its inseption
with a few changes to the player line up.
and we have played Homebrews a plenty, FR, Eberron, D20 modern, L5R, LOTR, BSG, Serrenity,
Decipher Star Trek, West end Star wars, D20 and Saga Star Wars as wells as Board games and CCG's (good times......good times)
I have been re-reading my old dark sun books to get ready for DS4
pleasure to meet you
So yea, that is me. And I have been a huge proponent of a new Dark Sun release. I am quite ecstatic that it is happening now. And that is about it.
My name is Nathan, use to go by NytCrawlr a lot on the old boards and athas.org website. Also use to be a designer for athas.org, helped produce the monster manual for 3.0 and 3.5, etc.
Was on the mailing list for a long time as well.
Have played D&D since 2nd ed, in my thirties, and Dark Sun has always been my favorite campaign setting.
Been playing D&D4e on an online chat and been enjoying it so far, and also looking for a local TT group to get back into.
Also looking to start my own online gaming chat for Dark Sun soon, more information will follow once I have it, hopefully I won't be doing it alone.
Good to be back from time to time on the boards, kind of miss it.
Nyt!! Long time no see buddy
My name is Chris Flipse, better known as flip in these parts. I'm 30, living in the greater DC area...
Another local guy! I'm Jack, down in Germantown MD. I just turned 31, started gaming about 21 years ago, though I've been out of the loop for a while. I started out with a group of friends back in the day. We were young guys with no cash, but my friend's older brother and his friends (which were 16-17 at the time) had jobs and money, so they bought pretty much every book known to man back then. They would play all night on a Fri and leave their books at my buddies house when they were done, so we would make copies of everything we needed and use the books they had left over during the week. We would play probably twice a week, with our weekend sessions starting about 4 PM on a Sat and running until virtually 4 AM sometimes.
We played Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, a little Dragonlance, and then of course Dark Sun. After a bit, we had jobs and money of our own and we ended up with just about every book imaginable. We ran Dark Sun through all the modules, using the '91 box set as the basis. We never incorporated changes from the revised box set, so the Dragon and all the SK's continued to live in our world.
I never played anything from 3E because I went to college and still ran 2E rules. I stopped playing all together for a long time, just now deciding to give it a try again since Dark Sun is coming out for 4E. The current plan is to try and run the old 2E Dark Sun stuff with some buddies while we learn 4E rules and prepare for 4E Dark Sun next year.
As my nickname implies I'm a lurker most of the time, but have contributed ideas on the Villichi and on the halflings of the Small Water Oasis. Both threads can be found in the forum archives.
Another fan of DS from original CS boxed set. I started playing DS around '94 or '95 (it was too long ago to be certain any more). Being a huge fan of both D&D and anything post-apocalyptic, DS was a perfect match for me.
I have played little 3E or 3.5E and have yet to touch 4E due to life just generally getting in the way. With the news of DS coming to 4E though, I've picked up the PHB and began to familiarize myself with the new rules so that it's not such a total shock to the system next summer.
I have been following athas.org and their work to keep DS alive. I think that the work they've done is great and hope that WotC continues with that.
--
Neil
The Rise and Fall of a Dragon King is still my favorite.
Years ago I ran a 2E DS campaign as DM. Recently, I've started on tables and formulae for random encounters in a 4E DarkSun world.
I'm hoping to finally role (sic) a PC on Athas. Perhaps a dragonborn artificer who is developing anti-nerf technology for the merchant guilds ...
I used to be part of a ADnD 2E group way back, playing usually a kreen fighter or ranger. Unfortunately, our DM had to give up the screen and dice because his new girlfriend didn't approve of the "candle burning, devil worshipping" game that DnD had a bad rap for back then, and no-one else in the group wanted to take over DMing (or had the salt to do so).
Anyhows, I've picked up the 4th ed DnD box set and have gone through it, looking forward to the 4th ed Dark Sun books when they get released. I know they've nerfed the kreen stats in 4th ed, and I'm a little dubious about the physical changes they're supposedly making to the athasian kreen's anatomy/looks but it'll be great to come back to Athas when the books are out.
I have been playing D&D since about 1988 (except i basically skipped 3rd ed), I have been playing Dark Sun since probably around 1992 or 93. I have spent/wasted a good deal of time compiling (and filling in the massive blanks) for a Dark Sun 4E conversion (only to have it officially announced as I got it to playable stages - lol, but its all good, I can play it now rather than wait)
If anyone wants to check out my conversion PDF's they can be found here -> www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-h...
I am usually a DM, but when I get to play, i love playing Human's, normally Rangers or Gladiators in 2nd ed.
I actually only DM the Dark Sun games and have never found myself on the other side of a DS table...
Played D&D since 1986, loved Dark Sun when ti came out and Spelljammer.
Been making 3D art based on 'em
been published in Polyhedron and mentioned in Dragon ;)
Disabled, non-achieving philosopher!
www.silverblades-suitcase.com