tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646163054327608765.post2044991894904481084..comments2023-10-30T09:58:01.179-04:00Comments on Tankards & Broadswords: Why Did the Dark Sun Burn Out?Jack Badelairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10932441028544500024noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646163054327608765.post-59049438474020297772009-02-14T03:06:00.000-05:002009-02-14T03:06:00.000-05:00Having literally picked up Dark Sun at the same ti...Having literally picked up Dark Sun at the same time as Planescape and a few other shiny toys, I want to toss out my own two ceramics on the subject many months late ;3<BR/><BR/>Dark Sun is one of my favourite TSR creations; it loses its third place spot to something I'll address a mite later. It's definitely not for everyone, though, and I think you hit on a number of reasons why -- the scores, the psionics, and how PCs succeed (and die) in the setting.<BR/><BR/>It's possible to reap great reward in Dark Sun, but those rewards are more intangible than the usual D&D fare. Look at the supplements like <I>Dune Trader</I> and <I>Veiled Alliance</I>, or <I>Earth Air Fire and Water</I> and <I>The Will and the Way</I> -- powerful characters amass influence and / or small patches of territory, not loot. Wheeling and dealing and making webs of influence aren't the main focus of most D&D games, especially not when in conjunction with the type of world Athas was.<BR/><BR/>Then -- indeed -- there was the Prism Pentad. That alone might not have tripped up Dark Sun as a campaign setting, but the Revised Box certainly did. Suddenly ignoring the PP events just wasn't an option any longer; the whole world was redescribed and every supplement after the new box got weirder and weirder. (Dolphins? On Athas? And don't get me started about "life-shaping" halflings.)<BR/><BR/>One further wrinkle, though -- and one that I think tends to get missed when the Great Dark Sun debate comes up -- involves that which bumps DS out of third place for me. <BR/><BR/>Namely, Al-Qadim.<BR/><BR/>For the average gamer browsing around through piles of new material, having two different "desert settings" couldn't have been anything other than confusing, despite the fact that sand and elements are about the only similar points between the two (and those barely bridge a huge, huge gulf of differences). And faced with that confusion, I suspect most gamers would just go elsewhere.taicharahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02213053468697534564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646163054327608765.post-68088757260464645982008-04-26T08:24:00.000-04:002008-04-26T08:24:00.000-04:00Rumor has it that Dark Sun is one of the settings ...Rumor has it that Dark Sun is one of the settings getting 4th edition treatment.<BR/><BR/>- Briantrollsmythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01895349218958093151noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646163054327608765.post-13842441889809056912008-04-25T20:37:00.000-04:002008-04-25T20:37:00.000-04:00I loved Dark Sun. Still want a reason to use that ...I loved Dark Sun. Still want a reason to use that snazzy cloth map of the Tyr region that came in the second boxed set.skelerihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09915816887020537340noreply@blogger.com