Sup Veeky Forums. I'm new to tabletop games, and I'm considering getting into D&D's 4e setting Dark Sun. I'm reading the campaign setting PDFs and they look pretty interesting to me.
What can Veeky Forums tell me about their experiences with Dark Sun? Is it neat? How quickly does it get boring, if at all? How much can you squeeze out of the setting? Got any fun greentext stories about it? Know anybody who plays? Just tell me whatever.
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D&D 4e Dark Sun was actually the first thing I DM'd and it was a lot of fun.
I've loved Dark Sun for a while, though, largely due to cutting my RPing teeth on a roleplay MUD based on Dark Sun called Armageddon.
There's quite a lot you can do with it, though I'd caution you against throwing the players into too much "high magic" stuff early on--it kind of takes away some of the setting's flavor if there's magic all over the place. A lot of Wild West story beats work pretty well in Athas, too, the farther away you get from the major cities.
Bumping. Anyone ever play a Dark Sun campaign? How was it?
I have not. The concept was always so exciting and appealing, and my dnd group all felt the same way. I remember when they came out with the 4e books we all bought in and sat down to make characters, but bad luck just kind of kept us from playing it.
That sucks. I've been meaning to get into tabletop games for a long time, and have fiddled with Black Crusade and vanilla D&D 4e. The Dark Sun setting seems really interesting. It reminds me of Mad Max and the Barsoom series, both of which I love. It seems like a refreshing change of pace from the classic Western European Medieval/Tolkien-esque. That setting is all well and good, but it's been done to death. Dark Sun seems fresher to me.
Thri-keen are for hand holding
Does she decapitate him after the date, like a proper mantis lady?
Most of DS is actually 2e. Make sure to get those books too.
Sounds cool. Any interesting stories you remember?
Yeah, I heard that. I was thinking of using them for lore and fluff, not so much crunch, unless the 2e crunch is noticeably much better. Is it?
That depends. Do you like 4e? 2e is higher-lethality.
I haven't played much of any game, with 4e and Black Crusade being my only, limited, experiences.
Also, any fun Dark Sun session stories?
>any fun Dark Sun session stories
I'd have to have actually played any DS to have some.
I'd recommend playing it with 2e rules, at least once. Broaden your experience.
The one thing I'd say is that 4e is probably nicer than 2e for first-time DMs, so OP, if you're going to be the DM, keep in mind your (and your player's) tolerance for old school rules if you pick 2e.
4e is definitely more of an "action movie" ruleset, which actually works okay for Dark Sun--Dark Sun player characters are explicitly stronger than normal D&D characters, even in 2e, because of how tough they have to be to survive on Athas--but it's also definitely less lethal than 2e.
Cool, thnx for the advice. I doubt I'd DM, though, since I'm new to tabletops entirely. I'm thinking I just find a group here on one of Veeky Forums's gamefinder threads and play online as a PC.
Well, here's a collection of all the DS shit I can find. I don't know when the 4e stuff is set, but Beyond the Prism Pentad gives you a timeline for a lot of the 2e stuff.
mega.nz
Thanks senpai
Plated Dark Sun back in the day.
My suggestion is flush 4e as the shit it is. Get 2e or convert to 5e and enjoy.
4e Dark Sun is interesting
2e and 3.5 Dark Sun are thematically exceedingly deadly. The world has gone to shit and all you can do is try and survive in it
In 4e, the world itself is unchanged, but the PCs are more powerful. The theme changes to "The world has gone to shit and ONLY YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER AGAIN! Or make it worse if that's your thing"
One of the Dark Sun 4e Epic Destinies actually turns your character into wizard Jesus, and it's a strong epic destiny
thnx for the info.
Listen guys, this is all good advice, but does anyone have any fun stories of sessions they played in Dark Sun? I'm really interested to hear how things played out.
Mantids only do that in captivity or under other extreme stress, it's not the default behaviour.
>fun
>Dark Sun
If you had 'fun' you played the setting wrong. You don't have fun playing Dark Sun, you endure it.
I don't remember precisely but some tweets by WotC implied that there would be a 5e Dark Sun.
Also there was an Unearthed Arcana about psions earlier in 2016.
And conveniently the last Unearthed Arcana was all about martial feats.
>Dark Sun = Dark Souls
It all makes sense
Then let's hear some stories about enduring Dark Sun. I just want to hear accounts of Dark Sun game sessions, damn it!
I've been working on a Dark Sun campaign for a while now, I like the desert & scarcity themes
I alter it a bit to be a bit more Mad Max 2 or Beyond Thunderdome rather than Fury Road in regards to being able to find magic items and metal in general
I also play up a lot of undead themes, because they become more interesting when there isn't a radiant damage factory, like clerics or paladins, in the party
Sounds interesting. Care to share more details? Will your campaign be more about nomadic survival and scavenging? It will it be an urban campaign? What kind of themes and encounters are you thinking about?
I've been trying to get the same thing out of Veeky Forums for months now. Sadly, I'm almost convinced that nobody here has ever actually played it.
Fuck, that sucks. I was hoping to find a group in one of the Veeky Forums gamefinder threads. Maybe I'll look elsewhere. Any ideas of any other tabletop game internet communities? I'll try looking there.