Some friends and I decided that we will be running a Dark Sun Campaign, and I was wondering if anyone had any advice, tips, experiences, or anything really? I have an idea about how bleak it needs to be slavery, dying world, lack of: food, water, and metal. How common should psionics and magic be? How common should the less humanoid races be? How rare should metal be for that matter?
All help appreciated
RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
|
My experience with Dark Sun is relatively limited, but I have played it in the past and owned one of the main books once upon a time.
Magic is basically outlawed in most parts of the world, though Preservers are sometimes tolerated (if only barely). Most wizards do not carry spellbooks, instead using an intricate series of knots on a long string to "encrypt" their spellbooks so that others won't know that they are wizards.
Psionics are incredibly common. In fact, pretty much every character in Dark Sun has at least one "wild talent," a psionic power that they can activate even if they are not an actual psionic class.
Metal is super-rare in Dark Sun. Forged metal, anyway. Most weapons and armor are made of hide, bone, scales, and obsidian. Steel weapons should be about as common in Dark Sun as adamantine is in most other settings. Possibly less so. Steel armor pretty much doesn't exist at all. Not only is the material stupidly rare, but steel armor is very impractical in a desert setting. Some kind of steel armor that is magically treated to protect against the elements would be acceptable, but magical, metal armor would be like finding a major artifact. :)
Also worth noting: The coinage in Dark Sun consists of ceramic discs. 1 ceramic = 1 gold. The discs can be chipped apart into 10 wedge-shaped slices that serve as a lesser currency. Large sums of money are almost unheard of and thus anything in excess of perhaps 100 ceramic or so would be secured by some other means (gems, bits of metal, etc.).
|
Psionics is fairly common, by canon; pretty much everyone has a wild talent, and psionics is probably more common than arcane magic due to it being able to be wielded without causing defilement of the land.
Divine magic comes in two flavors: that granted by the sorcerer-kings of the cities to their templars, and druidic-style elemental magic.
Arcane magic, by definition, damages the surrounding landscape, as it draws off the lifeforce of the plants and dessicates the soil. Preserver mages have various rituals and behaviors to help counteract this. Arcane magic tends to be outlawed due to the sorcerer-kings having lush preserves that they do not wish destroyed by random mage fights. As such, arcane magic tends to be an underground kind of deal.
Metal is rather uncommon; most weapons will be made out of things like obsidian, bone, and wood. Armor is very rarely metal due to survival, even if it can be acquired - the entire world is such a desert that heat stroke is likely in short order with metal armor.
Fatespinner AND Fizzban in the same topic? This is wonderful!
I love Dark Sun. It remains my third favorite all time campaign setting.
If you really want to get more information, you could do worse than to go to Athas.org. Check out their 3.5 material, and enjoy.
Fatespinner AND Fizzban in the same topic? This is wonderful!
I love Dark Sun. It remains my third favorite all time campaign setting.
If you really want to get more information, you could do worse than to go to Athas.org. Check out their 3.5 material, and enjoy.
Yeah I've been gone for a bit. Life tends to side track everything, and I'm glad to see Fatespinner as well; we were pushing Iron Kingdoms when it was still in print.
Back on topic. How much of the Expanded Psionics Handbook should apply to Dark Sun? Are there crystal weapons in Dark Sun? I've been pulling form Expanded Psionics, Sandstorm, and Athas.org are there any other books you'd recommend?
Fizz
Fatespinner AND Fizzban in the same topic? This is wonderful!
I love Dark Sun. It remains my third favorite all time campaign setting.
If you really want to get more information, you could do worse than to go to Athas.org. Check out their 3.5 material, and enjoy.
Yeah I've been gone for a bit. Life tends to side track everything, and I'm glad to see Fatespinner as well; we were pushing Iron Kingdoms when it was still in print.
Back on topic. How much of the Expanded Psionics Handbook should apply to Dark Sun? Are there crystal weapons in Dark Sun? I've been pulling form Expanded Psionics, Sandstorm, and Athas.org are there any other books you'd recommend?
Fizz
If you're the one running the game, you can choose what you want out of the XPH.
As they have said before, Psionics should actually be more common than arcane and divine magic. Preserver magic would be tantamount to all others if your players choose to cast non-psionics.
As for non-human races, they should be about as common as humans. Mul, Half-Giants, etc are actually better adapted to the harsh climate than humans overall, so as long as your players don't want to play Thri-kreen (unless they all want to) anything can go (up to you in the end, regardless).
Hope that helps. And yes, I love Dark Sun.
Most of my PF Beta Dark Sun notes are in a downloadable attachment here.
Most of my PF Beta Dark Sun notes are in a downloadable attachment here.
Lilith..made...Dark Sun Stuff?
Can't wait to get home and d/l this!
so as long as your players don't want to play Thri-kreen (unless they all want to) anything can go (up to you in the end, regardless).
Hope that helps. And yes, I love Dark Sun.
One player is hell bent on play a Thri-kreen. Which is one of my reasons for posting the fore mentioned questioned.
Fizz
Also, check out Athas.org, which has kept Dark Sun alive over the past years. You probably know this, but Dark Sun is going to be the 4e 2010 campaign setting release.
Here are the athas.org forums, where you might get some good info as well
http://arena.athas.org/
Also, here's a site I found that lists the official Dark Sun products in case you want to look for any of them
I have played a cople games that lasted a goodly while; everyone has a psionic power so that is cool ;they are faily wide spread; the world should be fairly miserable with the powers that be very status quo and really beating down the serfs and slaves.
In our group; as water is so rare; those that could create water and those with good trade and diplomacy skill were the main mover and shakers. The world was pretty grim; but a whole lot of fun; I really like Darksun; to bad it only has one dragon though
If you're thinking of running Dark Sun in 3.5, here are a few useful Dragon and Dungeon issues with relevant articles (which should all still be available as PDFs if not in print versions):
Dragon 315 - Defiler magic
Dragon 319 - DS player's guide
Dungeon 110 - Monster update 1
Dungeon 110 - Monster update 2
My only caveat here is that I have never run Dark Sun myself, so I can't attest as to the quality of these updates.
Good luck, and have fun! :)
For our long-running campaign (still running!) we use a mixture of rules taken from: AD&D 2nd edition Psionics Handbook, the S&P Psionics Net Book, the D&D 3rd edition Psionics Handbook and the Mindscapes system.
I made one pathetic attempt to scribble the system down here:
http://www.twinmooncircus.net/psionics.htm
unfinished, of course, and now I cannot even understand my own notes... :/
However, I have some experience playing a thri-kreen in a humanoid 'clutch'. Is there anything in particular you are worried about?