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Wizards of the Coast chose the most popular and profitable world, Forgotten Realms, and promoted a new one, Eberron. The other ones were partially absorbed by the core setting (Planescape), licensed to other companies (Ravenloft, Dragonlance) or discontinued while giving special rights to several web pages.
In the last few years we have had again a huge number of D&D fantasy settings, now released by third-party companies, but sometimes is nice to look back and check if those “lost” worlds are still interesting today.
For example, what about Dark Sun? Time to review its first Boxed Set.
Introduction
In 1990 the TSR management decided that Dragonlance had run its course, and that it was necessary to create a new world which could support both gaming books and novels. The two authors, Thimoty B. Brown and Troy Denning, thought that it was time to design something different, less influenced by Tolkien. They first tried to create a world without elfs, dwarfs and dragons, but they eventually realised that they were going too far for the AD&D audience. (Source: Dragon Magazine #315).
Anyway, there is no doubt that Dark Sun is, in many ways, a major departure from many traditional AD&D concepts. Maybe because of this, the setting was also advertised as ideal for power-gamers:
“More Powerful PCs! All DARK SUN game characters begin at 3rd level! Ability scores that can go as high as 24! All PCs have one or more psionic powers! The new Character Tree allows players to advance many characters at once!” (Boxed Set, back cover)
The setting's core concepts are easily explained: Athas is a desert world without gods, stripped of its fertility by the use of magic. There are few scattered city states, ruled by the tyrannical sorceror-kings, and while slavery is common, water and metals are extremely scarce. The traditional races are also twisted: most halflings are vicious cannibals, elves are desert-running nomads, and dwarves are bald and have a tendency to become mentally obsessed.
Contents
The first Dark Sun product was the traditional boxed set, containing two 96-page books, two 24-page flip books, a 16-page book and two fold-out maps (The Tyr region and the city of Tyr).
Rules Book
Not surprisingly, the Rules Book has almost the same structure than the Player's Handbook: ability scores, races, classes, alignment, etc. I will just talk about the most important features.
First, characters are more powerful in Dark Sun than in standard AD&D, because of the brutal Athas environment. Ability scores are generating rolling 4d4+4, and all characters start at level 3. Racial ability adjustments can be as high as +4, and usually are in a range of +-2 (instead of the usual +-1).
Players can choose among eight races:
- Dwarves are always committed to one specific task, their focus.
- Elves are nomadic and divided in thousands of tribes. They're savage, self-reliant, and they dislike foreigners. They're also the best traders and incredible runners.
- Half-elves are loners, usually rejected by others.
- Half-giants stand between 10 and 12 feet tall. They're not very smart, and tend to switch their attitudes very quickly.
- Halflings live in jungles and are completely absorbed by their culture. (Oddly, no canibalism is mentioned in this chapter)
- Humans are the predominant race, and many of them have marked alterations to their appearances.
- Muls are the sterile crossbreed between a dwarf and a human, usually born as slaves or gladiators.
- Thri-kreen are giant mantis, with six limbs, an exoskeleton and no need for sleep. They're natural hunters, and the most alien of the races.
- Gladiators are the slave warriors of the city pits, trained for brutal contests. They enjoy several fighting advantages.
- Wizards are divided between defilers, those who play magic without regard of the consequences on the natural world, and preservers, those who try to cancel or minimise the destruction they would cause.
- Since there are no gods, clerics worship one of the four elements: air, earth, fire and water. They have a much narrower selection of spells, but some elemental powers.
- Druids are protectors to specific environments, linked to the spirits of the land.
- Templars are the disciples of the sorceror-kings, gaining more spells than clerics but in a slower ratio. They have also legal powers within their city state.
Another major change in Dark Sun is related to the equipment. Since metals are scarce, metal items are very expensive and people use other materials instead, mainly bone, obsidian or wood.
The Character Tree is another idea introduced in the Rule Book. Since the world is really deadly the players have to roll four characters. One is active and the other three inactive, although they also advance in level.
I'm sure the authors read Ars Magica, but the multiple characters in this game have a completely different purpose. Not surprisingly, the idea was discontinued (AD&D shouldn't be Paranoia).
Let's finally say that the Rule Book also deals with the popular arena combats, dehydration, movement by night and other related topics.
The Wanderer's Journal
The setting book is not a gazetteer of Athas. The authors describe only one small area, the Tyr region, in just fifteen pages. No, The Wanderer's Journal is about something else: the mood and flavour of this barren world. Written in first person, the book is divided in five chapters:
The World of Athas (6 pages) introduces the main characteristics of world, with the general concepts about geography and history.
Athasian Society (31 pages) is the most interesting section, dealing with many different concepts: from slavery to the use of magic, the villages, the merchant houses, the nomads or the hunting clans.
Athasian Geography (28 pages) reviews the world from another point of view, the different landscapes and ecosystems: the Sea of Silt, the Tablelands, the mountains and the jungles. For each one there is information on travelling, flora and fauna, important places and usual encounters.
The Atlas of the Tyr Region (16 pages) focuses on a small area dominated by seven powerful city-states, all of them are obviously ruled by a sorceror-king. This is the “default” setting of the first adventures and novels, although it was later expanded.
Finally The Monsters of Athas (13 pages) describes typical animals and monsters, using the normal AD&D layout.
A Little Knowledge
The introductory scenario was presented using a completely new format, also used in the following Dark Sun adventures. Instead of a normal book we have a pack including:
- A booklet with a fiction work related to the adventure, the introduction and two new monsters.
- A spiral bound book aimed to players. Every time the DM orders it, they can look at a new page. The flip-book includes pictures depicting scenes, maps and handouts.
- A spiral bound book aimed to the DM, with the full adventure and roleplaying tips. Every single page has information about a different scene, and says when the players must turn their book's pages.
Style
The first Dark Sun Boxed Set is a really elegant product. The authors decided to include the main illustrator, Brom, in the designing process from the beginning. Although we are not talking about the amazing DiTerlizzi/Planescape symbiosis, the effort was worthwhile. All books have coherent illustrations, ranging from the good to the excellent. The writing style is also very good, managing to evocate the setting's mood perfectly.
If you are not able to find the original box, I must also say that the PDF file quality is excellent.
Conclusions
Dark Sun was extremely successful trying to create a different setting for AD&D. What I like the most about it is that it doesn't want to include everything. Take Forgotten Realms, for example: it has empires with a medieval flavour, others are inspired by Classical Greece or Ancient Egypt, there are jungles with dinosaurs, free city-states, the vast Underdark, deserts, cold lands...
The Dark Sun approach is just the opposite, with a smaller and more cohesive world. All elements are perfectly in place, and I love how they rewrote the races and created their different societies.
There are also two problems. First, the information in the boxed set is not enough, and the setting book could be longer. Second, the people at TSR decided to change the world's status quo in the very first novel and game adventure (Freedom). And this is quite annoying, since the boxed set became dated almost immediately.
But these are just minor drawbacks, and Dark Sun is still an excellent game setting. The line has ten adventures and twenty accessories, so there's plenty of information to play for years, and there are conversions available for D&D3.5.
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