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Back in the day when the (then) current version of the most popular RPG was known as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, Second Edition, the company that owned D&D, TSR, released a great number of highly imaginative campaign settings, such as Planescape, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, Al-Quadim, Birthright, and Dark Sun. Sadly, none of these settings were very successful compared to Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms, so all were officially discontinued when Wizards of the Coast bought TSR. And to be fair to WotC, TSR had already stopped supporting most of them.
In those days I was still in high school, and so could never afford any of these settings, even though they fascinated me greatly. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, now that I have a job, I have a second chance at getting my hands on this great stuff. As a result I'm now collecting a lot of books that I always wanted to have back then. Sadly, I don't have as much time to actually read the material, but as I'm slowly making my way through it, I thought I might as well share my experience with the world, in the form of reviews.
This first review is of the Dark Sun Boxed Set, which you might consider the setting book for Dark Sun.
Appearance
The first thing to notice about this product is that it isn't a book. It's what TSR used to call a "boxed set". That is, a box (surprise) about the size of the three 4E core books stacked together, containing various goodies. In the case of the Dark Sun boxed set, these are a rules book, a setting book, a booklet with a short story and some additional information, a poster, two poster maps, two "flip-books" that make up an introductory adventure, a sheet with errata for the psionics handbook, and some advertising material.
You can probably imagine that these boxed sets were immensely popular with gamers. When I open one, it definitely feels like I'm a child on Christmas morning. Sadly, they were actually one of the things that killed TSR. After WotC took over, they calculated all the hidden costs associated with producing these boxes and found out that TSR had in fact been losing money on them all along! So that's why they're no longer produced.
The box, poster, and most of the book covers have attractive color art by Brom, who was the signature artist of the Dark Sun line. Interior art is black and white and done by Brom and Tom Baxa. I find it's quite effective in communicating the "feel" of the setting.
The first map gives a rough view of the districts of the city of Tyr, as well as some of its landmarks. The second map shows the area described in the books. The front of this map is in color and shows a map such as might be found by player characters (except for the Dark Sun logo). The back shows the same area, but in black and white, and on a hex grid. I guess this could come in useful when you want to calculate travel times.
The Wanderer's Journal
The Wanderer's Journal is the book containing setting information. It doesn't contain any rules or statistics, except for 12 pages of creature data at the end. Even those pages are relatively light on stats, however. As was common for AD&D, generally about 1/4 of the page is stats, 1/4 is filled by an illustration of the creature, and the rest is a description of the creature, including blocks of combat tactics, habitat/society, and ecology. I enjoyed reading those descriptions, and I have no intention of using the AD&D statistics.
The rest of the book is presented as a sort of travel guide to the setting, written by an unknown wanderer. A nice touch is that this wanderer confesses that much of the information consists of things he has heard from other wanderers, and hence he cannot guarantee its accuracy. This is a nice reminder for the DM that nothing is written in stone.
I won't bother you with a detailed breakdown of this book, and instead just give a general overview of the setting as detailed.
The setting of Dark Sun is a region on a world called Athas. Athas is a very harsh place. Most of the known parts of this world are wastelands of sand, rocks, salt, or at best mud or sparse shrubs. The only lakes, seas, and rivers on Athas consist not of water, but of silt. Temperatures are always high. In an environment that is as hostile as this, only the strongest survive, and as a result any plant or creature you encounter is likely to try to kill you.
Athas didn't use to be this desolate. Legends say that it used to be a paradise. And there are many ruins and other remains of grand civilizations. How the world came to be as it is now, is unknown. (As of this boxed set. Later products will blame the defilers.)
Speaking of civilizations; what passes for that now are the city-states. There are a number of these, and each controls a small area of fertile land, and is ruled by a powerful sorcerer-king and his bureaucracy of templars. Many of these sorcerer-kings claim to be gods, and they do in fact grant spells to their templars.
The city-states tend to be modeled after pre-iron age civilizations such as the ancient Greeks, the Aztecs, Mesopotamians, etc. This is appropriate, as iron is extremely scarce on Athas. As a result, items are generally made of bone, flint, obsidian, or wood.
Other than the sorcerer-kings, Athas has no gods, so divine casters get their powers from the classical elements: water, fire, wind, and earth. Wizards also do not cast spells as they do in other D&D settings. In Dark Sun, arcane magic is powered by life energy. Reckless, uncaring or impatient mages, known as defilers, take this energy forcefully, destroying plant life around them and turning the ground infertile. More careful mages, called preservers, use the life force with restraint. They are not as powerful, but they do not harm the land. Of course, the average Athasian is unlikely to know the difference; they hate wizards of all kinds. And as if that wasn't troublesome enough, the sorcerer-kings also prosecute wizards. They are powerful defilers, and they tolerate no competition.
While magic is rare, psionics are quite common. Many creatures are psionic, including the civilized races. In fact, everyone has at least one psionic talent. Because of this, you will definitely want to own the Complete Psionics Handbook, unless you want to use a system other than AD&D. (Or unless you change the setting, of course.)
The common civilized races of Athas are also unlike normal D&D. While humans are still mostly the same (cosmetic differences such as strange hair and skin tones, and things like webbed toes are in fact quite common) and are still the most common race, other races are quite different.
- Dwarves are completely bald and have no facial hair. They have enormous muscle mass, and love to toil. They are obsessively devoted to carrying out whatever they have set out to do, ignoring most everything else until they have completed this task. A dwarf who dies before completing his life's work is likely to come back as a banshee. As was the norm in AD&D, dwarves are completely non-magical, and have great trouble using magic.
- Elves are a nomadic people who are exceptional runners, able to keep up with most riding animals. They also have a well-deserved reputation for being extremely unreliable to anyone outside of their clan. Half-elves are still a mix between elves and humans.
- Half-giants are what you might expect. Tall, big, strong, and not very bright. They are extremely impressionable and quickly emulate others, even to the point of changing their alignment overnight.
- Halflings live in the tropical jungles on the other side of the Ringing Mountains (named for the sound you get in your head when you try to climb its peaks). They are a very spiritual people with great racial unity. A halfling would never harm another halfling, and doesn't care for individual gain. They are also quite feral. Later books will state that halflings have a habit of eating members of other races, but the boxed set doesn't mention this.
- Muls are half-dwarves. They are as tall as a tall human and heavily built. They are always sterile, and are usually bred as slaves to fight in the arena. They are exceptionally tough; able to work for days without rest.
- Thri-Kreen are a race of mantis men. They live for the hunt, which they pursue day and night, as they need no sleep. They are extremely loyal to anyone who is a member of their pack, but when desperate, will eat anyone who isn't. They have a well-known taste for elves.
Pfew, that's much longer than I intended. On to the next book.
The Rules Book
I won't go too deep into this book. Suffice to say that this book contains the rules you need to use the setting in AD&D, including some interesting information about magical items, coinage, etc. that isn't purely about game mechanics. Be advised that you will still need the core books and the Complete Psionics Handbook.
About the only thing that I do want to go into is the section on classes. Most of the AD&D classes are present in Dark Sun, with the changes already mentioned in the previous section. There are, however, no paladins, who are much too idealistic to survive on Athas. The bard loses his magical powers and instead becomes a master poisoner with a certain legal standing, which I think is an interesting take on the concept, and makes the bard a lot more appealing.
Also, the gladiator and templar classes are added. The first is a master of combat who outshines even the fighter, and the second is a servant of a sorcerer-king, who can cast divine spells, and can accuse and pass judgment over others. An ability sure to be enjoyed by sadistic players and DMs alike.
Interestingly, the rules seem to emphasise the oft-forgotten fact that in AD&D characters start to attract followers after around level 9. It is apparently intended that at higher levels characters start to gather large armies, build strongholds, etc. This is also where the fighter is at an advantage over the gladiator, by the way.
Finally, to compensate for the lack of items and general brutality of the setting, characters start off at 3rd level, and with better than normal ability scores. The book even introduces the concept of a character tree. The idea behind this is that each player creates not one, but four characters. He plays one at a time, but the other three advance as well, albeit at a slower pace. This way, when an active character dies, there will be three "reserves". Personally, I'm not keen on this idea, but it's here if you want it.
The story booklet and the flip-books
These three books go together, and form the introductory adventure for Dark Sun. This format was an innovation that was later used in most of the adventures for Dark Sun. Ultimately, it didn't really catch on, and was abandoned for the last couple of adventures.
The story booklet contains a short story, which is intended to set the mood for the adventure. It's mainly intended for the DM, but it doesn't contain any spoilers, so the players can also read it if they wish.
The flip-books are small ring-bound books, where the pages can be flipped over after you're done with them. One is for the DM. This one contains the adventure, at a single encounter per page. The other one is for the players, and contains a single illustration per page. The idea is that the DM tells the players when they can flip to a new page. This way they won't see any spoilers.
The adventure, "A Little Knowledge", is nothing special, but will introduce many of the peculiarities of Dark Sun to the players. (Water is scarce, wildlife and even plants are deadly, elves aren't anything like Legolas, etc.) The adventure is often quite unforgiving, which you could consider to be a good thing, as it is true to the setting. Personally however, I would rather tone it down a bit, as I think it will be frustrating rather than fun.
Conclusion
Dark Sun is a setting that is quite unlike your typical D&D. That was the reason for its fall, but it's also the reason why I like it so much. If you want to try something that is more like the work of Clark Ashton-Smith and Robert E. Howard than the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan, then you may want to check it out. Don't be deterred by the fact that it was written for AD&D. There are two official conversions for 3E (one by Paizo in Dragon 319/Dungeon 110, and one by Athas.org), and I see no reason why a totally different system couldn't work either. (Personally I'm considering a modified version of Barbarians of Lemuria.)
On to the rating. Note that I don't consider the mechanical information in this set, as I haven't played AD&D in nearly a decade.
Style: It's a boxed set, so bonus points for that. The books look professional, are nicely illustrated, and have tables of content. The maps are also well done. There's still some room for improvement though. Indices would have been nice, as some information is still a bit hard to find, and most illustrations are in black and white. I'll grant a very solid 4.
Substance: The source material in this set is excellent. It's exciting and consistent. High marks for that. However, I would have liked to have a bit more advice about running a Dark Sun campaign, and the introductory adventure could have been better. Again, a solid 4.
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