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Author Topic: A post apocalyptic natural Dyson sphere. Aka, assuming I know “Dark Sun”  (Read 625 times)

weirdguy564

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This is meant to be one of those situations that’s funny for the wrong reason.

You see, I do not play D&D.  Never have.  Now I’m old and stubborn, so I won’t play it to keep my record intact. 

So I saw lots of their products on the shelves over the years.  One that stood out was the Dark Sun setting. 

Here is where it gets weird.  I built a picture in my head of what I thought the setting was based on adverts, some hearsay, and an active imagination.  The name alone made me think the world was in perpetual sunlight, but the sun was dying.  Hence, the yellow or red tint to all the art. 

The only way my imagination made that work was a Dyson Sphere.  That is a shell built around a star, with all the livable land on the inside. In this case the sphere was natural/made by the all powerful gods at the beginning of time.  How deep the land goes is unknown.

This universe is old.  The sun is much larger, heating the surface to a desert, evaporated most open bodies of water, and has changed color from white to yellow/red in hue.

What is left are tribes of barbarians fighting for what is left, sailing the salt flats on wheeled sailing “ships”.  Or riding around on tamed critters of all kinds that are NOT horses, raiding and pillaging walled towns or a handful of actual cities around sources of water.  A lot like Princess of Mars or the Tarnsman of Gor.  Knights, dragons, and castles are out.  Mad max killers, crazy desert war bands, and cannibals are in.

Metal is nearly gone, so everything is bone, hides, stone, and hard wood from the few big plants that still grow.  No, I don’t know where the metal went.

So, I own the Dark Sun supplement books as PDFs now.  Man, I was a bit off. 

Yet, I can’t say that my imagined setting wasn’t better.

I’m posting this as a fun lark.  I’m also curious if anybody else had a similar thing happen when you bought a product, only to find out it’s way different.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2022, 07:00:55 AM by weirdguy564 »
I’m glad for you if you like the top selling game of the genre.  Me, I like the road less travelled, and will be the player asking we try a game you’ve never heard of.

Jam The MF

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This is meant to be one of those situations that’s funny for the wrong reason.

You see, I do not play D&D.  Never have.  Now I’m old and stubborn, so I won’t play it to keep my record intact. 

So I saw lots of their products on the shelves over the years.  One that stood out was the Dark Sun setting. 

Here is where it gets weird.  I built a picture in my head of what I thought the setting was based on adverts, some hearsay, and an active imagination.  The name alone made me think the world was in perpetual sunlight, but the sun was dying.  Hence, the yellow or red tint to all the art. 

The only way my imagination made that work was a Dyson Sphere.  That is a shell built around a star, with all the livable land on the inside. In this case the sphere was natural/made by the all powerful gods at the beginning of time.  How deep the land goes is unknown.

This universe is old.  The sun is much larger, heating the surface to a desert, evaporated most open bodies of water, and has changed color from white to yellow/red in hue.

What is left are tribes of barbarians fighting for what is left, sailing the salt flats on wheeled sailing “ships”.  Or riding around on tamed critters of all kinds that are NOT horses, raiding and pillaging walled towns or a handful of actual cities around sources of water.  A lot like Princess of Mars or the Tarnsman of Gor.  Knights, dragons, and castles are out.  Max max killers, crazy desert war bands, and cannibals are in.

Metal is nearly gone, so everything is bone, hides, stone, and hard wood from the few big plants that still grow.  No, I don’t know where the metal went.

So, I own the Dark Sun supplement books as PDFs now.  Man, I was a bit off. 

Yet, I can’t say that my imagined setting wasn’t better.

I’m posting this as a fun lark.  I’m also curious if anybody else had a similar thing happen when you bought a product, only to find out it’s way different.


4th Edition D&D
Let the Dice, Decide the Outcome.  Accept the Results.

tenbones

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4th Edition D&D

LOLOL I spit my coffee up. So fucking true. 4e shocked me for many reasons (for a LOT of personal reasons coming out of 3.x)

To the OP.

Your concept of Dark Sun - or an offbrand setting as you described sounds perfectly do-able. Obviously you're gonna have to flesh it out, but I'd play the shit out that. I personally love Dark Sun. It was like a heavy-metal version of the Gandalara Cycle (a series I read in the early 80's that remember fondly through my rosy-tinted glasses of hind-sight - I haven't read these books in 40-years, and should give them a look).

But these days - nothing prevents you from taking your concept or Dark Sun and smashing them together and get those dice rolling.

I don't have experiences like yours mainly because before I plunk down gold on a new game I tend to do a deep walk-around it to know what I'm getting into first. I rarely buy stuff without kicking the tires - especially these days.

There have been some pleasant surprises - FFG's Star Wars, which I ended up buying all the books for all the lines - and now will likely never use them again unless my players ask, but I've gotten a lot of mileage out of them. The system was nothing like what I thought it was like. I'd say the closest I've come to your experience was Earthdawn. Which I still have never run. But it was nothing like what I thought it would be like either.




Angry Goblin

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This is meant to be one of those situations that’s funny for the wrong reason.

You see, I do not play D&D.  Never have.  Now I’m old and stubborn, so I won’t play it to keep my record intact. 

So I saw lots of their products on the shelves over the years.  One that stood out was the Dark Sun setting. 

Here is where it gets weird.  I built a picture in my head of what I thought the setting was based on adverts, some hearsay, and an active imagination.  The name alone made me think the world was in perpetual sunlight, but the sun was dying.  Hence, the yellow or red tint to all the art. 

The only way my imagination made that work was a Dyson Sphere.  That is a shell built around a star, with all the livable land on the inside. In this case the sphere was natural/made by the all powerful gods at the beginning of time.  How deep the land goes is unknown.

This universe is old.  The sun is much larger, heating the surface to a desert, evaporated most open bodies of water, and has changed color from white to yellow/red in hue.

What is left are tribes of barbarians fighting for what is left, sailing the salt flats on wheeled sailing “ships”.  Or riding around on tamed critters of all kinds that are NOT horses, raiding and pillaging walled towns or a handful of actual cities around sources of water.  A lot like Princess of Mars or the Tarnsman of Gor.  Knights, dragons, and castles are out.  Max max killers, crazy desert war bands, and cannibals are in.

Metal is nearly gone, so everything is bone, hides, stone, and hard wood from the few big plants that still grow.  No, I don’t know where the metal went.

So, I own the Dark Sun supplement books as PDFs now.  Man, I was a bit off. 

Yet, I can’t say that my imagined setting wasn’t better.

I’m posting this as a fun lark.  I’m also curious if anybody else had a similar thing happen when you bought a product, only to find out it’s way different.

When I was in junior high school, back in the day, I was told by a Dark Sun ethusiast, that the currency used in Dark Sun is salt, which was not exactly
accurate. It might be, that this was based on Dark Sun: Shattered Lands PC Game which had came out by then, I never got to play it myself (it is on Steam now though, maybe I should)

Anyhow, your vision sounds cool, I´ll use it if you won´t  ;)
« Last Edit: September 22, 2022, 04:30:41 AM by Angry Goblin »
Hârn is not for you.