I think that the "problem" that most players have with Dark Sun is that it is designed to kill you. The desert is out to get you, the creatures are badass, the world can be a really grim place and many players don't like that. I had similar issues with players and Ravenloft; they liked the concept of a vampire setting but the reality sucked for them because it was so grim all of the time.

I owned the original boxed set and really enjoyed reading it (and the novels). Neither I nor my players had much interest in playing in it though. /shrug

Quote from: finarvyn;978046I think that the "problem" that most players have with Dark Sun is that it is designed to kill you. The desert is out to get you, the creatures are badass, the world can be a really grim place and many players don't like that. I had similar issues with players and Ravenloft; they liked the concept of a vampire setting but the reality sucked for them because it was so grim all of the time.

I agree with this. That's one of the reasons my players have always been hesitant about me doing a modern campaign set there. Which is weird to me since I'm nowhere near as ruthless as I used to be - and they will even admit that. The goal should be to make Athas be exactly like you put it, but make it engageable for the players. I admit that's a fine balancing act without turning Dark Sun into a basic re-skin of "standard" D&D.

But yes, it is deadly and unforgiving. Life is soul-crushingly cheap, existence is desperate (at the beginning) but there is a lot of mystery and wonder baked into it that is worth exploring.

Not to side-track too much - Ravenloft has this effect on my group too. But I think it has more to do with the system playing that genre of game than the setting itself, at least for us.

Maztica is awful.

I would have liked to have seen Dark Sun rewritten to be done without psionics. IMO, magic is versatile enough that psionics are not needed, and most versions of psionics in D&D suck much ass.

Dark Sun is the only version of D&D where psionics make sense and don't suck.

Quote from: Voros;979210Dark Sun is the only version of D&D where psionics make sense and don't suck.

I'll agree that they worked it in a manner that makes sense for the setting, but the rules for psionic still sucked donkey balls from 1st-3rd edition. I never tried them in 4e and I don't have any idea what psionic rules are out for 5e.

I liked 2e's The Complete Psionic Handbook and Dark Sun's tweaks improved it.

I too think Dark Sun is one of TSRs finest settings.  It was really unique.  Kind of Thundar/Dune/Mad max weirdness wit D&D.  I'd probably even play 5e if they came out with a Dark Sun supplement for it.

Quote from: HappyDaze;979252I'll agree that they worked it in a manner that makes sense for the setting, but the rules for psionic still sucked donkey balls from 1st-3rd edition. I never tried them in 4e and I don't have any idea what psionic rules are out for 5e.

I thought the 3.5 rules were pretty good. I never liked them in the 1E-2E era. I love the PF rules from Dreamscarred Press.

Speaking of Dragon Kings:

The gazetteer was 30 pages of "art" with something close to 0 gaming content. Some snippets of ideas that might form the core of a setting if I wanted to develop one from scratch, but really disappointing.

The world book is one of those PDFs that is so full of backgrounds on every page that my poor little chromebook or tablet for gaming reading chokes when I try to scroll through it, so not something I've read through at all.

Quote from: Naburimannu;979768Speaking of Dragon Kings:

The gazetteer was 30 pages of "art" with something close to 0 gaming content. Some snippets of ideas that might form the core of a setting if I wanted to develop one from scratch, but really disappointing.

The world book is one of those PDFs that is so full of backgrounds on every page that my poor little chromebook or tablet for gaming reading chokes when I try to scroll through it, so not something I've read through at all.

That's a shame. That said I never bought it because I'm perfectly happy with the old boxset and 2e supplements.

I only know the first edition of Dark Sun. Loved it as a setting for other games.

Quote from: tenbones;977907To a person - they all detest it. Even last week, they told me they'd rather play Maztica over Dark Sun.

Ugh, I'd rather play ANYTHING but Maztica.
However I can sympathize with people having issues with Dark Sun.
I do have a couple of pet peeves about it:
1. Psionics, it felt tacked on
2. It feels like "Oh, let's rip-off ancient Sumer and make it Grim Dark Fantasy"
Obviously YMMV

... that said it really broke the mould of what everybody expected of D&D. And that's probably it's most fascinating feature.