So it was announced today about 3 hours ago and it looks awesome!! cover art for the campaign guide is awesome!! the Dragon of Tyr never looked so menacing!!

check out the official article here http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4spot/2009August

and here are the forums

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1216514
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=1168748

The Death Knell for 3.5 Dark Sun. :(

athas.org is dead, long live athas.org.

Death knell? No, this is an achivevement for all fans and athas.org members throughout the years that have supported Dark Sun.

I salute thee – for all the hours you have put into designing, reviewing, discussing and most importantly, playing Dark Sun!
We did it, we kept Dark Sun alive, we grew its fanbase. Finally Dark Sun is resurrected!

What the future holds for us time will tell. For now, drink up and celebrate!

so….. unless and until the 3.x license is somehow revoked, will work on the 3.x version of dark sun continue?

while on one paw i think it is awesome that the torch has been carried this far, and can now be passed on, on the other paw i signed on to work with an engaging and psionic-oriented 3.x campaign. ^^ i’d like to know that the opportunity is still there. =D

We’re not tossing in any towels yet. All current projects will be worked on and released unless we get strict orders not to.

i find this development very intriguing to say the least. i do hope there will be some good, for lack of a better word, cross-fertilisation between the official DS4 and athas.org! :)

Very happy and excited about this news!

I have already told the group that I am DMing this when it comes out!

As I like 4E better for my group and my style than 3E, this is good news for me!

edg

I am absolutely estatic that Dark Sun is coming back to the forefront. The entire setting of Dark Sun originally has sparked interest and is very creative and out of the “Cookie-Cutter” of the typical D&D scene.

Couple of questions: the issues and history detailed in the Simon Hawke series Tribe of One, added great detail to the true history of the Planet. Are they going to keep with that in the New Edition?
What will be the outcome of Rikus, Ageis, Neeva, Sadira and the rest of the gang?

I’m excited that DS 4e will be coming out, but to be honest I think that whenever I get around to running my DS campaign I’ll use something like Microlite20 Nothing against 4e, but I’m still burned-out from all the necessary combat in 3e. I don’t might the fighting as a player, but it turns game planning into a chore for me.

Before I go too far off-topic, I really want to see how much they’re going to change the rules of 4e to match DS. From what I know about psions in 4e, they’re more focused on mind-affecting powers than in 2nd or 3rd ed, which to me feels like it’ll keep psionics from being a different kind of super-powers and more of a different capabilities-set altogether.

OTOH, I love the idea of using a system built around going to level 30 for DS.

Sine they have stated they will be sticking with the original boxed set for the setting, I have to wonder what they are throwing out. Will Halflings be the first race? Will Rajaat exist? Heck will even Kalak still live? I hope they start previewing information soon.

Ive been going back to reading the Original Boxed set, but have not got very far yet. If Rajaat is mentioned in there I should find it, same with the Halflnigs. Kalak , the Tyrant of Tyr still lives in the boxed set so from my reckoning, thats where the timeline will start out. Rikus and co may still exist but perhaps this time round Kalak will gain the upper hand.

I have no issue with them restarting the timeline from the Boxed set onward. I was never a huge fan of the novels (bar a couple).

I can see Dragon/Avangion as Epic Destinies in 4e. Of course there is going to be some modification there so we arnt going to see uber Dragons/Avangions. Im also speculating that the Sorc Kings will average around 21-22nd Level. Most I believe were at the start of their climb to Dragonhood. The Dragon of Tyr is going to be your 30th level Uber nasty.

I think we are likely to see more manifestations of the Elemental forces. Clerics may be able to become one with the elements they serve (again I think they could start out as a Paragon Path pick.. one for each element.. and lets hope they keep the paraelements: this could then progress to a linked Epic Destiny).

Im finding it hard to see the Templar as a playable class. For starters they openly worship a Sorc King who are antagonists in DS. No bones about that. Thus they are generally not nice people (Im sure other Templars would weed out the ‘nice’ ones). Roleplaying wise perhaps even story wise it would be difficult for a Templar to ‘adventure’, leaving the focus area of their King for reasons of their own. Im sure it might happen, I just have a hard time seeing why. To make Templar a playable class, we are going to need to seea way for a Templar to find a new power source (ie the Templar rebels and changes dedication to a non sorc king power: effectively making them the new Paladin of DS) or a Sorc King will change to allow his Templars to pursue ‘goodly’ matters. This later path is a bit harder to explain and I will have to think on it more, so more later on this.

Druids will also be interesting. In DS they were very much tied to a ‘guarded’ area. That is they were defenders of locations like Oasis etc. They gained extra powers in that region and it was normally difficult for them to leave (although later products brought in reasons why they would). It again makes adventuring difficult.

Which brings up a Valid point. If Darksun does not have Warlocks, Sorcs or Paladins.. will they be brought in by 4e? Nobody knows this yet but I have a feeling at least 2 of those classes will make an appearance. I dont think we will see the Gladiator again as a 1-10 class, its more likely that it will be a Paragon Path.

Considering the policy that exists now of not having any base Large races (think minotaur), I think the Half Giants may be cut.. or reduced in height to make them medium sized. I dont have a huge issue with this, because I think if they bring in Thri kreen and Mul that will be enough for me in terms of new races.

I’m sticking with brun01.

This seems to be a big chance for Dark Sun, but it will definetly have some drawbacks for athas.org.

No more homegrown classes for DS. So IMHO the discussion-forums for this can be closed.

Like everybody else I’m very interested what they will do to the background. I see some points which they almost have to change. Since they stated that they want to feeling of the prism-pentad books, there are probably not so many changes. But when you take a look what they have done to the realms… it will be exciting.

Most probably I will buy it :)

There will be drawbacks, sure. We won’t play the same role in 4e that we did for 3e.

Personally, I’m sort of okay with that. We’re older, tireder, and with much less time on our hands. ;) Going through another round of re-implementing core rules isn’t the best use of our time, necessarily.

With core rules really set down, we’ll be able to focus more on the things that WotC really isn’t providing — adventures, finer-scale location information, NPCs … There’s actually quite a lot of ground for us to cover

Couldn’t agree more, flip!

Dont get me wrong. I dont see athas.org dead. I see change, maybe renewal.

When the wind of change blows, some people build walls, others build windmills

Hee I want to buidl windmills for DS!!!

I have to agree with the point of view that with the resurrection of DarkSun by WOTC, we fans have succeeded in having our voice heard. DarkSun was a great venue when it was born, and it has obvioiusly kept a strong and faithful following. I don’t think it matters whether we are using 2ed, v3.5, or 4ed as our Core Rules for the campaigns we run. To be honest, I feel that only about 10% of my game “rules” originate from the original material anyway. Too much time on my hands during college allowed me to create files upon files of fluff and details about Athas that were never put into print anyway.
It will be interesting to see what will have been brought back and omitted, since they claim to be returning the Original Boxed set story; how the “new” game mechanics will work with all the different races and new rules, and how they will mesh with the 2ed. But, as a campaign builder, I always take from canon sources what is useful, leave what I do not care for, and create all the rest to suit my needs.
I plan on purchasing the new materials, for the simple pleasure of watching my DS library grow again, and I’m sure that there will be a lot to consider adding into my version of Athas. I think Flip has a good point – use the new Core Rules that they will have set down, and spend your time filling in the cracks, providing the details, the down-and-dirty grittiness of Athas. And with yog_slogoth, use the wind WOTC has provided to power your windmill of imagination and creativity to continue building Athas.
Good for WOTC for making a decision – too long has there been a watered down answer for us in whether or not DS would make a return. (Although I’m quite certain there are more financial reasons than there were sentimental ones! )

Water, apparently, is in abundance in DS 4th edition. So much water that they need boats. At least, that’s what I gather from the first official DS product: ‘Deserts of Athas Dungeon Tiles’.

http://newbiedm.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/dt2…

There has always been boats on Athas, only we have taken to calling them skimmers.

And don’t forget the equipment pricing example in the original boxed set which used the Small Canoe!

Lets put aside you initial shock that they create water tiles in for our Dark sun… I bought these and was at first very disappointed until someone who had not played much Dark Sun pointed out… well wont most of the encounters you get in a desert be near a water source… and that is true.. sure I’m going to buy a couple of sets of these tiles (as i want more of the building) but it is prefect for many adventures (even non Dark Sun)

Spoiler alert.. in the free games day Dark Sun Adventure there are many telling signs of things to come.. Defiling is an at will power that lets you re-roll Daily Powers (every one of my players commented that they don’t like it and would never see a in game mechanic reason to use it) Goliaths are Half Giants. Dargon Born are Ssaurans not Dray.. there are Aladrin and Tieflings.. as they have stats for Kank and Gith (both of which I have loved to use as a DM) and Kalak is Dead… they are creating thrikreen and Mul… (the small information i could get from the pregen cards shows some exciting abilities)

Yeah, I’m interested to see what happens with defiling. I always thought the idea of allowing you to use a free metamagic feat from 3.5 was a great idea, so let’s see if they’ve got something as good. About to head off and continue with the book here in a minute.

More spoilers: One thing I do like is that they did away with divine magic altogether. This actually suits the setting better. Instead, elemental priests use primal magic. Nice.

I agree with what others here have said; the people who run Athas.org should certainly be proud; I think it was in part due to their efforts that WotC saw that there was enough interest in this old setting to devote resources to officially reviving it for 4th Edition.

Its been a long while since I played Dark Sun (under AD&D rules), and I wasn’t that enthused when I saw 4th Edition D&D.

The release of the Dark Sun setting is the only thing that would make me pick up 4th Edition (although, ideally, I would rather be a player this time and let someone else do all the hard work of running the system/campaign ^_).