Just thought I would find out how people DM their Dark Sun games. Are you as harsh as the Dark Sun environment itself or do you show pity on the characters and allow them fluff to soften the effects? What special effects do you throw into your game sessions to add more flavor to the environment? How much money do the players find or work with and how much metal do you allow? Additional aspects of how you DM your Dark Sun game is very welcome.

To start things off:
I try and ensure the characters know Dark Sun is very harsh. The weather and environment play a key role in my games and any chance I get to add some weather effects to the game, I will. If the players think they can wander the desert, they better be able to carry enough water and shelter to survive…as well as protecting their assets from the desert and desert creatures themselves. I have actually only had one character who died from dehydration, a HG, after their caravan was destroyed and they decided to continue on foot to the city across the desert…the fools!! :->
Dark Sun had a character tree for a good reason…because Dark Sun was harsh. If the players did not watch what they were doing, they could easily lose their character to a monster or the environment. So they became accustom to using their character tree every couple of sessions. Although they did get better at surviving after a while and do not lose as many characters as they initially were.
Although the low volume of money was an issue there were a few times when I was trying to understand how much money I really wanted them to have and still keep them on the low side of funding… There are always bards or rogues or simply leven merchants who can relieve them of excess money while they are sleeping or shopping in the market place.
Metal was not really easy to find, but the characters managed to find a metal weapon about once per level or once every other level.
I have never really gotten into using music to enhance the game…but it would be interesting to add it in for additional flavor.

This article at athas.org contains some ideas and pointers.
http://www.athas.org/articles/2

I remember when I played DS as a player, my very first character died from dehydration. It was quite unspectacular and a good example for the harshness of the athasian enviroment. But as a player I found it quite lame, and as a result the next character I played was a Thri-Kreen. :)
So, what I want to say is that, I’m not so hard about the enviroment. I like it to make the people hard and uncomfortable. Almost everyone is backstabbing and has a plan of his own. Nobody has ever heard of altruism, but Machiavelli is a well known templar in the service of Hamanu.

Machiavelli is a well known templar in the service of Hamanu.

I havent dm’ed athas in a looong time. back in 2ed to be honest. Cant wait to do orrible things to my players.
:)
Example: In a l5r game one of my players was captured dragged into the woods, and sodomized by giant goat creatures. ( he really shoulda screamed for help)

I’m not to harsh but not to generous either. If the PCs screw up I hammer them. Metal weapons are about as rare as a normal magic item IMC. In a normal world when a fighter gets a +1 longsword the DS fighter may find a metal longsword. Metal daggers are probably the most common metal weapons.
The environment is’t as chalenging for my PCs because.
1. In 2nd ed they always had that survival non weapon profiency.
2. In 3.5 they always had the survival skill.
3. in all editions they have a water cleric for some reason.
Makes it hard to starve them. They wander around the desert just fine unles thewy encounter something really scary but the PCs are good min/maxers so unless you use something alot higher on level than they are they don’t care to much. IN 2nd ed they had alot of Kreen, Mul and Half Giants and I remember a halg giant who dual wielded two handed swords due to size and Combat and Tactic book being used. In 3.5 there were a few Muls or Half Giants fighter/barbarians with power attack, preservers using hold spells, or psions using psychokinesis and throwing arond energy balls. Not much can go toe to toe with a power attack for 5-10 two handed weapon using Mul or Half Giant that can still hit reliably due to buff effects (bulls strength etc). Ranged threats died to the Psychokinetist. My level 10-11 PCs weren’t scared of much that wasn’t CR 18 or higher.
Not many of my 3.5 campaigns lasted beyond level 11 for some reason.

As with every role-playing game, I find it important that the story-telling does not suffer in DS games. Otherwise you might as well be playing a computer game. I’m not aiming for a high character turnover so that a character can ‘grow’. Stories that relate to the character and weave character and historical background in really make a game for me both as a DM and a player. But I’m not making things deliberately easier.

I’ve just recently started DMing a DarkSun game (again) though most of my experience has been with 2nd Ed. (P.S. – I’ve got most of the books & Novels if anyone’s got any questions) Perhaps someone will find something helpful from my experiences:
1st – I decided to run this game as a ‘back-up’ to an Eberron game which is strongly tied to StoryLine for the characters involved, thus when we don’t have all the players we run DS instead.
2nd – To accommodate the ‘back-up game’ system I’ve forced the character tree system on my players. Though initially apprehensive, they now LOVE it and are asking to character tree the Eberron game.
3rd – To make the tree work for ‘back-up games’, I’ve forced them into initial character choices that were extremely limited. (Human only; class selection of fighter, barb, ranger, or rogue; ex-slave background; and yes… I use the semi-colon)
4th – I spent some time devising a unique first game (where all four players were in attendance but wanted a breather from Eberron) that focused on the flavor of Athas. At the end of the adventure they were allowed to finish their character creation process and given the rules (I use r6 currently) with the homework assignment of crafting their 2nd character for the character tree.
5th – With the limited options, I had the players in the next session asking about playing a race, class or background option that was not one of those listed above. When I told them that they would open up those options as they played games and had a chance to interact with those backgrounds in some depth. We played DS again immediately. (Always be prepared to run the next game…)
6th – For flavor, any character with a Charisma of 11 or higher gets the Hidden Talent feat for free. (reminds me of 2nd Ed.) The environment is particularly brutal and unforgiving, but I’ll give players a ‘heads-up’ about poor supplies choices if their character should know better. {ex- Knowledge (geography), knowledge (nature), survival (sandy wastes), etc.} Just because the environment is dangerous doesn’t mean you have to be a jerky GM.
I don’t want to blow-up this post, so I’ll start another thread with the SL of our games. The first game was an interesting way of initial character creation for player unfamiliar with DS.
Good Gaming!
-Jason