So my ongoing attempts to pillage my existing backlog of RPG products to find Dark Sun inspiration continues shamelessly.
Lands of the Linnorm Kings- Another Paizo/Pathfinder product. Like so many before, it’s high quality stuff, but there is not a lot that feels Dark Sun to me. It’s partly because they really soak in the whole Nordic vibe, and do a fantastic job of it.
Adventure sites that could be reskinned the Icy Spire (an example of what can move in if a previous monster is slain), Kalva (cannibal island with fungal infections) and the Moundlands (burial cairns of kings who compete for undead dominance).
However, there is one which is an awesome huge winner.
Kopparberget- A huge, lucrative tin and copper mine it’s an excellent of how to turn the mines of Tyr into an adventure location. It’s got natural dangers, disused sections with water and ghosts. Golbins infest one level with death traps. Duergar have burst into the lower levels. They use cloakers as scouts, and war with the miners who are bringing in golems as back up and…
Obviously, some adaptation to Athas is needed, but dang. The dungeon writes itself.
Lost Empires of Faerun- This was a tough one. A lot of it is very specific to the lore and setting of Faerun. Parsing something useful from this book was challenging. But I do have some things, even if they are broad brush strokes.
General format- Each chapter starts with a history of the empire or region in question. Then it details important sites. Then to legacies. The latter part is of the most interest to me. It details what sources players could use to research the past (oral tales, wise sages, stone tablets, insane dreams through opium use, etc) which is cool. Too often the investigative portion of ruin crawling gets overlooked. Then it will go into treasures, artefacts and relics that are thematically appropriate to the region or unique. Which I do like.
Chapter 4- God Kings of the East, this is your Egyptian/Babylonian analogue. I honestly wasn’t too inspired by it, but it has more to do with my lack interest than any fault of the text. Given the mortality of the gods, switching them out for sorcerer monarchs would be easier than you might suppose.
Chapter 7- Imperial South. I got a lot more out of this one. It has elemental wars and genies, genocide and deals with evil creatures from beyond Faerun. The latter are phaerumm but you can easily substitute psurlons. Piece of cake. The genocidal wars and elemental conflicts lend themselves easily to Athas. However, I see this has something you can take one piece at a time. Like reading a page and saying “Oh good, I can use this a backstory for some dead elven raaigs I was working on.”
Chapter 8- The Old North. The idea behind this is that the area is a frontier that numerous attempts to settle and civilize have failed. Lots of small kingdoms and numerous attempts at empire have happened hear. However, insurmontable numbers of monsters have always caused these to fall. Once again, I think bits and pieces could easily apply to Athas.
What think you dear reader?