Hey,
Wizards appears to be doing Dark Sun after all. https://youtu.be/w2RNSwKbf80?si=jSzrWA6NogI8aJg3
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This and the WoW set interest me.
But I’m still upset at the changes to the Forgotten Realms in the latest two books. (Each time I think of buying them, I hear some lore change that just doesn’t make sense.)
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Overall, I’m happy. I feel like they said all the right things at the keynote to put to rest any fears that 5.5e Dark Sun would be “watered down”. Also, loving the new logos.
That having been said, it’s the artwork that’s leaving me a bit worried. First, yeah, Athas is brutal, but it seems to me there’s a lot of blood and gore that’s there just for the sake of blood and gore. Also, everything just seems kinda… off? Like, take the cover to the Edge of Oblivion setting expansion book. I’m assuming that’s supposed to be The Dragon/Borys on the cover, but… he’s got four arms? Or is that not Borys? Also, the art for the city-states that they showed off. A lot of it seems way too… sci-fi instead of a fantasy setting that bombed itself back to the Stone Age. Or way too… metaphysical? Like the Balic pic is literally just a jumble of things that look vaguely Greco-Roman.
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The general feeling at the PT as well. Apparently the artwork isn’t “final” though. Might be floating it to gauge reactions. Maybe. 
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Yes. I am worried about the art and I hope that isn’t going to be how the text is going to reflect as a setting.
The art is certainly leaning far too much into a sci-fi flavour, almost as if they were looking at Dune as inspiration. There are a couple of images with what appears to be cyborgs or robots in them. Maybe they could be warforged, which would be a new addition to the setting. Plus a bit too much metal and what appears to be holograms and a command deck.
I kind of worry that this is a Black Dog situation, where White Wolf turned up the gore and T&A for the sake of calling it a mature label.
Call me cautiously pessimistic. 
I’m not all hip on the changes from 5.0e to 5.5e, but I think one of the changes was that stat adjustments now come from your background, yes?
Will all future races, including those from the upcoming Dark Sun books, be Level Adjustment +0? (Or whatever was the system they were using towards the end of 3.5e?)
Which means more medium sized large races (half-giants and thri-kreen) and toned down muls (athas.org 3.5e have them as +1).
I don’t mind goliaths. But they’re not half-giants. I can see both being in the game; goliaths not having been numerous enough to have gotten a Champion, while half-giants retaining their sorcerous origin and natural reproduction.
As for thri-kreen, I seem to recall that in the Blue Age, their ancestors were smaller and thought unintelligent. So just add a seventh natural (not whipped up by the zik-chil) subspecies, numerous in the Tablelands. Both can coexist. Maybe they got driven out by the Tohr-kreen empire a while ago?
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