I’d like to see the mechanics fit the fluff. I was a 2E holdout forever, probably until 2008. 3.5e finally turned me around when I realized that when done properly, the mechanics can fit the fluff in 3.5e. 2E fluff was the best, but the mechanics didn’t really represent it.
Here is Pennarin’s Illithid Project. It was never finished, but here is the outline. Proposes a mind flayer killing champion called Barien.
While I liked Pennarin’s illithid stuff, I personally like my illlithid to be non-indigenous to Athas.
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(Edited)
I’d like to see the mechanics fit the fluff.
Sure. Mechanics SHOULD fit the fluff, but there’s sometimes a way to reconcile them w/o changes to the mechanics.
I’m a big fan of doing things like changing the description and reskinning a displacer beast as a dual whip-tailed scorpion monster or something.
Making the stats and description agree isn’t the same thing as letting the description FORCE a change to the mechanics.
I’m happy to let/help folks use description to drive stats, but I’m against being a slave to that.
There’s a way to swing that overly-cerebral Mind Flayer description to still work just fine with the standard version’s stats, if a person wanted, and still have a different FEEL to the Flayer. It’s just a matter of personal preference.
PS: I also don’t really see the point of Mind Flayers in DS, Psurlons are VERY similar; but to each their own.
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I like the idea of them hating each other and always looking to subvert or sabotage the other’s schemes.
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I am also a fan of doing this. However, I prefer to add rather than replace or subtract. So if there is a beast similar to a displacer beast with a scorpion stinger, for example, just let the PCs wonder ‘what the hell did we just fight’, rather than saying that these are displacer beasts and replacing them.
The place of mind flayers in DS is in the context of an adventure instead of a supplement. That way the mind flayers only happen in DS if the PCs actually participate in the adventure. See Expedition to the Barrier Peaks for something similar. Are there really robots in Greyhawk? Most say no, but there are PCs in some groups that have fought robots and won.
I’m not huge on mind flayers on Athas. I’ve seen various ideas about mind flayers and most of them position mind flayers deep in Athas’ historical narrative. My approach is minimalist. It’s saying “here, if you want mind flayers in your DS campaign, here’s how you can do it without warping the setting”.
Keeping the setting intact and following broadly the Dark Sun themes is my MO.
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Right. I did this with some of the new monsters in Faces of the Deadlands - and i promise you’ll never figure out what monster I started with (for at least one of them). I’d never say the phrase “reskinned displacer beasts” to my players.
Ah, nice. That’s how I’d do it, were I so inclined.
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The Gith would not be on Athas, if there were no Illithids at some point.
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Thats been my rationale as well. They went through the trouble of building an entire underground city. Seems extreme unless it was to assault a huge conclave of illithid.
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Mmm, that’s an assumptive reach, but its not illogical. Could be. 
But, I believe the Girhyanki have nesting colonies/facilities to mature their young. I’m sure many are on/in Prime worlds, and that very few are on worlds known to have Mind Flayers (that’d be the Githyanki playing with fire).
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I’m talking original Gith, as in pre-split. The Mind Flayers were here with the Gith enslaved, and the champion Gith, the person the race is named after had made a fortress here to assault them, and when the split came after Gith’s death, the Githyanki took it over. The Githzerai sabotaged the Githyanki here and they became the degenerates they are today…
The Gith probably didn’t destroy all the Mind Flayers, but they forced them into hiding. There are Hej-kin, Durro, Duergar, and many other races on Athas that are degenerate or changed by the Mind Flayers, there is just so much evidence ethnologically that they were and ARE still on Athas.
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I know the Gith forerunner history. Not sure about evidence of derro and duergar existing on Athas though.
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I never found any references in any source in all the versions of Dark Sun that mention Derro or Duergar.
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About 50% of that is definitely a thing, the rest sounds like internet head-canon.
Sources?
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Never did I say it was canon, I was just spit balling. Maybe you canon lawyers need to lighten up… The whole world is psionic though, that is the most obvious clue that Mind Flayers had been there, who know maybe it was even their home world, before the Blue Age… The whole planet could be from a totally different plane than it’s current one…
No.
The language and tone of your post, is relation to the language all of your and our previous posts, led EVERYONE here (not just me) to assume you were talking canon - things to be found in the books.
I’m gonna politely ask you to roll your “canon-lawyer” dislike back. I don’t want or need it.
If you had used spit-balling indicative words like: “maybe” or “what if”, or something, I (and presumably others) would have understood what you meant and I’d have happily run with it.
I legit thought that you thought that Mindflayers and the pre-Gith were from Athas. I thought one of us had gone insane; i was worried for a minute it was me. 
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I had the same thoughts. “Perhaps”, “maybe” go a long way to prevent misunderstandings in canon.
Athas is harsh. The occasional wanderer is often eaten by a gith lurking nearby.
Athas’s canon is harsh too. The occasional wanderer is often eaten by a canon-lawyer lurking nearby.
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“Yum, tastes like Journal…”
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No I’m not going to roll my comment back, I am tired of getting harassed by the canon lawyers. D&D is not a set in stone universe, the DMGs state specifically that you can do and think creatively to create your own versions of their content. Every game is different.
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Please pay attention.
I don’t want you to wear a straight jacket of canon for your games. I WOULD like you to clearly telegraph your meaning in posts - a bar I hold myself and everyone else to.
If I said: “The Dragon of Tyr fought Mordenkainen once, and lost.” (Sounds like a thing i believe to be true)
My meaning reads differently than if I said: “I think that if the Dragon of Tyr fought Mordenkainen, the Dragon would lose.” (Clearly a musing)
That is my point. I’d love to understand what everyone means when they post things here - this would help.
I’m happy to BS with you and everyone else about what could be or how to jam outside things into DS.
That wasn’t a very kind comment …
… this is my one artistic outlet that I can have, and my players seem to really enjoy playing what they are playing.
Keep your “canon lawyer” disgust. I’m LITERALLY only asking for the same respect you have/are. Different folks like different stuff - I GET to like canon.
No one here is telling you your DS is wrong, just that we didn’t understand your meaning.
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