Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Actually, that would be an example of a "fabricated fact not presented in evidence", since I did no such thing
I get that you're way more invested in seeing Dark Sun succeed than I am and will spin its release accordingly, but i would expect better than this kind of nonsense from someone with your background
What I actually said, since you seem so committed to facts and all, is that WOTC wanted to push existing IP as a general policy, and that Dark Sun did well in fan surveys so it went forward. Not that Dark Sun specifically was what WOTC wanted. I think we can all come up with examples of decisions being made at the corporate level that perhaps were not fully thought through
Now you're painting me as an enemy of the developers. Classy. Which developers, though -- the ones around in 2017 when you claim work on this started? Or the ones hired since, with what you yourself have said are resumes that would be better suited to tackling this kind of project? And who hired that second group, again?
All this because I dared to offer an opinion that didn't wholeheartedly embrace this release as a great idea. You can keep spinning yourself in circles about this if you want, but I'm tuning you out from here
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
The simple fact remains that, in the quote above, (a) you painted this as a "corporate directive" being the primary impetus and (b) that the creatives are in a position where they are not "doing their best" not "doing what they wanted to do."
The pure and plain diction of your post took the agency for the decision away from the actual creators and pushed it onto corporate. That is both not supported by fact - as already clearly established, the facts show this seems to be a creative-driven decision - and is extremely dismissive of the game designers by framing them as victims through use of diction that places them in a passive and not enthusiastic role.
Maybe that is not what you intended to say, but it is what you wrote.
I want to also be clear on this, since it relates back to the fundamental concept of the thread, and why I think the origins of the setting's return should be clear. While I do not care overly much for Dark Sun - I do care very much for having a development team that gets to work on projects they are excited about, and it does seem like there is plenty of evidence this team is excited about projects like Dark Sun. A development team that is excited tends to make better content, and we all benefit from that. Especially in a setting like Dark Sun, where the creators really need to feel the setting and understand both its pros and cons, I think it is particularly problematic to be dismissive - intentionally or not - of what the developers actually want to do.
I'm uncertain, but I don't think the word polemic is really meant to be used in that fashion (as in describing a setting as polemic).
That is, unless you're implying that the setting itself is, somehow, a strongly worded argument or stands in direct opposition to some other setting?
Maybe "controversial" or "polarizing"?
*shrug*
I read for a living these days, so sometimes stuff jumps out at me :)
I thought the same and did some googling. Polemic can be a noun or an adjective, meaning either a strongly worded oppositional argument or provoking strong or passionate arguments
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I assumed they meant “Problematic” and it was a typo
I'm not a native English speaker (as you've definitely noticed). In my two native languages (Spanish and French), and in the other two languages that I speak (Portuguese and Italian), it would be correct to use that word with that meaning (that is, something that stirs up controversy).
Thanks for taking your time to point that out. I love to be corrected, since it helps me to improve my language skills. 😊
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While I believe that a survey was done and it scored highly, I doubt it was a valid survey. People had such a bad taste, they dropped DND completely. Dollars to doughnuts all of those people that dropped where not involved in the survey. Maybe now as people are starting to filter back in as their kids are getting into it, a survey will have vastly different results.
I'd say it needs to go beyond just a milquetoast "this is fiction!" everything-proof-shield disclaimer. As Davyd pointed out, previous iterations of Dark Sun have included both themes and mechanics that reward in the best case indifference, and in the worst case participation, in the more brutal aspects of the setting. Like, we don't need mechanics tied to branding sapients for Dark Sun to function, so just leave that up to the DM (with the appropriate safety tools for their specific table) instead.
As for the Psionics bit - I don't have a problem with 5.5e Psions using spell slots. There are comparatively very few true Psions on Athas in the grand scheme of things anyway, just like there are very few true Sorcerers or Wizards. My concern is with the wider populace; just about everything on Athas has some degree of psionic ability, including all the martials. The best way to represent that is some kind of Wild Talent bonus feat, which is totally fine, so long as the range of what a wild talent lets you do is calibrated appropriately. (The easiest approach is to let it grant a cantrip and a 1/day 1st-level power/psionic spell, but for me the devil is in the details.)
In case you didn't know, Wild Talent feats were playtested in the Psion's first UA, and they work almost exactly like the way you suggested (they're feats made to be available as early as level 1, and consist of a thematic ability and some combination of 1 cantrip, 1 level 1 spell, and 1 level 2 spell). I'm fairly confident they're going to appear in Dark Sun: Blood and Power.
"Let's keep things civil, friend. We're not looking for trouble."
I'm just happy to be here.
Even then, the implication of calling it 'polemical' would be that it was created to provoke a response, or deliver a specific argument. Polemics also are focused exclusively on conveying one message
Trying to think of some good examples... Martin Luther's theses nailed to the door of the church would be 'polemical'. Picasso's Guernica. Jonathan Swift's Modest Proposal. That sort of thing
Just containing some elements that are edgy/polarizing/politically charged wouldn't really qualify
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I am aware of those; the thing I meant was currently missing are rules for every (or almost every) PC and NPC on Athas to have one - and for PCs, without giving up their Origin feat. I expect for the Athas PCs it'll be as easy as a bonus WT feat (hopefully with the option to swap it for Tough or Skilled for those rare folks who want to try being a psionic muggle on Athas), but for monsters not in the book the DM will likely want at least a bit of guidance.
One of the updates MIGHT be that not everyone has Wild Talent
DM, player & homebrewer(Current homebrew project is an unofficial conversion of SBURB/SGRUB from Homestuck into DND 5e)
Once made Maxwell's Silver Hammer come down upon Strahd's head to make sure he was dead.
Always study & sharpen philosophical razors. They save a lot of trouble.
I'd assume they would be giving up their Origin feats, the same way Eberron PCs are giving them up to have Dragonmarks.
Ok, thank you so much for the explanation. 😊
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All y'all really shouldn't be nitpicking a non-native English speaker's word choice so hard. You get what VonCarstein means.
How about we talk about Darksun?
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Until we actually see how well they threaded the needle on making an update palatable to 2026 audiences, we're all just speculating and spitballing anyway
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
PIPA - Planar Interception/Protection Aeormaton, warforged bodyguard and ex-wizard hunter (Warrior of the Elements monk/Cartographer artificer)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
i suspect it would be palatable to the vast majority of the audience as it was. the fringes are always just the loudest.
But the majority of Eberron inhabitants don't have those. Whereas nearly everything on Athas is psionic. It's not the same thing.
It is, but it isn’t. If Dragonmarks are simply innate powers then there’s no reason someone with one shouldn’t also have an origin feat as well to reflect their personal background. But they don’t, because it’s much more straightforward for character design to simply use them to fill the Origin Feat slot of a background. I’d expect they’ll do the same for Dark Sun on the PC side of things. Don’t know if they’ll try to come up with some simple NPC/monster traits that can be tacked onto blocks from outside the book, or just hand wave that- could see it go either way.
I think we can reasonably expect that Wizards will use origin feats to represent a player’s psionic talents. That is the best way to represent innate abilities under the current character creation structure. Moreover, by making them origin feats, that makes the product more useful for homebrew worlds - many of us will never play Dark Sun, but having psionic origin feats is something any table using psionics benefits from. If I were Wizards, I would probably include a disclaimer in the book that it is heavily encouraged a player chooses one of the psionic feats (over something like tough) if playing a Dark Sun game.
I also expect the monsters included in the book will all have some kind of psionic ability. That is one of the things I think they could do really well, particularly if they offer a wide range of abilities showing various levels of skill in Psionics.
I also would hope they have a table of psionic abilities that you can staple onto MM monsters to get that Athas feel. But I doubt this will happen. I expect they will just rely on DMs using the (mediocre) “create a monster” rules from the DMG, which basically boil down to “take the monster you like, find a similar CR monster with the ability you want, staple them together.” Which.. works and does the job for taking monsters from the DS setting books and taping their abilities to MM monsters, but is far more annoying than simply having a table.