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Considering the Dragon's magic in 4e taints even the stones near him an altar to leave sacrifices looks better than having him show up near your city to get a snack / energy to keep the big bad dude locked.
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Jul 21, 2010 00:45
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I bet Ur-Draxa isn't around anymore, so you need some new place for those thousands of slaves to go every year.
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Jul 21, 2010 00:51
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I completely forgot about the Penny Arcade dark sun podcasts. They are up to 7 now, lots to listen to @ http://www.wizards.com/dnd/rsspodcast.xml And now I realize they are playing basically an awesome version of the dark sun encounters. Slight differences and tons of added detail...they spent a whole session on the intro, they really covered some of the core dark sun things like potion fruits and disguised spellbooks. All stuff I'm making mental notes on for the next round of DM'ing. I know so much about the setting I tend to gloss over the things that make it unique and that new players wont have a clue about. But when the players dont know poo poo about the setting, half the fun is discovering all the weirdness.
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Jul 21, 2010 05:24
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The updates have been stalled for a while. I guess WotC is waiting for the in-store Encounters parties to catch up to where the PA players are in the podcast episodes.
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Jul 21, 2010 05:27
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I thought they were done. Wasn't there a "looking back" podcast already?
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Jul 21, 2010 18:27
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It's hard for me to tell, because they have zero transition at the ends of each episode.
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Jul 21, 2010 21:29
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Yeah, that's the one thing that annoys me about them.
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Jul 21, 2010 22:17
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PA is done. All the podcast recordings were from, as far as I could tell, a long one-shot session. The fact that they always picked up exactly where they left off and kept the same mood/style seems to me like it was all the same night. I listened to all of them for the first time last night because I was bored and it was vaguely interesting... at least after the godawful first one. Nerd humor is so awful. Dick Burglar fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jul 21, 2010 |
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Jul 21, 2010 22:24
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Oh, well. I was hoping more would come out as Encounters moved through more chapters. Can we start counting the days until Dark Sun is out yet? I wish they'd do a Dark Sun themed minis boxed set. Most of the ones out there aren't very DS, and Kreen are kind of hard to find these days.
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Jul 22, 2010 01:12
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 can't believe wotc is so stubborn about Encounters being a shop only thing
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Jul 22, 2010 01:35
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:I wish they'd do a Dark Sun themed minis boxed set. Most of the ones out there aren't very DS, and Kreen are kind of hard to find these days. I would also like a Dark Sun themed mini set.
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Jul 22, 2010 04:32
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http://www.dndlead.com/Ral-Partha/RP-DarkSun.htm I have the box for the RP's Dark Sun boxed set, but yeah it's just the box. I have a few loose wastelanders, but nothing cool like thri-kreen or the Dragon of Tyr. My original DM used his half-giant minis all the time though.
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Jul 22, 2010 04:49
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Laex posted:
Not only that, but I've been trying to attend one for my first ever time of D&D but they only have them on Wednesdays, but I've got a rough schedule and work afternoons/evenings Wed-Sun.
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Jul 22, 2010 07:27
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The Dragon's Altar article is kinda interesting, there's a couple of Boon rewards wich makes me think Dark Sun uses inherent bonuses for character advancement
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Jul 22, 2010 19:32
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Laex posted:The Dragon's Altar article is kinda interesting, there's a couple of Boon rewards wich makes me think Dark Sun uses inherent bonuses for character advancement This was confirmed ages ago.
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Jul 22, 2010 19:43
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inherent bonuses are different from boons, though. the boons in Dark Sun are a way of giving Magic Item rewards as favors of organizations or powerful beings. in Encounters two characters get a boon from being members of the Veiled Alliance.
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Jul 22, 2010 19:52
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angrylinuxgeek posted:in Encounters two characters get a boon from being members of the Veiled Alliance. Is that separate from the theme powers they start with?
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Jul 22, 2010 20:07
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yep! it gives them a bonus to Bluff and allows them a daily power to go invisible after using an Arcane Power (one of them doesn't have any, so I ruled that the theme power she got was Arcane)
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Jul 22, 2010 20:10
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angrylinuxgeek posted:yep! it gives them a bonus to Bluff and allows them a daily power to go invisible after using an Arcane Power (one of them doesn't have any, so I ruled that the theme power she got was Arcane) Neat. I guess we haven't gotten that far in the series yet.
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Jul 22, 2010 20:18
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We've gone a while without awesome inspirational art. I think WotC should hire Dan Hipp for some Dark Sun pieces.   
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Jul 23, 2010 02:55
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What the hell is happening in that last picture? That looks like a fuzzy whale. Something come to mind immediately about today's themes preview: I love themes. Functionally, they're another source of powers with role support and so on, like any other mechanical chunk of 4E. If you're willing to buy into them, though, themes act as the setting-identity interface in a way that was lost with 4E's (excellent) "class if how you fight, not who you are" philosophy. Classes, in prior editions, had to serve two masters: both "who" and "how". 4E let classes sit solely on the "how" side of things. Themes add(currently) setting-specific "who", which I honestly hadn't realised I missed. I think it's the divorce from the lion's share of your mechanical strength (i.e., class and feats) that lets me enjoy the return of "who" as a character-sheet element. Want to play a battlemind or shaman or wizard who is also an entertainer/assassin? Go for it. Want to be a psion or bard or seeker who battles for honor/survival in the blood-games of Tyr? Grab the gladiator theme, and lose nothing--instead, gain mechanical support for your desired in-setting flavor. In a way, it opens up character choices: you can have mechanical proficiency in your chosen flavor without building your class/power/feat choices especially to do so. I admire and endorse the effort taken to separate rules and flavor in 4E, and feel like it lets both become stronger. That said, themes are a wonderful point of contact between these two separated realms, especially within the context of a specific and very non-generic campaign setting. For me, themes are a welcome prompt to consider the character's place in the sand and silt world of Dark Sun, by offering a small bonus to those who do.
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Jul 23, 2010 17:50
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Yeah, it's some weird mythological whale or fish busting through ice and biting a guy in half. It'd probably be at home in the silt sea.
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Jul 23, 2010 17:55
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landwhales I love that themes aren't restricted by power source o roles, also the return of bards with poison 
Laex fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jul 23, 2010 |
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Jul 23, 2010 18:42
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:Yeah, it's some weird mythological whale or fish busting through ice and biting a guy in half. It must be the source of the whale fur from Dune.
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Jul 23, 2010 19:05
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:http://www.dndlead.com/Ral-Partha/RP-DarkSun.htm Over the years, I've managed to hang on to just one elf and one thri-kreen from my old DS minis. I am sad that I don't have more, but on the other hand, 90s RP minis haven't aged all that well. quote:I think WotC should hire Dan Hipp for some Dark Sun pieces. I really like his art you posted. It's like Mignola doing Frazetta.
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Jul 23, 2010 20:58
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PeterWeller posted:I really like his art you posted. It's like Mignola doing Frazetta. Yeah, I can see some similarities to Hellboy in there. Hipp recently got permission to post his solo comic online for free. http://www.thethiefisdead.blogspot.com/ Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Wizards isn't employing the a powerhouse of artists like TSR did. Maybe fantasy art has moved on from oil paintings.
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Jul 23, 2010 22:23
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I think you're right about the oil paintings part. Did TSR really employ that many powerhouses? The only people I really remember are Elmore, Brom, and DiTerlezzi or whatever his name is. WotC, on the other hand, seems to have a giant stable of decent to excellent artists thanks to Magic cards.
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Jul 23, 2010 22:46
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:Maybe it's just me, but it seems like Wizards isn't employing the a powerhouse of artists like TSR did. Maybe fantasy art has moved on from oil paintings. I get the same feeling, and include Jeff Easley in the list (covers of 2e DMG, Rules Cylcopedia, lots of dragonlance, etc). Maybe it is the medium, an Elmore on oil looks like art whereas a lot of the newer stuff looks too clean, like graphics. The other thing is back in the 2e days, it seems like TSR paid for an awesome color book cover and filled the interior with cheap black+whites. an Easley on the cover of one of the boxed sets, how I got into D&D:  Click here for the full 1144x776 image. Lol what a find, it was all these guys...the TSR art department, 1988. Easley, Elmore, Parkinson, Caldwell, LaForce.  Click here for the full 580x700 image. ritorix fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Jul 23, 2010 |
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Jul 23, 2010 23:39
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That's a good point about the Magic card stable. Pretty much everyone who was in Dragon also had a few Magic cards. Maybe it's more to do with art being subjective. I definitely agree that most of TSR's line drawings were terrible.
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Jul 24, 2010 03:48
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:This guy would make some totally rad Dark Sun art.
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Jul 24, 2010 04:49
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BetterWeirdthanDead posted:Hipp recently got permission to post his solo comic online for free. Read all that, paid six bucks to read the finale, regret nothing.
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Jul 24, 2010 05:35
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Has anyone else seen this PDF for running Dark Sun with Rolemaster (as the author puts it, "the greatest roleplaying game in the world")? It makes me want to roll to disbelieve.
Doc Hawkins fucked around with this message at 17:37 on Jul 24, 2010 |
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Jul 24, 2010 17:34
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That sounds very  . I'm not even sure if I'd play Dark Sun in another system; it's so tied to the D&D style and tropes for me that it'd feel weird.Edit: Although another class/level system with ideosyncratic, diverse, and separate magic and psychic ability systems could probably pull it off. Squizzle fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Jul 25, 2010 |
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Jul 25, 2010 03:01
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I'm pretty sure you can pretty much run any D&D setting with Rolemaster. It will just involve a whole lot of charts.
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Jul 25, 2010 04:46
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I guess I shouldn't point fingers, since I've been working on a Dark Sun "setting pack" for the Solar System for a few weeks now. Anti-grognard disclaimer: Though I haven't yet played 4e, I'd like to, because it seems a fun and focused design. And I'd very much like to play Dark Sun with it, too! But it's no more the only RPG I want to play than steak is the only food I want to eat or hip hop the only music I want to listen too. The Shadow of Yesterday/Solar System does cool character-driven adventuring shenanigans, and sometimes that's what I (and more importantly, what a majority of the folks I'm playing with) prefer. It's not that I say "I want to play Dark Sun, and this is the perfect game for it!" It's "I want to play TSoY, and Dark Sun would be a cool setting for it!" I could do the exact same thing in Dogs in the Vineyard (characters are Templars in and around one of the more interesting city states) or shock: (Issues: slavery, environmentalism, cultural hostility; Shocks: ubiquitous psychic powers, life can be drained from the land to power great magics) or Apocalypse World (pretty much no conversion necessary) or any number of others. It may be because I never played in a for real game of Dark Sun, but as a setting, I don't see it irrevocably tied to classes, levels, PSPs, or any of that stuff. What matters is the mutant Arabian Nights via Metal Hurlant aesthetic and the hostility of nature and the foolishness of ancient greed that continues to fight over the last oppressed scraps of life that downright refuse to die because they don't want to give cruel and impersonal fate the satisfaction. What matters is that Dark Sun Owns, and if you can communicate that, you could re-skin RISK 2210, and it'd still be Dark Sun to me. But I understand that people with more experience of hit dice and experience points and stuff won't feel that way, and that's okay. Room enough for all of us at the gaming table.
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Jul 25, 2010 16:51
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I was actually reading the Mouse Guard rules and it made me think of running Dark Sun with that rule system. The four main "enemies" are weather (baking heat, freezing nights, sandstorms, etc), wilderness (the plants want to kill you, traversing the deserts, etc), animals (duh), other mice (other Athanians). It's probably crazy talk, but I couldn't help mentioning it in light of the recent conversation.
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Jul 25, 2010 17:25
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I think you're right. Dark Sun is undeniably D&D, but it's more D&D in the sense that there are things like elves and dwarfs who explore dungeons and fight dragons than in any particularly mechanical sense. Dark Sun does have a lot of unique flavor, but it's still firmly rooted in the same generic fantasy tropes that you can represent with a whole plethora of different systems. Edit: And if you would rather concentrate on the aspects of the setting that make it unique, there are just as many other systems that can be appropriate.
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Jul 25, 2010 17:29
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Aranan posted:I was actually reading the Mouse Guard rules and it made me think of running Dark Sun with that rule system. The four main "enemies" are weather (baking heat, freezing nights, sandstorms, etc), wilderness (the plants want to kill you, traversing the deserts, etc), animals (duh), other mice (other Athanians). Hahaha, I forgot to mention: several dudes in my group have suggested the exact same thing. It'd work great: you just give each race an appropriate Nature, describe the Scouting or Fighting as partly psionic or magic... You'd need to figure out a bit of structure in the absence of the unifying factor of "We're all in the Mouse Guard, we do certain things in certain seasons." But yes, I think it's a great fit, especially since it has a system for ludicrously-more-powerful-than-PCs threats, unlike the Solar System, where the most unskilled dude still has a 1/47,000 chance to beat a person at the highest level of skill (unless the unskilled guy is an NPC and the skilled guy is a PC because then the PC calls for an extended conflict and the NPC immediately folds or tries to change to a more favorable arena of conflict and okay I'm done, sorry).
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Jul 25, 2010 18:32
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Savage Worlds would be another great setting for Dark Sun, as it can be run very deadly with very easy separate wound and fatigue tracks to differentiate the rigors of combat and the environment. Also it uses edges for Psionics, Super Powers, Magic, and Weird Science separately to differentiate all of them, which work in slightly different ways (even pretty drastic drain mechanics for straight up defiling magic, etc).
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Jul 26, 2010 00:27
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Article today about the Sorcerer-King pact. Also major note: Wild Talents excluding the character theme look to still be in the game, according to that contents list. Also the Wild Battlemind, which I assume is... I guess another Charisma-build for the Battlemind? Who knows! But whatever. Now you can be a Wilden Wilder Wild Battlemind (multiclass Wild Sorcerer) with a Wild Talent. I think the word 'wild' has lost definition for me now.
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Jul 26, 2010 09:29
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