Wikipedia posted:

Water has long since ceased to flow on the surface and can only be found in the last sea, some oases, tiny lakes and streams, as well as west of the Ringing Mountains in the Forest Ridge. Not only are the mountains nearly impassable (the name Ringing Mountains refers to the lightheaded feeling one feels from lack of oxygen when traversing them) but the Forest Ridge is the home of halflings, which in the Dark Sun world are small creatures that live in tribes in the forest and do not hesitate to capture and eat intruders to their realm. This makes the prospect of going west across the mountains a near impossibility.

In the place of an ocean, the world of Athas, due to defiling magic, has a sea composed entirely of silt. The silt is incredibly dangerous as it is not capable of supporting the weight of humanoid creatures, and the particles themselves are extremely fine and get into the lungs quite easily. A strong wind from the Silt Sea can cause people from nearby villages to have to remain indoors all day, though with a certain amount of water some people often make use of a mask-like object called a silter which is placed over the mouth and nose and kept wet in order to help the user breathe.

The silt actually becomes hard-packed a few metres below the surface, but this is of no help to a human as the level within the first two metres is extremely loose and fine. However, giants often make use of the packed silt roads further below and can be seen wading chest-deep through the silt. Humans have sometimes built crafts that can navigate these silt roads much like giants do, though the going is much slower and both humans and giants still have to deal with the creatures that live in the sea.

There are also shipfloaters, which are psionicists who, through use of a large obsidian orb to focus their power, can telekinetically levitate and sail the ship as if it were sailing through water.

ManMythLegend posted:

What do you want to know?

tendrilsfor20 posted:

So yeah, only read books 1, 4 and 5. They're a contiguous story.

tendrilsfor20 posted:

For "swords," it's usually described as a petrified wood shard, carved into the shape of a sword and then coated in glue and then pointy bits of obsidian. Other blades will be made by bone. Only very high-ranking members of a city-state's army will have metal blades. Medium-ranking soldiers will have bone or petrified wood weapons with a metal edge folded over on them.

"Chains" and stuff like flails are generally made with giants-hair rope. Maces and clubs are generally just rocks tied to sticks.

PeterWeller posted:

What? The Wanderer's Journal, the first fluff book from the first boxed set, describes them as cannibals. Read the sections on the Forest Ridge and Raiding Tribes. The section on Urik mentions the halfling unit that Hamanu hires for terror actions against his enemies.

Kerison posted:

Red_Mage posted:

This should go here.

BetterWeirdthanDead posted:

Wil Wheaton won't be in the Dark Sun podcasts.


Plus, the comic in case you haven't seen it:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/5/14/

Bieeardo posted:

Breakable magic weapons made me wince, but then I realized that you could probably still use their remains as residuum for making new ones later.

Still, with the exception of weapons with stories behind them, I think Dark Sun works a lot better as an inherent bonuses campaign. A hardass is someone who can pick up a cactus and hit a body with it. A paragon-level hardass is someone who can take that same cactus and knock a body's head off with it.

Squizzle posted:

the guy who did all of these

That Guy posted:

http://gandhi.gfxartist.com/artworks/167446
Another painting of DnD monster - demon being called Sibriex. It has illustration from Tom Baxa which i dont like, so i ve made my own

s19aw posted:

Haha, assassins could just carry around gigantic parasols with them all the time, strapped to their backs, to "protect themselves from the sun".

In fact, probably everyone on Athas who can afford it should do this. My next dark sun character is going to be a parasol merchant.

angrylinuxgeek posted:

The Alienist, the best paragon path