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Dark Sun; Hey, what?

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Mon, 2006-01-23 10:13
#1
Sarig
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Dark Sun; Hey, what?

So, now that I got all the Planescape books (except Eternal Boundry, and In the Abyss), and have at least looked through all of them, it's time to check out some other setting.

Of 3e, I already got a good stack of FR books, and the good Eberron ones, in addition to the free FR downloads from the WotC site. So now what?

I've heard a bit about the desert world Athas, and everything with a desert in it is at least a bit fascinating (might be buying Sandstorm soon, the whole touchstones thing put me off), and I understand that it's cut off from the Outer Planes?

Anyway, I want to learn more about it, any good places to start? Or any suggestions as to what pdf's I should try to get my hands on?

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Mon, 2006-01-23 10:52
#2
Fidrikon
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Dark Sun; Hey, what?

Athas is essentially your standard post apocalyptic world, but the destruction was caused by magic, not A-bombs.

I cant say I know a great amount of Athas, but this is a good place to get info, the 'feel' of it, and some stats.

http://www.athas.org/

Athas Online (in the links page) has the stats for the campaign setting.

Sat, 2006-01-28 11:14
(Reply to #2) #3
Rhys
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Dark Sun; Hey, what?

It's sort of a brutal desert setting. Tribal wars, templar coming and beating down your door, gladiatorial combat. Magic in the world either sucks the life out of the surrounding area to fuel itself (defiler magic) or holds itself back to prevent that (preserver magic), so psionics are key.

Oh yeah, and the halflings will eat you.

Tue, 2006-02-07 21:26
(Reply to #3) #4
Spragg
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Dark Sun; Hey, what?

A couple (relatively recent) issues of Dragon - and one of Dungeon - have done Athas material for D&D 3.5. Opinion on these is rather mixed, but it's a decent enough starting point for those that haven't touched the setting before, IMO.

Sandstorm would be useful, but perhaps even more useful would be the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Two of the races in that book - the Half-Giant and the Thri-Kreen - are lifted directly from Dark Sun.

Oh, and if you didn't like Planar Touchstones, the Magical Locations from the DMG II are a much better implementation of the same concept. I liked the idea of Planar Touchstones, but the need for a feat with a level requirement just seemed a bit too restrictive to utilize an entire setting feature.

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