Converting Dark Sun?
I saw it name-dropped more than a few times here and saw Dragonbane mentioned once or twice when I searched in the Dark Sun subreddit. I didn't find anything really substantive mechanically.
I have a deep and abiding nostalgia for my memories from getting to play the boxes with my friends years ago. I do not have a deep and abiding nostalgia for the granularity of 2e, or relearning 2e to play again. Dragonbane feels like the right kind of low-mid magic that's perfect for a conversion.
Can you help me brainstorm some patches and homebrews (maybe not even fully "brew" as much as "add a proper chaser") to put into place to make Dragonbane feel like Athas?
My goal would be to pull the fewest levers and tweak the fewest dials, and get something just good enough to go, "Here's Dragonbane and one A4 page of tweaks," and start throwing down with as much of the core game as possible, since I think DB can really capture the vibe.
Off the top of my head (using only the core, which is all I have)...
- Cold rules can apply for Heat, too, since desert cold is also a survival problem
- Bushcraft rules seem fine and can be reskinned for hot weather
- Thirst rules on top of p54's hunger rules? Including the water madness stuff
- Tweaking durability rules beyond just the parry notes on p46 to reflect fragile materials
- guidelines for replacing the kin is mostly a question of "what's a good level of power or ability for 3 WP without going gonzo or punishing casters/psions?"
- I don't think the classes need changing beyond a naming reskin? Even mariners are just silt skimmers.
That should cover most of the environmental rules and character creation stuff?
Addressing magic...
- either "animism is preserver, general and elemental is not" or "all magic can be preserver, but +1 action to preserve, using a grimoire still adds +1 additional action beyond that"
- Mentalism is Psionics: learn 1 trick from Mentalism or General (to be kind), and it casts based off INT as standard; Mentalism is walled off and is not a school of magic, can't be learned or grimoire'd like normal and Mentalists, dedicated ones, cannot dip magic "because lore."
This one's got me scratching my head. It's a way to keep true to the flavor, but I don't know how that'd feel in a long-term Dark Sun game.
But that could mess with certain things that make DB work in ways that I don't see, and I'd need you to set me straight on it.
...I don't know. I've got the itch again to go back, but I really don't want to Go Back, you know? I hope the idea isn't too at-odds with DB as a system, and these are only my first thoughts off the hip, which feels very much in a "toolbox" spirit, but I I feel like I need someone to stop me if I'm about to do something dangerous or inappropriate with the belt sander.