(Sorry if this was asked in another thread, but I didn't see it. I'll delete if redundant.)
Anyone else thinking about investing in the new Dragon Kings RPG books? They're being put out third party as the "spiritual successor" to Dark Sun.
I know some here have expressed concerns about how WotC will do on the official books. I'm definitely considering backing the project.
What is up kank herders? I have been printing and painting heaps of stuff for my current Dark Sun campaign. I started the players off with Freedom, I just think it is a wicked adventure, I ran it years ago, and always dug it. I expanded it, added some more ruins, and encounters.
But I want the Fortress of the Jura Dai to be more put together than in the module, and just this old epic end encounter to that intro adventure. Depending on how the party goes forward with it that is, with whatever they decide to do....they were too scared to go into the weezer hive so hopefully they aren't terrified of this! It is still printing but should be done in a week or so.
It is modular, so this will mostly work as sections in other areas of Athas as either ruins, or a prison attached to another building, even probably in Tyr as the slave pits.
Either way I am pretty stoked on how the thing, and others are looking and just wanted to share some progress of the Athas I am making for my party on the table. I included a few other shots of ruins and some set-ups from other sessions with other stuff I have been using and printing.
I have been using a lot of Underdark Stuff by Gamescape3d, some printable scenery rocks, a game board I made myself, and then models from the Dark Sun Boxed Set that someone painted up for me and then whatever matches the vibe, like these giant wasps I found and painted to be the weezers.
I have been going pretty hard just because I am an artist for work and it is fun for me to just paint and make stuff number one. We haven't used miniatures for 6 years because it has been all computers and our last couple of campaigns were recorded as a podcast. But for this campaign, i said, I didn't care about the podcast, I wanted light, music and minis in the campaign and I was gonna figure out how to stream...so we are streaming the sessions on Twitch for this campaign. But that is a new thing. I just wanted to play with toys and have music in the background for Athas vibes.
Athas neeeeeeds that great music I think to really set the tone personally.
Thanks for looking!
Rock on!
Dark Sun Online: Crimson Sands is back!
If you were around for the old emulators, you already know the pattern. A server pops up, runs for a while, the dev disappears, everything goes offline, and the community scatters. The last big attempt was genuinely solid — about 95% complete — but the creator dropped off the map with no handoff or code release, and although he tends to reappear from time to time who wants to invest time into a server that might be available to play on or might be offline for months at a time?
That’s basically what pushed me to start DSOS.
The difference is that this server has been running for almost a year straight. No disappearances, no months‑long outages. Just steady updates, new features, and a ton of fixes. The whole thing was rebuilt from scratch, and it keeps expanding week after week.
This isn’t a temporary emulator. It’s a fully revived Athas.
Combat finally behaves the way it always should have:
For the first time ever, the game actually has a more complete feeling loot table:
Shops aren’t stuck at 12 items anymore:
Retail client bugs made high level play basically broken. All of that has been fixed:
Monsters finally behave consistently:
A bunch of long standing world bugs are gone:
The original executable has been cracked open:
This is honestly the biggest breakthrough in the whole project.
Because it’s stable.
Because it’s active.
Because it hasn’t disappeared.
It’s a living MMO again. Updated constantly, expanded carefully, and online every single day.
If you’ve been wanting to revisit Athas with other players, real progression, new items, and a world that doesn’t randomly vanish, DSOS is worth checking out.
If you want to hop in, DM me for the Discord link or check the replies below.
Bring water. The wastes don’t get any kinder.
Re-posted with less 'flair' as to not be confused with AI content.
I read the 2e box set thing that includes raves and classes and it says that when a defiler casts a spell, there is an aura effect around the caster that causes everyone else to be wracked with pain.
This pain is represented by an initiative penalty that is equal to the level of the spell.
Other assorted information includes: If the defiler stands in one place and keeps casting, the soot circle gets bigger, plants die, the defiler needs about 30 percent less xp than other wizards to level up, delifer/preserver is not a class so they can still be illusionists/necromancers/any school/subclass, yata yata.
(I am willing to bet that if 5e dark sun gets published, wotc will ignore the fact that defiler and preserver is not a subclass, and thus should be able to pick a subclass. They will treat it like a subclass.)
The issue is: It does not say how lomg this initiative penalty lasts.
Nor does it say if it stacks.
Just says that the pain wrack cannot stop someone from having their turn, only delays it.
Does it last only long enough to delay one turn?
Does it delay one turn per spell level?
Does it last for the remainder of combat?
Dare i say, does it last forever?
The book does not say!
Nor does the 2e dnd wiki have a page about "initiative penalty" rules, so i can only assume that defiler magic was the only thing in 2e that had such an effect. (Or just one of the very few things)
Can someone find an answer and give it to me?
Thanks in advance!
(2e is very very vague)
