"Dark Sun -ala- Pathfinder" Topic

So… finally foundGM who wanted to get an across-the-table game going. Thing is – he is COMPLETELY into Athas and the Dark Sun milieu.

I just wanted to game. only two of us and a GM right now… the other player never heard of Dark Sun. I am somewhat familiar with Dark Sun from back in my 2ndEd AD&D days, so was tentatively willing to give it a go.

Some of the house rules the GM has to bring Dark Sun and that "universe" into PF basically breaks some of the PF game mechanic in favor of 2nd or 3rd edition AD&D rules.

The other player was quite upset he could not be an aasimir and has some difficulty understanding the rarity of metals and getting around the,"no gods in Athas," concept.

I guess because I am so familiar already with 2ndEd, and I know a little of the world backstory, I can go-with-the-flow of GM house rules that revert to that mechanic in some areas.

The other player went human barbarian, straight up killing machine. I went dual PC; a rogue and a druid brother/sister team. Druids in Dark Sun have to pick one of the elemental spheres to focus on, vice being woodland-oriented. I choose water, since Athas is a hot, desert wasteland world where temps regularly hit 150F at midday.

Buffed out the rogue for Intimidation, Initiative and high CMB, buffed out the druid for Nature Knowledge, Survival and Crafting potions/oils.

First adventure was today, rogue and barbarian were hired on as part of a guard detail for a plot of land a nobleman was wanting to cultivate, the druid was there to advise on irrigation and water rationing/usage.

A lone critter reached out from the ground in the fields attacked the farmhands; we beat it off back into its hole when we discovered some of the farmhands used the distraction to rob the stores of the noble and take off.

We were then tasked with finding the five looters, tracked them down, tied em up and brought them back to find the settlement under attack by a half dozen gith who were trying to steal the water (needless to say, this was combat-heavy gaming.)

It took quite a bit of maneuvering and fortuitous diceplay to come out with only one PC at negative HP, the others in single digits. Every NPC had been killed or ran off, and the nobleman's rep was down to negatives as well.

Despite having a +10 in Heal, druid failed three stabilize attempts to stop the rep from dying… target roll of 15 and a cumulative -2 for every check failed!! Things were not looking good for the gentleman that hired us!!

(I knew I should have taken that Trait that allowed Stabilize by mere touch alone)

A good time was had by all – the player with the barbarian enjoyed the game and is looking forward to playing again, as am I.

I feel the GM did a commendable job of meshing the flavor of the Dark Sun world into more-or-less PF gameplay. And it was my first time playing two PC's at once, so I was challenged on that level as well.

My group played the 4th Ed version. Glad you had an enjoyable time with it.

Dark Sun is a very interesting world, very harsh and unforgiving. The style and design is incredible, highly inspirational and instantly tells you that this isn't your Forgotten Realms any more.

Perhaps one of the best campaign worlds TSR ever produced.

This is the one world I always wanted to play as it inspired me so much, but my players where never interested in.

Sounds like it was a blast!
DZT

Way back when, we tried four times to play under the 2ndEd rules, but had a TPK on the first adventure each time.

It really can be a BRUTAL setting.

For any who are unfamiliar with the setting – in that world, arcane magic is powered through draining the lifeforce of nature itself. Over hundreds (thousands?) of years of magic use, the world is brutal desert wasteland with scant patches of green remaining. What used to be oceans are now vast seas of silt. Creatures "swim" through the silt and there is much underground life that lives near the surface (not deep underground) to keep out of the high temperatures.

Psionic ability is very common, almost universal among the humanoid inhabitants remaining. Over the course of thousands of years, most of the common fantasy races were wiped out completely in genocidal fashion.

Slavery is common and (more or less) accepted, and civilized life gravitates to only a handful of walled city-states run by powerful psionisists. Needless to say, what life remains is VERY hardy and extremely tough. Infant mortality is VERY high, the evaluation of infants for defects and putting down hopeless cripples or the weak is a VERY real thing.

Player Characters and NPCs both are quite exceptional physical specimens – everyone starts at 3rd level.

Metal is extremely rare, trade is done in ceramic pieces, and most armor and weapons are hides, chitin, stone, bone, or wood (with attendant minuses to hit and damage and chance of breakage.) If anyone wore so much as a metal dagger out in the open, they would be set upon by all in sight to try and take it from them.

A half dozen gold pieces would make someone the richest man in the city-state.

Don't forget the predatory, unsleeping, man-eating (especially elf-eating), leaping, poisonous pragmatic mantis people that happen to be a playable race.

Thri'kreen are wonderful.

Sounds pretty brutal.

I do love Dark Sun. Especially the first adventure modules that came out in a dual-flipbook style, where the DM has a spiral flipbook with one encounter on each page, and the players have a corresponding flipbook with an illustration of the scenario on each page.

..and did I forget to mention the tribes of territorial cannibal halflings that make their homes in the only forest/jungle patches remaining?

I'm thinking if either of my PC's die, I may try to roll up a replacement character who is a miner/smelter/crafter.

Since metal is so rare, someone skilled in mining/smelting/crafting it would be in demand (or enslaved!)

A lot of potential to add to the roleplay, the challenges of the task…

Since metal is very rare, serious DC just to find it, and the critters you meet "along the way."

Since metal is so rare, technological knowledge in proper smelting would suffer, so serious DC to refine it to a usable state.

Since metal is so rare, crafting knowledge to work it would be rare as well, so serious DC to make a working, "object."

etc…

I liked the novels a lot.

One of my fav RPGs in the setting had a series where Githyanki were involved among other cool things

Always liked Dark Sun. The world was heavily inspired by Richard Corben's Den Saga, a truly beautiful fully painted (and incredibly brutal) adult comic series that ran in the 70's and early 80's in Heavy Metal Magazine, and was then issued under Corben's Fantagor Press, now OOP.

I've got most of the graphic novels, mostly from trawling comic shops. It's a cheaper, if more sporadic, way to find them thean via abebooks or similar.