Dark Sun Campaign Guide – D&D Roleplaying Game Supplement
One of the biggest announcements at GenCon Indy 2009 was of the next campaign book for Wizard of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. They made the official announcement that the Dark Sun world of Athas would be the next campaign book for the game and that it would be released in 2010. This decision was made to the delight of many fans, as it is considered one of Wizard of the Coast’s more fan friendly decisions to date.
The Dark Sun campaign moves away from more traditional fantasy settings like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk. Instead of the traditional fantasy world, you have bleak desert wastelands. The world of Athas is a world largely considered to be more post-apocalyptic than fantasy.
One of the biggest differences in Dark Sun over the other settings is magic, or the lack there-of. Athas is a world that has been ravaged by a magical backlash. As such, magic is much less common in this world, where psionics are decidedly more common. Just like magic has become a part of everyday life in most other fantasy settings, so too has psionics become a part of daily life in Athas.
Although the Dark Sun campaign setting has many of the traditional races you’ll see in a fantasy setting, it does have a lot of unique races as well. The setting has the traditional Human, Elf, Dwarf, Half-Elf, and Halfling make-up that you will see in other D&D games. But they also have Half-Giants, Muls (half Dwarf Half Human), and Thri-Kreen (Mantis men).
There is some variation between the classes in Dark Sun and the classes from traditional fantasy settings. First, there really isn’t any equivalent for Paladins, Monks, and Sorcerers in the Dark Sun world. As stated earlier, psionics are much more commonplace so the traditional ‘magic classes’ are either not represented or are drastically altered in this setting.
There are many Dark Sun books that have been in print which can give players or the dungeon master a ‘heads up’ on the world before it comes out. The Prism Pentad series by Troy Denning is very good five book series on the world of Dark Sun. Also, the Tribe of One series by Simon Hawke is a three book series with a great background of the world as well.
There are also other resources online that are available to those interested in studying the world of Dark Sun before it comes out. There is the Unofficial Dark Sun Wiki, the Official Dark Sun Discussion Forum, and an interactive Dark Sun Atlas for the World of Athas, and Official D&D 3.5e products released for Dark Sun. All of these provide great information for those that are interested and can’t wait till the campaign guide comes out.
I, and many other fans, am ecstatic about the choice of Dark Sun as the next setting for Dungeon & Dragons 4e. It is a fan pleasing choice that gives more variety to the D&D 4e settings. Look for the Dark Sun Campaign Guide in 2010 from Wizards of the Coast.