Via Grognardia: Dark Sun is coming back!
Very cool news. 4e isn’t so much my bag, but I’d be willing to give it another shot if the book is well put together. More than that, if they manage to keep the atmosphere and tension of the original setting, it gives me hope that they can manage to strike the right mood with others.
In particular, of course, I want me some Planescape like a fat kid wants cake.
1. Fuck Dark Sun.
2. Fuck Planescape. People think it’s cool because Torment was awesome, but they’re wrong. Torment redeemed a shitty setting.
3. WHERE’S MY DRAGONLANCE.
…
You’re doing that on purpose, aren’t you?
(Torment highlighted the good points of a setting that had some very high highs… and some very stupid lows.)
Dragonlance can die in a fire. Though it’s still better than Forgotten Realms, except for kender, who can die in two fires.
I like Forgotten Realms. I can’t say it’s a good setting or anything, I just like it and think it’s neat (nice scenery to railroad along). I care about the background story more than any other DnD setting I can think of. For comparison though, here’s what I know about greyhawk: theres a city in the middle, and some nights who wear purple. Though, the thing where no matter what game it is, Drizzt will show up nearly torpedoes FR for me.
Dragonlance was mostly notable in my mind for having stories with dice audibly rolling at all times. Seriously, there was a thing where an elf tried to approach a scary tower, but had to run away. Later a Kender tried, and succeeded because of a racial bonus.
FR would be a perfectly legitimate “kitchen sink” fantasy setting if it were not for three issues:
First, it has a proliferation of uberpowerful NPCs. And these are NPCs with long histories of meddling in things. So almost any plot, particularly one that has major implications, first has to explain why Elminster and his Planeteers haven’t shown up to fix it already.
Second, it has been going long enough and had enough material published for it that it, really, it’s over-explored. There’s a lack of unclaimed conceptual space in the setting, and the metaplot is downright baroque — and I say that as a Mage: The Ascension fan.
The third is a personal beef I have with it, which is that the 3e FR material was so awful on a strictly mechanical level that it left a bad taste in my mouth.