Hey all. So I’m gearing up to take Dungeon World to Athas (Dark Sun) and I was wondering if anyone here had any advice, moves, or ideas that they have tried or seen for the setting. Right now the players are (mostly) making custom classes via Class Warfare and we are going to give Perilous Wilds a run for it’s money to make the map and fill it.
We’re using the base ideas of Dark Sun, not the exact setting. So there will be Sorcerer Kings and a whole lot of barren land, psionics, defiling and preserving, cannibal halflings, and only one Dragon, but we’ll just make the rest of the world up ourselves.
Of course play reports will happen once we get going 😀
Fun setting but probably easier to leave out the crazy psionic stuff. Also with it being so different from standard D&D/Dungeon Crawl Classic/Dungeon World in setting, be sure to stockpile lots of visual aids to describe things. Good luck!
We’re just reskinning “normal” magic into psionics for those that want to play a psionic character. So nothing crazier than any other game. Thankfully no one wanted to play an arcane caster (defiler or otherwise) so I’m in the clear for that 😀
Definitely make the players make regular thirst and fatigue checks due to the nature of the plane. Survival should be just as important as beating up the bad guys. Also, I was keen on the “If you roll a one with a bone weapon it breaks” mechanic. Maybe include that as an option for a critical failure and make it a choice for the player?
I’ve seen Dark Sun playbooks somewhere online, but you’d have to Google to find them, I think
Playbooks I’m not too worried about since we’re making are own (and I will post them when I can), but if anyone finds the ones Rory MacLeod is talking about I’d be interested to see them.
My opinion of course, but psionics are integral to Dark Sun, and leaving them out or just reskinning spells don’t seem like enough. Maybe I should start working on them. Hmm…
FYI: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7cav44145d9Zy1NRWtDdlEyWEk/view?usp=sharing
Strongly recommend updating the gear lists and tags to address how rare and badass metal is. At a hot tag to some (all?) armor. Maybe crude to some bone or chitin stuff.
I’d probably have water as a resource to be carried and tracked, like rations. Maybe even replacing them.
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Mark Tygart most of these are pretty good. Except the undead. One of the concepts about Athas that I loved was that all undead were intelligent and unique.
These are great. Thanks.
Don’t allow any create water moves, make them earn them. I remember back in ADnD Darksun only really high level clerics could cast Create Water which is how they held such position of power.
Also, two words that your players should work towards for total bad-assery: “Silt Skimmer”