Dark Sun: Campaign Setting

by Timothy B. Brown, Troy Denning, William W. Connors (Editor)

This box contains several booklets:
Rules Book - 96 pages
The Wanderer's Journal - 96 pages
the adventure 'A Little Knowledge', consisting off:
A Little Knowledge - 16 pages fiction written by Jerry Oltion
Spiral bound Dungeon Master's Book - 24 pages
Spiral bound Player's Aid Cards book - 24 pages

Genres: Role Playing Games, Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons, Games, Dying Earth, Gaming, Sword and Sorcery

256 pages, Boxed set

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Timothy B. Brown is a writer and game designer, primarily of role-playing games. He has worked at TSR, Game Designers' Workshop, and Challenge magazine. While serving as the director of product development at TSR, Brown oversaw the creation of the company's enduringly popular Ravenloft and Planescape game lines. He also co-created the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dark Sun setting with Troy Denning, Mary Kirchoff, and the artist Brom.

Reviews

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, Dark Sun is by far my favorite setting for Dungeons and Dragons, and it'll be hard for me not to just gush for paragraphs and paragraphs about it. But I'll do my best.

Dark Sun was based on a concept developed for the BATTLESYSTEM(tm) tabletop wargame system. Originally called "War World," the basic idea was to provide a setting in which everyone could fight everyone else. A "grim darkness" in which there was "only war," if you will.

Huh. That's catchy. I should do something with that.

Anyway, in the original design documents, there weren't any of the standard fantasy races or tropes--no elves, dwarves, dragons, and so on--but apparently TSR got a bit skittish and asked that they be put back in. The design team agreed, but decided that since the world is so harsh, the races had been changed and adapted to the environment, so it still wouldn't be the same thing you normally see in a fantasy world. I'll cover that below.

Since unlike Birthright, Dark Sun makes a lot of changes to the basic D&D system, I'll divide the review below into separate system and setting subsections.

System
The races are probably the most immediately recognizable change from standard fantasy. The elves are nomadic desert raiders and herders of giant insects, the dwarves are obsessive compulsive and bald (and also live the longest), the halflings are jungle-dwelling cannibals, and also there are giant insects who don't sleep, half-dwarves who can talk for 15 days straight, and "half-giants" who are fortunately magical crossbreeds and not natural ones. Also humans, but they're the same boring humans as everywhere else, though the book does suggest that many humans have minor cosmetic mutations like extra fingers or toes, odd skin, hair, or eye colors, and so on.

I am unable to be objective about this list because, like heavy metal, it leaps straight into my brain and starts rocking out, but your mileage may vary.

One of the weirdest things is the "Character Tree" concept. The idea is obviously that if a character dies--and based on how many predators-per-square-mile the desert has, they will--the player can bring in another character relatively quickly. The thing is...there's basically no way the connection between the character tree characters is enforced in game. It seems like they were reaching for something like the Company rules in Reign, but all they included is that one axis of the various characters' alignments has to match. They can't share gear, aren't part of any obvious organization, and really have no reason to relate to each other other than because the rules say so. It stands out mostly because it would be way easier to just say, "Optional Rule: Due to high mortality, new characters come in at the average level of the existing party members" instead of coming up with a bizarre and complicated subsystem for it.

The standard class system is mostly in place, with the biggest change coming in with magic. Druids are actual guardians of natural places and draw their power from the spirits of the land, clerics enter into pacts with powerful elementals because there are no deities, and wizards need to use plant life to fuel their magic, which gets pretty sinister when you remember that the whole playable planet area is a big desert...

There's also a big emphasis on fighters gathering huge armies whether they want to or not, as another legacy of the setting's original beginnings.

The last real major system change is that characters start at third level, ostensibly because the world is so dangerous. I really like this change, mainly because otherwise D&D ends up with a lot of problems on the low end when housecats have the same relative toughness as random farmers. It's not like hit points represent anything actually quantifiable in the real world anyway (or rather, they represent several things simultaneously and, often, contradictorily). Also, starting at a higher level allows more tactical options right away, which is a good thing.

The rest of the book is mostly just adaptations to a desert world: random encounters, new spells, rules for water, and so on. The chapter on alignment does get massive bonus points for including the only coherent real-world application of AD&D alignment mechanics I've ever seen when it talks about how different alignments deal with a water shortage. And if you believe the random encounter chances, the desert is absolutely crawling with horrible predators, who I guess get most of their food from killing each other--20% per day, 40% chance if you're traveling at night. Not all the encounter entries are monsters, but a lot are.

Setting
Let me set this out there right now: if you are an ecologist, you will hate Dark Sun, because there's no way the world as described has enough food or water to support all the gigantic unstoppable monsters running around. This is done more to provide the sensation of being a Death World rather than out of any desire to model an actual ecology, though perhaps we should be grateful for that (7.5 billion chickens, anyone?)

Anyway, the setting. I love this setting book and think it's probably one of the more evocative and inspiring setting books I've ever read, mainly because the entire thing is presented as the actual travel journal of a guy who wandered all around the area described. When he doesn't know what's going on, he'll speculate, or tell some of the legends he's heard, and so on. Here's one random example:

Lake of Golden Dreams
The Lake of Golden Dreams lies on the western side of the Smoking Crown, where a thick yellowish steam constantly rises from its boiling waters. Where the yellow water is not too deep, it is possible to see that the bottom of the lake is laced with hundreds of tunnels and passageways. According to rumor, these tunnels lead to an incredible city that lies at the heart of the Smoking Crown. It is difficult to say whether there is any truth to this story, however; those who have survived the scalding waters long enough to swim into the tunnels have never returned.

That just drips with possibility. What's down there? Who would know? How to get there and get back? What lives in the tunnels? All of those are a great basis for adventures, and the Wanderer's account is full of these nuggets of greatness.

The cities of the sorcerer-kings are pretty well described too, and while a lot is left up to the imagination, each city is pretty obviously based on a real-world culture that makes it easy to fill in more details. There are also a lot of non-European cultures used for inspiration, like ancient Cambodia, Mesopotamia, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Aztecs, which is a pretty nice thing to see in a genre so often dominated by barely (or not) hidden ripoffs of medieval Europe--or at least, the popular conception of medieval Europe.

The fallen state of the world is repeatedly emphasized--there are ruins all over the place, ancient bridges over dry streambeds, petrified docks extending into what is now a sea of shifting silt, ruined castles perched on mountains--but the text still provides plenty of modern places to visit and also manages to provide some differentiation to the landscape. A lot of people, when they think "desert," think of endless waves of sand dunes, but deserts are actually quite diverse--this is a desert, for example. There are plenty of varied terrains and landscapes for the giant predators to hunt and kill the characters in.

I really can't gush about Dark Sun enough. It's one of my favorite fantasy settings ever, and if you like Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom novels, non-standard fantasy settings, sword and sorcery, or anything like that, I think you'll like it too.

[Jared · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Dark Sun from the day it came out - it's a refreshing departure from the general fantasy cliches that still dominate the genre. I haven't played AD&D in many, many years, but I still enjoy opening up this box set on occasion just for the extremely pleasant feeling of nostalgia. I don't give this 5 stars just for the memories it evokes, though; it really is a wonderful read and contains a wealth of material to inspire the imagination, be it for the enhancement of the AD&D game or just for the love of fantasy. I know this set has been released in various formats over the years, including a recent 4th edition version, but I've never strayed from the original release because it's just that good!

[Victor Merling · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my second favorite AD&D setting (1st one is Planescape) and I remember some really cool game sessions where dehydration was a big part of what was going on. It's not a easy stroll in woods (duh!) when you are walking in the desert and under every stone, or behing every enormous skeleton, there might lurk something with psionic powers that could ruin your day.
One of its best features was a total deviation from the beaten path of fantasy, because the creatures and environment were completely unlike anything else in the genre.
Great times.

[Marc-André · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the many campaign setting made for Dungeons and Dragons' 2nd edition, after the popularity of the Forgotten Realms surprised people at TSR.

This one was fun, different and imaginative. It was a post-apocalyptic setting where magic had caused an ecological disaster and the power of the mind, psionics, was more important than magic and gods did not exist.

The flavor of this setting really set it appart and it came with an heavy background and setting info. A classic, but for everyone.

[Benjamin]

One of a 32 part series where I say at least one thing about each book from one of my favorite D&D campaign worlds, Dark Sun.

And it all starts here, with the core boxed set, which proudly proclaims that this is the most challenging campaign world yet--and also that the PCs are more powerful here, which feels like the Marketing department is talking out of both sides of their mouth: it's both a deadly challenge and a more powerful power fantasy!

I, of course, was sold on this book by the new options, which I was always a sucker for back in '91, with that promise of new races and new classes! I was also sold by the idea of a world that used psionics, as I was a big fan of the idea of mental powers, even if other people rightly point out that it's kind of a weird bolted-on system. As for this being more challenging and home to more powerful PCs, I'm not sure I registered that when I picked this up at the Waldenbooks in the Plainview strip mall.

(Gosh, is this Dark Sun series primarily a self-gratifying exercise in nostalgia? Let's read on and find out!)

Once I got my hands through the shrinkwrap, what I found--and what I still find today on rereading--is still a very exciting fantasy world that is also very much of a piece with TSR's work and also very much of its time.

What's so early 90's about this? It's essentially a story about eco-cide -- kind of like the contemporaneous cartoon, "The Pirates of Dark Water"; in the world of Dark Sun, magic energy is a resource like oil and a history of using it (poorly, too much) drained the world of water and plant life, so that a lot of the world is deserts and the fight for survival.

What's so exciting about this world? It's recognizable fantasy, full of the usual things you want from a D&D game, but almost everything is given a twist that keeps it coherent with the central concept of this world. Yes, there are elves, and as with many elves in D&D fantasy, they are isolationist and clannish, but they live as nomads in the desert; yes, there are fighters, but metal is a scarce resource in this dying world, so most weapons are made out of bone; yes, there are clerics, but they worship the elements because there are no gods here--except the kings and queens of the seven cities, who themselves funnel magic power into their priest-like templars; yes, there are wizards, but they may either be quick-advancing defilers (who pull life out of the world) or preservers (who try to balance magical power with the world). Also, everyone has psionic powers, rules for starvation and dehydration are mandatory, and the one dragon in the world lives across the Silt Sea.

Also, I have to give some credit to Brom and Baxa, the two artists that gave Dark Sun its weird look of bone-blades, elongated fingers, and burning sands. Given the eco-cidal focus of the game, I do think it's interesting how at home some of these illustrations would be in a straight-up post-apocalyptic dying Earth science-fantasy.

What's so TSR about this? The one thing that really jumps out at me is that the seven cities are all generally based on some Earth history/culture--so Balic is Ancient Greek/Rome, while Draj is Mesoamerica, Raam is Indian-inflected, etc. It's a solid design choice in terms of establishing how the cities are different while still having the same basic structure (a monarch, supported by templars, with slaves as a major source of labor), while also letting the authors get the idea across pretty quickly. (The guide book has a page or less for each of these cities, which are major locations in the world.)

I'm sure, as a history and culture-obsessed little nerd, I loved both recognizing this and having some way into this post-apocalypse.

It's a less solid design-choice when you step back and think about it. Where did all these different cultures come from? Does stumbling into the Roman senate puncture some of the engagement with this as a real world? Why do these different cultures matter from a game perspective? (Like, Raam is a much more anarchical city than Tyr, but you could do that without basing them on historical cultures.)

All in all, one of the things that I really enjoy about this campaign box set is that it feels complete. Just from this one book, you can imagine what sort of adventures you could have, fighting off evil defilers, avoiding starvation in the desert and corrupt templars in the city.

Ah, but we'll see how that turns out in our next entry, the adventure Freedom.

(For fun: I bought this for about $20 in '91, and as of today, you can get your own from Noble Knight Games for $90.)

[Juho Pohjalainen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used to not like this one too much when I was younger, but I've since significantly warmed up to it - to the point that I can't really remember anymore why I didn't like it in the first place. I guess I was more into traditional, non-subversive fantasy back in those days: I liked Forgotten Realms, found it safe yet exciting, and all the new and bizarre 2nd edition systems deviated from it a little too much to my tastes. Although it wouldn't explain why I liked Planescape right from the start... ah, well.

Anyway, yeah, I like it now. It provides more moral greys, weird races, cannibal halflings, evil dragon sorcerer-kings, thirst, and enough room for you to do whatever you want with it - unless you follow one of the adventure modules, of course.

If you're looking for fantasy Mad Max, you'll find no better.

[Sebastian Chum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Together with Planescape, this is the top of what dungeonpunk can do - simply by changing the scale and basing itself firmly on the idea of magic sapping a planet of life... It alludes to such a huge part of our culture, getting deeply involved with multiple genres while still being its own thing.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent campaign setting which leans into the optional features of AD&D 2E, rather than pushing back against the system. Full review: https://refereeingandreflection.wordp...

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a refreshing change from the regular D&D campaigns. I loved the novels as well.

[Malum · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most unique (and certainly most gritty) AD&D 2E settings.

[Garrett Henke · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this 2 star rating is in no way a statement about Dark Sun as a campaign setting. Dark Sun is one of the great classic settings that still holds up really well to this day. I suspect a 5e version would end up selling extremely well as Dark Sun has maintained its fans over the decades.

This two star review is really just about how well the original boxed set from 1991 holds up today. Spoiler: It doesn’t. At all. Essentially the boxed set consists of two books and an adventure. The Rulebook is terrible. There is absolutely zero balance and the choice of making attributes go up to 24 was mind boggling foolish. Sole classes become laughably overpowered when paired with the right race and others were made pointless (the Bard for for example).

The highly acclaimed Wanderer’s Chronicle, the setting book as it were, is also barely passable. It presents Dark Sun in a very bare bones kind of way with not enough information to really portray Athas and all of its glory. It spends WAY too much time on geography and not enough on the actual locales of the Tyr region.

So why is this campaign setting so beloved? Well, it gets much better as more books were added to it. Yes, the metaplot in the novels kind of destroyed the setting, but the sourcebooks really helped to flesh out and develop the setting. Plus, the revised boxed set fixed many of the system issues. But this initial set? As a stand alone. It gets a big nope.

[Geoffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the few campaigns that I was allowed to run. It just ended up being mostly all of us saying "Oh, it is soo HOT!!" while looking at the crappy artwork included on a self standing pad. We never finished it, but had lots of laughs at the expense of the illustrator.