Ah! Hello there. Grak! Be a good boy, and inform the Overcouncil that we have visitors. Quickly now, you can finish your sweetmeats when you get back.
You'll have to forgive him, he's a bit slow. Good help has been impossible to find since Tithian freed all of our slaves. Now then, what is it I can do for you?
Dark Sun is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. Set on the desert world of Athas, Dark Sun is about the struggle for survival.
Nine city-states cling to life in the Tablelands. Until recently, they were ruled by powerful Sorcerer-Kings, both tyrants and protectors. Now, only five remain; the other cities are cast into chaos and violent strife. Soon, the desert may swallow them, as it has so many times before. The wastes are riddled with the ruins of cities long dead.
It is a world where magic drains the very essence of life. Ancient wars have left vast swaths of the planet sterile; even now, druids fight a losing battle to preserve the environment. To practice magic is to tempt death at the hands of the mob, yet the cities themselves are ruled by the most powerful of defilers.
Originally released in 1991 by TSR for the 2nd edition of AD&D, Athas.org has been the steward of the Dark Sun campaign setting since the release of D&D 3rd edition in 2000. In that time, we have released updated core rules, two monster manuals, numerous setting supplements, such as City State of Draj and Wisdom of the Drylanders, and the epic adventure Dregoth Ascending. You can see a list of all of our products here
Daniel Bandera compiled this great monster index for all of the 4th edition D&D Dark Sun monsters and their sources. His sources include all of the released adventures including game day & free rpg day as well as Dungeon adventures & Ashes of Athas adventures.
Athas.org has interviewed Dark Sun creator Tim Brown about his new multi-media endeavor, the Dragon Kings Project.
Dark Sun creator Tim Brown has teamed up with original Dark Sun artist, Brom, to create a new fantasy rpg universe called Dragon Kings. Brown calls the world of Khitus his spiritual successor to Dark Sun
The Dragon Kings game will include a progressive rock CD, an art-intensive ‘album’ or ‘concert’ style book that expands heavily on each song (with lyrics, more stories, maps, specific art, etc.), and a hardbound game book. No release date yet.
You can find out more about Dragon Kings at the website DragonKingsProject.com or on twitter at @thedragonkings.
Just in case you missed it we've added Blood Sand Arena to the products catalog along with a link to download it from Wizards of the Coast
The fires of the crimson sun burn hot as your group of vagabonds band together to face intrigue, betrayal, and the beasts of Bloodsand Arena. Can your group survive and earn glory in the world of Dark Sun?
This Dungeons & Dragons adventure folio, created for Free RPG Day 2010, previews the Dark Sun setting, available in August 2010. Bloodsand Arena is designed for 1st-level characters and contains two short adventures, a double-sided poster map of key encounter areas, and a pack of six pre-generated D&D characters.
Wizards of the Coast has allowed Baldman Games to distribute their Ashes of Athas convention games to the non-convention crowd. You'll be able to sign up to receive the chapters over at Baldman's site.
[update: the forum page has gone offline; to request a copy of the adventure, send an email to thebaldman@baldmangames.com ]
Some important information from their announcements page:
- No one (not even us) can host the adventure files anywhere.
- Only the admins and Baldman Games can provide adventures.
- When you e-mail us (or send us a message via these forums), we will send you adventures, one chapter at a time.
- When contacting us, please include your e-mail so we can send you the files and the chapter(s) you need.
- You can run those adventures, or if you are a convention organizer, you can provide them to your DMs for use at the convention.
- You cannot otherwise redistribute or share or post the files anywhere. If you do, this will likely result in Ashes of Athas distribution being closed down!
- Adventures you received from us can be run anywhere you please (home play, stores, conventions, desert caravans...). You can run them multiple times - whenever you please.
- When you request adventures we will provide a link to pregens, maps, and campaign rules.
I suspect that, by having everyone request directly from the source, Wizards is looking to easily gauge the interest in the game; this is a good thing.