The Burnt World of Athas

The official Dark Sun website

Favorite Dark Sun Trope

The 3rd day of #30DaysofDarkSun is here and the question is "What is your Favorite Dark Sun trope?". If you're not familiar with some of the Dark Sun tropes you can check out this great list.

Baxa
Baxa

While I'm sure it's my favorite trope, my players back in the '90s probably hated getting captured and sold into slavery. Starting with the first flip book adventure included in the Dark Sun boxed set and continuing with many of the follow-up adventures, at some point, usually near the beginning the characters were captured and had to escape the prospect of slavery often making friends along the way. In movies and novels capturing the main characters and having them escape can show that they can survive without their equipment, shows them that the world is bigger than they are, and can allow their innate skills to shine. However, capturing characters in an RPG often takes player agency away and can be difficult if not handled well. Honestly, the Dark Sun adventures didn't handle it well.

How could the adventures have handled capturing the players better or showed the threats of slave life better?