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December 7, 2018April 25, 2019

Draxan Root Words

Dark Sun’s “Valley of Dust and Fire” (1992) by Richard Baker massively expands our knowledge of Ur Draxa and the surrounding lands. It also expands on Draxan culture with a variety of words used and defined to show how the Draxan people are organized and are part of a warrior culture. These words aren’t random but have consistent roots that can be extracted and thus give some possibility of creating other Draxan words from them or at least have new words follow the same style and format.

June 23, 2017December 16, 2017

Dark Suns: Mapping the Athasian Night Sky

There are very few references to the heavens in Dark Sun material so I thought it would be interesting to see if we might determine what the Athasian night sky looked like in celestial map form. At first I was going to find a vector map of our world’s night sky and make changes, however all maps I could find had to be bought. So using a watermarked celestial map jpg I traced it in Inkscape. Having that as a starting point I was then free to make the adjustments I wanted to implement.

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May 27, 2017December 16, 2017

Urik’s Coins and Nibenay’s Banner

Polyhedron 99’s article “Coin Collecting Under Athas’s Hot Sun” by Carlo Anziano and Tina Brown primarily describes the coinage of the Tyr Region’s seven city states. It’s the kind of article that adds a level of detail you never knew you needed and gives the Dark Sun setting a touch of realism.

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September 5, 2013December 16, 2017

Fragile Weapons

Dungeon World makes use of “tags” which describe what a weapon (or monster) can do. In the Dark Sun Dungeon World characters I have posted, many of the weapons possess a “fragile” tag which I procured from Travis Stout’s (GimpInBlack’s) Dark Sun Characters. Of course, this fragile tag isn’t a weapon tag found in Dungeon World, so what exactly is it?
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August 28, 2013December 17, 2017

Monsters for Dark Sun Dungeon World

There is talk, or rather a phenomenon, of “The Lazy DM” whereby DMing is made simpler in planning and execution. One facet of this is reskinning monsters already published to meet a game’s need, and it is a noble tradition to carry on. Here is a reskinning or posting as written Dark Sun themed monsters. It doesn’t have all the monsters found in Dungeon World nor does it preclude their inclusion into a game, but I needed a set for many adventures and so here we are. Continue reading “Monsters for Dark Sun Dungeon World”

July 8, 2013June 23, 2017

Dray Compendium Class

William Samir Muniz's "Rimas the Dragonborn"

Needs must when the devil drives, as the saying goes. It’s not quite apt here but it sure sounds good. There was a need though, and here is the result. If a group finds itself in Guistenal, are captured by dray, are human, and fail to escape, it’s very likely that they will be forced into undergoing dray transformation.
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June 5, 2013December 17, 2017

Dark Sun Dungeon World Characters

I have a love of lore. A consistent lore enables a world to be a common language among fans and a setting where players have a reasonable understanding of what to expect. So voluminous and rich was the 2e Dark Sun lore, the 4e Dark Sun could not match it. Instead, 4e hinted at people, places, or events covered more extensively in 2e. For example, 4e has a short section on the Kreen Khanates in the Hinterlands but is a far cry from the depth of the 2e Thri-kreen of Athas. The reason for 4e Dark Sun’s limited lore was in part so players and DM’s could explore and create the world. Extensive lore however is often seen as doing that for players.
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