[Let's Make] Darksun Quest Ideas

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>>53090873
not a quest but a plot hook/story idea:

>a small village discovers deposits of a strange silvery metal that makes for better weapons than those made from iron
>the village is soon elevated to the status of a small city-state due to it's growing military power and trading influence
>turns out the metal is "cursed" and prolonged use of weapons/items made from it sickens or even horribly mutates users or anyone in their vicinity with a fate worse than lepers
>apparently the curse has no known explation nor cure, be it mundane, psionic o arcane
>the people of the village now must choose either to renounce their newfound power and be eradicated by the enemies they've created or accept their curse and become shambling monsters until they all die off

hint: the metal is radioactive

>>53090873
>>>/qst/

>>53092417
>>>/kys/

>>53092417
Funny.

What would happen to Athas city-states if you removed the sorcerer-kings from the playing board?

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>>53093000
Why would you want to remove them? Their madness and character in part is what gives the city-states much of their flavor. Without them the Templars would lose most of their power and everything would explode in an open revolt and civil war, much like in Tyr I guess. The Veiled Alliance would see that as a chance and probably attempt to step in to fill the power gap. Warlords of the wasteland would also see this is a chance to sack the cities...I guess that as much as Sorcerer-kings are oppressive they are ironically also the last threads that keep some semblance of civilization together.

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>>53090873
I'm going to start a Dark Sun campaign soon. I fell in love with that setting and it's genocidal, mesopotamian madmen.

Also, DS campaign that does not start with running away from slavery is a sad waste of motiff.

I will base mine on the first Dark Sun crpg game: The Shattered Lands. It's very comfy, not sickly hardcore as other titles of the era (game won't punish you for making a party with max stats), avalible on GOG and Dark Sun to the core. I recommend it, it's great primmer to DS and leaves plenty of ideas.

>Players are enslaved and thrown into gladatorial area. They finally run away, but learn about oncoming expedition to subdue free slave tribes in the desert and either enslave them again or slaughter to the last man. They manage to coin an alliance of free tribes and get a sick ass magical artifact, they defeat the expedition with. I will move story to Tyr and pull a Freedom arc later on them, because the expedition's fali nicely explains the shortage of slaves that constitutes Kalak's fall.

But there are few parts that expanded make good campaign theme as well:
1:
>A mad psion holds village hostage with his powers, having dominated the minds of the villagers. Dominated warriors were sold into slavery, where they remain, fearing the death of their relatives if they run away. Players are blackmailed to collect few last pieces of magical terryfying statue in exchange of their compatriots freedom. They must also do it quickly or the caravan with the warriors will leave for the obsidian mines. The statue is in fact a new, magical body for the psion, who will come back latter as a powerfull enemy when he finally finishes the statue and teases players into killing him.

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>>53094066
2.

>Players have to find the powerfull preserver that is hiding in the irigation serwers under the city. The ratmen tribe knows his whereabouts, for they supply him. The daughter of the ratmen tribe was kidnapped by the other rat tribe. When players burst in for the rescue they discover that rats did it in exchange fo grain for the rat sect that worships state's sorcerer king by the will of his templar, that fallen out of grace and now prepares himself a rat army to make a turn in the templar's pecking order. In the meantime he passes time sacraficing locals to his liege. They free chief's daughter, and rebute counter attack of the rat fanatics and gain passage to the mage. It turns out he turned to defiling and he attempts to kill players in his evil experiment ridden lair.

>>53094066
>>53094124

Don't forget about the psurlons.

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>>53094066
>on GOG
Thanks anon-kun, I was looking for something to play now that I don't have a D&D group to play with

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Dark Sun general now on.

Your favourite socerer king?

>>53097985

Hamanu.

Lynna Abbey's novels did wonders for his backstory.

>>53097985
Nibenay, who doesn't like the powerful dragon to be with an army of concubines

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Is there much organised large scale warfare in Dark Sun?

>>53098810
It was designed for it, using Battlesystem... but I can't imagine that happening too often! The Sorcerer kings are able to destroy armies with the wave of a hand.

5 set of basic metal spoons and forks are discovered, an arms race and war kicks off for claims on these small metal objects..... the victors retire on selling spoons and forks off, a butter knife is also fiubd and us passed diwn generation to generation as a family heirloom.

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>>53097985
Andropinis.

Claims that 700 years ago was elected as life-long dictator and is not going to yield.

,,In Balic, we treasure our freedoms. You are free to speak as you will. Of course, Andropinis is also free to speak as he will, which may very well be an order for your execution. Choose your words with care, my friend."

Anyone ever played a campaign involving the Last Sea?

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bump

A quest to go to a real setting. Like Ravenloft.

>>53102867
Other than the one domain in Ravenloft that is from Athas, it'd be a spring picnic compared to Athas.

>>53103816

>Athasians arrive in Ravenloft
>celebrate their new lives in a paradise filled with farms, running water, grass, metal cutlery, less bloodthirsty and oppresive rulers

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>>53102867

>implying anyone can leave Athas

>>53092379

For some reason I thought dark sun didn't have metal

>>53106332
it has metal but it is beyond scarce. One of the reasons why Tyr is so powerful even without a SK is that they control the last remaining iron mine in the region (about to be depleted too).

So what exactly cut off Athas from gods?

>>53105782
>not knowing about Kalidnay
>not knowing about the fact that any cleric capable of travelling to the elemental planes can get you out
There's a neat bit in the Planescape Player's Guide that mentions that the Gith managed to open a permanent portal to Athas, only for the natives to beat the shit out of them and close it again.

>>53108473
I think it's less ignorance and more a view that is nowadays common between DS fans, that goes like:

>Planar bullshit get outa my yard REEEEE

I think setting kinda benefits from it.

>>53108473
>>53108952

No, no, I'll freely admit that I was ignorant in this regard as it's been a long time since I first read the Dark Sun books, but I also do like everything extra-planar in origin staying the fuck away from Athas. Or rather, nothing extra-planar should have a big impact on Athas, and once they get there, they're stuck.

Has the rest of Athas beyond the Tyr region been mapped yet?

>>53092379
Playing on the curse angle, have it be harvested from a sleeping titan or something, and so the metal both carries a curse, and they eventually awaken this big fucker (if the PCs don't intervene obviously)

>>53093000
In the piazo expanded story they killed off all but like two or three of them. Little changed.

>>53111161
Yup. Second edition (revised one) set has much bigger scope and few add-ons drag it even further.

Maps are easy to find on the net.

>>53090873
>incidental portal to a magic-rich plane creates a meteor shower of pure magic substances, alien magitech like ipods n shit and strange magical lifeforms
>lots of people go apeshit over it and all of this stuff becomes very valuable
>there are also people who seek to destroy whatever fragments of this mystery plane they can find either because magic iz bad and wizards r ebil (the dumber ones) or because it creates even more chaos and will probably end badly (the smarter ones)
>another group is trying to figure out how the portal opened so that they can recreate it and get the heck outta there
>but most magic people want to animalistically consume them for the purposes their wacky spellcasting hijinks and then discard them like the space trash they are, as is in fashion
>one night while having a brooding walk over how terrible your world is you happen upon one of these artifacts
>you take it home
>nobody knows (yet)
>you ain't no mage, no idea what the fuck it does
>wat do?

>>53112477
Also if you successfully open a portal to this "mystery plane" you find yourself in a place that is "very similar to" present day New York and the campaign turns into a wacky sitcom about a displaced guy from another world (you) trying to behave normally and make it in the big city.

However if you learn magic you can also choose to rape the world or utterly transmute it because this "other place" is full of magic that Athas is starved of, but no one knows how to use it.

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>>53112518
>>53112518
For fuck's sake!

Quest in OP means a scenario, a task for the players, adventure idea, not what gay people do on >>/qst/

OP explains it in detail.

Also, the idea you made is terrible.

So I have to ask

Do any of you anons change the clothes people are wearing to stuff you would actually see an actual desert dwelling people wear?

I know it's just fantasy and I should just go with it but god damn is it stupid

>>53112675
It's terribly good, you mean
Also no u r gay

I'm trying to generate a DS character using original DS rules, including original psionic rules.

How many PSP do you get for rolling Contact as a Wild Talent? The minimum? What about powers with contact as an Initiation cost?

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>>53111161
I've got this and another one that's based on this one (with more detail and place-names entered)

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>>53112878
I gave it a thought.

,,Fuck they will fucking DIE in minutes... O, to hell with that, embrace Conan The Barbarian art style in your life folks."

I think wacky '80s fantasy art has too much of a charm to oppose it, but clothes have little meaning to the setting. Templars, human-like Kings, elves and big part of characters are described to wear reasonable stuff anyway.

>>53113049

That is true I guess

Whats the nicest place in Athas for a level1 commoner to live in? Last Sea?

>>53113181
Gulg has free water and doesn't have much institutional oppression beyond the enforced fear of the spirits out in the forest.

>>53090873
are you gonna sell it on dmsguild anon?

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Thoughts on 4e Dark Sun?
What did it do right? What did it do wrong?

>>53114795
>right
Well, defiling and preserving as single class with a temptation to all.

Ressurection of the setting in the community to some extent.

Throwing metaplot changes through the window.

Those book are in fact not bad at all!

>bad
Gamist disadventage of defiling hurting allies only. It totaly misses the point.

Inclusion of that all weird WotC shit like Eldarin and inclusion of 4e cosmology, that, for example, killed the possibility of the elemental priests that were integral to Athas.

WoW-like art. But I think it's well executed, it's the style I'm not fond of. It's of course skub. I'm also not big on 4th ed. as a whole- it all seems bit mobasque with health surges and comos of special feats. 2nd ed. AD&D is immensly flawed as well, but it's the poison I would pick.

>>53103816
>>53104290
A worse life for the inhabitants doesn't mean the setting is better.

>>53116824
>Argues that Dark Sun has bad setting
>Uses Ravenloft, the railroady, poisonous-mist-ridden setting with no internal integrity, that serves to punish teams that slaughter villagers and rape cattle with ironic prison filled with "you can't, muh dork powahs".

Come on. I love Ravenloft with nostalgic boxed set love but Athas is belivable and socialy reasonable, whlist original. That's rare among RPG setting. May you go be cunt somewhere else?

>>53116719
>weird WotC shit like Eldarin
B-b-but they're called mirage elves. That's cool right?
>killed the possibility of the elemental priests
They tried (and failed) to implement elementally-powered shamans, but really who were they kidding?