Dark Sun original boxed set is mine.

[Havard]

I just got the original Dark Sun boxed set for 2nd Ed. Am I right that the original is the most popular for 2nd Ed?



-Havard

[Angel Tarragon]

From what I've read and seen, it is by far the most preferred version of AD&D 2E Dark Sun.

I only got into Dark Sun through the revised boxed set, so I don't know what the differences between the two are.

[night_druid]

I only got into Dark Sun through the revised boxed set, so I don't know what the differences between the two are.

Ten years of meta-plot that turns the entire campaign setting on its ear.

[Cthulhudrew]

Ten years of meta-plot that turns the entire campaign setting on its ear.

Yeah, just the Prism Pentad series that came out concurrently with and after the publication of the boxed set did that. IMO, one of the worst decisions they made with Dark Sun (which I initially loved). Below par novels featuring annoying characters and scenarios that didn't really fit too well with what was established in the boxed set itself (at least in places), and then completely upending the entire boxed set campaign by the 5th book only 2 years later!

That mostly killed my interest in DS right there. I understand that some of what came later was actually very good, however.

[Bouv]

Congrats!

I have most of the Dark Sun material (all aquired in the past 3-5 years). I own:

All of Spelljammer
AD&D Mystara
Most of Dark Sun
Most of non-SAGA DragonLance
Most of Forgotten Realms
Most of "regular" AD&D/2nd edition

Again, all in the past 3-5 years

[True_Atlantean]

I own:

All of Spelljammer
AD&D Mystara
Most of Dark Sun
Most of non-SAGA DragonLance
Most of Forgotten Realms
Most of "regular" AD&D/2nd edition

Again, all in the past 3-5 years

Deeply, deeply envious. I'm working on filling some gaps in my collection this year - and they are massive gaps indeed.

[True_Atlantean]

I own:

All of Spelljammer
AD&D Mystara
Most of Dark Sun
Most of non-SAGA DragonLance
Most of Forgotten Realms
Most of "regular" AD&D/2nd edition

Again, all in the past 3-5 years

Deeply, deeply envious. I'm working on filling some gaps in my collection this year - and they are massive gaps indeed.

[agathokles]

I prefer the original for the setting, but the revised has a somewhat better rules set in some areas.

GP

[Havard]

I prefer the original for the setting, but the revised as a somewhat better rules set in some areas.

GP

Sounds like I need to get both!

-Havard

[agathokles]

Depends what rules set you're planning to use: for AD&D 2e, I'd use the revised. Otherwise, you can live with just the original.

GP

[Bouv]

It might be best to used the revised ruleset but the original box set for the setting. I only ever played a little in it and it was from the original set.

[NPCDave]

One suggestion that I recall if you go with the original box set setting and want to go your own way rather than the novels...

Book 1 happens as is, the adventures assume it..
Book 2 goes more or less as is, but Rikus the mul gladiator dies in Urik and the sword is claimed by the sorceror king or someone in the city's nobility.
Book 3 goes more or less as is, but Sadira dies at the end rather than succeeds.
Book 4 goes more or less as is, but you can have Agis survive or keep Tithian as the survivor...whichever you would prefer to act as a patron for the PCs.

Now you can have the players be the focus of the story, possibly even following the events so they bring about the destruction of the dragon.

[Silverblade-T-E]

stick with the 1st boxed set, or 4th ed book
the gawd damn "metaplot" was biggest load of gawd damn arrogant, stupid codswallop ever inflicted on players!
I ignore it all COMPLETELY, even in 4th ed, King Kalak is ALIVE in my Athas.

[Carthaginian]

I never understood how a slave with a pointy stick could kill a wizard 100 times his age!

Though Tyr is a Free City in the campaign that I"m planning for my group, I'm ignoring anything not in the 4e Campaign Guide- and I have the original box set for anything else I might want to throw in. I'm also considering the Moon Gates, which were mentioned in passing in the 4e DSCG.

[Jorkens]

I never understood how a slave with a pointy stick could kill a wizard 100 times his age!

Maybe he didn't have any manners. Not everyone knows that one should defer to the elderly.

[rabindranath72]

I never understood how a slave with a pointy stick could kill a wizard 100 times his age!

Maybe he didn't have any manners. Not everyone knows that one should defer to the elderly.

This. And the fact that the stick was an artifact helps, too

[rabindranath72]

Congrats for the find, Havard. Now you need the Dragon Kings hardback and you are set! The main disadvantage of the revised edition is that it's not compatible rules-wise with Dragon Kings (which btw is one of the best 2e books ever written.)

[Knightfall]

I prefer the original for the setting, but the revised as a somewhat better rules set in some areas.

GP

Sounds like I need to get both!

-Havard

Do it!

I have the revised set and it one of my favorite 2e references. The changes they made didn't bother me as much. Plus, it has a very cool fabric map of the Tyr Region. The other maps show parts of Athas not detailed in the original boxed set.

[Havard]

Do it!

I have the revised set and it one of my favorite 2e references. The changes they made didn't bother me as much. Plus, it has a very cool fabric map of the Tyr Region. The other maps show parts of Athas not detailed in the original boxed set.

Yep, sounds like I need to pick this one up as well.

-Havard

[Lord Torath]

I've got nearly all of the Dark Sun stuff for second edition. By far I prefer the mechanics of the original version. Especially psionics-wise. The mental armor class thing really bugged me, and the way psychic combats were resolved. Under the revised rules you can't initiate any psychic powers in your opponent's head until you've entirely depleted his PSPs. Really put the crimp on my Telepathist...

I agree with the meta-plot thing as well. Dark Sun was initially about characters becoming so powerful they affected the campaign world. You could create oases or entire mountain ranges. Warriors would raise huge armies of followers whether they wanted to or not. Then they threw all that away with the events in the revised edition. Your characters can never hope to be as cool as Rikus, Neeva, Sadira, and Aegis.

Freedom was really cool at establishing Tyr as a free city, and I was cool with Kalak going down. Gives your characters something to aim at. I had plans of establishing my own city-state, and creating my own good force of templars (until I discovered that Elemental Vortices are now extinct, and I can't pass spells to my templars). But I would rather have the Prism Pentad be an example of what could happen in a Dark Sun campaign in one particular DM's group, rather than the official timeline for the setting.

Still, the cloth map is awesome!

[Big Mac]

Still, the cloth map is awesome!

That probably means that it will be missing from a lot of the second-hand boxed sets.

I've got to say that the original boxed set (with spiral-bound flip-books) was a bit of a culture shock to me.

I was quite looking forward to the setting, but my friends all told me that "psionics suck" and that made the idea of using Dark Sun a bit problematic. Then I read in CGR1 The Complete Spacefarer's Handbook that I was not supposed to connect Dark Sun to Spelljammer and that kind of killed off my earlier excitement…

…until Night Druid did his Crimson Sphere thing.

[Classicdnd]

I just got the original Dark Sun boxed set for 2nd Ed. Am I right that the original is the most popular for 2nd Ed?



-Havard

Congrats Havard. Personally, I like the original set bestest. Brom and Baxa's artwork also give it a real distinctive feel.

[Idabrius]

The meta-plot alone wasn't the only problem with the later books. The mystery of Athas is stripped away, more of it the further from the original set you get. In the original boxed set, no one has any idea of the earlier Ages - players OR DM. Now, I do like the whole tale of Rajaat and the Blue, Green, and Brown Ages of Athas, don't get me wrong...

But effectively closing the ranks of the Sorcerer-Kings irks me, as does bringing halfling bioengineering to the fore. A lot of the feel of Dark Sun (at least for me) was established in the boxed set only to be contradicted or turned inside out in the later materials.

I would certainly stick with the original stuff and let your own interpretation of events determine how much of Athas' past to reveal.

[Cthulhudrew]

I've never seen the revised boxed set (got turned off by the Prism Pentad, as noted above); did they really incorporate a lot of the PP canon into it, or did they just update some of the original boxed set materials?

I was also curious about some of the other accessories that expanded the area beyond the Silt Sea; it seems to me there were some that went south and/or west from the initial setting in the boxed set. Were those any good?

[night_druid]

Although I don't actually own the revised boxed set, I do believe they did add all of the PP changes into it. Four sorcerer kings are dead, the dragon is dead, and so on.

North - Last Sea. No idea, don't own it. Lizardmen, run by some sort of cabal of super-psions. Not sure what you can really do there.

West - Crimson Savannah. Pretty much a kreen campaign, or a halfling campaign if you run the life-shapers thing. Other races...don't expect a long life expectancy. Bring your own seasonings.

South - Some sort of Plain of Obsidian. Lots of undead; not sure where it gets described.

East - Ur-Drax, the Dragon's private empire. Damned impossible to get to, not a whole lot to do when you do get there. Moot point, anyways; entire book becomes worthless after PP as Ur-Drax is destroyed.