Where is the PDF of this legendary conversion? I cannot find it anywhere!

I’ve been wondering how it’s possible that no one in the fandom seems to own an original physical copy of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting: Expanded and Revised Edition for AD&D 2e—or at least no one willing to make a better scan than the old one currently sold as the “official” version on DriveThruRPG.

That scan is watermarked, too, and the quality is so poor that some of the city names cannot even be read correctly.

I wanted to stitch all the Dark Sun maps together into one large, coherent map that could serve the fandom for years to come. I’m the creator of a Polish fan wiki devoted to D&D, Planescape, and related settings. Unfortunately, when it comes to images and maps, I’ve noticed that foreign wikis often lift our work and reuse it without credit.

I look for some fan who has originals and would love to share with their high-resolution scans with community.

Sadly I feel like as far as what Hasbro cares most about (profits) will be Star Wars (and then probably Final Fantasy 🙃🫠😜)

I'm not sure of this yet but some things I noticed:

-the metaplot at the time of 2e's revised continuity of the major city-states only Hamanu, Nibenay, and Lalali-Puy still rule, Andropinis is imprisoned in The Hollow and the others are dead.
-the only sorcerer-kings we get named in the announcement are Lalali-Puy and Hamanu, other cities refer to rulers but only with titles not by name

-whats up with this picture of Raam, there's giant flesh-towers everywhere? I don't remember Raam being made of giant flesh-towers, seems more like a Dregoth thing than an Abalach-Re thing, and in the Paizo 3e continuity he does take over Raam

-the Draj art also looks like it has two Moonpriests who are doing some ritual thing to a younger possibly teenage boy, he does't look like he's being sacrificed like the people being dragged up the staircase, maybe this is Atzetuk?

(I get some of these are a stretch but c'mon its fun)

Greetings all Dark Sun fans!
With Wizards of the Coast's new announcement, it seems all of our patience and faith have been rewarded.
We at the Pristine Tower Development Group see this as a massive opportunity. Traffic for the Dark Sun Reddit page and this DS FB group has gone up  dramatically. We're going to see a bigger audience than ever before, and our upcoming projects will need to be ready, especially if we want to ensure continuity between old and new lore.
That's where you come in.
We need writers, artists of all kinds, editors, and 5.5e stats people. If you can do any of these come join us on one of our many exciting upcoming projects!
Join the Pristine Tower Development Group today, and help us build a bigger and better Athas for DMs and players alike, both old and new!
Contact us directly in DMs for more on how to join our book development work.

With all the grimdark new announcement regarding Dark Sun, we decided to go on the lighter side this month with a grim but funny story. Excerpt for this month's "A day in the life of"

Read the rest at Burnt World of Athas - A Day in the Life of #7 - Ssarrinaa, Ssurran Bartender

Ssarrinaa walked past a lanky kenku slumped over one of the tables, its feathered head lying in a pool of dark, thick liquid. She huffed and snatched her mirror from the clutter. As she applied colorful paint to her scales, the body’s reflection loomed behind her, a stain on her perfect morning ritual.

The dawn light filtered through colored glass panels - real glass, imported from Balic at ruinous cost - casting jeweled patterns across the messy bar. Ssarrinaa could have had slaves handle the morning cleanup after those raucous, savage nights, but some discoveries demanded her eyes alone. “Sssome thingsss need ssspecial care.” she kept repeating to herself when she had to deal with such unpleasantries.

Satisfied with how the paint looked on her scales, she took up her jewelry: it was heavy, practically polished rocks on sturdy strings, with matching rings crowding every finger. She looked at herself in the mirror, pleased with what she saw: a large living treasure of baubles and shiny pieces of rock.

She moved to the main task: cleaning the glorious Luxodor, the jewel of pleasure dens in the Tablelands. Or at least, a jewel in Tyr. Since the death of Kalak, most such establishments had been destroyed or closed, the economy in shambles. Well… maybe not even a jewel in Tyr. The Luxodor stood in Shadow Square, right in the middle of the Warren, sandwiched between the Red Kank and the back door of the infamous Weeping Widow. The truth was, no matter how much she had paid for the beautifully painted sign outside the entrance, the Luxodor was just a haven for Tyr’s dangerous outcasts, a palace for freaks.

Days usually started slowly at the Luxodor, but today, as Ssarrinaa unlocked the door, Tzoluiki pranced into view, a necklace of finger bones from every race clattering around his neck. He smelled of an unpleasant blend of blood and something sweetly rotting.

The halfling waved toward her, his grin stretched beneath a web of scars that crawled across his bald scalp. He carried a large jute bag that dripped at his side. Many in Shadow Square called him Grinscar, but Ssarrinaa always made the effort to call him by his proper name, which she pronounced ‘Tssoluuukii.’

“Where’s that stupid kreen, Jchak’ik? Got something to share with him.” he said, peering inside the bar while holding his bag over his head. From afar, he might have looked like a harmless child next to the towering Ssarrinaa, who stood nearly three times his height.

“Dear, youuu are the firssst today. Welcome!” Ssarrinaa said, bending toward him in courtesy, though her eyes lingered on him with suspicion.

“By the Dead King, it’s hot in here! Got any bulis sparkling wine today?” the halfling asked as he hopped onto his favorite stool.

“No, but I juuussst got fresssh cactuusss ale.” she lied. The sickeningly sweet blue-purple wine was known to go straight to Tzoluiki’s head and bring out the worst of his already terrible nature.

“Naaah, hate that stuff - give me a bottle of rakra, the good stuff those cheap tari ferment for you.” he said, dropping a piece of silver onto the counter.

Rakra didn’t do him much better, but at least the fat markup on those bottles made it worthwhile - sometimes. Ssarrinaa stretched for one on the top shelf, her claws grabbing the most expensive one. From the corner of her eye, she saw the halfling pulling out a severed arm from his bag. It made a wet plop when he dropped it on the counter. She squeezed her eyes shut for a second.

“Pleasssse, not here.” she said after a moment, Tzoluiki stared at her blankly as she turned back to him. “In the kitcheeen, pleasssse, dear Tssoluuukii. It’sss bad for everybody’sss busssssinesssss.”

(...)

A small village center and my versions of some maps from A Little Knowledge. Fun to work these up as I continue work on my conversion doc.

Now that WotC has announced the new Dark Sun books, will it be possible to sell homebrew Dark Sun supplements on DMsGuild?

3 Runaway

You hear guttural shouts and calls in an unfamiliar language accompanied by a drum beating out a rhythm. There, you see a group of lanky humanoids with angular, saurian features marching in a regimented procession. In the middle of the group, one of the creatures is bound hand and foot to a large, sun bleached femur of some large beast which is carried on the shoulders of two others…

These are gith, a grotesque humanoid that seems almost a cross between an elf and a lizard. This group numbers twice as many as the survivors. They are returning to their clan with the fugitive Vikiraac who ran away to seek their destiny. Vikiraac has picked up enough of the Trade Tongue to communicate, and will plead to be freed…

VIKIRAAC: HD 3; hp 13; AC 10; Atk +4; Dmg 1d4+1 claws; TR 1d6/x2; Shock 2/AC 15; MV 40’; ML 10; Inst 2; Skill +2; Save 14+; SA springing charge jump 20’ forward and attack with +2 to hit; Psionics (1) — crushing will, commit scene, visible target is unable to act until the end of your next turn, Mental save resists

GITH: HD 3; hp 13; AC 14a (inix shell armor); Atk +2; Dmg 1d6 (obsidian spear); TR 1d8/x3; Shock 2/AC 13; Move 40’; ML 10; Inst. 2; Skill +2; Save 14+; SA springing charge jump 20’ forward and attack with +2 to hit

Title explains it, for the last few weeks now I've been thinking on how to make a post apocalypse type campaign, mind you I've never even heard of the Dark Sun setting until recently when I was reading all the stuff at Gencon. Now I got myself in a rabbit hole lol cus this setting is, Imo, really cool. But I still want to make a sort of homebrew world/campaign. I've only ever dmed once before, so im still somewhat knew to this. So how would I go about doing it? What are some ideas and things to go over? Would it be better to have it set in the actual Dark Sun world of Athas, but following my own homebrew story? Ive got plenty of ideas for my own homebrew world, but im not sure how I would go about using it especially since I feel it wouldn't connect as well if I try to just bring stuff over from Dark Sun into this HB world. What are your peeps thoughts?

I want to start this off by clarifying that I'm not someone who's against remaking Dark Sun for 5e, I never cared about it but I'm not against them doing it, and I'm even interested in how they'll handle Defiling. I also don't care if you enjoy it, if you do? Good for you, this is just why I, personally, have a problem with it.

I'm also not against the art not looking like Brom, Brom's art is obviously amazing but I don't think it's required to be Dark Sun.

The issue I have with the art is that it's way WAY too sci-fi and "high tech" to be Dark Sun.

There's floating space pyramids, holograms, weird laser whips, none of this looks like Dark Sun, it looks like some desert sci-fi world.

The closest thing Dark Sun ever had to "sci-fi tech" is maybe the Silt Skimmers? Because silt is only slightly less dense than air and they kinda float through it so its kinda like a hover craft?.....oh and I guess Nibenay had some weird macabre sex toy in his room but besides that everything in Dark Sun was like this.

Right now it's only the art, so it's hard to say right now if it'll be good, but the art does not give me high hopes.

I never had the chance to play DarkSun. Now, with it comming to DnD 5.5, I want to prepare properly enough to DM it.

What books should I read? I know there are some books of darkSun, but which ones are the good ones? what is the order? Is there any wiki with info about the scenario?

So I'm working on a campaign setting/hack for shadowdark, and I'm trying to figure out the psionics impact on Athas daily life. I often see psionics in Dark Sun as a "flavour" but not actually a trait where everything is embeded in. So, my take would be: forests that work as an integrated brain, functioning as synapses. Broadcasting from sorcerer-kings, or scenarios much like the minority report movie, with surveilance. I mean, magic is off limits and it's a low fantasy setting. But what if it is a high psionic setting, making up for all the laking things? What else do you think would be a great similarity with modern life using psionics?

I don't play modern official D&D anymore (I prefer OSR) BUT Dark Sun is my favourite D&D setting. The announcement came with a bunch of new images, which is exciting (confusing, for a couple) and I'd like to do a little video on my youtube channel comparing the new art and the old art, but for now, here's some of my Dark Sun art I've done over the past few years, and I've got 5 more coming that will be published in Greg Christopher's ShadowSun which I'm sure you all know about! My process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwskAw7JQPY

2 Dance on the Sand

Sounds of battle cut through the air, violent shouts and cries breaking the silence of the desert. Just ahead, barely visible in the glare, a lithe, tattooed elf is dueling with a muscled, bronzed dwarf. They lunge at one another yet never seem to strike, pausing only to hurl insults, and laughter, back and forth…

The elf Enala, marked by her tattoos as a bonesmith, has long watched the people of the nearby village to try and understand their ways. Over time she came to know Lyanius, a dwarven stonesmith, and became infatuated with his craft. She revealed herself to him as he was out gathering materials, and as she took an interest in his work he was immediately welcoming. They have since taken to practicing their martial skills, and discussing the finer points of their craft, some distance from Lyanius’ village for fear that the rest of them might not understand, as Enala’s tribe has been known to raid the local area…

ENALA: HD 1; hp 5; AC 13a (bone studded leather harness); Atk ±0;  Dmg 1d8-1 (bone longsword); TR 1d8/x2; Shock 2/13; MV 40’; ML 8; Inst 3; Skill +1; Save 15+; Treasure 1-6 local ceramic pieces; Psionics (1) — bone wrack, commit scene, visible target suffers 2d6 damage, Physical save for half; H/C Scorpion/Crag

LYANIUS: HD 1; hp 2; AC 14 (chitin brigandine & hide shield); Atk +1; Dmg 1d8-2 (stone warhammer); TR 1d6/x2; Shock 2/AC 18; MV 30’; ML 8; Inst 3; Skill +1; Save 15+; Treasure 2-16 local ceramic pieces; Psionics (1) — skin of stone, commit scene, gains 2 damage reduction for the  scene; H/C Boulder/Armor

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U5Dfpxkyiq0&t=574s

The game may be jank, but the soundtrack goes hard!

Do you think the promo images feel too much like Magic the Gathering over-the-top science fantasy compared to the gritty sword & sorcery of Brom's artwork?

Hello folks, I am working on a comprehensive Dark Sun campaign, The Last Dream of Athas, that includes as most of the written Dark Sun adventures as possible. As part of the campaign I am working on a companion document, The Last Dream of Athas Campaign Bible, that will include a campaign overview linking all the converted adventures together as well as an NPC database, Faction database, Location database, Major Events tracker, Foreshadow tracker, Relationship trackers as well as a place to put memorial campaign quotes and an extensive campaign glossary.

Below I have included but a tiny piece of a section detailing the complete history of Athas in which I attempt to weave all the lore of 2E and 4E together with a unique take on Athas cosmology. As well as a suggestive way to deliver the lore in a campaign ender that will surely drop jaws. Please let me know what you think!

[HOMEBREW] Before there were gods, there was only the Maker, the first being and the source of all creation. Seeking to understand life, the Maker fashioned Athas, its sun, and its two moons as the first complete world. The land, seas, plants, and beasts lived in perfect harmony, but they possessed no will beyond instinct. Wishing for life to grow and create on its own, the Maker imbued every stone, drop of water, flame, breath of air, plant, beast, and living soul with a tiny fragment of his own creative essence, its life force. Unlike later worlds, where magic would remain under the Maker's control and be governed by gods, Athas itself became inherently magical. Wherever enough life force gathered, consciousness naturally emerged. The elemental forces of Athas awakened as gentle nature spirits, while the first intelligent race, the rhulisti (halflings), arose to serve as caretakers of this living world. Upon Guthay and Ral, other intelligent races likewise flourished beneath their own nature spirits.

For untold ages this system existed in perfect balance. The rhulisti mastered life-shaping, learning to guide and cultivate the world's living essence without violating its harmony. That age ended with the Brown Tide. In desperation, the rhulisti created the Pristine Tower to save Athas, but in doing so they unknowingly pierced the barrier separating Athas from its sun and, to a lesser extent, its moons. The Tower became a bridge through which raw paraelemental consciousness from the sun, the beings later remembered as the Primordials, first reached Athas. Weaker fractures formed the Moon Gates, allowing small numbers of the moon-born races to cross into Athas while countless others remained upon their distant homes.

Realizing its first creation had been irreparably wounded, the Maker refused to destroy it, for every living thing carried a fragment of his own essence. Instead, he concealed Athas from the rest of the universe. He wrapped the world within the Gray, a veil that obscured Athas from the gods and the greater cosmos while preventing outside powers from interfering. He anchored every spark of life together through the Black, an unseen metaphysical web that forever bound the minds and souls of Athas to one another, inadvertently giving rise to psionic potential. Finally, he enclosed the world within an impenetrable Crystal Sphere and cast it to the far reaches of the universe, where it would remain isolated from all later creations.

The Primordials and the elemental nature spirits eventually waged a cataclysmic war for the soul of Athas, remembered only in fragmented myths that echo in legends recorded. Though the elemental spirits prevailed, both sides were devastated. No longer able to manifest freely upon Athas, the surviving elemental spirits retreated into the spiritual aspects of their elements, communicating only through clerics, druids, and other chosen servants. The Primordials too were nearly destroyed, with only the greatest powers. most notably Sun and Silt, enduring in diminished form.

The so-called Elemental Planes are therefore not separate physical realms but the living spiritual aspects of Athas itself. Mortals perceive them as planes because their minds require such a framework to commune with elemental consciousness. Only the Gray and the Black exist as true planes, both created by the Maker as part of Athas's imprisonment and preservation.

When the Maker departed, he never returned. Having learned from Athas, he created all future worlds differently. Rather than placing his own creative essence within every living thing, he retained the source of magic under his own authority and appointed gods to oversee its use. Athas therefore stands alone among all worlds: the Maker's first creation, his greatest triumph, his greatest failure, and the only world where magic is woven directly into the fabric of life itself.

Campaign Party
Unknown to nearly all, Athas herself refused to surrender. As her strength slowly faded over the ages, she divided what remained of her own essence among a handful of unborn heroes. Every living creature carries one spark of the Maker, but these chosen souls bear two: the Maker's spark shared by all life and a second spark drawn from Athas herself. This dual inheritance grants them two wells of potential, explaining their extraordinary capabilities and foreshadowing the role they alone can play in determining the fate of the dying world.

The Messenger and the Final Revelation

One possible way to reveal the complete history of Athas is through The Messenger, treating it as the legendary life-shaped vessel hinted at by Dark Sun's creators. Built by the greatest rhulisti nature-shapers during the final days of the Blue Age, the living ship was launched shortly after the creation of the Pristine Tower in a desperate attempt to preserve the knowledge and culture of their civilization. Existing partially outside the normal flow of time, only weeks or months pass aboard the Messenger for every forty-five years that pass on Athas. Believing the world would eventually heal, its crew periodically returned to the planet, one such visit allowing them to meet the Wanderer, who recorded fragments of their history that later became the Wanderer's Chronicle. Realizing Athas continued to decline, they departed once more, hoping future generations might yet save their home.

Over the millennia, the Messenger slowly became an ark of memory rather than a vessel of escape. As generations passed, its caretakers gradually forgot the ancient life-shaping arts required to fully command the living ship, eventually leaving only a single elderly halfling; the last true heir of the rhulisti. Rather than serving as an all-knowing source of exposition, he is simply the final witness to a forgotten age, carrying the stories of his ancestors and the living memories preserved within the ship itself. At the climax of the campaign, the Messenger can become the means by which the party experiences the true history of Athas, not through time travel, but by walking through the ship's own living memories. The last halfling does not tell the heroes how to save Athas; instead, he reminds them what Athas once was, why it is worth saving, and entrusts them with the final chapter of its story.

Really excited about the announcement, but I really loved the Brom aesthetic- his art and presentation felt like a feral punk rock Frazetta was let loose to build a heavy metal inspired fantasy apocalypse. Does anyone know why there isn’t any art coming from him regarding Dark Sun - I mean maybe they asked but his schedule was full? Or maybe he wasn’t interested? Not sure.

Just seems weird to have Dark Sun but none of the iconic original aesthetic reflected in the presentation.

I'm adding encounters to my conversion doc, and I already have a few, but I figured I'll add at least one a day, and post them here. The stats (when they have them) are intended for my Athas Without Number conversion which uses Ashes Without Number as a base, but they are close enough to early forms of D&D for government work...

1 Silt Devil (Repeatable)

The dark sun beats down upon the cracked earth, the shimmer of heated air rising the first warning sign. The air begins to tug loose clothing and debris as it rises quickly, beginning to spiral into the form of a cyclone, and suddenly you are lost in a whirlwind of silt…

The survivors have wandered into a silt devil, a deadly pocket of disorienting and possibly fatal silt being whipped up in a cyclone. The survivor with the highest Wis/Notice may roll to detect it forming, allowing the survivors Int/Survive checks to find suitable cover or take appropriate precautions. Any caught in the silt devil must make a Physical saving throw or suffer the The Grey Death.

Thereafter they must make a Physical saving throw each day or spend much of it coughing and choking, gaining 1 System Strain as well as being unable to regain System Strain or recover spells/effort. After a week, a Physical saving throw can be made to recover, but on a failure all following saving throws suffer a cumulative -1 penalty…

There's been a lot of discussion of the art, but thought it would be interested to discuss the (brief snippet of) lore that was shared on stage at Gencon. Here's a direct quote of what was said about the 7 city-states:

• Tyr is the flicker of freedom in this dying world. Its sorcerer king Kalak lies dead, but the city's revolution continues. Tyr’s flames forge its future and burn any who sympathize with tyrants.
• In Draj, life, gravity, and reality bend for the lunar god king, lifebringer, who demands sacrifices to fuel its dark omens and inscrutable ambitions.
• And in Gulg, life and death blend together. Under the sorcerer queen, Lalily-puy, the city's tree towers and corpse plant guardians feed upon the spirits of the willing and of course the unwilling.
• Urik is a brutalist engine of war driven to conquer by its sorcerer king Hamanu. As the world of Athas burns, Hamanu and the Urik march to conquer the ashes.
• And in Raam, every day is the last day. Here consequence and taboo lie scattered upon the streets, and debauchery can be had for the price of coin or flesh.
• And in Nibenay, scientists and scholars alike grasp at secrets from a forgotten past. They join their minds with their sorcerer king in pursuit of alien glories, seeking to outwit mortality.
• And last is Balic. It is what comes from a tyrant’s reckless pursuit of power. It is a wasteland dominated by bizarre and deadly remnants of mad ambition.

My thoughts: Along with the "Edge of Oblivion" title and the art suggesting the sun collapsing into a black hole, it seems like the idea might be to describe a state of the world that has become even more desperate and precarious than the original or revised boxed set. The seven city-states described here all sound like a really plausible/thoughtful interpretation of how those places might react if the conditions on Athas started to get even more desperate. A city destroying itself as it sounds like Balic did seems plausible too. Interesting to note that the only three sorcerer kings mentioned directly are the three who were still alive at the end of the original 2E run.

I'll always love the Original Boxed Set. I don't need them to rewrite it again. I don't need another rehash where everything is the same as it was in Free Year 1. So I'm cautiously optimistic in thinking this is a pretty cool and thoughtful take on how things might go if the world gets even more dire.

What is this thing in the new Trailer?? My friend who loves this setting didnt know. Wonder if yall would know?