D&D General Dark Sun as a Hopepunk Setting

[Steampunkette]

Rajaat wasn't a halfling, he was a member of an ancient race of beings known as the Pyreen.

Pyreen

Pyreen are a mysterious race of beings that existed. Pyreens (or Peace-Bringers) are mysterious beings that roam the world of Athas. They are powerful psionicists and very powerful druids. They travel about Athas attempting to set things right, although it looks like a hopeless battle. Few know...

darksun.fandom.com

Rajaat

Rajaat, known as the First Sorcerer and the WarBringer, is an ancient Pyreen from a distant, forgotten age in Athas's past. He first appeared among the kingdoms of that era as a benevolent and wise conciliator, bringing peace where there was war and teaching ancient and powerful Preserver Magic...

darksun.fandom.com

Unlike his fellow Pyreen, who were all angelic of visage and straight of limb, Rajaat was a twisted, ugly lump of a creature who caused great disgust by his mere presence. The reactions to his twisted body soon caused his mind to fester with self-hatred and rage, until it was just as hideous as the rest of him, He came to despise the warring and stupidity he perceived among the younger races of the Green Age, and came to believe that the ancient Halflings of the Blue Age were the true inheritors of Athas, and its rightful masters. He came to believe that all of those born of the Halflings during their Rebirth were usurpers and pests, to be eradicated and removed from the world so that the Halflings might resume their stewardship of Athas.

Sure. He was a Pyreen. They just happen to look a lot like halflings... >.>

I stand by it. That Pyreen are a specific subspecies of halfling. Like Ghostwhisper, except instead of Telepaths they're shapeshifters.

But the main goal was the thing:

To wipe out all humans and demihumans except for Halflings, and then somehow fix the world back to the Blue Age 'cause halflings were the inheritors of Athas.

I love these ideas and look forward to their development, but I will say I can't help but snicker at the term "hopepunk" (and have ever since I first heard it a few years go) because when I think "punk" I think of it as an F.U. to the establishment from a sense of there being "NO FUTURE" (so the term seems self-contradictory). But I'm old, so some understandings die hard. It only took me a decade to stop snickering at the term "steampunk" (ok, sometimes I still do) and I associate "cyberpunk" with a technocratic hopeless near future society.

But again, I find the ideas presented here as a great way to redo Dark Sun and terminology chosen doesn't really have to jibe with me for it to be successful.

glances over at her name, sweats

 

[Remathilis]

I love these ideas and look forward to their development, but I will say I can't help but snicker at the term "hopepunk" (and have ever since I first heard it a few years go) because when I think "punk" I think of it as an F.U. to the establishment from a sense of there being "NO FUTURE" (so the term seems self-contradictory). But I'm old, so some understandings die hard. It only took me a decade to stop snickering at the term "steampunk" (ok, sometimes I still do) and I associate "cyberpunk" with a technocratic hopeless near future society.

But again, I find the ideas presented here as a great way to redo Dark Sun and terminology chosen doesn't really have to jibe with me for it to be successful.

I always took the"punk" as being against the genre establishment. Cyberpunk was a reaction to retro-futurism (things like the Jetsons), steampunk as a future as envisioned by Verne rather than the actual industrial revolution, and hopepunk to all the Grimdark fantasy where life is hopeless and morality if gray and black.

The punk is the fact they reject the traditional assumptions and embrace the opposite.

 

[Gradine]

I am not sure I have ever seen people talk about the "good" parts of slavery.

There are high school history texts in the United States that are required to talk about the positive aspects of slavery. In 2024.

But the condescending paternalism of how the institution of slavery "helped" the people it enslaved in some way has been part of the conversation since the practice started and in a depressing amount of the world has not disappeared.

 

[Corinnguard]

Sure. He was a Pyreen. They just happen to look a lot like halflings...

They were a little bit of everyone.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I ran Dark Sun for about 2-3 sessions back in the day, but ended it. I think my big problem with the setting was that there was no room for heroes.

My group was partially comprised of former gladiator slaves. One of the player characters became a general of escaped muls, half-giants, thri-kreen, and other refugees.

I had been watching Dragon Ball Z at the time, so I had the idea of the group tracking down 7 "dragon stones" that would have the power to restore the world, or thoroughly destroy it. One of our player characters had the potential to become either a dragon or an avangion. His story would have been epic. Alas.

I don't know how to bring back Dark Sun in a way that would satisfy modern audiences and appeal to classic fans. Maybe that shouldn't be the goal. Maybe the goal should be a re-imagining, where there is still a struggle of good vs. evil set against a dystopian backdrop, and the players have to survive.

For me, I think Dark Sun is an interesting place to read about, but I wouldn't want to live there. I find the types of games I like to run are better suited for Dragonlance and the Forgotten Realms.

And if there was any way to connect Dark Sun more with the D&D multiverse, that would be great, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And a generation after that will call us barbarians for the slaughter and consumption of plants specifically bred for higher yields, too.

... Wait... we might both be off and that's this generation and next generation, respectively.

Plants Really Do 'Scream'. We've Simply Never Heard Them Until Now.

It seems like Roald Dahl may have been onto something after all: if you hurt a plant, it screams.

www.sciencealert.com

Plants can literally communicate with other plants in the area, and insects. Warning them of danger. That's -so- messed up.

Really starting to whittle down what we're allowed to feel ok about eating over time.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Dark Sun leaves a lot of opportunities for DMs to be naughty word DMs at each opportunity when the PCs defeat the abundant evil and horrors.

Maybe in a hopepunk take on Dark Sun, the table should have to session zero that the DM will create challenges but not work to screw over with every tool Dark Sun offers. Just freed slaves? The follow up narrative is it just works out like bastions on automatic, and PCs can move on to the next evil to crush.

The PCs at a Dark Sun table are making Athas better, and not drowned by the dystopia.

 

[Zardnaar]

I have a player who insists that eating dragons should be a culinary high point. In his own game, dragon steaks are served at the major expensive meals and when he fought a dragon in my game, he always got out the butchers knife. Personally, I think the eating of sentient beings is cannibalism regardless of body type and composition. He eventually stopped doing it in my game, but it really highlights what people consider ethical consumption would be very different in a fantasy world.

I suspect I'm the only one here who has talked to people whoose culture practiced cannibalism. Came up in curse of strahd even as I had a member playing.

It had spiritual connotations. Possible practical applications. No cow, sheep, horse etc to eat. Pig, chicken limited crops, birds, fish that's it.

Warrior culture. They're not ashamed about it unless you weaponize it to beat them over the head with it.

Some joke about it as well. As I said no shame. I remember an introduction in the 90's "I'm XYZ my ancestors ate people".

Local museum has a variety of weapons from South pacific cultures. Very Darksun. They would mess you up without metal armor.

Wasn't universal in South Pacic but PNG, Fiji and Aotearoa it was practiced.

 

[Gradine]

I suspect future civilizations will consider us to be irredeemably evil for accepting and condoning keeping animals in farms and killing them for their meat and other products.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Easy stance to take in a post-scarcity society. The Federation has always been pretty judgemental.