Rich Baker talks 4e Dark Sun.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:39 am

IRC at least the people pretended to answer the other people on the channel.

These guys could be replaced by a Lisa program.

-Crissa

K · Post by K » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:43 am

FansOfDarksun: So, can we do this cool iconic Darksun thing?

Baker: Well no, our system does do nice things, but we will make some different stuff and CALL them by the names of those nice things.... you know.... for the fans.

Seriously, if taking levels in Sorcerer King doesn't turn you into a fvcking dragon, why even have it? I can live with not writing Gladiator on my character sheet because I can still BE a gladiator, but if you don't want people to be Sorcerer Kings, then don't let them write it on their character sheet so they can play some super-neutered version of them.

And no divine source? Hello..... this is Darksun, where templars are the clerics. Did you read the setting?

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:41 am

Psychic Robot wrote:I just realized that Baker referred to racial feats as "design tech."

He used tech like that twice, he some kind of Scientologist?

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:45 am

Can anyone link to threads of grognards/haters (aside from this board) sneering at this project or interview?

Because daddy Lago needs his daily hate injection.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:26 pm

K wrote: Seriously, if taking levels in Sorcerer King doesn't turn you into a fvcking dragon, why even have it? I can live with not writing Gladiator on my character sheet because I can still BE a gladiator, but if you don't want people to be Sorcerer Kings, then don't let them write it on their character sheet so they can play some super-neutered version of them.

I thought the idea was that you become a sorcerer king over the course of 10 levels, and when you reach level 30 you finish your transformation, Win The Game and retire your character. Isn't that the point of the 4E epic destinies and the 30 level cap?

tzor · Post by **tzor** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 3:14 pm

ggroy wrote:It reads like a busy IRC channel from the 1990's.

So that explains the T$R Deja Vu flashbacks.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:11 pm

Something just occured to me while playing D&D Tiny Adventures.

4E characters gain the vast majority of their power from having continuously upgradable magical items on a predictable setting. And as far as I know, magical items in Dark Sun are supposed to be rare to reflect the complete collapse of industry and the economy.

So... how are they going to reconcile these two things? Was that inherent bonus preview they gave us in the DMG2 supposed to be their way of dealing with this dissonance? Because that's not cutting the mustard. The only way people can even hope to push against the tide of padded sumo is to grab their Iron Armbands of Power and their Frost Weapons and Siberys Shards.

souran · Post by **souran** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:49 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote:Something just occured to me while playing D&D Tiny Adventures.

4E characters gain the vast majority of their power from having continuously upgradable magical items on a predictable setting. And as far as I know, magical items in Dark Sun are supposed to be rare to reflect the complete collapse of industry and the economy.

So... how are they going to reconcile these two things? Was that inherent bonus preview they gave us in the DMG2 supposed to be their way of dealing with this dissonance? Because that's not cutting the mustard. The only way people can even hope to push against the tide of padded sumo is to grab their Iron Armbands of Power and their Frost Weapons and Siberys Shards.

Sort of, remember that they have now added the effective slots of

Tatoo, divine/demonic, and Boon to a character. Whats more as far as I can tell the tatoos and the boons have nothing in particular that they do other than be whatever the fuck magical effect you want.

Therefore instead of actually getting iron armbands of power you could get a boon that does the same thing and instead of getting your frost weapon you just get that from holding weapons.

In a sort of funny way isn't this what a number of people have said should be done to characters?

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:05 pm

souran wrote: In a sort of funny way isn't this what a number of people have said should be done to characters?

I don't know about you, but I'd rather not have all of those effects available to me. It's actually extremely insulting to me to wield a bone club and pretend it's a +5 radiant greatsword or stick a smilie-face sticker to my helmet that gives me a +6 bonus to damage rolls.

If I had my way people in Dark Sun would just be tougher in other campaign settings--bigger and better stat boosts, starting at higher level, more feats, have monster CRs bumped up, all that happy horseshit. You know, things that made up for the fact that you're supposed to be swinging clubs and shit around?

It's like when Enterprise blathers about its polarized ceramic hull while pretending and treating it as shields. Don't insult my intelligence like that, just admit that you don't have the talent to adapt your story to a new setting and move on with your life.

hogarth · Post by **hogarth** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:09 pm

Lago PARANOIA wrote: 4E characters gain the vast majority of their power from having continuously upgradable magical items on a predictable setting. And as far as I know, magical items in Dark Sun are supposed to be rare to reflect the complete collapse of industry and the economy.

And defiling is supposed to be normal magic and preserving is supposed to be worse-than-normal magic, but they're throwing that one out the window. What makes you think magic items are going to be any different?

I suspect you'll get Obsidian Armbands of +1 Something instead of Grimsteel Armbands of +1 Something. The word "obsidian" totally makes it Dark Sun, dude.

RandomCasualty2 · Post by **RandomCasualty2** » Mon Jan 04, 2010 7:29 pm

K wrote: Seriously, if taking levels in Sorcerer King doesn't turn you into a fvcking dragon, why even have it? I can live with not writing Gladiator on my character sheet because I can still BE a gladiator, but if you don't want people to be Sorcerer Kings, then don't let them write it on their character sheet so they can play some super-neutered version of them.

Well I assumed that the sorcerer king was just a weak dragon, similar to the 4E demigod being a weak "god". Given it's 4E, it'll probably be bland as shit, but at least they could give us a breath weapon and a size increase to large or something.

CapnTthePirateG · Post by **CapnTthePirateG** » Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:05 am

Remember, these are the same guys who think the kewl powerz of an Avatar of Death should be resist necrotic 20. Don't get your hopes up.