With thanks to James Zack.

Welcome to Athas: A Quick Player’s Primer

The  world of the DARK SUN Campaign Setting is unique in several ways. Many  familiar trappings of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game are missing or  turned on their heads. Athas is not a place of shining knights and robed  wizards, of deep forests and divine pantheons. To venture over the  sands of Athas is to enter a world of savagery and splendor that draws  on different traditions of fantasy and storytelling. Simple survival  beneath the deep red sun is often its own adventure. 

Newcomers  to Athas have many things to learn about the world, its people, and its  monsters, but the following eight characteristics encapsulate the most  important features of the DARK SUN campaign setting.

The  World is a Desert: Athas is a hot, arid planet covered with endless  seas of dunes, lifeless salt flats, stony wastes, rocky badlands, thorny  scrublands, and worse. From the first moments of dawn, the crimson sun  beats down from an olive-tinged sky. Temperatures routinely exceed 100  degrees by midmorning and can reach 130 degrees or more by late  afternoon.  The wind is like the blast of a furnace, offering no relief  from the oppressive heat. Dust and sand borne on the breeze coat  everything with yellow-orange silt. In this forbidding world, cities and  villages exist only in a few oases or verdant plains. The world beyond  these islands of civilization is a barren wasteland roamed by nomads,  raiders, and hungry monsters.

The World is Savage: Life  on Athas is brutal and short. Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and  hordes of inhuman savages overrun the deserts and wastelands. The cities  are little better; each chokes in the grip of an immortal tyrant. The  vile institution of slavery is widespread on Athas, and many  unfortunates spend their lives in chains, toiling for brutal  taskmasters.  Every year hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent  to their deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion,  kindness—these qualities exist, but they are rare and precious blooms.  Only a fool hopes for such riches.

Metal is Scarce: Most  arms and armor are made of bone, stone, wood, and other such materials.  Mail or plate armor exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings.  Steel blades are almost priceless, weapons that many heroes never see  during their lifetimes.

Arcane Magic Defiles the World: The reckless use of arcane magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a
wasteland.  To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the living world  nearby. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks animals and  people, and the soil is sterilized; nothing can grow in that spot again.  It is possible to cast spells with care, avoiding any more damage to  the world, but defiling is more potent than preserving. As a result,  sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are generally  reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless of whether they preserve  or defile. Only the most powerful spellcasters can wield arcane might  without fear of reprisals.

Sorcerer-Kings Rule the  City-States: Terrible defilers of immense power rule all but one of  the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for  centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some  claim to be gods, and some claim to serve gods. Some are brutal  oppressors, where others are more subtle in their tyranny. The  sorcerer-kings govern through priesthoods or bureaucracies of greedy,  ambitious templars, lesser defilers who can call upon the kings’ powers.   

The Gods are Silent: Long ago, when the planet was  green, the brutal might of the primordials overcame the gods.  Today,  Athas is a world without deities. There are no clerics, no paladins, and  no prophets or religious orders. In the absence of divine influence,  other powers have come to prominence in the world. Psionic power is well  known and widely practiced on Athas; even unintelligent desert monsters  can have deadly psionic abilities. Shamans and druids call upon the  primal powers of the world, which are often sculpted by the influence of  elemental power.

Fierce Monsters Roam the World: The  desert planet has its own deadly ecology. Many creatures that are  familiar sights on milder worlds have long since died out or never  existed at all. Athas has no cattle, swine, or horses; instead, people  tend flocks of erdlus, ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with  inixes and mekillots. Wild creatures such as lions, bears, and wolves  are almost nonexistent. In their place are terrors such as the id fiend,  the baazrag, and the tembo. 

Familiar Races Aren’t What You  Expect: Typical fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes.  In many DUNGEONS & DRAGONS settings, elves are wise, benevolent  forest-dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of evil. On  Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and  thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable river-folk; they’re xenophobic  headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill trespassers in their  mountain forests. Goliaths—or half-giants, as they are commonly  known—are brutal mercenaries that serve as elite guards and enforcers  for the sorcerer-kings and their templars in many city-states.

Just to be clear, this is what came to store organizers in the initial information from WotC.

It is very good information! I have also begun a daily Twitter and weekly blog on Dark Sun. It is specifically aimed at the new players and DMs looking to get involved with the campaign setting.

So, what, all I gotta do is show up at a participating location? Time to head to my FLGS for some recon.

May 28, 2010 -- 11:38AM, gold_piece wrote:

I think I posted this somewhere else, but this appears to be the more appropriate thread for my question:

Are the pregen characters available for download?  If so please let us know!

According to the package that should be in most stores, the pre-gens should be available as a download from the main Wizards/DnD page, under Events, then Downloads.  They are not there yet, though.

May 29, 2010 -- 12:05AM, Pyrik wrote:

So, what, all I gotta do is show up at a participating location? Time to head to my FLGS for some recon.

Pretty much do just that.  At the store I have been running things out of, we are pretty full with two tables, but I always try to accommodate anyone who shows up if I can manage it.  Knowing ahead of time how many players to expect is nice.

May 29, 2010 -- 10:59AM, DanTracker wrote:

hooray. i just grabbed a seat and looked over things at the FLGS where i've been DMing season 1. I love the material. I didn't read in great depth, but didn't happen to see any details of defiling/preserving. There is only one arcane PC, so it might not get chosen from among the players, but I'd like to know how that will be handled.

Gotta say. I like the thri kreen. I like it a lot.

I was a little surprised that there was no mention of Preserving or Defiling in the Arcane character, too.  I think the Dark Sun preview characters from DDXP are available on the net in PDF form, I know the Warlock from that had a Defiling ability - something along the lines of "You miss with this attack, you can reroll, but all allies within 20 squares take 2 points of damage".  I can't promise that that is accurate, but it was along those lines.

Since not all DMs will be familiar with Athasian creatures, I thought it would be a good idea to post a Quick DM's Creature Primer...

Spoiler: Show