D&Ds Forgotten Post Apocalypse Video Game | Dark Sun: Shattered Lands Review

[@WilliamSRD]

Gain access to THOUSANDS of great maps for your tabletop games: www.patreon.com/czepeku www.czepeku.com/

[@tahnadana5435]

remember the movie seventh son? the baddies kinda look dark sunny... but the rest of the movie is crap, the lead is the worst actor ever

[@Nictator42]

oh hey, I love their work, been a patron for a long time now, glad to see them getting some attention and advertising

[@a.m.pietroschek1972]

A modern remake COULD prove that a masterpiece easily outmatching BG3!!! 🤔 `It is like AD&D Al Qadim, just for adults who ain't into heroin or opium.´

[@tahnadana5435]

dude, check out the series Lastman. you'll love it if you like dark sun

[@Bullet-ve2it]

I had so much fun with this game, although I always need to avoid the temptations to make a full party of half giant gladiators

[@connor3284]

Why not do so? That sounds like a decent party idea lore-wise. An entire group of gladiators all rose up against their masters at once and managed to escape into the desert, and now they have to survive and make something of themselves all on their own.

[@Cheonging101]

I'm on the other side of the spectrum with an entire party of thri-kreen psionic multiclasses. Because it's so much fun to hear them attack like machine guns.

[@Justen1980]

I played through this game so many times back when it came out. I definitely did an all Halfgiant run!

[@Amin-al-Husseini_1941picture]

In another video, a full party of giants isnt just viable, its optimal, as you saw in the video, giants just destroy 2-6 enemies instantly like butter and are mega tanky

[@jeremyhall2727]

​@@Amin-al-Husseini_1941picturethey're all Conan the barbarian

[@Lazysupermutant]

YES! Sorcerer Kings be praised I've been waiting for this baby, when I'm dust and bones out in the wastes of Athas I can atleast say "I got to watch the WilliamSRD Darksun series!" Also some "fun" Darksun facts. 1) Darksun was originally supposed to be an Artic setting, but the designers decided that it didn't show enough skin (Not a joke.) so they switched to the parched, leather bikini clad world we know and love. 2) Halflings live in some of the few jungles left and eat people, just straight up halfling cannibals. 3) Half-Giants alignment is completely random, mechanically you choose one of the axis and the other is randomly determined the next day, one day your lawful good, next day who knows? 4) Speaking of alignment when you're desperately thirsty your alignment, whatever it may be, is *ignored* and you will do *anything* to get a drink. Your alignment comes back after and you get to live with the consequences. 5) The starting level of all Darksun characters is level 5 (which in AD&D is nothing to sneeze at.) which a Githyanki raiding party figured out when they tried to invade Athas and royally got their shit rocked in by these mad-max, psionically powered madmen. 6) Relavent for Shattered Lands but of all the Sorcerer Kings Tectuktitlay is the weakest, and is the only one to prop himself is an actual god. I'll save more for part two, donate to your local templars!

[@joelpartee594]

Cold certainly makes more sense for the story, what with the life drained out and the, um, nearest star being a bit on the dim side... I guess the cool rules were ruined by the Rule of Cool.

[@rudeboyjohn3483]

​@@joelpartee594I appreciate this pun

[@chrisellis8089]

The irony of point 1 is that if you look at real world desert survival and desert cultures, they actually cover up as much skin as possible (usually with free flowing white/light coloured clothing). Also, all PCs start at 3rd level in AD&D (pg 21 of the Original Campaign Setting).

[@garblechunk]

Re: Fact 1 - IIRC the writers were committed to the arctic setting, but when they got the initial art back and saw all the leather thongs they felt they had to change it.

[@PurpleXVI]

The arctic setting would kind of make sense, based on the Sorcerer Kings draining the power of the sun to fuel their powering up, which would logically result in a colder world. Interesting fact!

[@Kenshiro3rd]

6:25 “Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, or Tektuktitlay where all the cat women went.” ****ING GOLD! 😂

[@Justen1980]

There is an unlimited XP exploit: in the Elven caravan, one of the elves sends you on a quest. When you return, you choose the dialogue option that you finished his quest and you get the XP. But the dialogue option is never removed, so you can keep clicking on it over and over till you max out your level.

[@GameTimeWhy]

That is a fun fact.

[@dave88861]

Personally I would just stay in the arena till I was max level and then breeze through the game but this is a nice little fun fact I may try some time

[@TheMadMuffin]

the game also literally has cheat codes to instantly max your level, learn all spells, among other things

[@dave88861]

@@TheMadMuffin Yeah but thats no fun, just not the same unless you earn it imo but good to know for sure

[@GameTimeWhy]

@@TheMadMuffin I didn't know that about this game but i did love that about old games. Especially stuff like Doom or Duke Nukem were pretty scary when i was little but God mode made a big difference

[@zombiesalmon4997]

Honestly post apocalyptic fantasy is soooooooo fucking underrated. Imagine the scenarios: gangs of raider wizards, knight’s wearing mad max style armour, mutant dragons, beholder gangs. So much you can do. Thanks for introducing this to me, instant subscription

[@KS-PNW]

IMHO Darksun is easily the most underrated 2e setting

[@SusCalvin]

The sorcerer kings are still around, and the last pockets of civilization is their Lawful Evil city-states where they channel some of the last water of Athas and feud with eachother. Outside of those is just weirdos and violence. Metal is rare on Athas. A metal sword is a great treasure, metal armour is practically unheard of. Everyone fights with bone and stone weapons and wear hide armour. Water is rare, there was a rule that you automatically go temporarily Evil if deprived of water. People will do the most effed up stuff for water. I think you could be either a despoiler wizard who can continue to squeeze out the last life on Athas, or one of the preservers who want to figure out how non-ecocidal magic can work. Dark Sun was also the setting where TSR wanted to show off their fancy new psionics rules. Every character on Athas has a chance to be psionic. There are a ton of psionic monsters and psionic plants around. I think the gods are gone from Athas as well. Everyone starts at level 3 just from growing up on Athas, with higher attributes.

[@samuelrodriguez9801]

Well, Dragons in Dark Sun aren't natural and there's only one confirmed dragon on Athas. Also many familiar creatures and races in D&D either never existed or went extinct.

[@SusCalvin]

@@samuelrodriguez9801 The TSR settings usually changed up some little thing, great or small. Dark Sun has thri-keen insect-people and playable half-giants too. The biggest changes I can think of is the gods, or the absence of them. One rule of thumb in many 2e books is that pure individual belief, with a bit of help from the cosmos in the background, can grant spells up to somewhere around level 2-3. In case your Spelljammer crew lands on a planet where your god has no presence, or your astral-hopping goons in Planescape visit a rival deity's realm. The other is psionics. This was going to be the setting where psionics rules were rolled out on a great scale.

[@SusCalvin]

@@samuelrodriguez9801 Birthright had a fun idea. A lot of the weirder and more powerful D&D monsters are not common in the world. People can run into displacer beasts and giants at least. But there are "monster rulers" you can meet who rule weirdo spots on the map like mad tyrants. There aren't any vampires, for example. There is one, The Vampire, who is a mutant abomination. These "monster rulers" are some sort of blue blood aberrations. The Hag, The Sphinx etc. A whole lot of them are just beefed-up monsters that would be normal in Forgotten Realms.

[@nilus2k]

Dark Sun was such a great and really different D&D setting. I consider it the second part of the Weird trilogy of D&D second edition settings. Spelljammer being the first and Planescape coming shortly after. There was so much to like here that was different and unique. It was the first official setting to allow Thri-Kreen characters but it also had other new races(for the time) like Half-giants and Mules(which were super touch half dwarves). The other traditional races were all crazy as well. Halflings were savage cannibals, elves were tall nomads that ran fast, etc. You started at level 3 because this setting ate first level characters and had a system in place that encourages you to make several characters that could easily swap out of the one you were playing died. This was a brutal world.

[@DungeonDad]

Hasbro needs to fun an HD remaster immediately

[@WilliamSRD]

GIVE US BACK THE WEIRD VIDEO GAMES HASBRO

[@chiefavagef0x837]

Be a bro Hasbro, and do us a solid!

[@z2ei]

I was hoping the Gold Box games would get the treatment the Bard's Tale games did. Ah, well.

[@therealwinston3634]

unfortunatly never will, and neither will Dark Sun as a DnD setting, since "Slavery is evil" how about we make our own Dark Sun with Black Jack and you know what

[@MerlinTheCommenter]

Awh snap it’s Dungeon Dad.

[@Mirko.topalovic]

The two Dark Suns are my definition of a summer game, still remember the summer I got WoTR for my birthday, my first cRPG as a kid and worked through it with an English dictionary (at least until hitting one of the trademark game breaking bugs). Still, with the improved versions getting online I blast through them once every year.

[@davidburnett5049]

What's your strat for the last battle in game 1?

[@Mirko.topalovic]

@@davidburnett5049 despite what Herr William says about clerics I make sure I have at least one multiclass fighter/fire cleric in the group as firewall is the most OP divine spell in the game. Doubly so for the final battle as it doesn't dissipate if you handle the second wave (presuming you cleaned the first up off screen with the shade army) between the phases of the battle. If you manage to cover a large enough enough area with 1-2 FWs it will provide a nice DoT while the elite guard are trying to get to you. Since getting hit makes spellcasters unable to cast that turn it also keeps the defilers at bay. That leaves the Black Mastriyals and Traxis to contend with but it's nothing a well equipped and sufficiently high level gang can't handle. If you're really in dire straits you can pass El's Drinker+2 between your characters to heal up with its life draining but that's too gamey for my tastes. Hope this helps 👍

[@LiterallyAWesternHognose]

​@@Mirko.topalovicDude you had me at Fireball(TM).

[@tylerh2548]

That intro setup of a slave pen/arena with people to sidequest and places to explore but still with a hard confinement is great inspiration for a tabletop starting adventure. Periodically, like once a day or so, the party is forced to report for their next gladiator match but the rest of the time it's just life in the pits, surviving in captivity, and plotting escape. Lots of story ideas and piece-meal worldbuilding opportunities.

[@bloodrunsclear]

Game: You inhabit a godless wasteland of doom Music: *Leisure Suit Larry approaches the casino*

[@Greatdictator]

Bro i did not expect a czepeku sponsorship for this video lol, wow thats insane to me.

[@ryanc5572]

The thing I loved the most about this game and remember clearly, was that Magic Missile sounds like a bomb going off when it hits. The humblest of level 1 spells making this huge explosion sound. It was so ridiculous. I loved it. 😂

[@JanPospisilArt]

Curious to hear your complaints about the graphics - I've always thought they nailed the Dark Sun look pretty well. The colours especially seem to capture the wild barbarian vibe of the Brom illustrations.

[@KS-PNW]

Yeah I agree with you. Given the technical limitations of the time Id argue they did a pretty good job. Now the music, and for that matter much of the plot, could have been better.

[@bilbo1778]

I think the upbeat jazz ruined his perception of the entire game - he may have reacted differently to the graphics had the music matched the bleak tone

[@jeallen10x]

I read most of the Darksun novels with PearlJam 10 playing the background. Every time I think about the game, I hear Oceans in my head... loved this setting. Never got to play the ssi game. Just found your channel. Love it

[@MelancholicKnight_]

Super cool Czepeku is sponsoring you! I've actually been using their maps for a while, at first the free versions they upload on Reddit, but I've subbed a few times for my DnD games on Roll20, really cool when an ad actually connects... Also the video caught me off guard, THE BIG MAN IS BACK, so happy to see the Quaaludes Man lives on.

[@alderic]

Great video! There is a curious aspect to the first game, it combines a bit of "epic scale" story (unite the different factions to resist against the sorcerer king army) with almost an "episode" style of story, with each village being sort of a self-contained story. You are quite right, as the defilers you came across often begin the main attraction. I still remember the first one, that bonus dungeon below the sewers, which was kind of a small horror story inside the game. Then a bit sense of scale, from that guy in the sewers to the latter ones, which feel more dangerous. Oh, one thing I almost forget, about taking a party from one game to another, it is doable, but not all stuff make it to the other game, meaning several items might vanish or be replaced by something else, still, taking a party might make a bit more easy, depending on what you get in the previous game, but starting a new one, isn't the end of the world. During character creation, you could give yourself absurd high stats, which made the game way too easy, which was hilarious given the idea, from what I understand, was that in the setting, due to all the apocalypses going on, that was the reason, the default characters had such high stats to compensate that player characters would die very easily. However, with high stats, you likely defeat everything very quickly... On the bugs aspect, I remember at least one, where you need some rocks to get a magical sword in a volcano, where I had to reload a save due to one rock vanish in thin air as I about to use it. But watch out in the second one, I just remember getting stuck in the second game due to a key which I could not find anywhere. I think I read somewhere, that the Psurlons would first appear here (I mean in the game, not even in the original setting, but I could be wrong) and then ported to other settings.

[@KS-PNW]

Yeah tabletop Darksun could be brutal! It was so common for player characters to die that the sourcebooks encouraged DMs to require every player to create 3-5 characters before starting a campaign. I once made my players due that without talking amongst themselves (to minimize min maxing). Was trying to keep thing's interesting but after the 3rd TPK in 4 sessions (using published adventures) everyone else was fed up with the setting and quit 😂

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

There really isn't enough coverage for these old Gold Box games on KZbin, so I'm glad you're forcing yourself to go through them (you're right; I'm definitely one of those people who will never, _ever_ touch these due to quality of life issues, lol). Playability-wise, they're whatever nowadays in 2023, but _content-wise,_ they're always fascinating. Good luck with the next one!

[@JeremyLevi]

This one technically isn't a "Gold Box" game. It was done on a completely new game engine that only ended up being used for Shattered Lands and the sequel Wake of the Ravager before D&D licensed games moved to BioWare's Infinity Engine for Baldur's Gate, etc.

[@RyllenKriel]

Good review. That soundtrack is hilarious. I can imagine half-giant dancers doing jazz hands to those tracks between arena battles.

[@KS-PNW]

Interestingly "the Grey" appears to also have taken some kind of physical form in spell jammer. The crystal sphere (OG Spelljammers solar systems) containing Athas and it's moons is completely encased in a grey shell. Basically a cannon reason for why defilers haven't spread elsewhere, although it was implied a few might have escaped somehow..

[@iambicpentakill]

I loved the Dark Sun world so much as a kid, as well as the Defiler/Preserver dichotomy (that blew my tiny mind). I never played this game, but it could be why post-apoc still appeals to me as a game setting.

[@velwein]

I actually really liked the Jazz music growing up with this game, that intro / character creation song is just awesome.

[@Resulka]

Wait, Who said Wake of the Ravager had better art? Oh, oh my dear. They lied to you. They tried to do a graphical upgrade and it somehow ends up looking worse... like.. blurrier. I am very fond of this game. When I recently streamed it, I named my Thi'keen Amy The Bug Lady only to feel the need to rename her by the ending to AMY MURDERHAND. As much as this might not be the grimdark gritty game it suggested, It gave me a bonzana of joy. The Druid of the Howling Mountain shouting down to the middle of a conversation taking place in the valley below got me good. I can only imagine being another person in that town hearing "I WILL TAKE CARE OF THE VILLAGE WHILE THEY'RE GONE" being an absolute "WTF" moment for them. The thing I would praise this game for most is the Storylet sort of idea, Each town's scenario is very different and a little campaign of it's own and almost completely independant of each other. Al-Qadim's Genie's Curse also does this but that's a bit more chained together then these two games.

[@Justen1980]

I had the CD-Rom with Shattered Lands, Genie's Curse, and Strahd's Possession on one disc with a huge manual. Loved those games!

[@Resulka]

@@Justen1980 That sounds like you might have had the Masterpeice Collection. Or something like that anyway. From memory, Masterpiece had Genie's Curse, and both Dark Sunds on the Same Disc with another disc that had both the Ravenloft games and then Menzoberrzan had a cd to itself.

[@grumpymoose6800]

I forgot about the second Darksun game entirely. I like the setting of Dark Sun and it's Psionics bent always makes me wish other DnD settings adapted into CRPGs had included the Psion class. Even to this day I hoped against sense, practicality, and Larian being very clear what wouldn't be in their BG3, that we'd at least get the Aberrant Mind Sorcerer. Mind you, I was raised on Wizardry and Psionic style abilities just being part of a fantasy world. I get a lot of people find it too sci-fi for fantasy. I love it, though, so I love Dark Sun. Thank you for another lovely video.

[@AuntieHauntieGames]

I remember playing this one. It suuuuuuucked me right in. I spent so many times walking its labyrinth patterns in the desert, not knowing what I was meant to be doing and not caring cause it was too much fun.

[@AdventureSpence]

I hope this doesn’t offend you, because I think your content is great and you have an awesome voice. Just please, PLEASE hold your mic in front of your face and keep it there, the constant volume changes make this a really difficult watch for me

[@joshuawilson8804]

I've actually played this one, it is archaic but when I understood how the designers thought, the controls made so much sense and I got very immersed in the pixel graphics. I will say I don't mind the cartoony aesthetic, as grimdark is notoriously thought of being shades of grey/brown. Dark Sun can have beauty, it just usually will end up killing you.

[@CircleOfTheSeptagram]

I wish this game came with a scenario editor. Fan made stuff would have given this game a lot of legs. The engine and design made this game half RPG half adventure game. I remember the sequel being very buggy and a huge problem. This one is just super comfy to me. Also shoutout to Gerald Brom for giving DS its look. Very iconic.

[@VoidSmoker97]

Shattered Lands is a game that could use some type of spiritual successor, for its time the combat feels pretty tactical though the cursor feels janky as hell. Also the main menu theme is so damn good

[@noukan42]

Knight of the chalice 2 is kinda that butit has it's own set of problems

[@KS-PNW]

​@@noukan42don't get me wrong, that's a good game but it doesn't really scratch that Darksun itch. IMHO anyway..

[@KS-PNW]

@Void that would be SO COOL!!

[@SollowP]

First video I've seen from you and I'm already hooked. Love the pace, the little tidbits of backstory just to get everyone up to speed. Though it a bit distracting with the audio quality going up and down, mostly due to the hand held mic sections, along with it shifting left and right.

[@4fives992]

You really nailed how dissonant the music and the setting were. I really enjoyed the dancing edits.

[@AAron-gr3jk]

I was obsessed with this game for a year

[@sabinespeed4146]

YESSSS!!!! I got my Windows 98 machine running a few weeks ago, and while it's mostly for industrial purposes, the first thing I installed was Dark Sun Shattered Lands. Too bad it's too hot in the garage to play through. Have to wait until fall. :)

[@roguerifter9724]

I like these games but I still find it annoying that for some reason you can't have Athasian Minstrels aka the setting's version of Bards in your party. It was less annoying not being able to use Bards in the Goldbox games because they were based on 1st edition AD&D where becoming a Bard was very difficult and took a long time (You had to have high stats and earn several levels as a Fighter then class change to a thief and earn more levels then class change again to become a Bard) but the Dark Suns games are based on 2nd edition where Bard was a starting class so I see no reason not to include it as an option.

[@KS-PNW]

Yeah I always found that odd. They included some pretty obscure race options but skipped a primary class. Just seems like a strange choice..

[@thedragonguru2332]

Great video! I love that you talk about these old games and cover so many parts of them. I always enjoy your videos. Looking forward to the sequel!

[@JeremyLevi]

Nice to see you tackle this often overlooked game. This is oddly one of the few licensed D&D games I ever finished all the way to the end back in the day just due to a random chunk of free time / some strange celestial alignment (along with Eye of the Beholder and Dark Queen of Krynn for some reason) so I have fond memories of it, despite it's many glaring flaws.

[@bayanna96]

I just discovered these games and was looking for a review specifically of them only to find you uploaded this 7 hours ago. Great timing lol.

[@gerarddominus35]

I LOVED this game when I was a kid. I knew nothing about D&D, the lore of this game, the history, what awell made character was, any of that but I just loved this game as its own thing. I remember playing in the arena for hours trying to see how long I could survive in the arena, and I used to rely heavily on the mind control spells to get me through battles

[@palchristianandersen9086]

I wish Hasbro or whoever is managing the D&D license would go the Games Workshop route and let anyone take a crack at making a D&D video game set in any of their official campaigns. Sure, like 80% of the games would be crap, but I think it would be far preferable to the D&D games drought we've had for the last 20 years.

[@WilliamSRD]

I agree 100%. Games Workshop rolls that way and we've gotten some AMAZING offbeat warhammer games out of it

[@KS-PNW]

I don't understand why they won't allow anyone to try for another Neverwinter Nights style game (not Neverwinter the MMO but the 2 rpg games that preceded it)

[@freefaregaming6174]

Just wanted to say I'm loving your channel overall right now. Interesting topics, well presented, balanced reviews that highlight the good and bad of each game, and you're doing the hard work of playing old esoteric and unapproachable games that many modern users just bounce off of. You're doing a great job, thanks for what you're doing!

[@Azhalan]

Never played a DS campaign but I really loved the books. Very, very dark for D&D.

[@KS-PNW]

You mean the novels? I haven't thought about them in forever but I remember thinking they were awesome back in the day.

[@Azhalan]

Both, actually. I had the campaign setting and several novels and they were great.

[@KS-PNW]

@@Azhalan oh right on man! Nice to know I'm not the only old person watching this channel lol

[@Azhalan]

And we're certainly not the only ones 😁

[@bonelessdonutz]

I played this game to completion so many times, this is the first game I did every single thing i thought possible, I fought every fight talked to every person, collected every treasure, played as different races and classes. I've been waiting for a video on it I thought about making my own even.

[@herpderp9774]

Having worked my way through these games back in the day when you had to enter codes from the game manual to exit into the sewers, I absolutely love them and their very unique music score. Sure they are probably a bit light on the absolutely soul crushing setting but I find that to not be a deal breaker, the bugs in WoTR though are absolutely terrible. Be sure to save often on separate save files or you will be starting again a lot!

[@etkaiser]

I played through this one at least a couple of times soon after it came out and quite enjoyed it. My friends and I had a Dark Sun D&D campaign for a little while as well, and of course I had a human preserver character with the long-term plan of having him dual class to psionicist and then become an avangion, but of course we didn't play nearly long enough for that to happen. While I remember much of what you showed from this game, I know I played Wake of the Ravager as well, but barely remember anything from it. I know I was never able to complete it since I ran into some bug near the end that prevented me from progressing to the next screen. Thanks for the video and I look forward to the Wake of the Ravager one!

[@sinisterdesign]

I *loved* this game as a kid! Super underrated, IMO

[@jeremysmith4620]

Let's take a moment to remember all the Magic Erasers and Antibacterial Wipes lost in the Cleansing Wars.

[@ryangraff102]

Your reviews for this and Wake of the Ravager inspired me to pick up the Dark Sun boxed set. I'm already planning a multi-generational campaign about shepherding an Avangion into its final form so it can save the world. Thanks for the inspiration!

[@SusCalvin]

There had been ideas for psionics in D&D previously, at most a little rules annex that was easy to overlook. But in Dark Sun they wanted to really show off their new ideas for psionics. Everyone has a chance of being psionic. The wildlife and flora of Athas is also psionic so your leather barbarian with a bone sword can have a mental duel with a plant. Everyone starts around level 3 just from growing up on Athas. Metal is rare, a metal sword is a huge treasure and metal armour practically unheard of. People use stone arrowheads, bone daggers, clubs and hide armour. You roll attributes differently, so everyone has a higher average on their attributes. Even a wizard could probably press their own weight. There was a mechanic where water depravation would make your character temporarily Evil. Everyone will do the most effed-up things if it stands between them and water.

[@Frank-Voight-Kampff]

I love this game so much. Played it like three times all the way through before I started anything else. So thank you for reminding me. Alas I have to say, the last battle? The one you had such problems with? Yeah, I died once in my first playthrough and after that I had *THE* winning strategy: Wall of Stone from my preserver or cleric thereby forcing all those enemies to attack me through a bottleneck without being able to use arrows or spells against me. Worked like a charm every single time. ^^

[@K_E_Robin]

Jazzy style of the soundtrack fits nicely cuz of the reason Timothy B. Brown, one of the two designers behind Dark Sun, is a prog rock musician and enthusiast.

[@halfblake]

I just wanna say that I think you’re doing awesome work. Thanks for making the videos you make.

[@WarDogMadness]

If they made a darksun game now they would have a massive audiance

[@fernandosacchetto5215]

YES!!! Been eagerly waiting for this video, and it delivers! Regarding the soundtrack, one thing about the second game (Wake of the Ravager) is that its soundtrack came in the game's CD, as CD tracks, which allowed them to have a somewhat better audio quality, or at least be less MIDI-esque. They're largely the same songs, but with instrumentation they sound a lot more like a hard rock that fits the setting well rather than the first game's jazzy tunes. Well, except for the halfling village theme, which is bizarrely just some generic fantasy music that clashes completely with the rest of the game's music.

[@billyrandell]

Great timing, I just played most of the way through this. I ran into a bug in the final or penultimate dungeon, so I haven't finished it yet, but I was very happy how well a lot of the game has held up. I really recommend it as sort path crpgs could have gone down but didn't, plus Athos as a setting is a just really cool for people who like grim dark and/or environmentalism.

[@durrem]

This is my favorite D&D game.

[@lenkagamine4145]

I am so curious what that thing at 29:17 is about. Can someone pleeeease tell meeee

[@sterlingpratt5802]

LOVE me some Dark Sun! Glad to see some content on these games, since I never got to play them myself. Thanks for the entertaining breakdown!

[@IvoryKnight22]

This was my first real intro into DND. No wonder a lot of the high fantasy stuff doesnt work for me. Ive gone to DCC and a few other OSRs for my fun. Always trying to run Dark Sun.

[@GameTimeWhy]

Warriors of the eternal sun has the best dnd soundtrack that i can think of. So addictive.

[@domicius]

I remember Shattered Lands. Made it through the game with a giant and a few web spells - even the final battle! Sleep and prismatic spray were also great at the lower levels...

[@ericwhite1942]

God I miss this campaign setting. They really pushed this in the 80s and 90s. Had a really intense but fun campaign here

[@goreobsessed2308]

Dude dark sun as an actual setting was awesome

[@thebigidea9659]

Dark Sun should be explores more. Id love a modern crpg of this setting.

[@Tech2Rush]

Can we get Larian to do it? It would be the greatest cRPG ever.

[@KS-PNW]

I'd love an updated Darksun. I just don't trust Hasbro to do it justice 😢

[@jonerikson5925]

Easily my favorite setting in the series

[@radyoung779]

I loved these games in the 90s.

[@xFallenAngel]

I've played through Shattered Lands 3 times, but never made it all the way through Wake of the Ravager due to a combination of bugs and the downgraded graphics (yeah, I'd say the original has far better graphics than the sequel) making my eyes bleed. I personally felt it captured the intended atmosphere pretty well, most problems have multiple ways to approach/solve them and you're given a lot of freedom in which order you tackle the world as presented to you (or even how much of it you skip). I also appreciated the final battle feeling like going up against an actual army (Knights of the Chalice pulled that off really well too), though if you abused the character creation feature of being able to just manually max out every stat it'll lose a lot of its edge.

[@joearnold6881]

The setting reminds me a bit of Tyranny, with it being set after the bad guys won. Actually, I never finished Tyranny. I need to do that. If you play it, a tip: don’t attempt to find a “good” ending, at least not your first time thru. I’m not saying something like that doesn’t exist,it may depending on your outlook, just that this isn’t the sort of game where finding a good ending is what you’re meant to be doing.

[@mementomori771]

Love your content! Keep up the great work

[@fy8798]

Very memorable game. I even remember the *name* of the defiler in the sewers, Dagolar. I liked the sidequests in this, even though the game was overall one of the easiest cRPGs I played.

[@garrick3727]

I saw Dark Sun campaign stuff in stores decades ago, but I never knew much about it. I only just learned about it very recently, and what amazed me the most is how influential it appears to have been. For example, you can see parts of it in the Elder Scrolls games, notably Morrowind. Then again, it could be that Dark Sun and these other games are based on the same fantasy literature sources - I am not familiar enough with them to know for sure. Some of those very early fantasy and science fiction writers were amazingly creative, far more so that the mostly derivative stuff that people have written since 1980.

[@RedSunUnderParadise]

Ah yes, DnD but not Mid. Tectuktitlay is a hero and should be regarded as such.

[@r4z0rv1n3]

There are things that you did that if you had done them differently would have made that last battle even harder... let that sink in.

[@Dermetsu]

My favorite campaign setting, and I'm kinda sad but also relieved that modern WOTC hasn't touched it. They would sand down all the grit.

[@KS-PNW]

Yeah after seeing what they've done to Ravenloft and Spelljammer I don't want them touching Darksun

[@HomuraAkemiHQ]

One employee mentioned that they aren't touching the setting anytime soon because of "problematic themes."

[@BlastingBloo]

The uploader is not joking about the soundtrack not fitting. The Butterfly Oasis song sounds like it would be the theme song to a random daycare or school building in an old Pokemon game.

[@PurpleXVI]

Respect for a fellow person who thinks Thri-Kreen are cool and need to be in every party they can be in.

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

The _only_ problem with the Thri-Keen is that they age very quickly, like they're venerable/nearly dead around the time humans start hitting middle age. Aside from that, the mantis-men are one of my favorite playable species in the game. So much fun to be had, depending on how you use them.

[@PurpleXVI]

@@nicholasfarrell5981 They don't sleep at all, though, so technically they get 1/3rd more life out of the same span of being alive as the other species do. Plus as they have yet to invent retail work, their lives are filled with so much more joy than human lives.

[@radyoung779]

I absolutely loved this game. I got a box set in the 90s with 2 EoB games and 2 Dark Sun games and played the hell out of all of them..

[@Melody_Raventress]

Raistlin, angst-y? Eh, I always got the impression that he was on pretty good terms with evil from the start. Now, Tanis, that there was a whole box full of wangst.

[@AngelusNielson]

Dark Sun kept me from burning out in Mideaval English fantasy-style D&D back in the day. Still one of my favorite settings, even if tsr paid a dollar more for every basic Dark Sun set than they got.

[@joeyjockey6400]

Do you have any interest in covering the d&d sega genesis game, Warriors of the eternal sun, it's quite a short game but I feel it deservers it's own for the music alone. I remember being blown away by it when I was younger.

[@WilliamSRD]

Eventually I plan on covering all the D&D games! Though those two aren't on my shortlist atm, so they may not be in the cards till next year, unless I sneak Eternal Sun before I cover Westwood's Eye of the Beholder!

[@joeyjockey6400]

All the confirmation I needed, thanks!

[@alisaforster28691]

Baldur's Gate 3 dropped the dev tools, making it able to make their own campaigns. This is one of the top games i want to see reimagined on that engine

[@nilus2k]

If you ever looking to seek out a really weird CRPG based on a table top game. Check out Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday. It is a SSI Gold box game and the first version of the Buck Rogers RPG that TSR put out used the D&D rules with an additional more robust skill system added on.

[@Niskirin]

Excellent, good video, looking forwards to seeing you play the sequel as well.

[@gargamellenoir8460]

So were there mechanics for preservers to defile?

[@KS-PNW]

I don't think so but if I'm remembering right the sequel did include that option

[@spaceman9599]

Great video, and an interesting setting - and scifantasy literature behind it. Also love a sponsor that is new to me but a great resource!

[@spaceman9599]

The horror that the fat future contains Conan, Mad Max, and JAZZ!!!

[@MerlinTheCommenter]

This game was a guilty pleasure of mine as a kid. Really enjoyed it. Also, when you off-hand mentioned Chaero by saying “F this guy if you know, you know” I swear to God I thought you were insinuating something dark like he had his way with the wyverns or something. It’s been years since I played the game so it’s something that could very well have passed over my head as a youth. So many dirty subtle concepts have slipped in our media as kids, it wouldn’t surprise me 😂

[@mhjmstultiens]

Not forgotten. Certainly adored. Great game! :)

[@Incrediblefatslug]

As we go forward, will this series culminate in the baldur's Gate games?

[@GameTimeWhy]

I killed everyone in the barracks after the initial battle. Took me a few tries to get it done but its pretty awesome.

[@DarkWestern]

I've never heard anyone pronounce it "wivv-erns" before, have I been saying it wrong my whole life as "why-verns" ?

[@aridale]

No its Why-verns. Some ppl just pronounce it wrong

[@joelpartee594]

Why Vern is more correct in both Standard British and Standard American, but I've certainly heard wivv ern before. I think wivv ern makes sense if you want it to be related to wyrm, but (oversimplifying) wyrm is related through Germanic languages to worm, while wyvern is related through Romantic languages to viper.

[@tchristensen81]

I played and loved this game, when it was new(ish).

[@SusCalvin]

Those rules for clerics also functioned in Spelljammer. As you hopped planets in Spelljammer it was possible to land on a world where your god had absolutely no presence. A presence being defined by at least 100 dedicated followers or so. It was entirely possible to convert the locals or start a religious colony to bring that presence to a world, or to go over to the temple of a god you disliked and try to kick those guys off the planet. If your god had no presence on the planet, the power of your own belief and the cosmos itself would give you up to level 3 spells. The same if you for some reason went to a plane where your god didn't have access, like some underworld hell, and tried to rest there and restore new spells for some weird reason. Or if your god for some reason got whopped out of existance and no other god picked up their portfolio and former worshippers. I don't recall how clerics worked in Planescape, where the gods also work in weird ways.

[@velwein]

Fun fact, the "Halflings" from Mindhome are actually the original species of Athas. Almost all playable species are evolutions/deviations from them. With the actual big bad of the setting's goal to restore the world as it was, and destroy everyone but the species like those you find in Mindhome.

[@thebigmuskychickenmike106]

Ah Dark sun. Loved this as a kid. This game gave me a love of the grimdark and rat girls.

[@TheLordWinter]

I'm pretty sure it uses the same or a similar engine, but I'd love to hear your take on Dungeons and Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun for the old Sega Genesis.

[@garethrns]

I love Halflings/Hobbits, honestly, sounds like a great plan for Athas.

[@dieselshot9768]

Hey William! Want to like & comment but I actually won't be watching the video - yet! Your coverage of these games inspired Me to pick up the Dark Sun duo set off Steam for real cheapskiis. I'm having a blast in the early Arena area after getting wiped hard and having to come back with a better party build. If\when I finish the game I'll be sure to come back and check this out! I just wanted you to know you've inspired Me to check out these cool games ^w^

[@WilliamSRD]

Enjoy it!

[@RIlianP]

WOTC, claims this setting is too controversial for modern audience, and wouldn't modern audience wants new interesting settings to be released. But they still release Dragonlance and Spelljamer and Forgotten realms material. But honestly I am glad I can put the effort to convert the classic Dark sun setting into 5e by my self, if I so desire, because by just by looking the latest releases and the future plans for D&D, if they touch the setting it will turn to shit.

[@RuSosan]

*Audience:* "We want the Dark Sun setting for 5e because it's dark and awesome! One of the best settings ever! Give us actually mature content for D&D!" *WotC:* "We're sorry to inform you that we have decided that you don't want this setting because it's too dark for you and would offend you because we say so."

[@JeremyLevi]

I mean I can kind of see why. What's that, the planet's ecology has been destroyed by an elite class of powerful people who knew what would happen but didn't give a shit because they knew *they* would be safe? Yeah, can't see that rustling anyone's political jimmies. 🤣

[@KS-PNW]

​@@JeremyLeviyour not wrong. Unfortunately WoTC has seemingly decided that anything remotely controversial is now verboten. The idea of a campaign setting where slavery is a central plot point would probably make their heads spin..

[@jameslauriente1049]

DORK SON MY FAVE ❤

[@chewiebacca5841]

This game has long been one of my favorites. I've been through it a half-dozen times. Is anyone going to mention the music crossover with Bjork?

[@DrownedInExile]

Ah the good old days. My brother levelled 2 gladiators up to 7 from just the slave-arena. So they got 2 attacks. Then multi-classed them into preserver and druid. Beefiest spellcasters ever!