(Dark Sun D&D5e) Rise of the Veiled Alliance, EP1: City of Sails

[@sesimie]

Was watching Grim Dark's (half off) intro to Dark Sun and was pointed to here. time to get comfy and soak it in!

[@donathinfrye6120]

Enjoy! Much adventure and dark, defiling magic awaits you.

[@ab3lthetitan754]

About to run my own Dark Sun campaign with my own twists. The Astral Sea is bleeding onto Athas, a mysterious pantheon of gods take up the empty mantel, and i’m also mixing in some Conan ideas

[@theskinthiefs6301]

Yes bro! I highly advise sprinkle some Elderitch Lovecraftian sub text with Conan. Luv the Idea of a Cult of Set becoming Templars and controlling the city states

[@mr.e.knight42]

I am so pumped to start watching this! I'm starting a Pathfinder 2e campaign of the old TSR paths and found you guys in my research.

[@williamwells699]

I finally found time to watch this and I am glad that I did. Dark Sun is one of my favorite settings and it looks like y'all are off to a great start with execellent story telling and acting. I am looking forward to watching episode 2 tomorrow. :)

[@lookingformore6470]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mordredoforkney6185]

One of my favorite original settings for DND. I'm glad I found something that's not forgotten realms or eberron.

[@Diamabel]

I‘m glad i discovered this. You guys are awesome! I love the setting and its cool to see balic as a location. Makes me want to run a Dark Sun campaign myself!

[@karlcollins2361]

Came across this tonight and now I know I'm not getting any sleep as I'm binging this. Great start

[@timscott7151]

I’m excited a came across this, please don’t stop. What a great setting, DM, and players. I’m in for all episodes

[@terryschwimmbacher2314]

Stumbled onto this today and absolutely love it. Dark Sun doesn't get enough attention and the dark tone makes me wonder if we'll ever get an official 5e version. Will be binging the rest of the campaign

[@donathinfrye6120]

Glad to have you along for our the start of our trek through Dark Sun! :)

[@hatchx86]

I didn't expect Athas to have such Safe Spaces under the Dark Sun. Excited to see how it turns out in later sessions. Well done.

[@roguepawn8963]

Same, wasn’t expecting that either

[@queenvagabond8787]

What do you mean?

[@Scipionyxsam]

LMAO...me neither! They turned a brutal setting with slavery and genocide at its heart into cookie cutter DnD with brown skinned elves. Poe's law, I suppose.

[@CADJewellerySkills]

I'm absolutely loving the quality of all of this. Top class storytelling, top class voices for the PCs. Brilliant!

[@muaowa]

really enjoyed this! Hope ya'll are doing well since it was such a while ago

[@andreaso8886]

Arrghhh, why didn't I find you guys sooner. I always loved the Dark Sun setting. Played it during college for years. Now I can listen to you. THX!!!!!!! Ohh, and the intro is just beautifull

[@andreaso8886]

Addendum: What a great cast!! You and the players are excellent actors. So much emotion and far more serious than most others out there. This has all the makings of a high profile audio play. Wow! Thank you.

[@donathinfrye6120]

@@andreaso8886 So glad you are enjoying it! I grew up playing Dark Sun too and all three of our campaigns here were an absolute joy to play and create.

[@Galrukh]

Dark Sun is by far my favorite setting of any RPG so I really enjoyed this. Don's take on Dark Sun is a little bit different but I really like it and look forward to see where this goes!

[@donathinfrye6120]

Thanks for watching! I grew up on Dark Sun and am really excited to approach it from a slightly different angle for this campaign. At least ... to begin with. :) Playing with these folks and introducing people to the world for the first time is a real joy.

[@garycox7839]

Why is it your favorite?

[@ethanstenhouse910]

My 2nd rewatch from when it first came out just a great one

[@trou8291]

I just found this and just wanna say that I'm so invested in the characters and the story already. And I'm sure I'm gonna learn so much from just watching you DM and roleplay.

[@donathinfrye6120]

Thank you! I hope you enjoy the story. :)

[@matthewb9523]

I'm currently running a dark sun campaign that's transformed into a combination of a lot of ideas and modules, but I absolutely love how the setting is being created for the players and viewers! You guys are doing a great job!

[@donathinfrye6120]

I'm glad that you're digging it so far. It's been a great start to our story, and a ton of fun. :)

[@jamiepape147]

like it so far, just found it and watching / listening on a cold winter day

[@GasparzinhoNO]

Bloody hell, that's some quality RP right there. You do the setting justice

[@rknowling]

The characterisations of Akasha and Kronqual are also such a delight! all those little details! (eg "Kronqual is I") I'll confess that Rysar took a little while to grow on me, and I think Toby looks "more like Rysar" with that beard hehe... and it was fun seeing Gulag as an NPC too! of course wonderful writing and measured delivery by Donathin as DM :)

[@AdriRaven]

Just stumbled onto this today! Dark Sun was the third D&D game I ever played in a campaign, after both Ravenloft and Dragonlance, so this was a major blast from the past for me, updated well! Superb stuff, well-made and well-acted, all.

[@everydayman2]

Wow, I'm only 45 minutes in and already hooked. You're roleplaying this like you're shooting a movie or video game. It's awesome.

[@randalthor6670]

Just found this. Also just starting up a Dark Sun game using the AD&D 2e rules: I am so excited for it. Dark Sun is my all-time favorite setting. Ever since I read the words in the original Wanderer's Journal, "I live in a world of fire and sand." I was hooked. Interested to see what you guys do.

[@1875blahblahblah]

Very nice. Kronqual's escape reminds me of the turtle shells from super Mario : )

[@MEmoosetrax]

This is excellent stuff, great DM framing, great rp. That was a lovely song, and that Tortle voice is amazing, reminiscent of an older British actor I can’t quite recall...

[@mwadams1]

When Sam turns on the "awkward kid in over their head," oof, it hits home. They're a talented actor.

[@isawamoose]

33:00 Mmm that transition with world detail, mua. Love this show

[@sammythepuzzlepuppy2130]

Love it! Cliff hanger ending, excited to see what happens next!

[@lookingformore6470]

Almost a literal cliff hanger! We're excited for the next episode too. Thank you for coming along for the story. :)

[@kilivanjg2813]

Great to watch, been interested in Dark sun since I started playing dnd in 2016. Amazing to see such a high quality game doing justice for the setting 😁

[@donathinfrye6120]

It's really a joy to get to play again in Dark Sun, for the first time in a very long time. Thank you for watching and spending some of your time with us!

[@DarthSidian]

How'd I only just now discover this?

[@isawamoose]

I'm like 1% in and think y'all need more subs.

[@eltsoldier]

The belltower made my eyebrows go a bit. An actual, proper bell would take more metal than probably exists in all of Balic. It has to be an older structure, over 700 years old, then.

[@dvdandblurayreview]

Kind of amazing that Toby from Game of Thrones lives up to the morals of that series! #synergy

[@hipsterbrigadier9428]

Very much enjoyed that, going to check out more for sure. I’m a fan of the whole starting the characters with individual scenes thing, gotta learn how to do that if/when I DM

[@orenben-yosef6616]

This is excellent! I adore DarkSun, and this crew takes it all in stride and gives me, and others, quite a show! I hope this goes on for a long time

[@kilivanjg2813]

Great session! Everyone's execpt the DMS audio needs to be a smidge louder. Especially the first guy. Other than that everything and everyone was amazing to watch ! Can't wait for more!!

[@dukedirtywork620]

Love it great job everyone.

[@donathinfrye6120]

Thank you! :)

[@OmegaDrike67]

just starting this looks cant wait for more

[@shock_n_Aweful]

that Tortle voice is amazing

[@thylacinepunic5582]

Bro this is fire

[@josephgarcia9076]

Wow this is straight gold 🪙!!

[@rknowling]

In the context of their opening scene, I think that it is a lovely touch that "Merula" is latin for "blackbird". But knowing Sam's other work, I am not surprised :)

[@Cassiel75]

Wow! /-You are an awesome DM, sir Matt Mercer would surely agree

[@stronghumankind]

Just came across this and I cannot like it enough!!

[@tellervocr3]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Okay, I often have trouble with streamed games featuring disembodied and separated heads, but not this time! My interest was piqued quickly and kept all the way through. YAY NEW STORY! Also, RIP to Tanyin. We hardly knew ye.

[@donathinfrye6120]

[@docop8926]

Wat a colorful thumbnail

[@TheMylittletony]

This is some excellent roleplaying.

[@VictorianTimeTraveler]

That intro was freaking awesome dude you should be very proud I just found out about this world and I'd love to host a game set in it and I'm just listening to glean some inspiration

[@grumpypenguine7827]

I hope to god the audio improves, because I'll probably be watching all of these.

[@tieflingrouge6000]

Im just sad no one played a halfling or a thri-kreen

[@MrCarletto007]

❤️❤️❤️ I love this ! 😃 Can You share info about the homebrew what You useing?

[@Kijinn]

Well played! Given the chance to bring in more energy and chemistry between the players/characters, I feel like you could rival Critical Role. @ 2:55 "[...] where a single drop of water is more precious than gold." I know that the Dark Sun setting makes it occasionally seem like this...but...it doesn't make sense. Metals, including gold, are very rare and highly valued on Athas. You're only likely to have an object made of metal if you're rich. Water, on the other hand, is still something that everyone has access to, including the poorest people, who own nothing but the torn clothing on their bodies. No poor person would ever see a drop of water, if its value exceeded that of gold. As a consequence there'd only be extremely valuable slaves (worth more than gold, so that they deserve being given water) and rich people. That's not the case, though. Water can't be "that" scarce then.

[@bridog9313]

Any plans to upload the campaigns to spotify? This setting is so interesting, thanks for uploading here

[@jenswunder72]

I love the performances of the GM and the players. The mood, the roleplaying... really great. The characters don't seem to fit in such a harsh setting like Dark Sun though.

[@MarkKaterberg]

I heard the first episode on iTunes but none of the later ones are there. Is there any chance that they’ll be added?

[@donathinfrye6120]

We are working on a better version of the podcast version for the series (both past and moving forward). You can follow us on social media (@VeiledAlliance on Twitter) for updates. :)

[@tonymunoz9421]

Is there a link for materials to play darksun 5E

[@jasonshortt7]

So far this seems cool, but I think Dark Sun is not suited for 5E as it is now. Dark Sun is about surviving a brutal world where people might kill you for the 2 liters of water you have on you because that is what will keep you alive. 5E D&D is about being a superhero and doing amazingly powerful things even at early levels and 5E classes have a lot of magic in them so how does it work with Defilers and Preservers? I hope Dark Sun gets a 5E book, but it will need to almost rewrite the core books in order to take out the superhero aspect.

[@Kijinn]

You seem to forget that it's the Dark Sun setting that pioneered the super-hero aspect in D&D. The attribute limits are at around 20+, for PCs...which is considered demi-god level in older versions of the system. Every character starts at, I think, lvl 4 and has a psionic power. The latter alone could be considered a superhero ability in other RPGs. All of these elements were put into the game to help keep the characters alive...by almost being superheroes. It's a perfect match with 5e. There is one rule that goes for all settings of D&D, regardless of how scary or brutal they are supposed to be - the players must have fun! Accordingly, you should never want the characters to die all the time, to proof how deadly the world is. There will only be few players who could enjoy that. You're right about the magical abilities of 5e classes, but I feel like it's easy to apply compatibility to most of them, with simple twists like making them psionic in nature or never visible to bystanders, etc.

[@sofiafernandez2187]

This roleplaying, acting and campaign is awesome but AD&D 2nd edition grasps better the proper harsh of the setting. In any case the campaign is awesome, congratulations to everyone involved!!

[@sesemango]

You can't SAIL on silt, lol. The big ship have big wheels to ride in shallow silt, skiffs should have psionic orbs to keep them aloft.

[@caseycronan9217]

Aw, I

[@donathinfrye6120]

Me too! Akasha and Legerre have a big, big story to tell. :)

[@The_Babe]

This is some top quality content! Highly underrated =]

[@jp263]

Rysar is very quiet at the start at least

[@skeletorment]

The visuals doesn't really convey Darksun very well. It's more like a Greek setting with Darksun elements scattered here and there. The lure of Darksun was the barbarism and the alien-like cultures presented in the materials. Even the (Greek) statue at the beginning is holding a sword and shield and wearing a metal helmet. Metal weapons and especially armor are very scarce (thought not impossible to find) on Athas. I don't know, maybe that's just 5th edition or something, which I can't be bothered to play.

[@itsok6640]

Yeah i agree.. Its like a reformed dark sun seems like democracy is a thing which I don't really see the sorcerer kings being too down with.... Needs more Babylonian / Aztec feels Also where's the feral elves where's the cannibal dinosaur riding halflings😂

[@skeletorment]

@@itsok6640 Borys would not approve of the senate!

[@donathinfrye6120]

Balic is a canonical setting in the southern Tablelands and a Roman-inspired democracy! (Albeit corrupt). The fourth Prism Pentad novel features it heavily. A big part of what we want to do with this campaign is to explore how the setting's democracy and relative comfort is not sustainable before we explore the rest of the world. Cannibal halflings largely live hundreds of miles away, over a huge mountain range, in the Forest Ridge. Dark Sun is an incredibly diverse world and not just the Tyr region that has been very well explored! We hope to be able to show a lot of its diversity over time.

[@The_Babe]

@@donathinfrye6120 I love it thus far though I wish one of the elves would have gone a Thri-Kreen instead! That's my favorite Dark Sun race.

[@donathinfrye6120]

@@The_Babe I love thri-kreen too! And you'll definitely see some thri-kreen in the campaign. :)

[@AccordionTheif]

I cannot understand how this managed to get 18 dislikes, who would dislike this????

[@TheMylittletony]

Filthy Greyhawk-playing casuals.

[@rns7426]

@Ton lol!!!

[@andreinlocombia]

Frankly, queerphobics

[@libenhagos9335]

that dude toby is a good looking guy

[@CuiBap2]

Rysar needs a better mic

[@roguepawn8963]

Kinda lost me a bit at 43:25, describing the farms being tended to by Hired Workers, at this point the only free city is Tyr with its Pauper farms. All other City States continue the use of slave labor. The rest of the episode might pull me back, but my immersion has dwindled a bit.

[@Feuerleger]

This is a manly voice....:-D

[@alexisgervais8716]

Balic as a democracy?

[@donathinfrye6120]

It's the only "democracy" in the world. It's just ... not a very fair democracy.

[@mateofantasma]

Yeah, it is a "democracy" all right. Dark Sun style.

[@charlesgordon1565]

I was absolutely surprised to see this as I've been working on making a 5e Dark Sun campaign. I have to say I was upset within the first 5 minutes just from hearing the description of Balic and the description of the way the everything was described. First off Andropinus was more a dictator than anything else and ultimately controlled who was selected by killing the chosen he didn't like. Secondly, Rysar couldn't have been a Praetor because he would have been magically blinded, deafened, and muted by Andropinus s he did with all his Praetors.

[@donathinfrye6120]

There are a few things we wanted to explore differently than old-school Dark Sun and we lay that out pretty transparently! We changed the title of Dictator to Caesar to evoke more of the corrupt Roman-inspired democracy vibes of the setting, because that's what we were interested in exploring. But Balic was always a Roman-inspired corrupt democracy; we just changed his title. However, you're confused about Praetors-it was High Patricians that Adroponis magically blinded/etc, not his Praetors. Our campaign isn't canon or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast. It's just a story, the story we wanted to play, the way we wanted to play it. It may not be for you, and that's okay. :)

[@charlesgordon1565]

@@donathinfrye6120 the Patricians were the nobles and the Praetors were his Templars. So yeah he didn't mess with the nobles. I know it's alright if the story isn't for me but the story isn't even Dark Sun if you ignore lore and details just so you can have your Roman themed story. I mean you could of just done that anyway without using Dark Sun but you wouldn't of tricked everyone looking for a real Dark Sun campaign to get you views.

[@donathinfrye6120]

If you go back and read Chapter Two of "The Obsidian Oracle", you'll realize that you are confusing the lore about Praetors (ten year term pseudo-elected templars), regular noble Patricians, and High Patricians (life-long appointments who are ritually blinded/etc and vote in the Chamber of Patricians). That's cool. I wouldn't expect you to know it all like the back of your hand. I've been reading and playing Dark Sun since 1994 and still had to do a lot of research before running this campaign-which I did because I love the setting and was devoted to creating something authentic (with a few small tweaks that served our group's interests.) Good luck on your campaign. Keep reading. :)

[@MagusKain]

First intro is way too quiet. I need to blow out my ears to hear him due to how loud everything else is.

[@steviehebe2222]

Holy exposition batman

[@hugostrange5932]

Çool

[@hugostrange5932]

Its go

[@tomtom7955]

Aside from constant pronoun reminders, its pretty good. Will watch again.

[@LKN4WAR]

I agree. I don’t think anyone in The Dark Sun world would have any tolerance for that nonsense. I don’t think dragging woke into D&D was needed🙄 Otherwise this is well done.

[@tomtom7955]

@@LKN4WAR I was very surprised, frankly Ive been saying Dark Sun will never be a 5e setting because of these kinds of politics. After seeing this I have a smidgeon of hope, I mean if these people can get behind it maybe there is still a shot.

[@JohnMaksuta]

Strange...

[@MerryMayhem]

Ya know for a "show" that relies so much on proper speech patterns you sure were quick to butcher it by having a single person use a plural pronoun. Is their character required to pay twice at taverns? What utter nonsense. This isn't DND. It's someone's personal story writing masquerading as DND. I hate that I woke up to this nonsense.

[@CriticalHater]

Wait why is the second character always being referred to as a group they/them? Does this have to do with a cloning ability? It is a little jarring

[@japandave3871]

Gotta include those pronouns. ThEy ArE sOoOoOoOo ImPoRtAnT lol

[@majikslim82]

I was excited to find this. Then I saw " pronouns " I'm sure SJW's are going to be fun in a grim dark setting. Think I'll pass.

[@erad3035]

Algorithm brought me here. Pronouns made me leave.

[@rgold9329]

Why does the thing say(he/him) by their name? They are clearly male.

[@mattellis3297]

I tried to get through the girls part but it was 2 damaging to my ears.

[@cyanideinmycereal1077]

Bruh were the pronouns really necessary.

[@LKN4WAR]

Need to drop the ridiculous pronouns. 😀