Let’s talk about Dark Sun for a minute. I’ve been waiting for an excuse. Why not now?

Athas, the world of the Dark Sun D&D setting, is neck-in-neck with Spelljammer (D&D in SPACE, motherfuckers!) for the title of “Best Thing TSR Did Mostly Right.” X-Men meets Spartacus meets Mad Max meets Prince of Persia on bad acid. That’s the best way I can summarize the world of Athas in one colorful sentence.

The sun is dark red because the halflings had to use some of its energy to stop something called the Brown Tide a long time ago. Make a poop joke if you want, I’m not going to. Whatever went down, it fucked the halflings up bad, because they’re all basically cliff-dwelling cannibal murder hippies now. Not that most Athasian humanoids are any better in terms of cultural character.

A Land Scorched by Arcane Magic

The land is barren and dry, drained of vitality to fuel the potent magics of the Sorcerer Kings and others; arcane magic draws up on the life of the planet itself and must be rigorously metered if no fallout is desired. Those good-faith wizards are Preservers. They have a secret organization, the Veiled Alliance, that acts as a support network. This is mighty handy, considering most of the Sorcerer Kings order any unsanctioned wizard dead on sight. The city-states are ruled by the Sorcerer Kings, potent wielders of the other “type” of arcane power: defiling magic. Defilers draw upon the life of the planet with abandon, more concerned with power than with ethics. Everyone BUT the Sorcerer Kings kill defilers on sight… if they can.

Cosmology and Religion

“Doesn’t this shit hole have any gods?”

No. No it doesn’t.

People worship the elements, though, and that seems to work pretty well. There are priesthoods of water, air, earth, and fire, as well as composite elements like rain (rare on Athas), magma, silt, and sun. The elements have no real feelings about good or evil, law or chaos; even they, as proxy deities, value survival over all other concerns. All they desire is to be paid tribute and protected.

Templars are weird pseudo-priest administrators who carry out the Sorcerer Kings’ will; these soldier-bureaucrats are granted spells by their patron as if that Sorcerer King were a god.

Oh, there are druids, too.

Pictured: The end result of a career as a sorcerer-king. Not as sweet as you think. Every bit of magic you use requires a ton of living things to fuel it, and you have to eat spheres of pure obsidian that are very difficult to swallow. Daddy’s medicine isn’t always fun. You just think it is because your children’s Motrin doesn’t do shit.

So What’s This I Hear About Psionics?

Almost every living thing on Athas has some psionic (think psychic) capability. This includes (usually) every humanoid creature, including the players’ characters. It also tends to include giant lizards, marauding monsters, and even cacti.

Yes, on the world of Athas, even a cactus can fuck with your mind.

Some creatures – namely sapient, humanoid creatures – can further refine this raw ability by studying The Way. In game terms, this is represented by the psionicist character class. Psionics, while similar in effect to magic at first glance, works on a totally different level; while magic calls upon some exterior source for its power, psionic manifestation draws upon the inner will of its user and the inherent power of the mind. Does a cactus have a mind? Shut up, this is fantasy. This is Professor Xavier shit.

Heavy Metal, or Lack Thereof

One of the most viciously hardcore aspects of life in the world of Dark Sun is the scarcity of metals, especially the really useful ones you find in a standard fantasy setting, like iron/steel, copper, etc. Coins are ceramic, and even these can be split into “bits” for change. A silver coin represents a hefty sum to most people, and gold is nearly mythical to those below the status of nobility.

So what happens when two Athasians love each other very much and decide to murder one another? They use bone, stone, obsidian, or just wood. Metal equipment does exist, but if you’re carrying it around, odds are that you either 1) have power 2) stole that shit from someone who does (good luck staying alive). There are even a few setting-specific weapons, many of which originated from the arenas, that are specifically designed to be made of organic materials.

So if you’ve ever wanted to slay a man with the leg bone of a fictional herd animal, Athas is the place for you. Opportunities abound.

Forget Paul Stanley’s strutting ass. These guys are the kings of the night-time world.

Oppression, Fantasy Style

In the city-states run by the sorcerer-kings, as well as plenty of places beyond, human life is pretty cheap. A human being (or elf or dwarf or half-giant or whatever) is worth less than his weight in water or iron. Far less. Not only can this mean wholesale death, it also manifests by way of an unfortunately bustling slavery racket that is as ubiquitous to Athas as the sand of the desert. In some of the original adventure modules for the setting, the players even begin as slaves building the mysterious ziggurat of King Kalak of Tyr. This may seem like the least rewarding scenario ever, but obviously players can fight to free themselves (and even kill King Kalak). Slaves are used for all the mundane and even unsavory things they have been in real world history, including as gladiators. No lines mark anyone exempt from slavery, and even a noble who fails to pay a debt or breaks a law may find him or herself in chains.

While this may at first seem like a dire and depressing backdrop for any D&D campaign, it is actually meant to give the players something they can meaningfully strike blows against. The sorcerer kings themselves are monoliths of untouchable power. The world is blasted, and even with powerful magic, un-blasting it is kind of a pipe dream. But you can set people free from their bonds, thus inching the world of the Dark Sun a bit closer to what it should be.

This summary doesn’t do anywhere near full justice to the setting of Athas. If you’re interested in learning more, I recommend the Prism Pentad novels, as well as a copy of the Wanderer’s Journal booklet from the old box set (if you’re even minimally resourceful you can find this digitally, but it’s illegal for me to just share it). I just wanted to take advantage of the small bit of buzz and write about one of TSR’s greatest marks on the RPG industry. Athas is a unique world, a blend of inspirations and themes that captured the imagination of many roleplayers in the 1990s. If it is resurrected, it will likely be in a watered-down form not unlike they did for 4^th Edition (god damn you, WotC!) and I accept that. I will always have the original, undiluted smack to cherish.

Be careful out there in the wastes, and stay retro.

I’ve heard this more often lately. A lot of my friends and acquaintances suddenly have a much more open-minded opinion about my hobby now that everyone’s been forced into bored desperation. But one thing I’ve never been is a gatekeeper. I’m always eager to discuss tabletop RPGs with anyone who displays curiosity about them.

“Which system should I play?”

Now, there’s the important question, and it deserves a well-thought-out answer. There isn’t just Dungeons & Dragons. There are tons of popular systems on the market; some are genre-specific or cater to a preferred play style, and some are so amazingly simple or versatile that they can adapt to any story you and your friends want to play out. With tools like Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, etc., it is still totally feasible to play tabletop RPGs even if you and your crew don’t feel safe gathering in person yet. So, for those who have been thinking about it but haven’t gotten their feet wet yet, I’ve decided to run down the pros and cons of a few game systems worth your attention while you consider your options. This will be a multi-part series, and in this first part, I’m gonna bite into three of the rules sets I’ve been using in my two online gaming groups. Two of them are well-known, the third not so much. All three are a lot of fun and I encourage you to look into them beyond the scope of this article if you have interest in tabletop role playing.

Note: I have not provided hyperlinks to anywhere you can buy books, for two reasons. Firstly, reviewers shouldn’t do that without compensation from whoever they do that for, Secondly, if you’re actually interested in any of this, you’ll open a tab and do some Google searches. You’re grown. I may include hyperlinks to sites hosting Open Gaming License content (the parts of some game systems considered “fair use” or “public domain”) but, if and when you decide to buy the books, you do your own shopping and find a deal because this shit can be expensive.

5^th Edition Dungeons & Dragons (the current edition)

Wizards of the Coast

5^th edition (5e) D&D is the culmination of decades’ worth of development. This is the game that started a hobby. Luckily for you beginners, 5e is also both easy to learn and extremely popular among tabletop gamers of all experience levels.

The rules have been written with simplicity and inclusiveness in mind, and the rules set hasn’t been subject to quite as much uncontrolled growth as previous editions. Most of what WotC has been publishing for 5e has been campaign material and adventure modules – stuff meant to save Dungeon Masters work instead of more rules and expansions to keep track of (and worry about game balance because of). You still get to play with all the colorful different-shaped dice and the game still “feels” like D&D to everyone, but the math is kept simple and the rules are just clear enough to allow for easy play. The vagueness can also be a drawback, but in a game like this, the DM will want a little leeway to make rulings on the fly. The action can be as deadly (or non-deadly) as the group’s taste dictates. What’s more, there is a bustling organized-play community (both online and at gaming shops, put on your mask and go, it’s worth it) that can help introduce new players to the game and aid in finding peer groups for more casual play. You don’t even need to invest in the books first. Try it before you spend anything. That’s one major roadblock for potential new players; the game can seem prohibitive when the MSRP for a book is about $50 USD (its one major drawback, and one that it shares with certain other systems).

5e is what I’d recommend as the “first taste” for people curious about the hobby. You’ll at least understand what’s going on after observing gameplay for a few minutes. It’s also easy to try out being Dungeon Master; 5e’s Dungeon Master Guide is actually a guide instead of just a collection of data, something that sadly cannot be said of that book in earlier editions of the game. “Approachable” is the keyword here. If you find yourself craving “crunchier” rules that allow for more customization, or just want a ton more to choose from on either side of the DM screen… cut your teeth on this first and then try something like Pathfinder. However, if you like the idea of a rule set whose fully intended purpose is to stay as far out of the story’s way as possible, 5e is a fantastic choice.

Pathfinder 1e

Paizo

Pathfinder, easily the most option-rich (while still playable) tabletop system in the fantasy genre, is so customizable and adaptable that it’s not even that firmly glued to that genre if you don’t want it to be. Among what I’d call intermediate tabletop gamers – those who want more substance than 5e D&D offers but who don’t want to get out their calculators to play fucking Battletech – Pathfinder 1e is the go-to system.

As a player, you can build just about anything with these rules if all of the splatbooks (books containing expanded or new rules) are allowed; witches, psychics, fist-fighting lizard people, half-elemental martial artists, even gunslingers or magical androids… and that’s just some of what I’ve seen and done. Pathfinder is based on the 3.5 edition of D&D’s core rules, which were also very customization-friendly but needed a streamlining overhaul. That’s exactly what Paizo did.

For those new to Pathfinder, I offer this advice: if you have more experienced Pathfinder players in your play group, ask them for advice about building characters. While 5e D&D makes it hard to come up with an unplayable character, making haphazard character-building choices in PF can lead to you not really enjoying yourself if the rest of the group has successfully put together “optimized” builds. This is a more involved and intricate system, but the math and mechanics are still easy to pick up and will still seem reasonable when you witness them in real time play.

PF 1e’s only other major drawback, which mostly affects those who are still getting used to it, was best described by one of my fellow players as “analysis paralysis.” This is also referred to as “embarrassment of wealth.” There are so many choices, options, races/classes, etc. that it can hang you up if you aren’t used to swimming through it on your own. Do not be overwhelmed; ask for advice. While PF takes a little time to warm up to, it is a lot of fun and lets players really open it up and take it out on the highway in terms of creativity once they’re familiar with it.

Iron Heroes

Monte Cook/Malhavoc Press

Another cleaned-up iteration of D&D’s 3.5e rules, Iron Heroes is designed for low-magic play with an emphasis on action-packed combat and a “sword and sorcery” feel reminiscent of pulp fantasy like the works of Fritz Lieber and Robert E Howard. In fact, I currently run a campaign using this rule set that is based heavily on Howard’s Conan stories, and this system is beautiful for that type of thing.

Combat is the focus of Iron Heroes, and every character class reflects its own general approach to murdering your foes. You can be clever, brutal, sneaky, versatile, you name it. The exception is the Thief class, which places far more emphasis on indirect problem solving (social manipulation, scheming, etc.) but still manages to hold its own in a fight. Magic-using characters are typically used as villains in campaigns using these rules, and almost never permitted as player characters.

Unlike many fantasy systems out there,armor doesn’t serve to negate a hit in combat. It instead helps mitigate damage taken. In exchange, characters’ defensive capabilities are directly tied to a class-based bonus. I mean, take Conan for an example: the dude is rarely depicted wearing armor, and tends to stay alive and relatively unhurt due to his sheer rippling badass battle prowess. You are all warriors in Iron Heroes; it’s just that “warrior” is more broadly defined and allows for a a lot of different play styles. A token-based system allows for great deeds of martial heroism without magic, and a multi-tiered system of “feats” (custom ability trees meant to reflect different sets of tactics) enable characters to specialize or generalize while playing around with the elaborate-but-sensible combat rules. There is a lot that goes into Iron Heroes, but it is easy for players to unpack as they go and mostly fits in the one book (though a Player’s Companion is available with a few expanded options). Game Masters will find the last chapters of the book very enlightening, especially the guidelines for adapting material from other d20 System sources (3.5, etc.). My favorite thing about Iron Heroes is that you really only need the Core Rulebook and a touch of creativity to make a really fun world for your swordsmen, amazons, archers and ruffians to explore (and paint red with the blood of their foes).

If your group wants to capture that gritty, raw feel of things like the Conan Saga or even Game of Thrones, this system is worth looking into. It’s a great system if you try other fantasy stuff and you discover that you enjoy the feel of a trusty sword-arm over the sometimes overwhelming flash of spells and sorcery.

In the next installment, we’ll examine a few systems that branch out from standard fantasy into other genres. You’ll likely get a video game-related article in the meantime. Everyone keep your heads up, stay sane and safe, and most importantly, stay retro.

Special thanks to Jonah Skrove (whose own works deserves a look), Zach Copic, Ben Pearce, and Quentin Walker.

Part of what makes the game and its history so awesome to me is the artwork from its books and publications. The newer versions have very crisp, heavily stylized art that speaks more to an MMO flavor; I have always valued the old school art more, both for its “purity” of style and for its plain beauty. When the intellectual property was in the hands of TSR, creativity was unbound and wild. This not only applied to the worlds presented in the various products, but the images used to represent those worlds. This article is a small love letter to that purity of expression. I’ve found five pieces of artwork by five iconic D&D artists, each of whom are synonymous with the game itself in the minds of old school fans everywhere.

Note: Many pieces of official art were re-used by TSR to fill out multiple RPG products they published over the years; this was done most frequently in their later years as the company waned in fortunes and sought to get mileage out of old assets while pushing the limits of the game itself. I will provide all the information I can about each image, but at the very least I have made sure to correctly name the artist and at least one known product the image was used in.

Fred Fields

“Mind Flayer”

Ravenloft: Thoughts of Darkness, 1992

The Illithids, or mind flayers, are iconic monsters that came directly from the lore of D&D and were not drawn from external myth, legend, or literature. Terrifyingly intelligent creatures, these fiends both consume and control the minds of other sapient beings in order to further their own existence. Armies of brainwashed slaves furnish both cannon fodder and food. With their “mental blast” attack and various other psychic abilities, illithids present a daunting challenge to mid-level adventuring parties and can annihilate the very hopes and dreams of unprepared rookie groups. Any veteran of the hobby knows that a battle against mind flayers will require both courage and caution. They’re not to be casually fucked with, unless being a brain-dead portable meal or servant appeals to you as a career path.

Fred Fields has rendered one of these horrible beings in nearly photographic detail, while preserving the fantastic nature of the subject for us to marvel at. And be afraid of. Very afraid of.

Erol Otus

“Creeping Doom”

1^st Edition AD&D Rogues Gallery, 1980

“Ooh, finally some fresh brai- OH SHIT WHERE DID ALL THESE BUGS COME FROM SORRY SORRY DO OVER OUCH OW FUCK”

“Creeping Doom” is a powerful spell available to druids and other priest-type characters in D&D that calls forth massive swarms of bugs to devour anything remotely edible in their path. In this example by the legendary Erol Otus, the spell is being turned upon one of the aforementioned mind flayers. The monster does not look too pleased to be snuggling one of the Old Testament plagues, and may be reconsidering its options.

Erol Otus’s style is phantasmagorical and cartoonish at the same time. I love the exaggerated expressions and the weirdness of every detail… and there is always so much detail. Otus is a master of illustrating strange things in a memorable way. His work for D&D was mostly limited to 1^st edition, which was a bit before my time, but I have developed a love for his style nonetheless. This illustration is my favorite of his; it has immediate impact and conveys the action so well you can almost envision it moving.

The wild sense of panic on the face of the normally inscrutable and soulless mind flayer is what anchored this drawing in my mind for years after seeing it.

Larry Elmore

“Dragon Slayers and Proud of It”

2^nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 1989

I remember the first dragon I helped bring down as a player. It wasn’t even evil; it was a sapphire dragon (lawful neutral) that simply gave us no other choice after we accidentally intruded upon its territory, refusing to listen to what we had to say. Unfortunate, but it made for a memorable encounter during my formative years as a player. Most of us who play D&D can tell you about our first dragon kill if we’ve ever had one. Even young dragons of “weaker” types make for challenging foes. They are intelligent, powerful, versatile, and have centuries to plan for visits from foolhardy heroes who would claim their hoards of treasure.

Look how tired but proud they are, having bagged a young green dragon after what we can only imagine was a pitched and tense battle. I especially love the female warrior, leaning on her sword, dirty and scuffed but absolutely thrilled to have conquered he beast. There aren’t (normally) any cameras in D&D worlds, but they look like they’re posing for a photo, like fisherman with a huge catch. Lots of pathos and identity in this image. Larry Elmore captures well here what it really means to be an adventurer. And don’t feel bad for the dragon; greens can ruin an otherwise idyllic forest and are very much evil creatures. Think of this dragon-slaying as an act of ecological conservation.

Jeff Easley

“Astral Dreadnought”

Cover art for Manual of the Planes (1^st edition AD&D), 1987

You may immediately recognize that monster’s face. Yes, it served as the basis for the design of DOOM’s cacodemon. That’s how far-reaching the influence of Jeff Easley’s fantastic art really is. Easley is one of the most talented and prolific contributors to D&D’s art library, and easily in my personal top three fantasy artists, period. Here we see the actual creature, an astral dreadnought, chasing a very unfortunate mage through the silver void of the Astral Plane that connects the Prime Material (D&D’s “real world” dimension) to other dimensions known as the Outer Planes (Limbo, the Nine Hells, the Abyss, Elysium, etc.). Dreadnoughts are horrifically powerful creatures that prowl the Astral Plane looking for food. This wizard needs to hope he can escape before he becomes a chicken nugget to this gigantic terror. That won’t be easy, since it’s one of the most potent creatures to be found on any of the planes and it cannot be reasoned with.

Easley produces classical-quality art, bringing fantastic things to life in a realistic yet cinematic style. Light, shadow and texture are represented expertly, lending depth and terrifying tangibility to his scenes. One can open almost any major TSR publication from the 80s-90s and see at least one piece of work by Easley. Whether it’s a painting like this one or a black and white ink drawing, it fucking pops. Just like this busted-ass wizard’s gonna pop like a cherry tomato in the dreadnought’s unspeakable mouth.

Gerald Brom

“Dark Sun”

Dark Sun Campaign Setting Box Set, 1991

Athas, the dry and barren world of the Dark Sun campaign setting for AD&D, is a stark departure from standard fantasy. It’s like Mad Max and Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards animated film cross-bred with Star Wars’s Tattooine and mixed in a bevy of real-life Earth’s cultures from Antiquity. The world is dying, every living thing has psychic potential, life is brutal, and survival itself is a dire struggle. The magic of wizards is fueled by the dwindling energies of the barren earth, and the closest thing to gods are the four elements themselves. Water and metal are scarce and valuable, and even the more “civilized” areas such as city-states are chaotic places where death is only a heartbeat away. Dark Sun is hardcore as fuck. Be ready.

Two of the protagonists from the novels (which I heartily recommend to any fantasy reader with a taste for the unusual) are represented on the right hand side of this panorama; Agis of Asticles, Tyrian nobleman and master mind-bender, wipes clean his precious steel sword as the human-dwarf hybrid Rikus steps up behind him, ready to deal death with the honed expertise he has learned in the slave arenas of Tyr. The twin moons, Ral and Guthay, shine down on a scene of battle in the wastes outside the city, showcasing the unique flavor of the setting and illustrating the desperate struggle that is life on Athas.

Brom’s art is well-loved even outside of D&D. He is another artist in my top three of all time, with a gritty sense of texture and a knack for creating unique-looking figures within stark landscapes. Brom can make anything look badass or creepy, and his art became the lens through which D&D fans would come to see the world of Dark Sun. Nearly every DS product until the second/revised box set features cover art by Gerald Brom, and this allowed him to shape Athas for us at a glance. No one could have done it better.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at classic RPG art, and I will continue to revisit tabletop gaming from time to time in order to add variety to the normal video-gaming fare I write for NRW. Keep your eyes peeled for more gaming-related content, and Stay Retro!