Dark Sunday: Bring on the Drakes

Long ago in Athas, the Dragons were killed or just disappeared. I don't believe that there was ever a definitive take on what actually did occur in the past to leave the Dragon of Tyr as the last dragon, if in name only. When 4th edition tackled dragons in the actual Dark Sun universe though they gave us drakes, dragon's less intelligent cousins. Before Dark Sun most of the drakes tended to be glorified guard dogs. Then came the elemental drakes.

The drake creation rules are simple:

• Take a Dragon stat-line.
• Remove flight speed, unless Air.
• Remove Language.
• Remove breath weapon.
• Dial down the intelligence and charisma, up strength and dexterity.

Drakes don't have breath weapons instead they can manipulate the area around them. So where a fire dragon might breath fire a fire drake would blight the land they walk on with flames and cover their bodies in flame.

Water Drake, lives in the already few oases

 Water Drake:
-Fluff
One might find a water drake in an oasis, but only the drake. Typically the entire wildlife will be fodder for the drake.
-Crunch
Along with the instructions above, take a white dragon and replace breath weapon with an aura attack 10ft around its huge size. This aura is a zone of boiling or chilling water that it can excrete so considered Fire and Cold damage depending on attack.

Air Drake, one of the few species that can fly

Air Drake:

-Fluff

Drakes seldom flie those that do are known as Air Drakes. They climb to the top of ridges and palisades ready to pounce upon unwitting passers.

-CrunchStart with the instructions above, take a blue dragon and replace its breath weapon with an aura attack similar to the water drake. This aura is a zone of fog or push of strong wind. So fog would act as concealment against ranged attacks. Strong wind would act as a large push to get rid of melee attackers.

Enjoy the drake creating. These are just a set of homebrew guidelines not associated with Wizards of the Coast, feel free to change as you see fit.

Dark Sunday: Kalak's Death and D&D Novels

This weekend I participated in a Malifaux tournament so today's Dark Sunday will be more about finding inspiration for your Dark Sun games. But instead I leave you with the pictures from 2nd and 4th edition showing how Sorcerer-King Kalak died.

Kalak really likes those green and blue leggings. - 2nd Edition

Anyone who has read the Troy Denning Dark Sun novels will know that Kalak was the leader of Tyr. In his growing madness he put his entire City-State in danger for his lust for power.

Kalak, this is why you stay outside of threat range.

There haven't been to many books in recent memory set in Dark Sun. For 4th Edition there was Death Mark, City Under the Sand, and the critically panned Under the Crimson Sun. I've only read the first two books and both are standalone novels that take place immediately after the first novel in the Troy Denning series. 

Death Mark was the second Dark Sun Novel I read and was more of a show off piece for Tyr. There are Templars still loyal to Kalak, Veiled Alliance take a bit more of a role, and how grand scale conflict in Tyr can be. One character's perspective takes place as part of a war party heading to retake Tyr for a would-be Sorcerer-King.

City Under the Sand takes place in the City-State of Nibenay which reveals a lot about Sorcerer-King Nibenay and his family. It probably shows how best to setup a party in Dark Sun. Players are forced to help the King, Templar politics screw over everything, and the dangers of the wastes.

If you can take away one thing from these novels though it is this, it doesn't matter how it ends its the journey that matters. As I continue reading more and more RPG novels this becomes more and more apparent.

Rise of the Dark Sun

Back in the 2010, I had only played a few tabletop roleplaying games. In fact I had stayed away from Dungeons and Dragons for a couple of reasons. First off was that I wasn't much of a fantasy fan, but mostly the Dungeon Masters that I had seen running the game yelled at players for not playing the game the way they did. In retrospect it was not the games fault that the guys organize them were jerks.

Around that time a roommate of mine introduced me to the Dungeon and Dragons podcasts done by the guys from Penny Arcade and PVP. I told him I didn't like elves and magic, to which he pointed me to the Dark Sun episodes.

4th Edition Campaign Book

And he sold me. The setting was interesting and unique, no elves prancing around talking about fae creatures it was about desolation and survival in an unforgiving godless world. The setting was created back in the 90's and it made a lot of drastic deviations from the core rules of D&D.

Dark Sun was never about high adventure to me it was always about survival. I ran two successful campaigns in Dark Sun and I hope to in the 5th edition of D&D as well. In the coming weeks I hope to create homebrew items and scenarios for Dark Sun to run in 5th edition. Every Sunday will be Dark Sunday.