As if to prove my point, last week's Dark Sun posts have generated a lot of interest, not to mention comments, which I appreciate. Here's another ad for the setting, this time from issue #173 of Dragon (September 1991), the same issue as the Brom cover I previously highlighted.
Looking at this advertisement, I have several thoughts:
- It's important to remember TSR's D&D novels were very successful for the company, so it's no surprise that the release of the Dark Sun boxed set would also see the release of a novel at the same time, in this case Verdant Passage by Troy Denning. Though I never read any of them, there would eventually be thirteen novels published for Dark Sun during the TSR era.
- Speaking of TSR, is that not the logo at the bottom right the ugliest the company ever had?
- Once again, we see this ad emphasizes that Dark Sun is "the toughest AD&D game campaign ever published." I can't help but wonder what this is about. Was there a perception at the time that TSR's other settings, like Dragonlance or the Forgotten Realms, were "easy" or otherwise inadequate to the tastes of AD&D fans? My recollection, albeit from more than three decades ago, was that the 2e era was concerned far more with "story" and similar things, so I wouldn't have expected much clamor for a "challenging" setting. Perhaps that's the explanation? Could it have been that there some segment of the game's fans who felt the game had strayed too much from its roots and wanted a setting where death was ever-present? I wish I knew.
I had that first novel, Verdant Passage. It was, I think, a pretty good introduction to the setting. Cannibal halflings, psionics, king-priests turned dragon, magic drawing life force to power itself... it did all seem pretty grim to my high school aged self. We never got the box set or anything, though. We just kept on with our ongoing BECMI Known World campaign.
ReplyDeleteThis was tied with Planescape for my favourite 2e setting, in part because of what a departure it was. It was so weird and it entirely owned that, even if the meta plot and mechanics were broken at times. Very much enjoying your retrospective and hope you'll have a dive into some of the Suppliments material. If you were to do similar for Planescape and spelljammer I wouldn't be mad.
ReplyDeletePoor Birthright, it hardly ever makes it on to the lists of "2e settings I'd like to see more posts on" when the subject comes up. Too late in TSR's lifecycle, maybe? Didn't have time to build the fan base even Planescape did, much less the earlier ones.
DeleteOf all the 2e era AD&D settings, Birthright is the one about which I know the least. I owned the boxed set and that's it. I never had the chance to play it.
DeleteThe link to the interview provided in a previous post answers that partially, and there are other interviews from the other creators that further flesh out that perspective of deadliness.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the emphasis on challenge stems from a desire to seem hard-edged and "extreme" (Dark Sun feels very edge-lordy to me) -- that is very apropos of the 1990s and a reasonable attempt to appeal to the WoD crowd who might have turned up their noses at kender and elves.
ReplyDeleteThe extensive metaplot and drip-feed of setting history is also very typical of 90s RPG trends - for better or worse.
DeleteThe release schedule is not great, box comes in October but first adventure in February.
ReplyDeleteI get that 2e era adventures were railroad garbage, but you think you would want to sell the box and then immediately have a adventure ready for folks out of the gate.
Dark Marriage? Dark Parenting? Dark Saving for University in 20 years? Twice. Challenging?
ReplyDeleteI think the "toughest challenge" comment was designed to lean into the grimdark setting. Early 90's saw a rise in cynical, dark settings such as Cyberpunk and RIFTS, among others, and it's not surprising that TSR would want a piece of that pie.
ReplyDelete