Shattered Lands
Welcome To the Shattered Lands
Welcome everyone, if you're on this page hopefully you are one of our lovely gamers taking part in the Shattered Lands role playing game being run by your most favoritest DM ever, Dan. This page will act as your go-to source for the basics on the setting, updated summaries of the goings on to date in the game world, important players and non-players in the setting, and all you should ever need to know to play and enjoy this game. Anyone can edit this page by signing up for an account - and I encourage you to make the most of the resource as you can.
The Basics of Dark Sun
Most of the people here are familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, J. R. R. R. R. Tolkien, Harry Potter or the rest of that high-fantasy "Elves are hawt!" genre where the land is verdant and rife with joy and frolicking gnomes. The World of Dark Sun is not such a fantasy world. Athas is a blasted apocalyptic wasteland where there's no such thing as orcs, gnomes, or dogs (That's right, they even killed your dog). It's a deadly desert where you could be killed for half a canteen of fresh water. It's a godless world where mercy and justice come only at the whim of insane sorceror kings. It's your new home. The section below will help you get a feel for your new home - and maybe help you survive it.
Facts about Athas:
1) It's a desert.
Keep that in mind because it's going to be real important. The setting is as much your enemy as any monster, perhaps even more so. It's an unrelenting furnace in the daytime, 130F during midday. Extremes in temperature and the general hostility of the elements means that travel is difficult and that anyone wandering around unprotected is probably going to die of sun-sickness. There are no oceans in Athas - instead there's the great silt sea - a vast expanse of silt, fine fine sand that's nearly impossible to navigate without special equipment - and the silt that gets whipped up by the winds can cut like razors. To quote Penny Arcade "There's no travel for pleasure in Athas".
2)Life on Athas is brutal and short.
Bloodthirsty raiders, greedy slavers, and hordes of inhuman savages over run the deserts and wastelands. The cities are little better; each chokes in the grip of an ageless tyrant. The institution of slavery is widespread on Athas, and many unfortunates spend their lives in chains, toiling for brutal taskmasters. Every year hundreds of slaves, perhaps thousands, are sent to their deaths in bloody arena spectacles. Charity, compassion, kindness— these qualities exist, but they are rare and precious. Only a fool hopes for such riches.
3) Metal is scarce
Most arms and armor are made of bone, stone, wood, and other such materials. Mail or plate armor exists only in the treasuries of the sorcerer-kings. Steel blades are almost priceless, weapons that many heroes never see during their lifetimes. By and large this won't affect you too much game-mechanics wise, but keep it in mind when you are describing things.
4) Arcane Magic Defiles the World
The reckless use of arcane magic during ancient wars reduced Athas to a wasteland. To cast an arcane spell, one must gather power from the living world nearby. Plants wither to black ash, crippling pain wracks animals and people, and the soil is sterilized; nothing can grow in that spot again. It is possible to cast spells with care, preserving the world and avoiding any more damage to it, but defiling offers more power than preserving. As a result, sorcerers, wizards, and other wielders of arcane magic are reviled and persecuted across Athas regardless ofwhether they preserve or defile. Only the most powerful spellcast ers can wield arcane might without fear of reprisal. So a note to you arcane-power source people (wizards, sorcerors, bards, spell-blades, warlocks and the like): You can defile, and you can preserve, the choice is yours - Defiling isn't necessarily evil - but it is a selfish act. And all magic is despised - so you squishy wand-wavers had better treat your friends right, because they are likely all that is standing between you and the angry pitch-fork waving mob.
On the other hand, Psionics are a way of life for most people. Almost everyone (and everything) that has a pulse and some sentience has access to some minor psionic power. In fact, those that display great prowess in Psychic ability are often taken to special schools within the city states in order to harness their abilities more proficiently - and many nobles who have the time and luxury for study choose to dedicate their lives to the study of the power of the mind.
5) Sorcerer-Kings rule the City-States
Terrible defilers of immense power rule all but one of the city-states. These mighty spellcasters have held their thrones for centuries; no one alive remembers a time before the sorcerer-kings. Some claim to be gods, and some claim to serve gods. Some are brutal oppressors, where others are more subtle in their tyranny. The City State that is most important for your immediate concern is Draj - which is ruled by the war-hungry god-king Tectuktitlay.
6) The Gods are Silent
There are no gods in Dark Sun. Though the Sorcerer Kings sometimes set themselves up as such, true dieties do not exist. Therefor there are no divine powers to draw from - that means no traditional clerics, paladins, avengers or anything of the sort. Nobody knows where the gods went, if they ever existed at all, and only a madman or a fool would waste their breath on prayers that will surely go unanswered. There is some evidence of ancient religions - crumbling temples, strange abandoned holy sites - but no god protects them now, and their once hallowed halls are now homes to wild beasts and savage monsters that seek shelter from the sun.
7) Fierce Monsters Roam the World
The ecology in Athas is amazingly different from any other fantasy world you probably have encountered. There are no horses, no cows, no pigs - instead people tend flocks of erdlus, ride on kanks or crodlus, and draw wagons with inixes and mekillots. Wild animals like lions, tigers and bears are non-existant (oh my.) In their place are terrors that stalk the wastelands, beasts like the baazrag, the id fiend, and the zombie cactus. Once again, only a lunatic would travel in the wastes alone.
8) Familiar races are not what you'd expect
Typical fantasy stereotypes don’t apply to Athasian heroes. In many DUNGEONS & DRAGONS settings, elves are wise, benevolent forest dwellers who guard their homelands from intrusions of evil. On Athas, elves are a nomadic race of herders, raiders, peddlers, and thieves. Halflings aren’t amiable riverfolk; they’re xenophobic headhunters and cannibals who hunt and kill trespassers in their mountain forests. Goliaths or half-giants, as they are commonly known are brutal mercenaries who serve as elite guards and enforcers for the sorcerer kings and their templars in many city-states.
How To Play
This campaign will be played on the internet only, via forum and wiki (This wiki, right here, the one you are now reading). We'll be using the Penny-Arcade.com gaming forums, a place I've been a member of for some time and feel pretty familiar with - this section of the wiki will point out a few things on ettiquette and style of play. Be patient, this space will fill in soon.
Where Are we Playing?
We are going to be resolving all of our in and out of character stuff on the forums at Penny-Arcade's Gaming Forum. It's an established place where hundreds of people already play Play-by-Post games on a daily basis and an interesting place in itself. The forums there have some pretty powerful tools that will help us all enjoy the game. I will be putting up our particular campaign in that forum split between two threads - an In Character thread where actual game stuff will take place - and an Out of Character thread where you can bitch and moan about how much you hate your DM and what you would like to do to him with a zombie cactus.
How do I make my mans do the thing with the stuff?!
Blah Blah Blah Blah
What about Dice? I like Dice!
Blah Bla-bla Blah
House Rules
Every particular group has their own style of play that they are most comfortable with - some of you have played for eons, and some of you are quite new to the whole experience. We will all bring something different to the table - but here are some things you can expect when you are playing with me.
Cheat
It's well known that DMs cheat ALL THE TIME. I'm going to cheat too. If I cheat, it'll be to make the game more interesting, challenging, or because I am having a bad day and I feel like killing the entire party. That said, I will try to keep it to a dull roar unless I think it's warranted / looks awesome. I expect that my players - who are a bunch of shifty, cunning bastards - will also cheat from time to time. That's fine. But if you are going to cheat, all I ask is that you do so to make something awesome. If you cheat to "Win" you are doing it wrong. I'll take notice if you always roll 20's for example. That's boring, and you'd probably really hate it if the monsters also started rolling all 20's all the time, too. That's boring. I'm a big believer in gaming karma - make awesome things possible and awesome things will happen. Do boring things and boring things will happen (such as character death.)
Character Death
It's Dark Sun, and if you didn't read the above primer let me restate: It's a brutal, deadly world. Someone's probably going to get hurt and die. It happens. If it happens to you, it wasn't personal - and we'll get you back in the game ASAP with a shiny new character and some new story hooks to get you involved. DON'T PANIC. That said, as a DM in Dark Sun my goal - oddly enough - isn't to kill you all. It's to facilitate you guys (and gals) in telling an awesome story about some badass mamma-jammas that rock their way around the world nearly-dying every step of the way. I think near death experiences are way better than actual death experiences - especially since you can have more than one of them.
I'm not going to coddle anyone, but for my part I will make sure that for every "Certain Death" situation there should be several avenues to proceed with only horribly terrible wounds instead of death. It's not my goal to have rocks fall and everyone die. Also, bribery works wonders - contact your friendly DM with more details on how you could bribe him out of a Rock-Falling sort of encounter. See also "Cheating".
As a mechanical side to things, there's no divine power source, so there's really no "Raise Dead" ritual. Wizards can animate the dead through powerful defiling magicks... but that's probably not what you want to do with you beloved friend's newly dead body. Finding a way to raise someone from the dead would likely be an entire adventure on its own - something you may wish to investigate if it arises.
Awesome vs. Accurate
In the struggle between rules and cool things, cool things almost always wins. I don't know every detailed rule in existance, and I certainly don't keep up to date with errata and changes - and I don't expect my players to be walking dictionaries of the game materials (it'd be nice if you know something, however). So if you want your character to do something that just awesome beyond words, go for it - we'll sort out the rules implications as we go along. I'll try to keep consitant - and you all can help me out on that by keeping track of awesome shit you've done and keeping the results in mind when you try your next stunt.
Trying out cool things (whether they work or not) will be good for you - exciting stuff makes me happy, and Happy DM = Fabulous Prizes.
Bogging down play with looooong or unecessary rules-bickering will be bad for you. See above "Character Death".
That said, if you have an honest question about rules, or whether or not you should even attempt some silly maneuver, that's what the Out-Of-Character thread in the forum is for. Please use it as much as you like for the purpose.
Lazyness and Flakery
People are busy. People are lazy. Sometimes you just can't post. Sometimes I can't post. It happens. If it happens too much, it might slow down play - and I might decide that we need to move things along. If you know you won't be around (on vacation, sick, dying, getting married to a zombie cactus) then put something up on the OOC thread, or email me personally, or send someone a text message or something -and we'll sort it out. Otherwise, we'll have your character follow the party around dumbly, as if struck by sun sickness, worthless and mute - until you let us know what to do with them.
Also, some of you might know that your DM is a terrible person and a horrible flake. I will try to keep this to a minimum. If I'm gone without notice for more than a week, I give you permission to start harassing me until I come back. If it happens that I have to go anywhere or take any time away, I'll do my best to notify you and give you all something to do in the interim.
Run With It
This is an extension of Awesome vs. Accurate. Just to emphasize - if something is cool and nobody has called anyone out for being a flagrant CHEATER then my suggestion is to just run with it. If I hate you, or if whatever is going on isn't helping the plot forward, or if you deviate from the railroad that I've painstakingly put you on, I'll just edit the post as necessary after talking to you first.
