The Dark Sun - Athas

[wbcreighton]

Has anyone done anything BRP/RQ in the WOTC setting The Dark Sun.

WoTC stopped selling pdfs of all their products recently but on athas.org there are official PDFs of 3.5 edition D&D rules and adventures. It might be worth a look.

It always seemed to be an interesting setting: emphasis on survival in a harsh world.

[Agentorange]

There used to be a BRP/RQ conversion available on the net at one time. I have no idea if it still exists.

[NickMiddleton]

Did you see this thread.

Cheers,

Nick

[Connallmac]

I was thinking about this just yesterday. I think the relatively deadly mechanics of Basic Roleplaying could dovetail nicely with the harsh world of Athas. I am starting to wonder what a conversion would look like. I still have hard copies of the core Dark Sun material, and happened to have purchased the pdf copy of it back in early March to try and put it on my new Kindle. That didn't work quite as well as I had hoped, but I am just glad to have it now.

I think the classless nature of Basic RPG would be a good fit, especially in the way it would be easy for characters to study psionics and magic simaltaneously. It would also make it easier to handle the "wild talent" psionic powers that all pc's sport. I'm liking this idea more and more.....

[sdavies2720]

...purchased the pdf copy of it back in early March to try and put it on my new Kindle. That didn't work quite as well as I had hoped, but I am just glad to have it now.

I've been thinking about doing this (as in, I'm starting to make a case to get a Kindle, and viewing RPG PDFs is one of the things that would justify getting a Kindle).

What were the issues with viewing the Dark Sun PDF?

[wbcreighton]

Did you see this thread.

Cheers,

Nick

Thanks Nick,

I did see some of the thread via link from another section of the forum but I hadn't read the whole thing.

I hadn't realized how much material in the form of pdfs was on the athas.org site so I thought I'd mention it, especially since WotC stopped selling any pdfs. You never know when internet sites might vanish, so it might be worth a look and a little space on the hard drive. It is a conversion so it doesn't include a lot of the setting material, but it is something that could be used to inspire a BRP treatment. Of course there is always ebay.

Since it is a setting that has always piqued my interest I thought I would try to stir up another discussion.

Cheers

Warren

[wbcreighton]

I put some pdfs of the Dark Sun Conversion notes from the internet into the Downloads - Other Settings section.

[Connallmac]

I've been thinking about doing this (as in, I'm starting to make a case to get a Kindle, and viewing RPG PDFs is one of the things that would justify getting a Kindle).

What were the issues with viewing the Dark Sun PDF?

The Kindle doesn't natively support pdf files, and I have yet to find a good program to convert them into a format that it does support. Typically they lose much, if not most of their formating when they are converted over and become difficult to read without effort. The best work around that I have found so far is to cut and past from Adobe to Word and save as rtf file until you get it formatted in the general way you want it, then save that file as a txt file. It's a major pain, and I hope Amazon resolves this soon, as this one of the things I really envisioned the Kindle doing. It would be awful nice to show up to a game session with my Kindle, rather than a big heavy pile of books that I MAY need to consult. It would be especially ideal for convention gaming, if it did a better job of converting pdfs. If this is your main objective, I would almost say invest in a decent netbook instead, at least until Amazon works out this wrinkle.

As far as general reading goes though, I absolutely love it! I have found myself reading constantly, and it's great to be able to finish one book and download another in a minute or two and start again. Plus I can check my gmail wherever I go. Heck, I've used Google Maps on the go a couple of times to get driving directions when I've been lost. Overall, it's a great little gadget.

[sdavies2720]

The Kindle doesn't natively support pdf files, and I have yet to find a good program to convert them into a format that it does support. Typically they lose much, if not most of their formating when they are converted over and become difficult to read without effort...

Thanks for the info! I saw that there were conversion programs available, and assumed that they did a decent job. Maybe I need to wait for the next version, or the competitors that are in the wings. </Thread Hijack>

[Connallmac]

Thanks for the info! I saw that there were conversion programs available, and assumed that they did a decent job. Maybe I need to wait for the next version, or the competitors that are in the wings. </Thread Hijack>

If pdfs are a major reason to buy it I would definitely wait. Though who knows, Amazon has a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, and everyone thinks that they are going to announce a larger sized Kindle to make charts, graphs and illustrations easier to handle; perhaps one of their announcements will be better pdf support.