Dark Sun: Picking a Set of Rules (Castles & Crusades)

Another option for playing Dark Sun - and using the original monster stats - is Castles & Crusades. The monsters convert in perfectly as long as you remember:

• 19 - AD&D AC = C&C AC
• Ignore THACO; hit dice is the to-hit modifier in C&C for monsters.
• For saves, determine mental, physical, both, or none as per C&C's monster rules.
• Hit point and damage scales are the same.
• And that's it!

Imagine my surprise when I found out most everything "just works" here with very little modification. The weapon materials table on page 512 of the Dark Sun Rules book works perfectly. Weapon breakage works perfectly.

Tweak the Coins for Sanity

The monetary system worked but was always clumsy, though we used the regular AD&D scale and made anything metal worth 100 times. We used similar currencies to the cp-sp-gp-pp ones but minted in ceramic or glass with intricate stamped patterns.

• cp = ceramic piece (as per Dark Sun)
• sp = stone piece (rare colored stones used)
• gp = glass piece (rare glasses with colorings and patterns used)
• pp = pyrite piece (yes, this is fool's gold, used as the platinum replacement)
• metal anything = 100x value

So 1 real-metal copper piece = 100 cp, or a glass piece in the Dark Sun world. One real-metal silver piece = 100 stone pieces, or 1 pyrite piece. So you can easily mix treasure types from the pre-ruin and new worlds.

Mentalists and Psionics are in Amazing Adventures

If you have the Amazing Adventures game from Troll Lord Games, you get the mentalist and psionic powers and the rules. I would stick with the spells and abilities in C&C and AA. The unique races can be quickly converted in; a lot of the special powers and modifiers just work, but you will likely want to set movement, attribute modifiers, and ability modifiers based on the C&C races - especially any skill-like ability that touches the SIEGE Engine should have the plus modifier and the action it gives a bonus to listed. Converting the races may be the most work here, but they can also be used as-is.

Stick with C&C Classes

With classes, I will probably stick with the C&C versions. Note that there are some differences between traditional classes and AD&D 2e ones, like bards being able to use poison. But, since AD&D 2e got rid of assassins, this seems like a backdoor way to get them back into AD&D 2e, and having bard-assassins would reduce the need for a dedicated assassin class, which C&C has. If you are sticking more traditional Dark Sun, give bards the poisons class feature. I would want bards to be bards and have them invited into functions without the guests worrying the bard will poison them all.

There is also a player content PDF on the Troll Lord Games site with a lot of good resources here:

https://www.trolllord.com/downloads/pdfs/crusaderscompanion.pdf

Gladiators can be found in the above PDF. Also, many C&C classes on their own have a lot to add to a Dark Sun world. The pacer class from the player's archive is a great parkour slash urban ranger class that should not be overlooked by those liking city adventures. Duelists, pirates (the silt sand style), skalds, primal druids, and many other C&C specialty classes are perfect for Dark Sun.

When in Doubt, Use C&C and Ignore AD&D 2e

The rules are 90% compatible, and in most cases, you are ignoring the Dark Sun rule and using the SIEGE Engine instead. Everything gets really simple without the non-weapon proficiencies and AD&D cruft removed from the game. You get a really slick and well-oiled action resolution engine sitting under the hood of C&C powering the game, enabling a bunch of fun new actions and abilities for the Dark Sun classes.

Also, because of the SIEGE Engine, the game does take on a pulp adventure feeling, much like Savage Worlds. While Dark Sun following AD&D 2e rules has all the AD&D style rules bloat and references, if any character has DEX and a C&C primary attribute, you will be jumping from roof to roof, swinging on ropes over pits, tiptoeing along narrow ledges, and performing acrobatic stunts with ease. Characters with CON (survival) or WIS (terrain lore) primaries will be excellent survival and nature experts and critical to have on long desert treks. Every primary stat has a great pulp-adventure potential for characters to shine.

The best thing is not having to look up the AD&D 2e rules for any of these pulp-adventure actions, saves, skill rolls, proficiencies, special powers, knowledge checks, search rolls, or anything else you can imagine. They are built into the C&C rules, batteries included, and pulp adventure at your fingertips.

Easier than Savage Worlds plus Compatibility

This may even beat out Savage Worlds for me as my preferred set of rules since I do not have to make up monster stats at all; AC and damages are 100% the same. I am getting as close to the original game experience, and challenges as possible and have the powerful AD&D emulation features and simplification of C&C.

One of the remarkable things is C&C plus Dark Sun is a lot simpler and more straightforward than AD&D 2e plus Dark Sun. C&C also has some great classes and options that add to the world and give you really cool archetypes to use in this world, way better than AD&D 2e's selection. And a lot of AD&D 2e complexity is tossed out the window in favor of a unified system that supports roleplaying, saves, skills, feats, and anything else you want through a simple ability-based system.

If you want to play Dark Sun with a modern, streamlined set of rules that plays like 5E but is nearly 100% compatible with the 2E game data in the Dark Sun monster books and adventures, Castles & Crusades is the clear winner, at least for me.