So, what rules would I use if I wanted to play Dark Sun today? Something tells me I have the AD&D 2e reprints for the DMG, PHB, and MM right here and to just go with those. Or use an AD&D 2e-like system such as For Gold & Glory.
All of those would be easy choices and work well. But what if I wanted something else? When you start converting over to new systems, you can do this a terrible way by converting everything to the new game and creating a lot of work, or do it the easy way by capturing the flavor and feel of the setting without worrying too much about making a perfect conversion. The latter is the Savage Worlds way of converting a setting, and one I recommend since the game is yours, and how you play it is up to you.
What games could I try to play this with, other than AD&D 2e?
Savage Worlds
Let's get the obvious choice out here first. Savage Worlds could do Dark Sun with style and capture that RE Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs sort of pulp adventure feeling perfect. I would throw in the new Fantasy Companion book and source a lot from the existing 2e Dark Sun books and monster PDFs. Again, you could just "start playing" without too much fuss, substitute "close enough" monsters, and give them a few powers and edges for flavor. You are playing Dark Sun without spending too much time trying to convert or in character generation.
Even Dark Sun's preserver and defiler magic could be done with a particular rule or two and treated right as any other spellcaster in Savage Worlds. I do not like how preservers do not suffer any penalties when casting spells in the existing Dark Sun rules - the preservers are mages, rules as written in 2e with zero need to destroy life when they cast spells. The defilers kill all life in a radius when casting magic. Otherwise, there is no difference between the two.
So why are there defilers again? Killing all plant life in a radius of a spell gives you no bonus, makes it no easier, and is just a flavor call? There are no spell list limitations for preservers, like no death spells or necromancy? Why isn't everyone a preserver?
I sense the voice of the marketing department here going, "Let's not make mages too different than what people are used to. Everyone should be able to have fun."
And we end up with preservers being necromancers.
For Savage Worlds, I would make the "killing plant life" aspect of the defiler give a bonus when it happens - and the second cast in a defiled area would not provide the bonus. I would eliminate the destructive area of effect spells for preservers and ban the necromancy. Firebolt would be okay, but not fireball. An AoE stun or freeze would be acceptable for a preserver. Defilers should be all about careless destruction and dark magic, while preservers should show more care in their magic, and they could possibly have healing magic.
The original Dark Sun has a lot of these "mechanics disjointed from the story" places, and the game is a hundred times better if you break the 2e mechanics, old standbys, and tropes.
I would also make changes to the elemental clerics, druids, and templars. A templar's "god" should be the sorcerer-king, not a primary sphere - and this fits them being fanatically loyal and being able to call upon the resources of their king. And I would use another name than a cleric, elemental priest, or something more fantastic and tweak their powers with elemental effects and more power around sources. Druids would be required to restore the world, plant trees, free animals, create and protect oasis sanctuaries, and be eco-commandos who disrupt the sorcerer king's strip mining projects and other destructive practices.
You put a little more thought into these classes, and they become much better than the "Forgotten Realms in the Desert" classes in the original boxed set. Recognize the original setting was written with a lot of corporate interference and meddling, written within the existing class limitations to be compatible with the base game. When you convert, you have the chance to make the game much more focused and logical, and flavorful.
I would definitely keep my changes in any conversion I made, no matter the rules (even 2e AD&D), since this fits the story of the setting a lot better and makes both of those classes more exciting and a lot more fun to play. This case is the odd one in that the conversion world actually comes out better than the original. The pulp feeling is built into the rules, and the "story as mechanics" modifications we wanted are easier in the new system. I don't really care about all of the conversion minutiae, if a large sandworm is the size of a Savage Worlds bear, I will give it the bear's stats, and a few special attacks and defenses, like a swallow hole or a burrow movement.
Primeval Thule is a very similar world, and a lot of the rules and advice for that world, and they have a Savage Worlds version, can be used here with little or no modification.
AD&D 2e is a good game, and I could run it pretty well and have fun.
In this case, Savage Worlds nails the pulp adventure of the Conan and John Carter inspirations of this world perfectly. And this is one of my preferred games to play this world with since it fits so well.
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