{"id":79715,"date":"2026-08-26T18:54:59","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T10:54:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=79715"},"modified":"2026-08-26T18:54:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T10:54:59","slug":"dark-sun-original-creators-reunite-for-new-dd-book-that-you-can-play-like-in-the-1990s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=79715","title":{"rendered":"Dark Sun Original Creators Reunite for New D&#038;D Book That You Can Play Like in the 1990s"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Dark Sun setting is currently the talk of the Dungeons &amp; Dragons world. For decades, fans wished for the return of the world of Athas, a post-apocalyptic landscape ruled by brutal overlords where heroes fight primarily to survive. Due to the presence of controversial topics such as slavery and genocide, it was long believed that Wizards of the Coast would never return to Dark Sun. This belief was proven wrong at Gen Con 2026, where the publisher announced a trio of new Dark Sun books, coming in 2027. Fans of the setting will be pleased to learn there&#8217;s more on the way.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><!-- No AdsNinja v10 Client! --><\/p>\n<p><em>Dragon Kings<\/em> is a new project published by Strange Owl Games, coming from Dark Sun&#8217;s original creators, including Timothy Brown, Troy Denning, Brom, Bill Slavicsek, Rich Baker, and Shane Hensley. The original <em>Dragon Kings<\/em> was a Dark Sun accessory module written by Timothy Brown and published by TSR in 1992. In 2014, Brown launched a successful Kickstarter campaign with the same name that introduced the world of Khitus, with rulesets for Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and 13th Age. A few years later, another Kickstarter project adapted the rules for D&amp;D 5e.<\/p>\n<p><em>Dragon Kings<\/em> is a setting designed by Brown that presents some similarities with Athas. According to the project&#8217;s description on Backerkit, &#8220;Where Dark Sun told of a world squandered, Khitus is a world grown complacent and now paying for it. The difference is this: it is not yet too far gone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"body-img square \">\n<div class=\"responsive-img  image-expandable  img-article-item\" style=\"padding-bottom:100%\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png\" data-modal-id=\"single-image-modal\" data-modal-container-id=\"single-image-modal-container\" data-img-caption=\"&quot;Image: Strange Owl Games&quot;\">\n<figure><picture><source media=\"(max-width: 480px)\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=500&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=500&amp;dpr=2\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=800&amp;dpr=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=800&amp;dpr=1\"\/><source media=\"(max-width: 1023px)\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=825&amp;dpr=1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=825&amp;dpr=1\"\/><img width=\"825\" height=\"825\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The cover of the Dragon Kings campaign setting book for D&amp;D\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=825&amp;dpr=1\" src=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/meta-ad_square_1.png?q=70&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=825&amp;dpr=1\" class=\"img-brightness-opt-out\"\/>\n        <\/picture><small class=\"body-img-caption\">Image: Strange Owl Games<\/small><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This new version of <em>Dragon Kings<\/em> is presented as &#8220;the spiritual successor to Dark Sun.&#8221; The book is 5th edition compatible, and it includes a complete setting, rules for six new ancestries, new classes and subclasses, more than 30 new creatures and over 60 pieces of original interior art created by human artists. What&#8217;s most interesting, however, is that the book also includes conversion rules to D&amp;D 2nd edition, &#8220;for those that prefer to stay in the original system of Dark Sun.&#8221; If you are a veteran player who wants to recapture that feeling of playing the game from the early 1990s, this is the right product for you.<\/p>\n<p>The timing of this announcement is hardly a coincidence. While Wizards&#8217; announcement of new Dark Sun products created a wave of excitement, many players are skeptical that the company&#8217;s current philosophy will be able to recapture the feeling of brutal and savage sword-and-sorcery that made the original Dark Sun so popular. In fact, many are already complaining about Wizards&#8217; alleged decision to remove mentions of slavery from the setting. Moreover, none of the original Dark Sun creators are involved in the new books.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"display-card  article article-card small  no-badge  active-content                              \" data-include-community-rating=\"false\" id=\"dnd-dragons-dark-sun-setting\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n<p>                        <img width=\"440\" height=\"248\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A Red Dragon from the cover of the Dark Horse D&amp;D comic, breathing fire from its hoarde\" data-img-url=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/red-dragon-d-d.jpg?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=220&amp;h=124&amp;dpr=2\" src=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/red-dragon-d-d.jpg?q=49&amp;fit=crop&amp;w=220&amp;h=124&amp;dpr=2\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                    <span data-field=\"label\" class=\"article-card-label\"><label>Related<\/label><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"w-display-card-content regular article-block\">\n<h5 class=\"display-card-title \">\n<p>\t\t\tD&amp;D&#8217;s brutal new setting fixed the game&#8217;s most iconic monster<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p class=\"display-card-excerpt\">In Athas, dragons aren&#8217;t born, they&#8217;re made<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p><em>Dragon Kings<\/em> is thus being presented as an alternative for fans who want something as close as possible to the original Dark Sun experience. The Backerkit page contains the following quote from Brown: &#8220;By making <em>Dragon Kings<\/em> its spiritual successor, I can revive the concepts that never made it into Dark Sun and take them somewhere more desperate, more dangerous, and a little more hopeful.&#8221; In Khithus, the disappearance of the Dragon Kings caused the world to wither. The environmental themes are central as they were in Dark Sun, but there is still hope for the world.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"w-promotion-offer promo-article-content-3\/4-depth w-promotion-widget\" data-popup=\"false\" data-sentinel-tracking=\"false\" style=\"min-height: 250px;\" data-promotion-zone=\"TmV3c2xldHRlciBBcnRpY2xlIENvbnRlbnQgV2lkZ2V0\" data-nosnippet=\"\">\n                                        <link rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https:\/\/static0.polygonimages.com\/assets\/promotions.214a92c3.css\"\/>\n<\/aside>\n<p>To be clear: Dark Sun is a Wizards of the Coast trademark. <em>Dragon Kings<\/em> is a separate product that is developed with a &#8220;setting first&#8221; philosophy, meaning that players can adapt it to any game system they prefer. The project will launch officially on Backerkit on Sept. 22. Following before launch grants access to early-bird pricing, preview pages, exclusive add-ons, and a limited edition ceramic dice set. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/dnd-dark-sun-original-creators-reunite-dragon-kings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dark Sun setting is currently the talk of the Dungeons &amp; Dragons world. For decades, fans wished for the return of the world of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[13552,1813,6610,4583,2443,2651,14882,2582],"class_list":["post-79715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech-gadgets-reviews","tag-1990s","tag-book","tag-creators","tag-dark","tag-original","tag-play","tag-reunite","tag-sun","wpcat-32-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}