The Burnt World of Athas

A scalding wind washes over the village, bringing with it only oppressive heat, rather than a cooling respite. A cloud of dust rises up in the distance, moving against the wind - possibly traders, but probably raiders. As the dust cloud draws closer, its nature becomes obvious; tiny copper bells jangle with every stride of the pack animals, and colorful pennants flutter and snap in the hot breeze. Not just any trade caravan, Spyros’ Splendiferous Sundries has come to town!

Cutting through the powder with creaking wheels and snapping sails, a skimmer plies the Sea of Silt. Known as the Black Betty, she is a former slave transport turned pirate vessel.

A ruined fortress, once known as the Takaides Compound, stands empty in the desert, its towers shattered, and its walls crumbling.

Who is that lone defiler you’ve stumbled upon in the wastes?

The planar cosmology of Athas differs from the rest of the D&D multiverse. Even the Inner Planes are different. How do the Positive and Negative Energy Planes interact with Athas, and what would their clerics look like?

The village of Red Rock is designed to be a relatively generic Athasian village to allow DMs to quickly drop it onto a map wherever they might need a moderately fleshed out village.

The latest in a series designed to provide DMs with encounter or location ideas to add flavor to their campaigns. In this installment, we focus on encounters taking involving the reptilian races of Athas.

The latest in a series designed to provide DMs with encounter or location ideas to add flavor to their campaigns. In this installment, we focus on encounters involving the rulers of the city-states of the Tyr Region.

The latest in a series designed to provide DMs with encounter or location ideas to add flavor to their campaigns. In this installment, we focus on encounters taking place with templars.

The latest in a series designed to provide DMs with encounter or location ideas to add flavor to their campaigns. In this installment, we focus on encounters taking place on trade routes between city states.

This is a new series of articles designed to provide DMs with encounter or location ideas to add flavor to their campaigns. This particular article discusses various ways to characterise and describe your taverns, inns, and similar locations in Dark Sun, to enable DMs a way of using that trope while still maintaining the Dark Sun atmosphere.