Why Dark Sun May Be Returning to Dungeons & Dragons
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The world of Dark Sun has been a fan favorite D&D setting for decades. A huge part of its appeal is just how much it diverges from more traditional worlds like the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, with Dark Sun existing as a harsh and unforgiving post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with endless deserts, tyranical kings, twisted magic and moral complexities.
As of today, it’s been over 15 years since any official Dark Sun product was released, with Wizards of the Coast stating publicly that they consider the setting to be “problematic” due to themes like slavery, cannibalism and forced breeding.
Recently, however, there’s been speculation that new Dark Sun game books may actually be on the horizon. Below we take a look at why a return to Athas may be closer than you think.
What Is Dark Sun?
Dark Sun is a Dungeons & Dragons setting that takes place on the planet Athas, a once green and verdant paradise that has been reduced to a barren wasteland in the wake of a magical apocalypse. The survivors – composed of the traditional D&D races of elves, dwarves, halfings and humans, along with several other species such as Thri-Kreens and Muls – now struggle to survive the inhospitable environment and the tyrannical rule of a group of warring city states.
The first official TSR product was the Dark Sun Boxed Set, which was released in 1991. It was accompanied by the Prism Pentad, a five-book fiction series written by longtime D&D author and designer Troy Denning. Additional game products and Dark Sun novels were released over the next few years before the line was abruptly ended in 1996 due to flagging sales.
In 2004, Dark Sun was briefly revived for the 3rd edition of D&D by publisher Paizo (creator of the Pathfinder system) who released an updated version of Dark Sun under the Open Game License. The website Athas.org was also created around this time as a gathering place for fans. Several years later in 2009, the setting was again revived by Wizards of the Coast for the fourth edition of D&D, with several new game books published at that time.
Since then the setting has largely been retired and has not appeared in any official D&D fifth edition materials. There have, however, been a number of fan-led projects, including Cities of the Trembling Plains and the Sand Marches campaign. In a 2023 interview with YouTuber Bob Worldbuilder, D&D Executive Producer Kyle Brink stated that “I’ll be frank here, the Dark Sun setting is problematic in a lot of ways and that’s the main reason we haven’t come back to it.” It’s worth noting, however, that Brink has since left Wizards of the Coast and that this was long before the new DnD 2024 books were released.
Why Dark Sun may actually be coming back to D&D
Despite Wizards of the Coast publicly stating that they have no plans to return to Dark Sun, there are a few recent signs that suggest a return may not be out of the realm of possibility:
- Dark Sun Appears in 2024 PHB: On Pg. 5 of the new Player’s Handbook it notes: “D&D worlds exist in a multiverse and are connected to one another and to other planes of existence. Some of the worlds have been published as official D&D settings, including the Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Planescape, Dark Sun, Eberron, and Ravenloft settings.” Similarly, on Pg. 193 it notes: “Halfling communities come in all varieties. For every sequestered shire tucked away in an unspoiled part of the world, there’s a crime syndicate like the Boromar Clan in the Eberron setting or a territorial mob of halflings like those in the Dark Sun setting.”
- Dark Sun Appears in 2024 DMG: On Pg. 136 of the new Dungeon Master’s Guide it mentions Dark Sun as a possible campaign setting noting: “Heroes make their mark on a postapocalyptic world defiled by magic and forsaken by the gods.”
- New Psion Class: In May 2025, WotC released a playtest for the Psion class, marking the return of psionics to the new DnD 5e rules. Notably, psionics are a major part of Dark Sun and some of the terms in the playtest (such as “Wild Talent”) were used in previous Dark Sun materials. It’s not yet clear what new DnD book the Psion class will appear in, with some speculating that it could indeed be a Dark Sun product.
Final Thoughts
While Wizards of the Coast has been reluctant to bring Dark Sun into the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s surprising that they’ve also gone out of their way to mention the setting in new DnD 2024 materials (even if it is just in passing). And while some think this is merely lip service to old school fans, others believe it may indicate future plans to revive the setting (after all, Wizards of the Coast doesn’t mention other older settings such as Mystara). The continued release of new fan-made materials and the official return of psionics in 2025 also suggests that Dark Sun could be back in play sooner than we might think.
Of course, all this is just speculation for now. Whether these recent developments leads to a full-fledged return of Athas remains to be seen. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
