If anyone would be interested...

[Brandi]

Hmm... Dark Sun boxed set, you say? Is this the one they released in 1995 as an update? (This will say "Expanded and Revised" and feature a funky full-sun logo) Or is it the old 1990 version, which features only a half-sun logo?

I'd have to check, as I only saw the side of the box.

[Sylaire]

I have the 1995 version and was irritated at the writing style, which explained very little and assumed that the reader had already read all there was to read in the 1990 version.

That's one of the annoying things about the classic "updated reissue" of products (what's Ravenloft on now, four versions?). On the one hand, there's an established fanbase for Dark Sun products, and those are the people who are most likely to fast-draw their wallets for something new Dark Sun-related. On the other hand, if it's just a new campaign set, well, the established fanbase probably has that already, else how did they become the established fanbase?

So they have to include new material to interest the established customers. In this case, they seem to have gone way overboard in that direction, because after all, campaign sets are also supposed to be starting points for new customers. That's the major reason for re-releases of successful campaign settings, to expand the market for the gaming company by drawing in new customers who would otherwise hesitate to "jump aboard" with the original sourcebooks 5-10 years out of print (a problem which Ravenloft as a setting is having now with no product support).

Yet it's really easy to go too far in that direction, too. That's why, for example, I bailed out of reading American comic books around five years ago. All the comic companies got so wrapped up in attracting new readers that they got into their kick of "anyone can pick up this book with any issue and start reading immediately!" that years of continuity became essentially irrelevant. The characters became utterly frozen without any meaningful development at all, because development has to be done with reference to past events for it to be meaningful, and essentially books were not allowed to refer to past events because new readers wouldn't have the background necessary to understand them. Result: I stopped reading.

It's definitely not an easy line to walk, when dealing with an established product line. Personally, I'd like to see about 25-50% new content each time there's a restart of the line. Of course, that means that after a few rereleases they start to become unwieldy...but hey, that's the price of success.

[Brandi]

Dredging this thread back up for HuMan:

I'm pretty sure the Dark Sun boxed set at the store is the original-- the box art looked like this:



It was selling for US$20 (with sales tax here about US$21.50).

[steveflam]

Well I just thought I'd mention that tomorrow I pick up my 2 boxes, thanks to Brandi! Yay me!

[HuManBing]

It has arrived.

I am now the proud owner of a Dark Sun campaign setting boxed set, from 1991! It is moderately to heavily awesome. I read everything inside it in the space of an evening and now I see what the DS fans are all talking about. There is a flip-pad style of adventure booklet in the box and I wonder if this was ever implemented by the rest of the campaign setting or not.

A shame that Wizards discontinued this setting. Like Ravenloft, it definitely had some excellent writing behind it and plenty of good creative thought.

Thanks to Brandi for her natural 20 on the Gather Info check and stumbling across this gem!

[Brandi]

Ah, I'm glad it got there all right! Enjoy!

[Oh, and Birthright fans: that boxed set was still there last I checked...]

[HuManBing]

During my "take only what you can carry" flight from China two years ago, I smuggled out only the bare essentials of my DnD 2nd ed. books from the watchful eyes of the authorities.

(Actually, I had gone back to visit my parents and then discovered my books. They don't approve of me playing DnD because they think a 20-something year old is too old for that.)

Anyway the point is that my Birthright boxed set was among them. Yes, folks, it's that good.

Anybody with any love for human kingdoms locked in political intrigue and god-warped abominations taking aim to claim it all would do well to get this boxed set! (And throw some Fraternity love Brandi's way too.)

[Brandi]

There is a flip-pad style of adventure booklet in the box and I wonder if this was ever implemented by the rest of the campaign setting or not.

I noticed the other Dark Sun adventures at the shop were in the standard module format (folded staple-bound); heck, I'm not even sure any other campaign setting used that spiral notebook setup (the Black Box doesn't), which makes me think that it was an even shorter-lived experiment than the boxed adventures that came with a CD of pre-recorded SFX and dialogue.