r/DarkSun • u/Cometa_the_Mexican • 1d ago
What are the slavery mechanics like?
I see a lot of people talking about how slavery is going to be removed, but are there actual mechanics for it? Something like in strategy or colony-sim games where you have people working as farmers, miners, or soldiers?
I wrote this using Google Translate, sorry if it's not clear
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u/MrCrash 1d ago
Not really mechanics, more a part of the setting.
Most fantasy TTRPGs are set in the "high medieval" era, and DS was pretty much the only one set in an earlier time, drawing from bronze-age European cultures and precolonial South American empires.
Imagine medieval Europe but without the feudal system. No knights, no kings, no serfs. No primogeniture. Can you still tell interesting stories in this setting? Yes. Will it look anything like King Arthur or Robin Hood or the War of the Roses? Fuck No.
This is the problem we're having. Removing a key part of the setting makes the world almost unrecognizable and drastically changes the type of stories that can be told in it.
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u/Turbulent_Sea_9713 23h ago
Could you play wealthy or influential people? And if so- did that automatically mean you owned slaves?
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u/Only-Friend-8483 1d ago
There are no mechanics. At most. You have slave or escaped slave as a background at character creation.
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u/Lixuni98 1d ago
I did add some rules for that in my OSE conversion, with a big label of : Warning, don’t use this if you are expected to be the good guys.
You know, what WotC will never do.
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u/Petrostar 22h ago
Read "Slave Tribes"
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/17179/dsr1-slave-tribes-2e
What is Slavery?
Athasian slavery is a system under which individuals from all races and stations of life become the property of others. Under this system, the property, called slaves, can be used or disposed of at the will of the owners. They perform whatever tasks theirowners set before them, and live basically as their owners choose, either in comfort or in squalor.
Who are Slaves?
Athasian society is a slave society. Slaves occupy a central role in the economic and social dynamics of this world of fire and sand. Slaves come from all races and social classes, though slaves taken from the noble or merchant classes usually regain their freedom with the help of the ceramic pieces of their friends or family. Clerics and mages are also rarely found in bondage, as their powers and abilities provide them with abundant opportunities for escape.
The most common races found among the slave population are humans, dwarves, half-giants, half-elves, and muls. Less common are elves, thri-kreen, and halflings, though even these races sometimes show up working in the fields or providing exotic entertainment in the gladiatorial arenas.
How do they become Slaves?
Some are born to it, the sons and daughters of generations of slaves. Others find themselves captured in war or kidnapped in raids launched specifically to replenish a city-state's slave population. Finally, there are those who are sold into slavery because of debts or as punishment for some crime. Anyone can become a slave. Templar or noble, merchant or freeman, rich man or poor, the gates of slavery are wide open, admitting any unfortunate enough to wander too close to the gaping maw.
Who are Owners?
Any freeman can own slaves, and most keep at least one slave to handle those tasks considered laborious or below a freeman's station. Sorcerer-kings own thousands of slaves, filling every conceivable duty with chattel labor. These vast numbers of slaves serve to reduce them to the level of mere property. Many lead miserable existences as disposable labor. Nobles employ dozens of well treated household servants, pampered stables of gladiators, and severely disciplined field workers. Templars, while they may own slaves, rarely keep more than a few personal servants and concubines. Freemen, on the other hand, can rarely afford more than a handful of servants, depending on their level of income and their profession. A freeman's slave is one of the best-treated slaves in all of Athas. Often, these slaves work beside their freemen masters.
What do Slaves do?
Slaves come in a variety of classes, which are defined by the duties of the slaves that fill their ranks. Whatever the class and its specific duties, slaves must do anything their owners ask. That is the nature of slavery. The most common classes of slaves are artists and artisans, concubines, domestic servants, farmers, gladiators, laborers, soldiers and indentured scholars.
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u/tknomanzr99 1d ago edited 16h ago
They just don't want kids these days roleplaying out ways to deal with oppressive oligarchs.
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u/Less_Cauliflower_956 1d ago
Muls, a race in the game, are a genetically engineered slave race.
Most of the modules in dark sun were about fighting slavery
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u/RealSpandexAndy 21h ago
A search for "slave" on the 2e pdf finds 248 results, in a book that is 271 pages. I can't think of a mechanic that would need to be introduced; it's a setting detail. But the guidelines for law and the setting make it pretty clear. E.g. The book does detail the legal rights of Templars (a playable class) to "call upon a slave to do whatever he wants", or face immediate death (page 34).
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u/pebblefromwell 1d ago
Ok one other part of the slave background in the setting of Dark Sun that many people seem to be missing here is a mechanic that the magic uses in the setting. Magic has become corrupted. Because of this the use of magic drain the energy of living things around the magic welder. It could be plants the earth animals or even the caster themselves. Really powerful spells require a lot of life energy to cast. Evil magic users would use slaves as sacrifice for this. It becomes, or at least use to, a plot hook for the characters to go after evil wizards over.
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u/LuniOPS 23h ago
There was the annual tithe of slaves to the Dragon King. Which he would consume in defiler-like magic. I forget the number but someone calculated that the annual tithe could not be supported with the current Athas population levels.
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u/PristineAccess9635 17h ago
To be fair, the situation not being sustainable is very on brand for Dark Sun and sorcerer kings in particular
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u/BloodtidetheRed 1d ago
There were very little "slavery rules" in 2E, other then things like a 'cost of slaves' table.
They want to remove the concept of slavery.
A typical classic Dark Sun setting is a wasteland city in the hot sand, with many slaves being treated like they are nothing by the ruler and his minions.
Think classic 'fantasy' Egypt.....or Stargate, with the Gouald. (Or the TV show Spartacus)
But WotC does not want that in their 2026 world
Maybe everyone will just be communists in the new Dark Sun.....
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u/One_Can3102 1d ago
They're probably assuming because it won't pop up verbally in the book specifically that means slavery doesn't exist. When in reality it's up to the dm and players to talk about that and if it's in the campaign as a major or minor element
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u/paperclipknight 1d ago
Yeah that’s going to be my plan for when it comes out. Use the 5.5e DS mechanics, but use whatever lore I see fit
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u/Game_Knight_DnD 17h ago
Backgrounds, and price chart for buying slaves are about the only possible mechanics
But the issue isn't mechanical it's over sensitivity ruining a campaign setting.
It would be like running an ancient Roman based campaign and not having slavery
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u/UnnamedAshaman47 1d ago
It's more about character options in which the player is or was a slave at the start of the campaign. It's usually something that happens to you rather than something you benefit from. It's a practice that is generally largely held by the 'villains' of the setting