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Let's Play Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - completed

Jim Cojones

Prophet
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
2,101
Location
Przenajswietsza Rzeczpospolita
This is the first time I play the game (and even the first time I ever play a D'n'D game older than BG - feel free to point every mistake I'll make, I'll understand if you find any of them particularly funny - though some advices would be more helpful) but the premise is amazing: the game seems to manage to combine both tactical combat and interesting adventure elements. Plus, it's set in Dark Sun, a post-apo fantasy world. Just everything I need.

The first update should come in next five minutes. You can expect some forced humour and not very bright commentary. You have been warned. The updates may not be regular.

cover.jpg


Table of contents:

I: My name is gladiator
II: It is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape
III: I'm Jim Cojones. I've come to rescue you
IV: Don't trust the skull
V: And Cain talked with Abel his brother
VI: Come in, chosen one
VII: Actually, it's mostly just desert
VIII: Well, do ya punk?
IX: Freedom Fighter
X: Sleeping Beauty
XI: Eric
XII: Redding is teh hard
XIII: Kiss of the spider woman
XIV: In The Lair of The Wyverns
XV: How many times must this fool die?
XVI: Just Wandering, Killing Things on The Desert
XVII: This is madness!
XVIII: War preparations
XIX: The end
Epilogue
 
Last edited:

Jim Cojones

Prophet
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
2,101
Location
Przenajswietsza Rzeczpospolita
Chapter I: My name is gladiator

dsun1000.jpg


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dsun1002.jpg

Good to know. Actually, it seems that games gives you about 10 save slots.

dsun_1_003.jpg


OK, let's start! First we have to create our own party (surprise!) so we don't have to play the default one.

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I will play with something standard: a tank, a healer, a magician and a thief. Half-giant is exactly what I need for the first occupation:

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Hurray for the bald dwarf woman! If she's not the hottest girl I've ever seen...

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This lad didn't join my party. I'd take her as a wizard (preserver class) or a thief 'cause this race can't use armor anyway but those are only class they can't pick. Guess it wouldn't be balanced well.

The strange thing about character creation is the fact that game allows to change values of all stats and hit points however you want. It feels like blatant cheating so I'd kept the random stats. They do look like they're too high even though.

I don't have any clue what psionic skills are so I didn't took this class.

And here they are:
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He seemed to be tough, even killed both green monsters with fireball but definitely had no chance fighting alone. Now my turn.

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We will get them, Chauncey!

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Warning! The next picture is horrifying! You should consider closing your eyes and scrolling down!




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That's how casting bless looks.

dsun1021.jpg

If it's not clear, there are three green monsters.

Let's look what spells do we have. A classic magic missle should be enough for these enemies.
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And I encountered first problem. Is it possible that I'm out of arrows in the second round of combat (yeah, I didn't took the screen shot)? Quick look at inventory screen assures me it is not the matter.

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It seems that computer "thinks" you can't shoot if the round started with cursor on enemy. Untargeting him and targeting again is everything I need. Few, and I was scarred it might be some problem.

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What? You must be kidding me! I will crush everything you may throw at me. Give me your best, biggest monsters!

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I should have expected this. The combat started with fireball killing one of my men and almost killing another one. Tank stands pretyy unharmed and the magician managed to pull back before.

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No I can try to run to eliminate the wizard which mean my healer with 2hp will be killed by one of enemies or choose any other option with the same outcome. I will try to do something brave and run into the centre of combat just to score at least one kill.

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Now I shall get back in time and shut the fuck up before I will do something idiotic.

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Good question!

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Fuck. He's not that stupid. Let ask him about other topics.

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Oh, this looks like an important note for the future.

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This is like this giant he was talking about!

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Now I'll just find a big a poster on the wall and check if it wasn't put to hid a huge hole in the wall leading to freedom. This should be easy.

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Well, maybe not that easy but the first guy met in the pens know how to run away!

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It's in the hands of the guy who's dying on the arena right now. Should've told me before I went there for the first time! I am not going to come back to this rapethirsty, fireballs throwing wizard!

Let's meet other inhabitants.
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Ha, you won't see me again. Only a few hours and I will be a free man.

These guys try to hide something. Probably something that should be mine.
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You don't ask suspicious guys what are they hiding. You kill them and take all the treasure.

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Especially when you deal with some punks who shouldn't even scrach you and nobody will miss them -> nobody will ask questions.

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A key...

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...and a hundred coins. I can check a few more cells but now I want to obtain the gem. First a little rest before the next fight on the arena.

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Fortunately, this is no more difficult than the first encounter. Only fighters, and not a powerful ones.
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First slow them...

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and then prevent them from fighting.

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There's no time to waste after killing them because if I stay in the arena for too long I'll have to fight the second group.
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I guess we will have to come back here again.

Getting rid of the announcer would be cool.
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At least this doesn't make him angry and he didn't sent any more creatures because of that.

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I could've kept the money cause you can find a pot in one of pens.

Now it's the time to explore the area again.

And here we have...
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...a zombie, level 2. You may believe or not but he's just went through the wall.

This should explain how did he do this:
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Start the pixel hunting! I almost gave up but finally found this:
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Looks interesting:
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Yes, here we have our gem. Still, it's not a bad idea to bring the water to the poor prisoner.

And here's the possibility to use a key found among the bodies of the guys who died in this strange accident. And I've found water!
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Ok, this one is a little boring:
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No, he hasn't.

Decadent woman! White woman! Aryan woman!
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Yup, that's crime big enough to deserve being forced to become a gladiator.

This is probably everything I could do here for now before talking about running away.

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He claims he'll tell where is the gem later. Not that it matters now.

Now let's finish the creatures sent against us. Only the first one is tough, other are just a cannon fodder.
dsun1082.jpg


That's everything for the first update, thanks for attention!
 
Last edited:

Turok

Erudite
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
1,056
Location
Venezuela
Barrow_Bug said:
Fuck there is a lot of LP's running ATM

LP fever.

Most people here including me enjoy more a LP than any new game (console or pc).
 

ghostdog

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
11,076
Hmm, maybe you should have done more multiclassings. Also, insult the goddamn narrator !
Also, keep it up. I want to see your ass get raped in the final battle.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
8,600
Location
Deutschland
Psi rules in this game... a pity you didn't take a (or more) psionicist(s).

Edit: I suggest you *escape* by killing everyone in the slave pens (except the girl, Trustee and the cook)... then go and kill Dagolar.
 

Jim Cojones

Prophet
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
2,101
Location
Przenajswietsza Rzeczpospolita
przepona trzustka genitalia

thesheeep said:
No insect in your party?
Fail!

They are extremely powerful warriors as they get some extra attacks ;)
VentilatorOfDoom said:
Psi rules in this game... a pity you didn't take a (or more) psionicist(s).
Now that I played a bit, I must agree but I'll continue with this party anyway. The first was confirmed when I fought against group of insectoids on the arena. And I wouldn't have a chance to break free without using body control (which mean I already have materials for the next update :cool:).
 

Azira

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2004
Messages
8,518
Location
Copenhagen, Denmark
Codex 2012
The rules for Dark Sun characters are a bit different from other D&D games. Stats are rolled using 5d4 (meaning a range of 5-20) and all characters start out at level 3, if they're single-class.
I seem to recall that half-giants get a whopping +4 to strength, making for a possibly 24 starting strength! The percentile die has been done away with though. They compensated for that in a later update of the Dark Sun campaign rules, where fighters got an additional d4 to their strength stat.
Gladiator is a specialist fighter capable of mastering _all_ weapons. That means specialisation bonuses to all weapons they wield..
Keep that in mind when creating a party. A half-giant fighter with a str of 'only' 21 seems a bit of a waste. ;)
 

Jim Cojones

Prophet
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
2,101
Location
Przenajswietsza Rzeczpospolita
Chapter II: It is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape

I kicked another monsters asses with this thing among them:
dsun2000.jpg

First look: it may be dangerous.
Second one: only 3rd level, piece of cake.
After he killed two of my men in one round: wow, this is a fast mother fucker!
Remember: be more cautious and don't underestimate low-level enemies.

Remember the man I had to talk after showing my skills on the arena?
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And I don't have to give him the gem. But first we can check what would have happened if I choose the other way:
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I may as well agree now and "change my mind" later so it's probably better to agree than opposing him and be attacked by all the guards. And he might be helpful later on.

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I knew it was far too easy to be true!

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Yeah, escaping with other gladiators is much better idea. I could probably just run away to the sewer entrance while I was lead to patron but it would be boooring.

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It is rather easy to break through the standard guards with the help received especially since our allies' leader is quite a good fighter:
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But it becomes a lot more difficult when giants start to fight and we have to deal with them alone.
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Even when forcing guards to fight with each other by use of charm and control body I end almost dead.
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Quick look at the situation:
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We're at 1 and it should be no problem to get to the sewers (8) because there's nobody left on the way but I'll do as Ventilator suggested and kill them all. One of the reasons is the fact that I don't know if I'll have a chance to rest in the sewers and now there are only two guards between me and slave pen (first at 2 and second a bit lower) - every other just run to the battle when the alarm sounded. One of them is Kurzak, the leader, so it will be a little problematic.
After that I'll only have to kill the patron (7).
6 - monsters' pen.
3, 4, 5 - other gladiators.

My plan is to lure the first guard to avoid fighting them both at once - simple...
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...and effective.

Now that's a bigger problem because both thief and cleric had fallen unconscious before I applied as much damage:
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So if he hits me just once then he will face preserver who is completely useless without any more spells or psi points. Fortunately, after a couple of rounds of constant missing, Tank managed to score two hits in row.

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Intuition (aka meta-gaming knowledge ;)) tells me he wanted to cheat on me. No mercy!

Someone screaming? No way, everything is going as peacefully as always.
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Oh, you mean the girl.

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This is all the gratitude I was given - a warning. And I was hoping for "something a little more... of the flesh".

Fine, let's rape the templar then.
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Now that's a reward!

Place cleared, we're going to the sewers!
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Jaime Lannister

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
7,183
The best pre-Fallout RPG bar none. Stopped reading after the first update to re-download the game.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
The combat seems to be turn based and tactical, could you describe it in some detail?
 

Hory

Erudite
Joined
Oct 1, 2003
Messages
3,002
Jaime Lannister said:
The best pre-Fallout RPG bar none. Stopped reading after the first update to re-download the game.
Indeed. And the part before escaping is as good if not better than any Fallout area / segment. Or compare Dark Sun's beginning with FO2's (Temple of Trials + Arroyo). Laughable.
Mikayel said:
The combat seems to be turn based and tactical, could you describe it in some detail?
After escaping, it's too easy, which makes the details irrelevant. DS could really use a difficulty mod.
 

Zomg

Arbiter
Joined
Oct 21, 2005
Messages
6,984
I replayed it a couple of years ago and I think I remember it seeming fairly hard all the way through, at least in so far as a D&D game can realistically be difficult. If it has difficulty levels I probably played it on the highest and used first-roll characters.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
I meant in terms of mechanics, it IS turn based? Which game would it best compare to?
 

overtenemy

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
293
Mikayel said:
I meant in terms of mechanics, it IS turn based? Which game would it best compare to?

Yes, it's turn based. Probably most analogous to the Goldbox games.
 

dolio

Scholar
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
294
It's sort of like a 2D, overhead Temple of Elemental Evil, except your party collapses into one sprite when you're not in combat.
 

Murk

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2008
Messages
13,459
dolio said:
It's sort of like a 2D, overhead Temple of Elemental Evil, except your party collapses into one sprite when you're not in combat.

Magnificent, I shall have to reprocure dosbox and try this out for myself.
 

overtenemy

Augur
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Messages
293
Mikayel said:
dolio said:
It's sort of like a 2D, overhead Temple of Elemental Evil, except your party collapses into one sprite when you're not in combat.

Magnificent, I shall have to reprocure dosbox and try this out for myself.

Yeah I dunno about that. The combat isn't even close to being the same. ToEE is much more fleshed out, featuring the full compliment of fun stuff to do in D&D combat. Darksun is much closer to the Goldbox games, but it doesn't even quite reach that standard, combat-wise. The encounters are generally smaller and I felt the combat was easier and less satisfying. That said, of course, I still enjoy the game as a whole much more than any Goldbox game.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
Staff Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2009
Messages
8,600
Location
Deutschland
The game quickly gets easy - if you consequently use the system to your advantage.
(as in all D&D games, right?)

For instance always use Multiclass with Fighters. Fighter/Preserver, Fighter/Cleric etc.
That way everyone can use all weapons/armors - even Mages (without spellcasting failure). For even more bulldozing power make all chars triple class with Psi
e.g. Fighter/Preserver/Psi, Fighter/Druid/Psi etc.
Another fact: Druids>Clerics. Because above lvl3 iirc you only get spells of your elemental sphere as a cleric - as opposed to Druids that get access to all cleric-spells plus the sphere spells. That kinda sucks tbh. You might end up with 2 completely useless level4/5 spells, you don't even get the healing spells. You have Turn Undead as a cleric which works really well and comes in handy a few times. But those undead are not very powerful, so I would choose Druid over Cleric. At the very least take Fire Sphere, because you'll have at least useful spells like Flamestrike, Wall of Fire.

Noone sells scrolls. And you will find few scrolls. Don't waste you level-up spell picks on spells of which you will find scrolls. I remember to have found scrolls of web, Mirror Image, Flamearrow, Stoneskin, Spirit Armor, Displacement. So pick something else at level up with your Preserver.

Psi is awesome. If you don't go Psionicist, you still get a few abilities. Pick Telepathy - not Psychokinesis which is the default - with a bit of luck you might get Egowhip or Domination, Intellect Fortress. Some cool and helpful abilities are:
- Inertial barrier aka don't get damaged by ranged weapons
- Displacement -2 AC
- Ego Whip - stun target for a few rounds
- Mass Dominate aka Dagolar (lvl 20) gets killed by his own slimes at party lvl 3
- Disintegrate (too expensive >50 psi points, ego whip cost mere 4 pts and leads to death as well, after all if you're stunned you'll get bashed flat...)

You should concentrate on only a few and then upgrade them. There is even Psi Healing and another ability that gives -1 AC and a bit damage reduction.
 

Andhaira

Arcane
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
1,868,956
Great choice for a LP. Whata great game this was; easily one of the best rpg's ever.

And there are plenty of tough combats in the game. It all depends ofcourse on how much you cheated during char gen.
 

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