D&D 4th Edition?
Dark Sun is one of my favorite settings, but it needs a lot of buy in.
My preferred style of DMing is to run character-driven sandboxes. I dangle hooks and the players are free to follow or walk on. I like some established settings, the Nentir Vale or Dark Sun (for example), and I like to populate the area with existing modules (reskinned or parted out or changed enough to be interesting). But if the PCs never walk into the Keep on the Shadowfell (for example), there’s no loss as that’s just one part of the whole, not “where the PCs were meant to go”. But, villains exist and have goals they are pursuing. So if say Kalarel the Vile is there doing his thing, that still plays out unless the PCs stop him. The players are free to leave him alone. But he will summon undead legions and they will do what undead legions inevitably do. And again, the PCs are free to ignore that, too. I go for a living world feel. It’s not a static video game where the villains always stand around waiting until five minutes before the heroes arrive to start the super important ritual that you have to stop.
D&D4E combat can be fun, but it doesn’t work as a dungeon crawler. Far too much for that style of play. At a table, I think, it sings at about one fight a session or two. Plus there’s various ways to speed up combat without it feeling inconsequential.
This message was last edited by the user at 18:08, Thu 22 July 2021.