Useless without the PDF files. While its nice to have the POD to read the rules and stories 1/3 of the book is wasted on the flip book pages. I used the PDF to get the maps and flip books printed and bound locally as it isn't usable as just the printed copy. Delivery to Melbourne Australia was a 5 weeks FYI.

Fantastic book an awesome read only thing I got to complain about is the map which is reason why it's a four-star instead of a five

This is not to do with the product, it is to do with the shipping. I ordered a physical version of this book and when I received it, I discovered that the spine of the book had been glued to with some form of adhesive tape. This caused the spine to become damaged when removing it from the box (which took several minutes of applying Goo Gone) so that parts of the spine now appear "bubbly" instead of smooth. I am not pleased with this for obvious reasons. If you are going to ship physical product in the "folder" style boxes instead of standard rectangular boxes, please take care not to adhere said product to the box.

Impressed with the quality. Now bring a POD for Maztica!

I ordered the Dark Sun Boxed Set as a hardcover. All of the books and pamplets came together in one binding with no table of contents. You have to flip through the print just to find the book you're looking for. Also, the maps are completely useless. They threw them in the back of the book and split them onto multiple double sided pages, so you can't even cut them out and tape them together. Really unfortunate since the print is good quality but I didn't get what I paid for.

The OG of Dark Sun. I originally purchased the PDF version of this, and when the POD became available purchased it as well.

If you are interested in Dark Sun, here is where you start. The setting is fantastic, the ideas are great and overall my favorite setting in the D&D worlds.

The POD had a few issues (a few misplaced pages), so I recommend that if you get a incorrect version contact the customer service for help.

I ordered the Hard-cover Print-on-demand version and I've read it cover to cover. It's a great book for a great setting! The book predates the lore introduced by the Prsim Pentad series of novels, so the world does not have as much lore as it could get (for better or worse), but it sets the atmosphere much better than the novels. Sturdy book with sturdy pages, and great printing result (and cool graphics by Brom!). If you like post-apocalyptic/desert settings, this book is for you!

The book seems very sturdy, paper's thick and nice to touch. Being a gfx artist myself, I belive I could make the scan - and the print - a bit clearer. Still, there aren't any problems with legibility, just this barely visible smidge of fuzziness. It's what they did with maps that puzzles me. They are scanned 1:1 and just printed in pieces over multiple pages, without any key or numbers to help you navigate. I understand including a fold-out map in this kind of publication is outside the realm of economic feasibility, but they'd be more useful if shrunk down and printed as tiny 2-page spreads. I also wish the book could be done as a full bleed publication.

All criticisms aside, I'm happy with my Dark Sun Boxed Set, I honestly expected something of much lower quality.

Excellent encapsulation of the original box, I know some people are sad that all of the flip-books and everything have been incorporated into the text, but if that's a concern for you, you should end up getting the digital files as well so you can print your own; most printing places like Kinkos and OfficeMax even offer binding services, so you could get them to do the little flip-books up for you if you're willing to put the dough out. Even then, you're still not going to be paying as much as if you're looking to get the original boxed set on the secondary market, so save yourselves some cash and pick this up instead. You won't regret it, I certainly don't. Feels like the 90s all over again.

Bought the POD and PDF. Both are good scans, the book is not blurry and everything appears to be crisp and clear.

would recommend buying the bundle with the PDF so you can print off player aids and player guides rather then handing them this bulky book though.

As for the information contained within, also very good, as someone who had never played in it I found it interesting.

5 out of 5 Adventurers recommend this

Dark Sun is one of the greatest of the classical campaign setings. The seting takes classic D&D style brutality and turns it up to elevn in a seting where everything can and will kill you. The game is reminisent of clasic pulp fantasy concepts and themes showcasing the brutality of the genre. There are some places where 2E's dated design concepts glare though but if you can get past them the game is a fun and chalenging experience.

The original Dark Sun boxed set is more than a fantastic purchase for collectors. It is one of the best boxed sets ever written, with a fantastic blend of rules, story, setting, maps, art, and introductory adventure. The whole does a fantastic job of immersing the reader, whether player or DM, in this very original setting.

The setting material is especially useful, even for fans who own the more recent 4th Edition Campaign Guide. The organization of the material on the terrain, for example, really brings the desert to life. Many secrets abound within the pages, exciting the DM with ideas for campaigns. The city-states are portrayed in their original vision, before any additional material had been provided and before the release of the Prism Pentad novels. Ideas such as the character tree still have value today, regardless of the edition you use to run Dark Sun.

This product includes the introductory adventure as both a file with are for players and the adventure for DMs, the setting book, the rule book, the cover art 'poster', the map of Tyr, the black-and-white hex world map suitable for adding notes, the color map of the world, and the short story. The art is particularly useful, allowing DMs to digitally copy the art and print it out for use in games. Excellent purchase!

Dark Sun is a really cool setting, but unfortunately this box set only hints at much of it. Two booklets are included with it and the larger book is devoted to rules. The smaller book details the world of Athas in almost painfully brief terms. On the plus side, the quality of the scan is pretty good and it's well bookmarked. Perhaps I should have gotten the Expanded and Revised boxed set instead. I went for the original version because whenever TSR advanced the timetables of their campaign settings, the changes didn't always seem to be for the better. I've gotten the impression from some comments from old time Dark Sun players that Athas suffered when TSR updated it. Anyway, this is a good, if a little sparse, introduction to Dark Sun's world.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: There are a lot of interesting elements to Dark Sun, such as the defilers/preservers and the generally harsh nature of the setting. There are 3.5 edition rules conversions for Dark Sun available at www.athas.org as well.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too little information about Athas itself. The booklet covering the world needs to be about twice as long. Also, if you plan on using the downloadable 3.5 edition rules conversions then the entire rulebook will be pretty much irrelevant for you. That makes you notice the brevity of the setting book even more. Still, a good starting point for the price.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This is a wonderful way to pick up out of print material!