* SugarWiki/AwesomeArt: Despite the somewhat lumpy and {{Fanservice}}y appearance of the artwork, Gerald Brom's artwork is generally seen as some of the best D&D had at the time.
* CommonKnowledge:
** Athas has no gods is a common assertation about the setting. Whilst it certainly has no gods ''now'', whether or not it ''ever'' had gods is something of a ContinuitySnarl.
** It's impossible to travel from Athas to other worlds. This is a misinterpretation of the fact that, canonically, it's all but impossible to access Athas' crystal sphere with a TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}} and an exaggeration of the "Shrouding Gray" lore introduced in the Defilers & Preservers sourcebook. It is ''difficult'' to travel directly to or from Athas by certain spells, but there are plenty of workarounds, such as portals, psionics or traveling to the more accessible Elemental Planes first and from there to the Outer Planes, to say nothing of the Gray's interference being a very late RetCon to the setting. In ''TabletopGame/{{Planescape}}'', specifically in the adventure "Faction War", it's noted that Athasian migrants are common enough that there's an entire ghetto of them in the Hive Ward called "New Tyr"; not to mention that it was explicitly stated in the ''Planescape'' core set that Githyanki had once tried (and failed) to invade the place.
** The Tablelands are the only patch of life left on Athas. This probably stems from the setting's use of ExpansionPackWorld, but even in the original boxed set's map, it's shown that there are tracks leading to the north and south (though it remained ambiguous whether those tracks still lead to anywhere livable). The revised edition in particular made it clear that there is far more of Athas left beyond the Tablelands, and the Crimson Savannah in particular is known to be comparatively lush and verdant by Athasian standards. The minimalistic details on most of the regions beyond the Tablelands probably contributes to this misbelief.
* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/DungeonsAndDragons here]].
* DifficultySpike: ''Shattered Lands'' is infamous for the massive one in the FinalBattle. There are a ''huge'' number of troops, most of whom are level twenty despite your own level cap being ''nine,'' and despite the game saying that killing the general will end the battle, it doesn't; you still have to kill everyone. And despite the whole premise of the game being organizing an army against Draj, there are a whopping three NPC that will show up to help and quickly die, while the shadows that the genie promised he would send to help are nowhere in sight. Many players either lowered the difficulty for this fight or just gave up.
* FanonDiscontinuity:
** The true prehistory of the world was detailed in Dark Sun Revised edition. Many players just ignore the whole thing and stick with Athas as it was in the first edition box set.
** The story changes and additions in the ''Magazine/{{Dragon}}'' magazine 3E revamp also tend to be ignored--it [[TimeSkip skipped forward]] several centuries and added a few new dragon-kings. Most of it was also ignored in the 4e revamp, which came with its own changes and additions.
** The very existence of ''Mind Lords of the Last Sea'' is another piece of 2e Athas that many fans do not acknowledge. It's a very different tone from rest of Dark Sun, with concepts like surfing beach druids trying to catch the perfect wave, and an included adventure about trying to recover a party member's stolen brain (with a time travel twist). That the Mind Lords themselves are almost an {{expy}} of the villains from Star Trek (TOS)'s [[Recap/StarTrekS2E16TheGamestersOfTriskelion Gamesters of Triskelion episode]] didn't help, either.
* HilariousInHindsight:
** The Nightmare Beast actually looks a ''lot'' like a Tetsucabra from ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''. Which conveniently is ''another'' world where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou.
** The end of the Blue Age, the goal of Rajaat requiring multiple genocides, as well as races arising from the "Primordial" race after the EndOfAnAge? Makes one wonder if the writers of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' may have took some inspiration from Dark Sun.
* MagnificentBastard: See [[MagnificentBastard/DungeonsAndDragons here]].
* {{Narm}}:
** The sheer darkness and audacity of how ''horrible'' this is can sometimes come off as funny.
** The character designs fall into this and FetishRetardant. Because it was obvious that TSR was trying to homage [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan the Barbarian]] or [[PanderingToTheBase trying to sell sex and power fantasies to their players]], many of the artwork features characters with rippling muscles and [[https://d1rw89lz12ur5s.cloudfront.net/photo/daysofknights/file/1397193/large/AD&DDARKSUNMerchantHouseofAmketch.jpg?1521821019 little to no armour]]... which unfortunately makes them look a little weird, coupled with "Advanced Dungeon and Dragons" artwork being... somewhat on the lumpy and 1990s anti-hero side.
* ObviousBeta: Aside from some outright {{Game Breaking Bug}}s, ''Shattered Lands'' suffers from a few non-critical but glaring problems. ''Wake of the Ravager'' was reputed to be buggier.
** Synchronization of screen updates isn't working quite right. If you move too fast, pieces of sprites like doors and walking [=NPCs=] stay hanging in the air.
** Killed [=NPCs=] would occasionally start talking to you. Sometimes, from another location. It may be possible to rerun an old dialog or explore other branches, yet nothing changes: no XP, no items change hands, no enemies appear.
** Some quests are broken in ways that allow completing them, but cause weird consequences, if you return. One ''Shattered Lands'' LetsPlay [[https://lparchive.org/ADD-Dark-Sun-Shattered-Lands/Update%2035/ reports]] that if you save Jasmine, kill the GodGuise defiler and let her captors escape, leave the area and [[https://lparchive.org/ADD-Dark-Sun-Shattered-Lands/Update%2050/ come back later]], the captors attack you for ''killing their sacrifice''.
** Map may not work in ''Wake of the Ravager''. When it works, the dots representing characters are displaced a bit, occasionally putting them inside walls.
* ThatOneLevel: Dagolar's domain, despite being the first real dungeon, easily qualifies for two reasons: One, after you progress a little ways, the doors seal shut until you kill Dagolar, and two, there are no campfires. Your mage runs out of spells? Dead weight. Your cleric runs out of spells? No healing. It's entirely possible to become {{Unwinnable}} if you're not careful.
* TooBleakStoppedCaring: This is Dungeons and Dragons but DarkerAndEdgier. It's likely to happen, and indeed is often cited as a reason the setting struggled in sales long-term; it just wasn't ''fun'' after a while.
* ValuesDissonance: The setting of Athas is one with several elements that D&D has attempted to move away from with ubiquitous slavery (which the [=PCs=] are meant to oppose, but in practice can do little about as slavery is almost omnipresent), inherently evil [=PCs=] (Defilers and Templars), and inherent species traits like Half-Dwarves (called "Muls" in a deliberate nod to Mules). This has been cited as a factor as to why Dark Sun hasn't received a 5E update and there are no plans to do so, even though it is often cited as one of the updates fans want most in official surveys.
* ValuesResonance: Despite its age, it can be credibly claimed that ''Dark Sun'' is the only setting in the ''D&D'' ouvre that's actually pro-democratic. Far from the idealized monarchism of traditional heroic fantasy, the government of every single city-state on Athas is hideously abusive and corrupt, literally squeezing the life out of the land and the people for the benefit of a tyrannical (and irredeemably evil) sorcerer-king. Even the least-worst sorcerer-monarchs' better qualities are mostly illusory; those who seem to have some patriotic feelings or loyalties towards their territories are just projecting their own egotism onto their city-states, and those who engage in seemingly humanitarian aid do so out of PragmaticVillainy, rather than because they care about anyone but themselves. The only exception is, explicitly, New Kurn, the only one that's ruled by a genuine democracy.
* WTHCostumingDepartment: The characters adventuring gear full of [[TooManyBelts leather straps]] and harnesses make them look a little more like they're porn stars in a bondage film than hardened adventurers. This was noted to have been deliberate as they chose to make Athas a desert to create more opportunities for {{Fanservice}}.

----