If you haven’t heard the news, our D&D Encounters in-store play experience is taking off, and a new season begins on June 9. We started off with Undermountain, which is nearing its season finale in the next few weeks. Response to our new Wednesday D&D program has been overwhelming. Players from around the world are participating in a weekly in-store campaign that plays out in one-encounter sessions, taking one to two hours each. It’s a great way to play in a regular D&D game without straining your schedule.

For those who haven’t yet experienced D&D Encounters, love Dark Sun, or are veteran players wanting to continue their in-store play, you’ll want to mark June 9th as the day to come down to the store. That’s when we launch an exciting preview campaign of the Dark Sun campaign world! Return to the fan-favourite world of Athas, explore the savage environment and terrible dangers of a blasted land, and do it all months before the books are available.

This upcoming season, you’ll receive pregenerated characters to play for the duration of the 15-week campaign, which ends on September 15. Every five sessions of play equals one chapter in the story; you can take a short rest between sessions but can take an extended rest only after the chapter concludes. You’ll want to show up every week, because we have a compelling adventure in Fury of the Wastewalker. This adventure will take you all around the Tyr Region, giving you a classic Dark Sun feel of gritty survival and bold action. Here’s a little bit more on the adventure to whet your appetite:

Fury of the Wastewalker

On a trade road to the city-state of Tyr, a caravan is assaulted by a deadly obsidian shardstorm. The survivors are forced to band together and navigate the wastes to safety. But the force of nature that destroyed the caravan is under the malevolent control of the being known as the Wastewalker, who will stop at nothing to see the end of those that escaped his initial wrath. Can the heroes reach the Ringing Mountains before it’s too late?

Characters will be provided for this season, and will include all sorts of great previews of new races and other cool rules options that will appear in the Dark Sun Campaign Setting. The thri-kreen and mul are back—and they’re playable characters in this season! Every character also has one of the new theme options (like gladiator or wasteland nomad), which better define a character’s role in the setting. Since you’ll be playing these characters for the duration of the season, we’ve also given them great backgrounds and roleplaying hooks that help to integrate them into the story of the adventure.

We’ve got two GMs for this season – Kevin and Barry – but there are limited seats, so make sure to sign up, starting on Wednesday, June 2, to guarantee a place at the table.