Athasian Hygiene

Here on Earth, we use water to keep clean. With water being a precious resource on Athas, you might ask, "How would an Athasian keep clean?" Like most things on the desert world, it breaks down to location, money, and social status.

Soap

Athasian soaps vary from city-state to city-state. Tyr creates soap made from animal fat and wood ash, while Urik creates soap from animal fat, vegetable oils, and alkaline salt. Balic uses a liquid soap mainly crafted from olive oil.

Cleaning Sand
Sand is used to clean clothes and some people. This sand is very fine and mixed with salt. This mixture bonds to dirt and sweat, then is brushed away with a cleaning brush, scraper, or rag. Clothes cleaned with cleaning sand are often scrubbed and then hung outside and beat with a rod, to remove residual dust and dirt.

Cleaning Tools

The most common cleaning implement used among all social classes is the cleaning brush. Cleaning brushes are made of a bone, wood, or metal base and stiff bristles. The bristles are generally made from stiff carru or aprig hair. These brushes are made for the sole purpose of cleaning dirt and grime from bodies or clothing. They may be used to clean other surfaces as well.
In addition, there are other tools used to keep clean. In Urik and Raam, pumice stone is used to clean the body, in all, but the most sensitive of areas. In Balic, a strigil is used to remove olive oil from the skin, taking dirt and dead skin with it. A strigil is a thin, wide, blunted hook, made of wood, bone, or metal.
Other scrapers are used by other city-state residents as well. These scrapers come in various sizes and shapes, but are all used in the same way. Before or after a bath, or any cleaning time, these scrapers are used to removed unwanted dirt and grime. After using cleaning sand, soaps, oils, or salts, the scraper is rubbed across the skin.
The common person almost always uses wood or bone cleaning tools, while wealthy individuals use metal tools. The wealthiest individuals often plate their tools in precious metals and embed them with gemstones. Simple cleaning tools can be purchased from any market, but fancy tools must be custom ordered.

Athasian Disease Part Three

Treating a natural disease can be done in multiple ways. Ideally, the infected individual has access to a healer and an herbalist. Healers can diagnose and treat the disease. Herbalists can create remedies useful for reducing the symptoms.
When using the herbalism proficiency, the herbalist may provide poultices and other herbal remedies to treat symptoms, but the symptoms must be told to them, or be obvious. In order to mix the proper treatment for the symptoms, the herbalist must have the herbs on hand, or it requires 1d4 days to gather them, if they are locally available. To make the herbal remedy requires another 1d4 days. The herbalist will be able to create enough of the remedy to keep the diseases symptoms at bay for one day per point of success. For example: If an herbalist wants to mix a remedy and has an herbalism proficiency rating of thirteen and the herbalist rolls a nine, the remedy will prevent the symptom for four days.

Athasian Disease Part Two

Lung diseases will cause eye shortness of breath, cough, headache, and fatigue. The incubation period of lung diseases is generally two to fifteen days.
Mild symptoms will cause a loss of one point of constitution every seven days of infection. If not treated and the character's constitution drops to zero, they die.
Moderate symptoms will cause a loss of two points constitution every seven days of infection. If not treated and the character's constitution drops to zero, they die.
Severe symptoms will cause a loss of two points of constitution every three days of infection. If not treated and the character's constitution drops to one half, a system shock roll must be made. If this roll fails, the character loses one point of constitution permanently. If successful, the character will die if their constitution reaches zero.

Mucous membrane diseases will cause dry mouth, mouth and throat pain, thick and bloody mucous, open sores in mouth and throat, and painful swallowing. The incubation period of mucous membrane diseases is generally five to ten days.
Mild symptoms will cause a loss of one point of constitution every month of infection. After six months, the symptoms will become moderate. If the character's constitution drops to zero, they die.
Moderate symptoms will cause a loss of one point of constitution every month of infection. In addition, the infected character must succeed at a saving throw vs poison everyday, or be unable to eat and drink that day due to pain. After six months, the symptoms wil become severe. If the character's constitution drops to zero, they die.
Severe symptoms will cause a loss of one point of constitution every athasian week of infection. In addition, the infected character must succeed at a saving throw vs poison everyday, or be unable to eat and drink that day due to pain. Also, the character's mouth becomes so overwhelmed with thick blood and mucous, they begin to drown if the are laid down, whether voluntary or involuntary. If the character's constitution drops to zero, they die.

Athasian Disease Part One

Athasians are generally a hardy lot, but can still be overcome by disease. Athasians do not have a concept of germ theory and the idea of tiny creatures causing illness would likely be met with skepticism at best, or accusations of magic use at worst. However, even without this knowledge, herbalists and natural healers can treat and cure many diseases that athasians have to deal with throughout their lives.
Whether the disease is caused by a virus, bacteria, or parasite, they may all be cured with the proper application of clerical magic. Cure Disease can cure any natural disease or infection. In the eyes of the elemental lords, there is no difference. Some diseases may be slower to heal, even with the application of magic, but the disease will not progress. No matter their source, all diseases and infections will be simply called diseases in this article.
Diseases are categorized by the effects of the victims body. Blood, bones, brain, cardiovascular, connective tissue, ears, eyes, lungs, mucous membranes, muscles, nose & throat, skin, stomach, urinary tract, or the whole body can be affected by any number of diseases or infections. Specific names of diseases differ between various city-states, if they are named at all. Athasians see a stomach problem and treat it as a stomach problem, not as e.coli or salmonella poisoning.
When exposed to a disease, a player character must make a saving throw vs poison with a bonus or penalty equal to their hit point adjustment modifier. If successful, the character has avoided the disease for twenty-four hours. If exposed again after that time, the character must make another saving throw for the next twenty-four hour period. If the saving throw fails, the character has contracted the disease. Every athasian week (fifteen days), the character has a chance to make another saving throw to shake off the disease. This second saving throw is made will a bonus, or penalty, based upon the severity of the symptoms. Mild symptoms have a +2 bonus, moderate symptoms have no bonus or penalty, and severe symptoms have a -2 penalty.
Diseases can have mild, moderate, or severe effects. If a character fails their saving throw by one to four points, mild symptoms will occur. If a character fails their saving throw by five to nine points, moderate symptoms will occur. If a character fails their saving throw by ten or more points, severe symptoms will occur.

Surviving Under the Dark Sun - Wind

The rolling dunes of the sandy wastes and the plains of stone do little to block the strong winds funneled into the Tablelands from the north. Open areas without natural windbreaks, such as mountains and rocky badlands can experience fierce wind storms. These storms can cause sandstorms, but what if there's not enough sand to create a large sandstorm, such as over rocky badlands, or if the wind isn't strong enough to create one.
Strong winds can cause other problems, other than sand and silt blowing around. Wind can easily throw off the trajectory of missile weapons, especially at far ranges. Strong enough winds can even make it difficult to fight in melee.
The rules presented below will be for AD&D second edition and will be for the sole purpose of making your Dark Sun a little more challenging for your players. I view Dark Sun as the "hard" setting for AD&D, so I do not hesitate to make my player characters a little more uncomfortable.

Surviving Under the Dark Dun - Temperature

I was looking at my old copy of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Wilderness Survival Guide, by Kim Mohan, and I thought some of the information could be adapted to my Dark Sun game. Instead of writing a crazy long article that few would read, I decided to break it up into different sections. Bite-sized articles seem to be my forte.
This article is all about temperature, which I know some will laugh at. I can hear you now, "It's hot!" This, however, is not always the case. In the Wanderer's Journal, it is mentioned that nights on Athas get bitterly cold, even near freezing. Also, the Ringing Mountains have snow caps, which indicates freezing cold.
The rules presented below will be for AD&D second edition and will be for the sole purpose of making your Dark Sun a little more challenging for your players. I view Dark Sun as the "hard" setting for AD&D, so I do not hesitate to make my player characters a little more uncomfortable.
The coldest part of the athasian night will be right before sunrise and the hottest part of the day will be around mid-afternoon. These are simple generalities, the Dungeon Master will be the final arbiter of the in-game situation. These swings can be upwards of eighty to one-hundred degree difference in only a few hours.

Dark Sun Survival - Water from Cactus

Barrel Cactus

I like making my Dark Sun games realistic, well, at least as realistic as a fantasy roleplaying game can be. With that in mind, I read up on getting water from a cactus. Is it possible? Yes, but it's not necessarily as easy as fiction might show.

First, you have to find the right kind of cactus, because not all cactus provides water. It'll differ on Athas, but here on Earth, there are two cactus that you can extract water from, the barrel cactus and the prickly pear cactus. There is no reason why these two cacti could not exist on Athas.

Fear the Dragon, Hate the Tax Collector

Money is required to run a city-state and keep the populace in line. Armies require food and weapons, Templars have living expenses, and slaves need to be fed. Not to mention the cost of spell components and alchemy supplies. Citizens and non-citizens must pay taxes and fees to pay for these expenses, that's why they may fear the dragon, but they always hate the tax collector.
I wanted to help any DMs who don't know what kinds of taxes and fees a Templar might charge citizens, non-citizens, and especially player characters. Keep in mind that although taxes are listed in coinage, an equal value of goods is generally also acceptable in most instances. Taxes and fees can vary based upon the honesty of the Templar collecting them. These are guidelines only. DM's should decide what fees would be most appropriate for their games.
So, without further ado, I give you the taxes and fees of the city-states.

Food of the Tablelands - Eating Insects

An Athasian Feast

Food in the Tablelands is much easier to come buy than water. A starving person can survive by eating insects. Beetles, caterpillars, bees, ants, wasps, cicadas, grasshoppers, termites, locusts, crickets, larvae and grubs are all edible and, likely, eaten in all of the city-states.
Insects too would be an inexpensive source of nutrition for most Athasians.
However, there are certain rules when choosing which insects to eat. Grabbing anything out in the desert can lead to illness or death for your character, so here's some rules for them follow. First, avoid eating brightly colored insects. Bright colors usually mean poison. Poison types G and H would be most appropriate. Second, avoid hairy insects. Hairy insects can irritate the throat and can sometimes hide stingers. Third, avoid smelly and pungent insects. If the insect stinks or sprays some kind of stinky liquid, don't eat it. Fourth, cook all insects. While eating some insects raw will not harm your character, they may contain parasites that can cause your character to fall ill or die. Cooking them also softens the shell, which is helpful, because the quality of dental work on Athas is terrible. Fifth, avoid eating insects that eat poisonous plants. The insect may be fine to eat, but they may have traces of poison in their digestive system.
A normal medium sized creature can go three weeks without food, so water is by far more important. However, if your character is ever without food, grab some bald, earth colored insects, cook them, and enjoy.

Desert Village Architecture

Too often desert villages in fantasy rpg settings don't look any different from forest villages. Usually, you get a lot of individual buildings with wide avenues between them and, most likely, a wall surrounding the entire thing.
Something like this:

Courtesy Wizards of the Coast