Dungeons and Dragons is heading somewhere it has never gone before. The tabletop roleplaying game will release its first-ever M-rated setting in early 2027, with the return of Dark Sun, a post-apocalyptic world that first appeared in the 1990s as one of the franchise's most popular settings.
The announcement came ahead of GenCon, where D&D revealed its 2027 roadmap at a press briefing attended by Screen Rant. The Dark Sun books will include a content warning sticker listing violence, nudity and sexuality among the reasons for the rating.
Dark Sun is set on a world called Athas, a harsh, unforgiving environment defined by scarcity, brutality and survival. For longtime fans of the setting, the M-rating may not come as a surprise. The original Dark Sun, released in the early 1990s, was already considered one of the darker corners of D&D's catalog.
The new releases will arrive as part of what D&D is calling the Season of Survival, which covers the first few months of 2027. Two books have been announced for that period: Blood and Power, a gameplay expansion, and Edge of Oblivion, a setting expansion. Together, they are expected to cover character creation, dungeon master guidance, new monsters, new classes and new species.
Following the Season of Survival, D&D will shift into the Season of Sword and Sorcery, which will bring back another classic setting, Greyhawk. A third phase, the Season of Rebellion, is also planned for later in 2027, but its contents are not yet being revealed.
The announcement continues a pattern D&D has followed since the release of the 5.5 edition revamp in 2024, which has seen the game return to settings from its past. Greyhawk, like Dark Sun, dates back to the early days of the franchise and carries significant history among longtime players.
The full scope of the Dark Sun release, spanning multiple books with an official M-rating, marks a notable shift in how the publisher is approaching mature content.
