Dragonlance Dragonlance 5E


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I love Dragonlance, but honestly, I don't want to see yet another rehash of Chronicles. Krynn is a rich roleplaying landscape that deserves more exploration.

I could see a premium reprint of DL1-14, along the lines of Dungeons of Dread and the Against the Slave Lords reprints, but think you're right in suggesting expansion instead of reboot -- there's plenty of material that hasn't been tapped into, or tapped into repeatedly. Don't get me wrong - I love the War of the Lance series - but it's had 4 printings, 2 of which being retellings, between 1E and 3.5E. Maybe it's time for another Epic. There's plenty of material to mine: imperial expansion by minotaurs, magocratic ambitions of Wizard of High Sorcery, a yet to be defined analog to the underdark, or perhaps a hollow world? Race, subrace and archetype options? They really just need to break a solid story.
 


Interestingly, there's a sidebar in the Player's Handbook Dragonborn entry saying that draconians are dragonborn with the breath weapon ability swapped out for each draconian type's unique effect.
 

Cam Banks

Adventurer
I have a million ideas for a return to Krynn, and none of them involve re-hashing the War of the Lance for a new edition.

Dragonlance is my favorite D&D setting, I've devoted a huge chunk of my career and writing to it, and I'm both aware of the faults others point out in it and how those faults can be addressed in game content.

5e is perfect for Dragonlance. It doesn't need to be altered much beyond even the Basic Rules, but much as the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide helps bring some original flavor to the game for the Realms, an Ansalonian Adventurer's Guide would do so much to flesh out the setting for both new and old fans.

I think Wizards is probably sick of me saying it, but I'm ready whenever they are.

Cheers,
Cam
 

ProphetSword

Explorer
What was their write up in the playtest?

Essentially, it was this:

They got +1 DEX, +1 CHA, were small in size, had a movement of 25 feet and immunity to fear. They could taunt (CHA(Performance) versus target's WIS(Insight)), and if the target of the taunt failed the contest, they had to use their next action to either attack the kender or to charge directly at the kender, ignoring everything else.

They had Kender Pockets. Whenever they needed any non-magical piece of equipment, they could check to see if they picked up that item along the way. There was a 25 percent chance (or a roll of 4 on a 1d4) that they did in fact have the item they needed (usually things like a rope, some ribbon, a piece of chalk, etc) in their pockets, and it was assumed they just gathered it somewhere along the way. The description doesn't list anything about them being thieves...just that they manage to pick up things as they travel...thereby removing the past shenanigans of players using it as an excuse to be stupid and steal from the party...the thing they needed was either there or it wasn't, and there was no conscious effort on the part of the kender, as they didn't even know what they had until they went looking. If they fail the roll on the 1d4, they couldn't look again for that item or similar item until they'd had a long rest. Searching took 1 full minute, so it was definitely something to be done outside of combat.

Hope that giving information from the long-dead playtest isn't a no-no. If I could have, I would have just copy-pasted the info, but I think that would probably break some rules.
 

akr71

Hero
Yeah, that's a good point, but if we are still in this situation a year from now something is seriously wrong. I realize it costs money and time, but can't they at least put something on hold to get a few rules packages out the door?


In what format? Freebies will (and already have) appeared piecemeal in Unearthed Arcana. If you're talking about a published, for-profit book- don't hold your breath. The supplement treadmill is over and is not likely to return, from all indications.

Yes, the supplement treadmill is over. However if they took the time and effort to put together a short rules supplement for all of the orphaned settings and bundled them together in one hard bound book, I bet it would sell and sell well. I loved the DL books, but only dabbled with it as a setting. I've spent most of my gaming time in Greyhawk & Forgotten Realms, but I would buy a book that covers a whole bunch of settings. Why? Cuz it would be cool and maybe I'd like to try something new ever once in a while.

A brief description of races/sub races, classes/subclasses not covered in the PHB. A map of the setting and a descriptions of any major rule changes - does magic work the same way? how plentiful are resources? etc.
 

the Jester

Legend
Yes, the supplement treadmill is over. However if they took the time and effort to put together a short rules supplement for all of the orphaned settings and bundled them together in one hard bound book, I bet it would sell and sell well.

I really doubt it. Why pay for a product if you're only going to use 1/6 to 1/10 of it? Especially given the antipathy many gamers feel for at least one setting, I really, really doubt it.

I mean, I'm a hater of a bunch of settings. I'd pay for a well-done Greyhawk book, but a book that was also full of stuff for the settings I consider to be crap? No chance. Hell, I've skipped products that were otherwise pretty cool because they had too much setting material for what I consider to be junk settings in the past. I don't think such an unfocused, diffuse product has a market.

I could be wrong, of course, but WotC has publicly said that they aren't interested in publishing stuff that isn't going to knock it out of the park. And that kind of thing is certainly not gonna do that.

Besides, it's easy- I mean, super easy- to just use old edition material. I've converted a weird planar race from 3e in all of two minutes with just the tiniest amount of work. It's easy to do- it's just hard to do and then make a profit out of it.
 

dave2008

Legend
I really doubt it. Why pay for a product if you're only going to use 1/6 to 1/10 of it? Especially given the antipathy many gamers feel for at least one setting, I really, really doubt it.

I mean, I'm a hater of a bunch of settings. I'd pay for a well-done Greyhawk book, but a book that was also full of stuff for the settings I consider to be crap? No chance. Hell, I've skipped products that were otherwise pretty cool because they had too much setting material for what I consider to be junk settings in the past. I don't think such an unfocused, diffuse product has a market
However, if 50% of the market is homebrew then potentially all of it could be useful for that group. I know I fit in that category
 

Anyone heard anything about Dragonlance getting a 5E reboot? Temple of Elemental Evil, Ravenloft... seems it's time in 2016 or 2017 for Dragonlance. The original adventure path, while not the greatest modules, seem perfect for what WOTC likes to do now.

There was a interview with Mike Mearls on some podcast over a year ago, ( will take me a lot of time to find the right one)

But he was asked about a 5th edition dragonlance setting, he basicly awnsered it would be something they would consider but only if they could get the right people onboard.
The say he said it it heavely sugested they woulden't touch dragonlance unless Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis would be on the project.

Tracy Hickman is mentiones as one of the story writers for Curse of Strahd.
But with the new licence Margaret Weis productions might also consider producing the campaign setting themselves like they did in 3.5
 

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