Dragonlance Do you plan to buy Dragonlance?

[Paul Farquhar]

I consider myself a younger player (mid 30's? Tell me if that's not young) but I plan to get this one. My group started playing D&D at the end of 4e so our collective dragonlance experience is really limited to those of us who have read the books.

I haven't decided if I will run the adventure "as-is" or strip it for parts, but I've seen a lot of people describe the setting as D&D's war story and that's definitely not a type of story we've really explored yet. Really curious to see how that could play out.

Plus I think that alt cover is really impressive. Might be the first time I buy an alt cover (I have this thing where I like all of the book spines looking the same)

EDIT: Posting on mobile is tricky

It's young enough to not have the associated baggage that is putting some of us off. I agree, this product looks great. But the Dragonlance brand has too much of a bad taste for me. And for others, they are very attached to the setting in its original form, and don't want to see the inevitable changes.

 

[hojulation]

But the Dragonlance brand has too much of a bad taste for me.

If I can ask, what about the brand don't you like? Just asking out of curiosity.

I know for myself, I have started reading through the old DL modules to get a sense for the setting, and those adventures seem super linear. I'm ok with railroads because my players are kind of beer and pretzels players, don't want think too much, roll some dice, save the day types. But playing pregenerated characters that have to achieve certain tasks in the adventure seems pretty restrictive.

When my players use pregenerated characters they often "drive them like they're stolen" like the Blades in the Dark rulebook suggests! I don't see that working out too well for the OG dragonlance adventures. My hope is that this new one is a less restrictive.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If I can ask, what about the brand don't you like? Just asking out of curiosity.

I think those issues have been well discussed already. If you are unaware of them, you will enjoy it more if you remain that way. I will say that the novels are the problem, not the modules.

 

[jdrakeh]

Nope. I have never and will never have any interest in Dragonlance. I read one of the novels and that pretty much informed my opinion of the setting forever (not in a positive manner).

 

[Wolfram stout]

Other. I want it for the art and the reading, but I doubt I would be able to get a campaign off the ground, so I would hate to spend the money. Rather than buy it, I will put it on my Christmas list. My wife has fond memories of reading the novels and liked the look of the books, so I suspect if it is on my wish list, I will end up with it as a present.

 

[Helldritch]

The knight backgrounds/feats could easily be refluffed as a "chivalric knight" for other settings, such as Cormyr, or something Arthurian.

Already done.
The order of the Knights of the Crown of Nyrond (a personal addition of mine), Knights of the Hart, Knights of Furyondy, Knights protectors of the Great Kingdom and so on. I was quick to incorporate this great idea!

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Since the 3e Dragonlance books were third party, I'm not surprised that they stuck with things as they were. Based on the more recent saga of the new Dragonlance novel, the proposed changes back-and-forth, and the lawsuit, Weis & Hickman seem to be resistant to changes to their canon.

The 3.5 Dragonlance books didn't break tradition. However the world changed a lot in the decades following the War of the Lance, when the gods left again, which allowed sorcerers and mystics to appear. The races didn't change much, except we got chromatic draconians, and afflicted kenders.

 

[DragonBelow]

Since the 3e Dragonlance books were third party, I'm not surprised that they stuck with things as they were. Based on the more recent saga of the new Dragonlance novel, the proposed changes back-and-forth, and the lawsuit, Weis & Hickman seem to be resistant to changes to their canon.

The campaign setting was published by WotC, only the supplements were "3rd party" but they were still licensed from WotC, and thus subject to WotC supervision/approvals.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Since the 3e Dragonlance books were third party, I'm not surprised that they stuck with things as they were. Based on the more recent saga of the new Dragonlance novel, the proposed changes back-and-forth, and the lawsuit, Weis & Hickman seem to be resistant to changes to their canon.

I think it pretty understandable for authors to be resistant to other people changing their work.

 

[Faolyn]

I think it pretty understandable for authors to be resistant to other people changing their work.

It really does depend on what they're writing. I know a fair number of comic book writers, including my father, and it seems that most of them just shrug when the characters that they created get changed by subsequent writers. They had a job they were hired to do, and even if they really wanted to make that character they know that the character doesn't really belong to them. I imagine its similar for characters created for D&D novels. The writers wrote for a company; their characters belong to that company.

I'm sure there are some writers who can't stand any changes to their characters, but I doubt that they're a lot of them.