The Dragonlance Saga--your experiences

[Dr Simon]

Also, DL REALLY suffered from Star Wars syndrome. Where players go in feeling that the important stuff has been done by the heroes of the lance, and they are on baaz/stormtrooper cleanup duty.

Hmm.. if you mean the main DL modules, I'd disagree with that statement. Either the players are *running* the main guys, or if you don't like using pre-gens then it's a fairly safe bet that the player characters are *instead* of the pre-gens and thus Raistlin et al. don't even exist, thus can't nick all the glory. Since DL1-12 cover the major events of the War of the Lance, one way or another the players *should* be the ones in the thick of it. Unless you run something really wierd where the pre-gens get to do all the stuff in the modules and the players play homemade characters who follow them. (My limited experience of the first Forgotten Reams adventures - Tantras etc. was that they were like that, and suffered because of it).

Now, if you're talking about playing in the DL Setting *in general*, then yes, I'd agree. I think that, because the setting was written for very specific modules, there is little outside of the War of the Lance to spark interest. At least, I find it hard. FR (and similar style settings), on the other hand, has no particular adventure in mind, just "D&D stuff" and so it is better for running your own campaigns. It may just be me - I have trouble with other settings that were specifically designed for an epic struggle (Star Wars, Babylon 5, Middle Earth). What do you do afterwards? If I use a fictional setting at all, I tend towards those used for short stories, such as Nehwon or Sanctuary. But that's a different discussion.

 

[Cam Banks]

Now, if you're talking about playing in the DL Setting *in general*, then yes, I'd agree. I think that, because the setting was written for very specific modules, there is little outside of the War of the Lance to spark interest. At least, I find it hard.

I don't think this is nearly as bad as it once was. The current era, the Age of Mortals, offers numerous options for the heroes to be major players. In fact, the third part of the Age of Mortals trilogy was written with that very thing in mind - I wanted the players to feel that everything they did mattered and could influence the bigger picture.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Nightfall]

Doc's right. If you ignore the novels, Dragonlance can be better.

Which is kind of what I wished had happened before 3rd edition but post 3rd edition, DL has grown a lot to be usable by all.

 

[DaveyJones]

Is that a railroad? It doesn't seem at all unfair to have places where the PCs just can't go and survive.

places they can't go is fine. the railroad is every place else but the way the story goes.

east, south, west, north, underground, in the air... nope you can't go.. you run into infinite draconians. only if you go along route X and get captured will it work.

 

[Cam Banks]

places they can't go is fine. the railroad is every place else but the way the story goes.

east, south, west, north, underground, in the air... nope you can't go.. you run into infinite draconians. only if you go along route X and get captured will it work.

The gist of it in DL1 is that the Dragonarmy is slowly taking over the map and moving south. The heroes do have a lot of places they can go, but the order in which they go there matters because eventually those places get occupied. They're not supposed to take on the entire army at the beginning, although gods know they can try if they like (and I know many DMs who used the modules to allow their players that choice.)

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Nightfall]

Davey,

If they go up, there's a good chance they'll come back down...hard.

 

[DaveyJones]

Davey,

If they go up, there's a good chance they'll come back down...hard.

if they go up they get eaten by nonreal dragons.

 

[DaveyJones]

The gist of it in DL1 is that the Dragonarmy is slowly taking over the map and moving south. The heroes do have a lot of places they can go, but the order in which they go there matters because eventually those places get occupied. They're not supposed to take on the entire army at the beginning, although gods know they can try if they like (and I know many DMs who used the modules to allow their players that choice.)

Cheers,
Cam

i know what the gist is. i'm just relating my experience with my group.

they hated the railroading.
it felt like a necktie to them.

we were beer and pretzels gamers. with a lot of hard rock playing in the background.

 

[Nightfall]

if they go up they get eaten by nonreal dragons.

Nah if they go up in my games, they start to feel the effects of lesser to no atomsphere.

 

[Mycanid]

Well ... I played the first two of these adventures when they first came out. I think I was Tanis. To be honest the whole thing kinda bored me. We stopped after the first one.

Then I read the first three books. A little better, but not much.

Then the endless modules and novels came out. While I was glad that the novels somehow made DnD more "acceptable" to a wider audience I disliked (and still dislike) the setting. And kenders are possibly the one of the worst halfling variations to ever be created IMNSHO.

OTOH ... to change topics a little, I did not mind the Desert of Desolation series. Railroading doesn't really bother me all that much as long as I like the story. I liked it in I3-5 (which were HARD to go through by the way). I did not like it in Dragonlance.

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