Dragonlance 4e in 2010?

[tylerthehobo]

I for one welcome our new "old setting resurrecting" overlords.

 

[Nifft]

(snip interesting stuff)

Also, Dragonlance was responsible for perpetrating both kender and tinker gnomes.

"I'm readying an action to Sunder the Dragonlance setting when it comes within range."

I was vaguely interested until "kender". Now: ugh.

Thanks, -- N

 

[Cam Banks]

"I'm readying an action to Sunder the Dragonlance setting when it comes within range."

I was vaguely interested until "kender". Now: ugh.

I'm frankly shocked you hadn't heard or read much about Dragonlance before, to be honest. It's one of the oldest and most successful D&D campaign settings in the world.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Knightfall]

Lastly, Kaz would kick Drizzt's ass.

Damn straight!

Kaz is my favorite Dragonlance character. He rocks!

 

[JoeGKushner]

so another major change...just plop it next to the other 15 krynn shattering events...who notices one more

Hate to say it, but that was pretty much my take. FR has been pretty butchered but next to Dragonlance, it looks like minor wounds.

 

[Ares]

I had both tieflings AND demons in Price of Courage, the mega-adventure we published a year or two ago. And they had good reasons to be in there! True story.

And it was a very nice adventure, too. However, most of the fellows that did Dl3e came from the old DL3e website, so compared to "classic" 'lance, it becomes just like the Magius language or like Noble Draconians: expanded universe aka, largely apocryphal, or to put it in the TVtropes.org way, the Inmates Running the Asylum.

Hell, most of the old fans that got out of DL don't count the Summer of Chaos onwards, as it was that stuff that alienated them from the setting.

 

[Nifft]

I'm frankly shocked you hadn't heard or read much about Dragonlance before, to be honest. It's one of the oldest and most successful D&D campaign settings in the world.

I skipped late 1e, and all of 2nd edition. Most of what I know about FR is what I learned from Baldur's Gate II, and the 3.0e FRCS (which was a gorgeous book).

Basically, I had dropped the game between the 1st printing of Deities & Demigods and the 3.0e PHB.

Cheers, -- N

 

[M.L. Martin]

As to whether it will work under 4e? Absolutely. I have every confidence that it will, and in fact in many ways it will work better with the current rules set than it did under 3.5. And I say that as one of MWP's 3.5 DL design team.

Hmm...I can see some difficulties with magic-users, given how heavily 1E's spellcasting system and weapon restrictions were written into the setting, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a workaround.

I can also pretty much be sure that they're not going to reboot it. That would annoy more people than you know.

Cheers,
Cam

DL will never be rebooted entirely, for two simple reasons: Chronicles and Legends. Those products, for better or for worse (I say both, but I'm a former DL heretic and current apostate ), are the Foundation Stone of Dragonlance, to the point that all three DL game lines to date have ended their runs (or nearly so) with revisiting the classic storyline.

I would expect that a 4E DL is likely to consist entirely of or strongly focus around a revisiting of DL1-14.

 

[Draksila]

Personally, while not a big fan of the Chaos War, I loved the War of Souls. It shook up the landscape, introduced new religious conflicts and new moral conflicts, and finally passed the torch from the Heroes of the Lance to the new generation. I thought it was long overdue and tastefully done, whereas the Chaos War seemed rushed and half-planned. Granted, I didn't read any books set after the war... outside of the Huma/Kaz books, I haven't read any of the alternate DL authors since Weasel's Luck first came out. If they wanted to start the new campaign setting right after the War of Souls, though, I'd be happy. Besides, I absolutely adore the Klingon-esque minotaurs; the Krynnish version has always been one of my favorite D&D races.

And for the record, kender aren't a bad racial concept. The reason there are a lot of DMs who won't allow them in play is that there are a lot of players out there who just play them as an excuse to be obnoxious. I've had plane-hopping games with kender in them both pre- and post-Planescape, including one large group I DMed for that had two of them. Yes, they added comic relief... but roleplayed maturely they are also a way to look at your fantasy setting through the eyes of youth and wonder. Kender should be optimistic, quick-witted, and constantly amazed at the niftiness of the world around them; this does not necessarily translate to 'glory-hog klepto who TPKs the party,' no matter how many juvenile con-goers have played them that way. The way I've dealt with those who play them disruptively is the same way I deal with anyone else playing an obnoxious character; they don't live long, and have to bring in a wholly new concept.

Of course, I am also the person who allowed one of my best players to reskin the Gungan race as a swamp-dwelling warrior species at war with the local lizardfolk in one of my games. Just because a race can be annoying in play doesn't mean that someone can't breathe enough life into it to make it beauty in motion.

As for tinker gnomes, well... tinker gnomes have become a universal concept in modern fantasy. Look at Spelljammer and Planescape. Heck, look at World of Warcraft! Tinker gnomes are no longer a strange concept that can only be played for comic relief.

... I grant you that gully dwarves, however, are comic relief. They've never shown up in my stories as anything else, and so are expendable as a concept at my table. Still, I don't ban them... who knows, maybe some day a good player will get ahold of the idea and impress me with it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

Personally, while not a big fan of the Chaos War, I loved the War of Souls. It shook up the landscape, introduced new religious conflicts and new moral conflicts, and finally passed the torch from the Heroes of the Lance to the new generation. I thought it was long overdue and tastefully done, whereas the Chaos War seemed rushed and half-planned.

My problem is not the War of Souls, which I think set Krynn up to be a fun, playable setting. It's the books that followed. The Solamnia trilogy looks like it was set somewhere else and they just changed the names to make it Dragonlance. The other books also just kept rewriting basic krynn concepts at will. Instead of moving forward with the sweeping changes of the War of Souls, they introduced more sweeping changes.