Dragonlance Dragonlance Lawsuit Dismissed Without Prejudice

The recent lawsuit brought against D&D publishers Wizards of the Coast by Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman has been voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.

When a lawsuit is dismissed with prejudice, it means that the plaintiff cannot bring the issue back to court. When -- as in this case -- it is dismissed without prejudice, the plaintiff can try again.

In this case it was voluntarily dismissed by Weis & Hickman. We can only guess why; perhaps a settlement occurred? In any case, Margaret Weis tweeted, thanking people for their support, and hinting at exciting news to come.

"Pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Plaintiff Margaret Weis, LLC and Tracy Hickman hereby gives notice that the above-captioned action is voluntarily dismissed as to Wizards of the Coast LLC, without prejudice. Defendant Wizards of the Coast LLC has not filed an answer or motion for summary judgment, no proceedings or discovery have been undertaken as to these claims, and this action is not subject to any federal statute which would preclude the dismissal of this action under Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(i)."

 

[Morrus]

The advancing timeline did not work out for Forgotten Realms, that may not be true for Dragonlance.

Oh, it didn't work for DL. Thus the lack of DL support for decades. I ducked out after the second cataclysmic series.

 

[Mecheon]

The advancing timeline did not work out for Forgotten Realms, that may not be true for Dragonlance. The world itself has been blown up, ripped out of time, etc. in the novels enough that it may be more accepted vs the Realms where the campaign was planned to change and the novels followed suit.

Didn't work well for Dragonlance at all. S'why most people say they ignore the later stuff

... Has advancing the timeline worked for any RPG product? I know we were all metaplot crazy in the 90s, but I figured most people were just upset and annoyed with it by the end

 

[darjr]

It's difficult to capture lighting in a bottle. Doing it twice with the same setting doubly so.

 

[SkidAce]

Most current D&D players are considerably younger than folk on these forums, and the Dragonlance novels been out of print for decades (probably for the reasons mentioned).

Hmmm, coulda swore they were on the shelf at the Barnes and Nobles I work at. I will verify tomorrow.

 

[jerryrice4949]

Hmmm, coulda swore they were on the shelf at the Barnes and Nobles I work at. I will verify tomorrow.

The books are available at Barnes and Nobles and Amazon. They are not out of print.

 

[DnD Warlord]

"The best way to improve Dragonlance is to have something completely different and call it Dragonlance".

That certainly worked for 4E Forgotten Realms didn't it?

The option is. Or nothing... then yes the best option is to take the theme and concept and update the story

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Weis and Hickman have around 23 million books sold over their lifetime.

Their DL books alone have sold over 25 million, and they’ve written dozens of other books over the years.

Comparing them to the fantastically successful Nora Roberts, and her over 200 novels, is also a bit strange.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Didn't work well for Dragonlance at all. S'why most people say they ignore the later stuff

... Has advancing the timeline worked for any RPG product? I know we were all metaplot crazy in the 90s, but I figured most people were just upset and annoyed with it by the end

It worked ok with the Forgotten Realms as long as it was a slow, steady progression, which is how it was from the setting's introduction to the end of 3e. Usually when there was a move of a few years (which usually happened upon edition changes or with a single major mid-edition release), there would be a quick run-down of major events in a general setting product. If you wanted more detail, you could read all the novels (which was a good amount of reading), but usually these mini-updates would be enough. Since the setting "present" during that time only moved forward 17 years - from 1358 DR in the Gray Box to 1375 DR in The Grand History of the Realms (1375 DR was its stated "present", although it basically spelled out what would happen in the succeeding 10 years up to the Spellplague in its epilogue) - it meant that information from older books was usually still valid even an edition or two later, although, obviously, not always. But if that NPC was running an inn in a small town in a 1e book, there's every chance she was still doing so by the time 3e ended. The steady progression forward did give the setting a sense of unfolding history and being a part of that as you played.

Now, moving the whole setting forward 100+ years, that's an entirely different story altogether.

 

[Argyle King]

Completely baseless claim:

The surprise is an announcement of 6th Edition, with Dragonlance as the default setting.

 

[Pauper]

Hmmm, coulda swore they were on the shelf at the Barnes and Nobles I work at. I will verify tomorrow.

Check the date of print, if it's included on the book page. If the book wasn't printed in the past 10 years, then it's entirely reasonable to say that the books are 'out of print', as the last printing is still being sold in the market and thus there's no reason to issue a new print run.

'Out of print' doesn't mean the book isn't available for purchase, just that the publisher isn't planning to print any more. Contrast the adventures 'Horde of the Dragon Queen' and 'Rise of Tiamat', which were reprinted in a single-bound edition containing both adventures, to 'Curse of Strahd', which has been recently reprinted in a special edition, to 'Out of the Abyss', which hasn't had either treatment. Out of the Abyss can reasonably be described as 'out of print', unless someone is aware of a plan to reprint it.

--
Pauper