Dragonlance Here's That Official Dragonlance Novels Announcement, Featuring Classic Characters & An Old Logo!

We've known about it for a while due to lawsuits and product placeholder pages on Amazon, but Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman have just announced their new Dragonlance series of novels!

It returns 'the most beloved characters from the original novels', as well as a 'new, strong protagonist'. Previous information from the lawsuit about this series indicated that the first book was to be called Dragons of Deceit, and the second Dragons of Fate. The Amazon placeholder page says the release date is 29th July 2021. Of course, any of that information may have changed.

Original (classic) DL logo

Later (Fifth Age) DL logo​

The branding refers to "Classic Dragonlance" and uses the older, original (and my favourite) Dragonlance logo. Whether that in some way distinguishes it from any potential WotC Dragonlance materials remains to be seen. The logo changed in the 1990s, and continued to be used throughout the 3E era.

The news was shared on Twitter and on Tracy Hickman's website.

 PRESS RELEASE

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Wilmington, NC – January 25, 2021 – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are pleased to announce a multi-year licensing agreement with Wizards of the Coast to produce a new, three book series of Classic Dragonlance novels.

The new trilogy will return fans to the most beloved characters from the original novels along with introducing a new strong protagonist. The books will be published by Del Rey Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Although a publishing date has not yet been formally set, they anticipate announcing when the first book will be released later this year.

“We couldn’t be happier to be returning to the world we love,” says Margaret Weis. “Dragonlance is what brought Tracy and I together so many years ago. We’re thrilled to be able to do this for existing lovers of Krynn while bringing our beloved characters to a new generation of readers.”

The first Classic Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight, was written by Weis and Hickman and published in 1984. Since that time, more than 190 novels have been published in the setting. Weis and Hickman have collaborated on numerous series over the last 30 years including projects set within the world of Classic Dragonlance and outside of it. Two notable series are The Death Gate Cycle and The Darksword Series, both published by Penguin Random House.

“We credit the fans of Dragonlance for making this journey possible,” says Tracy Hickman. “We wrote this series out of our thanks to them for this amazing life-long journey…and from our wish that they join us once more on the road to Solace.”

The license for the series was secured by Weis & Hickman in 2018. Their recent dispute with Wizards of the Coast was resolved at the end of 2020, with all parties pleased to have come to agreement on how best to move forward with the trilogy. All are focused on producing the best series possible and will not comment on the past dispute other than to say it has been resolved.

Watch for additional news from Weis and Hickman about Classic Dragonlance and other projects on the horizon in the coming months.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

If there is a reboot of Dragonlance, and I have sait it several times, it will have to be an event linked with all the worlds of D&D multiverse.

I suspected the revival would be near year of a Dragolance videogame, but we know these a lot of time.

At least I hope a cinematic CGI animation for the trailer of the books.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I notice the module author is Doug Niles, not Hickman. I wonder if that was one of the legal issues?

 

[Mannahnin]

From the recap of the gaming product:

The Novel Connection. Novel authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman decided to tell the stories of the second and third books of Dragonlance in parallel, so the events of "Dragons of Deceit" don't appear until the third and final novel, Dragons of Spring Dawning (1985), where they occupy chapters 6-9 of book 1. Most of the words in the novel are spent on Palanthas and on the aerial battle at the end of the adventure — both elements that get just a few pages of attention in the module.

The core of the adventure, which is the infiltration of Sanction, is almost entirely glossed over in Dragons of Spring Dawning. The actions are handed off to Gilthanas and happen off-screen. Gilthanas retells the adventure in a mere 6 pages in chapter 8, saying "Someday I may report the dangers we faced, but I cannot now. … So I will make our tale short"

They also did an AD&D solo adventure gamebook of this, called Lords of Doom. I had it as a kid. Also by Doug Niles.

Lords of Doom: A DragonLance Adventure (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Gamebook, No 10): Niles, Douglas: 9780880383097: Amazon.com: Books

Lords of Doom: A DragonLance Adventure (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Gamebook, No 10) [Niles, Douglas] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Lords of Doom: A DragonLance Adventure (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Gamebook, No 10)

www.amazon.com

 

[Hutchimus Prime]

My hope, if they pull any retcon shenanigans, is that they will nuke the Age of Mortals completely, basically writing a story that results in Takhisis not stealing the world at the end of the Chaos War in Dragons of Summer Flame. The Gods dont go missing a 2nd time and the iconic wizards and clerics dont lose their magic. The world goes on as it would have.

Which they kind of gave us a little peek of from Tass’ point of view in one of the War of Souls books, didn’t they?

 

[Mercurius]

It wouldn't be odd to reuse it if they're re-telling the story of the module. Gilthanas' and Silvara's journey to Sanction was never covered in the original novels, and like the last trilogy Weis & Hickman did, they may very well be filling in the gaps.

Sounds plausible and quite, well, lame. Or at least of not of interest to myself. It pretty much would be the definition of "filler."

 

[Mind of tempest]

Sounds plausible and quite, well, lame. Or at least of not of interest to myself. It pretty much would be the definition of "filler."

I have no knowledge of what you speak but it would be far better to start something new rather than just keep filling in gaps.

 

[Mercurius]

I have no knowledge of what you speak but it would be far better to start something new rather than just keep filling in gaps.

I was referring to the possibility that a Dragons of Deceit novel tells the story of Gilthanas and Silvara going to Sanction.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I gathered that I just have no context about what that means.

I wonder if we will get new game material out of this?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

If there is a reboot of Dragonlance, and I have sait it several times, it will have to be an event linked with all the worlds of D&D multiverse.

It almost certainly will not. Weiss and Hickman famously loath tying their Dragonlance stuff to other D&D worlds and want to keep Dragonlance independent. When a module was made putting Lord Soth in Ravenloft, they went and killed Soth to nuke even that small connection.

 

[the Jester]

If there is a reboot of Dragonlance, and I have sait it several times, it will have to be an event linked with all the worlds of D&D multiverse.

[/QUOTE]
Why do you say this? I see absolutely no information to support this, nor do I foresee 5e imposing massive metaplots from above as they did in some older editions- at least I hope they don't! With any luck, they've learned their lesson. I, and many other people, have no interest in being forced to cross my campaign over with DL (or FR, or... etc).