Dragonlance DRAGONLANCE LIVES! Unearthed Arcana Explores Heroes of Krynn!

The latest Unearthed Arcana has arrived and the 6-page document contains rules for kender, lunar magic, Knights of Solamnia, and Mages of High Sorcery.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options from the Dragonlance setting. This playtest document presents the kender race, the Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass, the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

Kender have a (surprisingly magical) ability to pull things out of a bag, and a supernatural taunt feature. This magical ability appears to replace the older 'kleptomania' description -- "Unknown to most mortals, a magical phenomenon surrounds a kender. Spurred by their curiosity and love for trinkets, curios, and keepsakes, a kender’s pouches or pockets will be magically filled with these objects. No one knows where these objects come from, not even the kender. This has led many kender to be mislabeled as thieves when they fish these items out of their pockets."

Lunar Magic is a sorcerer subclass which draws power from the moon(s); there are notes for using it in Eberron.

Also included are feats such as Adepts of the Black, White, and Red Robes, and Knights of the Sword, Rose, and Crown.

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[James Gasik]

5e has become a melting pot of older and newer gamers. The older crowd love to share tales of the old days, and delight when the games they played are referred to in new content, it's almost like validation when people get excited about Spelljammer and Dragonlance. Will Planescape be next! Birthright? HOLLOW WORLD!?!

But...a lot of what made these settings great is firmly rooted in an older era of gaming. Things have changed, and a direct 5e port isn't a great idea (my experiences with Tales from the Yawning Portal showed me this). So stuff has to change, but how much can you change and have it still feel like the thing it was?

Nobody likes the idea of seeing the thing that they love twisted out of shape. What we have here is old players thinking updating a setting for new sensibilities is a bridge too far, and new players thinking changing the current game to reflect an old setting is also a bridge too far.

And as I've said several times, I have no faith in WotC as a company to make a competent compromise. Maybe when we have a campaign setting that's more than a coastline on a planet several times bigger than Earth...

 

[Minigiant]

Nostalgia is a powerful force! Surely you've heard the battle cry of the Nerd: "They changed it, now it sucks!"

That's the point. Don't Change it.

Make a stinking setting that incorporates

• The 9 races in the PHB
• All the PHB subraces
• All the residual races tied to the PHB races (orcs, aasimar, eladrin)
• All the 12 PHB classes
• All the PHB subclasses
• Artificer class
• Dragons
• Most the monsters in the MM
• All the PHBbackgrounds
• Some of the options of the Xanatar's optional rules
• The freedom of the Tasha's optional rules

But nooooo. Let's all fight over whose favorite old setting gets converted then get mad over the changes WOTC must do to make it interesting to a new audience who doesn't already have a bunch of books on it.

 

[James Gasik]

Except, to the people who love the setting, those -are- changes. It's not an invalid point of view. You can have settings with restrictions, D&D has historically had them for decades. Surely, someone can accept the idea that "Warforged and Tortles have no place on Krynn", for example.

 

[Azzy]

I've been saying that for a while, but I keep being told it's unnecessary, and those who don't like it apparently just need to suck it up.

Invaribly, fans of older settings generally will: 1) Clamor for their favored setting to be supported, and then 2) Complain about what WotC did to their favored setting when it's released for the current edition.

It's a no-win situation for everyone (except those that are willing to sacrifice their favored setting on the altar of 5e because they know that a current release will open the setting up on DM'd Guild and that fans of the setting will be able rise up and release their own materials).

I tend to be they latter because I have the source material from older editions and only need mechanical support (which in the case of Greyhawk is really only a scattering of monsters, spells, and items unlike settings like Darksun). So with any new material, I either like it and adopt it or dislike it and either scavenge good stuff or ignore wholesale and then go straight to DMs' Guild. No need to get fussed.

 

[Minigiant]

Except, to the people who love the setting, those -are- changes. It's not an invalid point of view. You can have settings with restrictions, D&D has historically had them for decades. Surely, someone can accept the idea that "Warforged and Tortles have no place on Krynn", for example.

Except WOTC is a company out to make money.

Selling old material with old ideals and themes to new current audiences is risky. Even when an old book, show, or play is converted to a movie or TV show, major changes are made to make it interesting and palatable to a new audience.

My little cousin isn't going to buy Classic Dragonlance.
MY niece cousin isn't going to buy Classic Dragonlance.

Restrictions is one thing. But selling a selling is not just a DM piting a setting to 3-6 players. WOTC wants thousands of sales by people who don't have any books in the setting.

 

[James Gasik]

Oh I'm fully aware they want to sell to the largest common denominator. I know how this Dragonlance project will likely end up too. But I thought this was a thread talking about what we want, not what we're going to get.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Except WOTC is a company out to make money.

Selling old material with old ideals and themes to new current audiences is risky. Even when an old book, show, or play is converted to a movie or TV show, major changes are made to make it interesting and palatable to a new audience.

My little cousin isn't going to buy Classic Dragonlance.
MY niece cousin isn't going to buy Classic Dragonlance.

Restrictions is one thing. But selling a selling is not just a DM piting a setting to 3-6 players. WOTC wants thousands of sales by people who don't have any books in the setting.

Which is why they should just release it on the Guild. Then everyone can make what they want, and WotC still gets their cut.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Invaribly, fans of older settings generally will: 1) Clamor for their favored setting to be supported, and then 2) Complain about what WotC did to their favored setting when it's released for the current edition.

It's a no-win situation for everyone (except those that are willing to sacrifice their favored setting on the altar of 5e because they know that a current release will open the setting up on DM'd Guild and that fans of the setting will be able rise up and release their own materials).

I tend to be they latter because I have the source material from older editions and only need mechanical support (which in the case of Greyhawk is really only a scattering of monsters, spells, and items unlike settings like Darksun). So with any new material, I either like it and adopt it or dislike it and either scavenge good stuff or ignore wholesale and then go straight to DMs' Guild. No need to get fussed.

That's what I did for Ravenloft. The community made products orders of magnitude better for me than what WotC decided to publish.

 

[Azzy]

Which is why they should just release it on the Guild. Then everyone can make what they want, and WotC still gets their cut.

Never going to happen that way. WotC makes more money selling a setting sourcebook and then opening the setting to DMs' Guild than it would skipping the first part.

 

[Azzy]

That's what I did for Ravenloft. The community made products orders of magnitude better for me than what WotC decided to publish.

Congrats, then, you ended up winning despite not liking the official book.