Dragonlance Dragonlance "Reimagined".

[Micah Sweet]

the best part is anyone can go read sandman or watch it or both

Yeah. Unfortunately, virtually all the old Dragonlance material is out of print. I guess you can get the pdfs.

 

[Faolyn]

I think "the rest" is too much to improve in the case of Dragonlance, and I hate (HATE) when the history of a setting is changed. If this is a new Dragonlance, that has no connection to the old, maybe I could accept it (even if it still seems pointless to me).

I don't even buy WotC anymore, but the settings their predecessors created mean a lot to me, and I dislike seeing them messed with. FR was fine. Everron was fine. Ravenloft was a travesty to me, and Spelljammer nailed the spirit but was deeply flawed in its presentation and missing content. And now we have this.

And you don't even know what they're changing, if anything! Plus, you can always say it's a separate continuity, or simply ignore most of it and take the bits you like.

 

[Alzrius]

Plus, you can always say it's a separate continuity, or simply ignore most of it and take the bits you like.

That's probably the biggest saving grace of the whole thing, since Dragonlance has long had time-travel shenanigans that showed us alternate timelines (Dragons of Deceit being the prelude to yet another instance of exactly that).

 

[Neonchameleon]

First I can't agree with @Micah Sweet at all. On most things - but in specific balance being the highest good is not the core of Dragonlance. The core of Dragonlance starts with Dragons and Lances. It's a larger than life setting with an oncoming or happening war of good vs evil. And one where the bad guys come colour coded for convenience and have revenge attacks that only really make sense to make things more cinematic and combats for the players more interesting.

It's a large Saturday Morning Cartoon style setting. And D&D 5e sorely lacks one of those. Or it's the Power Rangers setting with Draconians being as camp and designed to be beaten up as puddies (or whatever the mooks these days are), Tahksis with all the camp of Rita Repulsa, and Palatine giving no more direct help than Zordon.

However its notions of good and evil are messed up. Balance is not some sort of ultimate good - and this is a fundamental flaw in the setting. It would be fine if it were presented as a flaw. That Palatine wasn't actually whiter than white; he was just better than Tahksis. If, in short, you did something interesting with the establishment. Or you could make the Good guys y'know ... good. Either works. But as it is the "good" side is normally complicit and nothing productive is done with that in the dozens of books I've read.

Balance being the highest good is not the core of Dragonlance. It's a mistake that undermines the setting and the setting is actually improved if either it is eliminated or at the very least challenged even if the balance guys win.

As for the White Robes no one would have a problem with the white robes if the wizards (again, colour coded for your convenience like on a Saturday Morning Cartoon) were on the Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic axis rather than the Good, Neutral, Evil one. Or, in specific, the White Robes were Lawful Neutral.

 

[Faolyn]

And I say there are too many parts of it that you would want to change to appeal to modern audiences for it to be worthwhile. I read and loved the books, and read and loved the setting. I have 5e conversions if I want to use them. That's good enough for me. The stuff WotC wants to do is misdirected effort.

So just because it's good enough for you, it should be good enough for everyone?

 

[Micah Sweet]

First I can't agree with @Micah Sweet at all. On most things - but in specific balance being the highest good is not the core of Dragonlance. The core of Dragonlance starts with Dragons and Lances. It's a larger than life setting with an oncoming or happening war of good vs evil. And one where the bad guys come colour coded for convenience and have revenge attacks that only really make sense to make things more cinematic and combats for the players more interesting.

It's a large Saturday Morning Cartoon style setting. And D&D 5e sorely lacks one of those. Or it's the Power Rangers setting with Draconians being as camp and designed to be beaten up as puddies (or whatever the mooks these days are), Tahksis with all the camp of Rita Repulsa, and Palatine giving no more direct help than Zordon.

However its notions of good and evil are messed up. Balance is not some sort of ultimate good - and this is a fundamental flaw in the setting. It would be fine if it were presented as a flaw. That Palatine wasn't actually whiter than white; he was just better than Tahksis. If, in short, you did something interesting with the establishment. Or you could make the Good guys y'know ... good. Either works. But as it is the "good" side is normally complicit and nothing productive is done with that in the dozens of books I've read.

Balance being the highest good is not the core of Dragonlance. It's a mistake that undermines the setting and the setting is actually improved if either it is eliminated or at the very least challenged even if the balance guys win.

As for the White Robes no one would have a problem with the white robes if the wizards (again, colour coded for your convenience like on a Saturday Morning Cartoon) were on the Lawful, Neutral, Chaotic axis rather than the Good, Neutral, Evil one. Or, in specific, the White Robes were Lawful Neutral.

Again, sounds like a great new setting somebody should publish.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So just because it's good enough for you, it should be good enough for everyone?

No, the new setting using some bits from Dragonlance and a lot of modern sensibilities should be good enough for everyone. That the point of making a new setting: that it works the way you want.

 

[Mind of tempest]

I think I figured out what bugs me about the death test, non of them should want that high a failure rate as that means fewer recruits nither good, evil or neutral would want fewer members to turn to their side so why not make a less dangerous test?

secondly, I think I have seen a death test make sense there needs to be a threat that if not trained against is utterly dangerous and it needs to be effectively un removable thus making the casualties acceptable to avoid the worse threat.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Of course you can. Entire comic book universes have been upended dozens of times, in crisis (or Crisis) after crisis and have managed to still exist with the same name. The details change. The story remains the same.

I loved The Sandman comics. I love The Sandman TV show and desperately hope for a second season. Changes were made in the show to reflect modern sensibilities. Some people had their gender and/or skin color changed. Some people, especially female characters, got stronger, more proactive roles. They didn't show on-screen rape like the comic had (and that rape was, in the comic, a character-defining moment for the rapist). Two characters got merged into one, and made into a much better (i.e., kinder and more story-logical) person in the process. Dream himself is somewhat kinder. The story was the same, and still just as good, but the details have made the story better for modern audiences--and quite frankly, better for me, a long-time fan, as well.

What is the story of Dragonlance? Keep that story, and improve the rest.

A lot of people stopped reading DC after each Crisis. (and yeah some started as well im sure). I dropped them because they flat out ruined Superman and the Bat Family for me. And yeah they've been trying to fix it ever since (Cassandra is a Batgirl again!).

Dropped Marvel when they split Peter and MJ.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A lot of people stopped reading DC after each Crisis. (and yeah some started as well im sure). I dropped them because they flat out ruined Superman and the Bat Family for me. And yeah they've been trying to fix it ever since (Cassandra is a Batgirl again!).

Dropped Marvel when they split Peter and MJ.

Exactly. Neither of those changes "kept the story together" for a sizable contingent of fans. I have no reason to believe WotC would do better.