D&D General What Are Dragonlance's Weis & Hickman, and Actor Manganiello Cooking Up?

Actor and D&D superfan Joe Manganiello and Dragonlance co-author Tracy Hickman have both posted a cryptic image on their respective social medias showing themselves, along with Margaret Weis standing together in front of a large dragon statue at Wizards of the Coast's offices in Renton, Washington.

Hickman's image was accompanied by the words "Something is coming...", and in Manganiello's case "WE'RE BACK", to which Wizards of the Coast replied "Welcome back to the table!" A later photograph from Weis also included Laura Hickman and Dan Ayoub, who was named head of Dungeons & Dragons back in July of this year.

The posts have sparked speculation as to what they might mean, with guesses ranging from a revival of Manganiello's Dragonlance TV show project--which was no longer in development after he stated in February 2024 that "Dragonlance is not a property WotC are interested in developing further currently"--to a new Dragonlance-based D&D adventure.

Weis and Hickman co-wrote a new Dragonlance trilogy in recent years following a legal dust-up with Wizards of the Coast which was ultimately dismissed without prejudice, so it would seem that any bad blood from the dispute has been left in the past.

The question now remains--what are they all cooking up this time?

 

[Teemu]

And of course, the gods saw that none of those people were fit to save the world.

Obviously because the primary books were written in the 80s and at least one author clearly had some very colorist baggage! But that doesn't mean that a modern retelling couldn't use the material as is and still employ actors of varying ethnic backgrounds.

 

[Reynard]

I just watched the Character Sheet video on this and it seems kind of like a... nothing burger? Nothing has been announced. There's just a vague sense of mending fences.

 

[Velderan]

Ansalon has black people though. Ergothians are described and generally depicted as black. You also have the peoples of Khur and Nordmaar who would be brown or black too. And of course the other "nomadic" (as per the RPG books) peoples like in Abanasinia. Also, in canon, 300 years ago, the Cataclysm upended the societies of Ansalon and mass migrations ensued. There's actually very good reason to depict the peoples of Ansalon as very diverse looking.

This is true, but the one thing I will point out is there are some areas that are described as being extremely suspicious to outsiders. I think large ports like Palanthas or Port Balifor would be pretty diverse both in skin color and race, but places like Solace, Tarsis, and such would see less diversity as people were afraid to travel the open roads. That kind of migration probably mirrors the real world pretty well back in the middle ages, as people first began to really travel and trade opened up.

It's also worth mentioning the main character in the recent trilogy had a Solamnic father and an Ergothian (I think) mother who was described as being darker in complexion, so stuff like that is an example of what I meant upthread about the recent trilogy giving some indications on how Weis and Hickman might handle things today. There's another part that stood out to me when she was in Thorbardin and was surprised that the Theiwar (dark dwarves) were capable of good. Paraphrasing a bit, she was told all races have the capacity for good or evil and the Solamnian people were just as capable of doing terrible things.

I don't recall Goldmoon actually being described, skimming through that part again I don't see anything that would indicate a change there. Tasslehoff and kender for that matter haven't changed.

 

[GreyLord]

yeah, maybe that is not the point though. The story is not set in modern day London.

I think having every village be 25% black, 15% asian, 40% white, and whatever the rest is made up of (or whatever the mix is) in order to represent London to be much too restrictive and the opposite of inclusion and tolerance. Why can a story in Africa not have 90% black people, one in Japan 90% Japanese, etc. Represent the region it is set in rather than turning every Viking fishing village into a London population mix.

I know that DL is obviously fantasy, but it too has established characters / ethnicities and I see no reason why it cannot use that range, somewhat pushing on the boundaries, instead of having every location be without identity so it can resemble London.

The party in Dragonlance are from all over though. They aren't even from the same region, much less the same village. They are a motley crew of adventurers that have been gathered to Solace, but their origins are from all over.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Dumbar Mastermate was a PoC and he became the succesor of Par-Salian as master of the white robes.

I wouldn't be surprised if Theros Ironfeld had a cousin who later became an artificer living her own adventures in an independient animated show.

We are going to watch changes from the original novels, among other reasons to add more details, merchandising or to readjust the rythm of the story.

Do you think the age of despair could be retconected radically?

 

[GreyLord]

And of course, the gods saw that none of those people were fit to save the world.

What, we just forgot about Theros Ironfeld?

 

[wicked cool]

The fact that this is going to be an argument in my opinion will be a disaster for whatever this project is as it doesn’t work out in some cases with a divided fandom
I don’t remember Wei’s or Hickman ever arguing until maybe recently that the art published in modules and or books was not how the characters were represented. You cast say Dakota fanning as tas or Denzel as Tanis etc etc this thing is a dud on arrival.
I’ve said it before I have 0 faith in Joe on this. He’s directed nothing/isn’t really a good actor and has passion with good looks but if he’s in it ans live action this is bad. I’m not even impressed with him as a d&d player and wouldn’t take him over anyone in the crit role table and he’s a dm but yet I’ve seen 5 seconds of his home game. My gut tells me hasbro isn’t going to give him a lot of money as they are barely talking about it. Your brought back Wei’s and Hickman and nobody 100% is sure what this is

 

[plecostomus]

I noticed it and, as I’ve stated before, that stuff is part of why I’m not a fan of Dragonlance as a book series or campaign setting. When I thought about the changes I would make to geb setting to remove that stuff, dumb writing/world building, and the problematic elements, I came to the conclusion that it would no longer be Dragonlance. At least, dedicated Dragonlance fans wouldn’t like it and would say it’s not Dragonlance.

I actually did this entire update process with Dragonlance for my first DM'd game this year. Quests From the Infinite Staircase lists Dragonlance as one of the settings for its first module. I thought the name sounded cool, and that led to a few months of reading about the setting.

To be clear, my experience playing D&D prior to this was in a semi-homebrew setting. So I sort of know Forgotten Realms (or at least Baldur's Gate) from BG3, but I'm not particularly attached to any official setting.

I've only read a few portions of Dragonlance books. A lot of my foundational knowledge for the setting was from a wiki, that I then corrected from more authoritative sources. I did go through this entire summary of the Dragonlance adventures and revisions from later editions as well. And, well, I watched the animated movie. I kind of wish I hadn't, but it makes me laugh whenever I think about it, so I guess in a way it has brought me joy.

And yeah, a lot of lore I had to dump. Not just because of all the racism-as-biology, but because certain concepts made no sense to me. The Balance is probably the biggest thing that I am just ignoring. And 5E's SotDQ still sort of references the Balance, so in that change I am going a step beyond what even WOTC has been getting rid of.

But my version still has dragonriding, dragonlances, orbs of dragonkind, a history of apocalypse and war and disappearance of divine casting, Takhisis and all her machinations, Lord Soth, the Wizards (Mages) of High Sorcery, the tragedies of minotaurs and irda, and events like the Silvanesti being so xenophobic that their civilization was destroyed. My cleric PC decided he would be a mystic in terms of the source of his power, and I thought it was so cool that Dragonlance had a built-in concept and history for this kind of "godless" cleric.

These were all things that I thought were unique and helped define the setting. By comparison, I did not think gully dwarves or irda sex curses were relevant, or would make the game more fun for players.

I know that some people define Dragonlance as the very specific story from the first modules/books. So just by having my campaign set outside the War of the Lance (I have it at the very last point in this timeline, 9 years after Takhisis dies and Paladine turns mortal) would make it "not Dragonlance".

But other people's opinions are vastly overrated when defining your own game. I encourage trying out some setting immersion for settings you've never bothered with before this year. You might find something you like!

Or maybe WOTC will make it easy by doing the update of the original adventure for us and taking all the flack while introducing a new generation to the setting.

I will add these 3P Dragonlance modules I found and plan to run:

1. The Test of High Sorcery by Donathin Frye and Kienna Shaw - For your arcane caster - I'm really mad there are no equivalent modules for martials, like a Solamnic knight test or something, because this is wonderful.
2. Shadow of the Black Rose from Dragonlance Nexus - there is also a conversion that allows you to replace the Vecna: Eve of Ruin Krynn chapter with this

 

[Parmandur]

Then we need to ask as critics why did the gods make only white people? And rather than handwaving it and saying "they made black people too, they were just tucked offscreen this whole time" we should actually address it.

No, because it is all made up, it can simply be changed.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

No, because it is all made up, it can simply be changed.

How very double plus good.

No, it shouldn't be "changed". It should be acknowledged and improved upon. Shoving it under the rug does favors for nobody; it certainly doesn't make me as a brown-skinned fantasy fan suddenly feel more attached to Dragonlance.