2010: Is it Dragonlance? (hint)

[Vyvyan Basterd]

well, "an" could mean that there is only one "a", which would leave us with Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Mystara, Ravenloft, and Spelljammer.

[whisper]Mystara has two 'a's. [/whisper]

I agree that tricksy Rouse meant "just one" 'a' and with his second hint being a Dollar Sign I call Dark Sun as the quasi-confirmed leak.

 

[Dragonhelm]

Made it fresh and interesting? Yeah, God forbid that that would happen to Dragonlance, arguably the only setting that needs it more than FR did. :rollseyes:

As I understand it, DL has done a pretty good job of trashing itself over the past few decades. WotC has a much better track record, so give credit where it's due.

I do. To MWP, for not only bringing Dragonlance back to its roots, but also moving it forward in fresh and interesting ways. Their work has been exemplary.

I am, of course, biased. ;-)

 

[Dausuul]

Making drastic changes to the setting to 4E-ize it would hardly be a novelty. The books have already torn down and rebuilt pretty much every element of the original by now. If a 4E DL setting were to be made based on the state of the world in the books right this instant, with nothing added and nothing taken away, it would bear only a passing resemblance to the Dragonlance of "Chronicles" and "Legends."

Raistlin would still find his way into it, though. Doesn't matter how many times he dies, Raistlin will always come back in the end. Dragonlance can no more get rid of him than FR can get rid of Drizzt.

 

[Nymrohd]

But unlike Drizzt noone wants to get rid of Raistlin

 

[M.L. Martin]

But unlike Drizzt noone wants to get rid of Raistlin

Speak for yourself. Personally, I was disappointed to see the Archmunchkin show up in Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

As for DL making money . . . maybe. The setting's 'failed' or nearly so several times in the past--anecdotal evidence suggests that the module sales fell off once the novels got ahead of them, and regardless, the line's gone down to 'life support' or all-out cancellation several times, and has been 'relaunched' four times. (Time of the Dragon counts, IMO, because of the fact that virtually nothing for DL was published in the game line a year or two before that. Tales of the Lance was marketed as the big relaunch, then there were the Fifth Age game and the 3.5E version--and WotC waffled a bit on doing anything with the setting for 3E until SP/MWP made the deal to take up support.)

I'm sure the 3.5E line did well enough for MWP--but well enough for MWP and well enough by WotC are probably an order of magnitude's difference or more.

 

[Dausuul]

Speak for yourself. Personally, I was disappointed to see the Archmunchkin show up in Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

In the "War of Souls" trilogy, my pet theory was that the mysterious One True God would turn out to be alternate-timeline Raistlin, who'd found a way to slip out of his devastated world in the wake of the Chaos War and rejoin the primary timestream.

But of course, it was just Takhisis again, and Raistlin came back to help stop her. Again. Blah.

 

[ferratus]

I think there is an opportunity to reboot Dragonlance back to the Chronicles, but take all the good ideas from the ongoing series and merge it all together with 4e principles.

There have been so many new types of magic and story elements introduced that pretty much every 4e concept can be accommodated, and most of it can be woven together to work with the original six novels, and the historical novels (Elven and Dwarven Nations, Kingpriest Trilogy, Ergoth Trilogy, etc).

The question is how much fidelity should be kept to the 1e conceits. In 3e for example, the 3.5 DL designers concluded that wielding only a staff or dagger was merely a custom of the Order of High Sorcery, because it got in the way of multi-classing and you needed a crossbow at low levels to keep from blowing all your spells. Similar compromises would have to be made in 4e

 

[ferratus]

Of course, as a long term dragonlance fan, I wouldn't mind some experimentation with setting concepts, as long as it is interesting and consistent.

A couple of examples:

The Deva might be interesting as emerging in the world during the WotL to herald the return of the gods of light, with a backstory of being the clerics who left the world before the Cataclysm.

The Order of High Sorcery, rather than being divided by alignment, is instead divided into Warlocks, Wizards and Invokers (Black, Red and White Robes), so you can play a black robe without necessarily being evil, and the villain isn't necessarily colour coded for your convenience.

I think those are examples of 4e mechanics that are new and different to the setting, but in both cases can support existing themes.

 

[Stogoe]

If the setting turns out to be Dragonlance, and if there is word one in the books about Kender, I will flat out ignore the existence of the setting. Kender are no fun in a group - their schtick is "steal from the other players and cause the absolute most trouble possible." Not a fun experince for anyone but the kender's player.

I never played any 2e, but I would appreciate Al-Qadim or Dark Sun as the campaign setting. What would be the new class for Dragonlance, the Mystic?

 

[Nymrohd]

It's not so much the kender's fault but the fact that the race facilitates this kind of gameplay by problem players giving them an excuse for their problematic behaviour. Problem players will always be a problem by default anyway, kender just makes it slightly easier for them.

And yes I think DL because of the dozen cataclysms is very modular and could facilitate a lot of classes.