D&D General Did Dragonlance/Krynn exist in 4e canon?

[Parmandur]

I would expect both settings to remain pretty static in the 5e era, with no further development... but agreed, will be interesting to see! (I expect much the same of the Realms, once those 2024-5e guidebooks come out next year.)

Yeah, most likely one and done (or two and done, for FR). It will be interesting to see what they do, if they are keeping things in the 1490s DR or moving it a little forward to set a new baseline. Personally, I would rest everything to the Grey Box when the FR was the most interesting, but 8 doubt theybwill do that officially. But past thise books, references to those Settinfa will mostly be in Advenproducts saying "you can put this here on that map" which is for the best.

I do reckon thst, sooner or latter, we will see the DL modules redone for 5E.

The current official stance that the novels are their own canon, not linked to 5e canon, is probably very welcome to Weis and Hickman, since they never seemed particularly happy factoring in lore developments or retcons from the RPG side. (Though they seemed cool with matching then-current metaplot developments in the Sovereign Press 3e products, so maybe that's changed over time.)

Yeah, separating out the idea that Salvatore or Weis/Hickman novels represent a part of some consistently maintained "metaplot" was no doubt a big part of why WotC put this out there.

 

[mamba]

I don't suppose you (or any other folks more expert in DL than me in this thread) could summarize the big-picture changes?

I don’t think there were any big picture changes, they had some stray orc in some adventure when orcs do not exist in DL and the 2e setting book spelled that fact out when the 1e one was silent on the topic, small stuff like that. The continent and War of the Lance remained unchanged, 2e is just the first time DL got a proper setting box.

If you want an exhaustive list of changes, your best bet is

Tales of the Lance: Contradictions and things I don't like about it. v.2.0 - Dragonlance Nexus

The complete critique of the Tales of the Lance set. This is the key to understanding canon controversies. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

I hold it more with Appelcline in the Tales of the Lance description ‘Tales of the Lance "clarifies contradictions, corrects errors, and fills in information omitted from earlier products."’, even though it might have had some mistakes of its own (a mistake does not a retcon make, in either direction)

 

[mamba]

I do reckon thst, sooner or latter, we will see the DL modules redone for 5E.

as three books or compressed into one? I don’t think they would spend three books on it, but a new take in one book… who knows

 

[JEB]

If you want an exhaustive list of changes, your best bet is

Tales of the Lance: Contradictions and things I don't like about it. v.2.0 - Dragonlance Nexus

The complete critique of the Tales of the Lance set. This is the key to understanding canon controversies. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

Yep, that was the one I found, but was hoping for something easier to read (and less plainly biased). Thanks anyway!

 

[Parmandur]

as three books or compressed into one? I don’t think they would spend three books on it, but a new take in one book… who knows

One book: Quests from thebInfinite Staircase shows that WotC isn't afraid to edit or refine the old TsR stuff now, but even fairly straight it would be doable.

 

[mamba]

Yep, that was the one I found, but was hoping for something easier to read (and less plainly biased). Thanks anyway!

yep, hard to read and mostly nitpicky stuff between all kinds of sources (books, adventures, DL5 as the first ‘sourcebook’, DLA as the second (light) sourcebook, and TotL as the first proper box)

Last time we had a DL retcon discussion it was mostly about 2e retconning out orcs when 1e simply forgot to mention that they do not exist and they got accidentally included in some adventure or book… Hickman was very clear from the start that they do not exist and that they had draconians in their stead, so not a retcon but an omission (in DLA) and a mistake (wherever they were used).

The other changes are not any bigger either, they are mostly in the Krynn history with no impact on the war (and probably mostly clarifications with the occasional mistake thrown in). To me DL of 1e to 3e is consistent, without any retcons, but then I have not looked at every detail.

5e definitely is a retcon in several minor ways and the major way of messing with the timeline by the heroes of the lance now not discovering the gods first because some other people in the 5e adventure now do before them, WotC tries their best to gloss over that however

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I do reckon thst, sooner or latter, we will see the DL modules redone for 5E.

I very much doubt it. The adventure and board game were not exactly huge hit, and with my under 40s players Dragonlance draws even more of a blank than Greyhawk.

And WotC are not exactly inclined to do Weis and Hickman any favours.

 

[mamba]

And WotC are not exactly inclined to do Weis and Hickman any favours.

how is it a favor to them, they won’t get any benefit from it, apart from possibly name recognition for them or the setting

 

[Parmandur]

I very much doubt it. The adventure and board game were not exactly huge hit, and with my under 40s players Dragonlance draws even more of a blank than Greyhawk.

And WotC are not exactly inclined to do Weis and Hickman any favours.

Still, though, the original modules have a strong reputation just as D&D Adventures thatbI have a hard time believing the Gen Xers in charge wontake advantage of sooner or latter. They are halfway through brining Gygax up to 5E. They just published a 5E update of a Hickman Adventure like 4 months ago (and they were not precious about reconfiguring it, either).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

how is it a favor to them, they won’t get any benefit from it, apart from possibly name recognition for them or the setting

Younger players (meaning under 40s) would want to read the novels. It would be of huge financial benefit for them.