Dragonlance 4e in 2010?

[The Little Raven]

But fanon is not canon, it is fanon, and, at best, Expanded Universe. Apocryphal.

Wait, are you saying that material in official published gaming materials, vetted by the creators of the setting and approved by the owners of the property, is fanon?

 

[Cam Banks]

If that's what happened then it'd be super. And if it ever does happen that way, you come and let me know.

I think I just did let you know.

Seriously, I don't quite get your implication. You're aware this is a vibrant campaign setting with many authors and contributors, aren't you? And that during the 3.5 era, we did our best—working with Margaret, Tracy, other novelists, and Wizards of the Coast—to bring it together and make it consistent and playable?

I get that people don't like all of it, and once the game books reach your hands you're totally free to do what you want with them, but I think it's a bit much to say it's all apocryphal fanon and ego-stroking.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Dragonhelm]

And I would like to point out to the viewing "audience" what I said on that thread, my dear Dragonhelm, is that this only amounts to an "official rumor" which is an oxymoron.
You're a great boon to the DL community, but I think you jumped the gun on this one. This could go south *so* easily. I'd wait until there was some sort of confirmation from WotC, not necessarily of releasing the setting, but at to least acknowledge that there are talks being finalized.

You're right that plans could easily change. I don't think we jumped the gun, though. This is Dragonlance news, and it needed reporting. If things change, we will report that as well.

As for Athans' comment, that could very have well been referring to the recent snaffu WotC has had with Weis and Hickman over the novels, right?

Well, he mentioned something about DL being alive and well for the next 25 years and that it was definitely a D&D brand.

On the issue of Dragonlance and 4e, the new edition seems to be relatively well received among the fanbase, and makes it easier to do a lot of dragonlance tropes.

I agree. For example, a person wanting to play a Knight of the Rose can just play a warlord. No extra class is needed for that. In fact, most of the knighthood roles are easily done with base classes.

There isn't only one kind of PoL, with all others are incapable of being a 4E setting. For one, PoL captures a wide range of possibilities (of which Krynn certainly is one), and for two, PoL is merely the default setting, not the only kind of setting you can use 4E rules in.

I wanted to highlight this. Points of light can definitely take multiple forms. Also, not every setting has to be a points of light mentality. The beauty of D&D of any edition is that it is a toolset that can be used to represent a wide variety of games.

Whew! Got through page 2 of this thread! That'll teach me to do things like work, sleep...

 

[Shemeska]

I keep seeing this, but...

Part of Athas' schtick was that it was isolated from other planes. The only planar connections, IIRC, were elemental. And for those purposes, the Elemental Chaos works just as well as four separate elemental planes.

So really, why does it matter what cosmology may exist beyond Athas, if Athas can't reach it and isn't affected by it?

Not quite. Athas was largely isolated in terms of the outer planes and the Astral due to the Gray and the Black. It still had connections to the elemental planes. But it's an important point to note that the disconnect was mostly in terms of Athasian's getting off of Athas. It was still possible (though very difficult) to have stuff enter Athas (and usually get trapped).

There was a major githyanki impact in Athas's past (the athasian gith are the warped, stranded descendants of that), and Dregoth the undead sorcerer king had an artifact that he'd used to travel the planes.

There were quite a few references to Athas out on the planes.

 

[Cam Banks]

I wanted to highlight this. Points of light can definitely take multiple forms. Also, not every setting has to be a points of light mentality. The beauty of D&D of any edition is that it is a toolset that can be used to represent a wide variety of games.

That said, I would argue that Dragonlance was one of the original Points of Light campaign settings. It was certainly set up initially as a sort of post-apocalyptic setting, and most people didn't travel further than their own town or village. Over time, and especially after the various wars, things have changed in that respect, but the feeling is still there.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Dragonhelm]

Luckily, just like with Star Wars, you can dial back the clock to any time you like with Dragonlance and have about as much fun as is humanly possible. I know this to be objectively true.

I'll second this. I've often said that Dragonlance is a "setting of settings," both in terms of eras of play and locales (i.e. Ansalon, Taladas, Adlatum). You can play in any time you wish, whether it's the War of the Lance, Chaos War, War of Souls, the fall of Istar, the Third Age, the Third Dragon War, and so on. You can play on multiple continents, and there are six alternate timelines in Legends of the Twins. There's something fun for everyone!

What has energized me about Star Wars of late are the expanded eras of play. I'm somewhat familiar with the Tales of the Jedi materials, but that got expanded with the Knights of the Old Republic games. So now there's a sourcebook covering that. Or "The Force Unleashed." I think there's a Legacy era book too. Point is, this adds so many new options for Star Wars gaming. We can do the same with Dragonlance.

 

[Dausuul]

...there are six alternate timelines in Legends of the Twins. There's something fun for everyone!

I remember once working out a backstory whereby the Dark Sun world of Athas was actually Krynn, a couple thousand years later, in the timeline where Raistlin killed all the gods.

 

[ferratus]

Sure, you can play the WotL era of play even as the storyline of Krynn continues onwards. You can also play using the setting information in the 3e FRCS rather than the 4e FRCS if you are a fan of that setting.

But you don't really need to buy a Campaign Guide if you feel that the continuity hasn't been kind to what made the campaign setting enjoyable in the first place. So if there is no reboot that brings Takhisis and Paladine back, brings back one of the elven kingdoms, brings back the Hylar life tree, and brings back Lord Soth etc. I'm certainly not going to be interested. I guess the gamble is whether the customer base is interested in the new setting more than the old one.

 

[Ares]

I think I just did let you know.

Seriously, I don't quite get your implication. You're aware this is a vibrant campaign setting with many authors and contributors, aren't you? And that during the 3.5 era, we did our best—working with Margaret, Tracy, other novelists, and Wizards of the Coast—to bring it together and make it consistent and playable?

I get that people don't like all of it, and once the game books reach your hands you're totally free to do what you want with them, but I think it's a bit much to say it's all apocryphal fanon and ego-stroking.

Cheers,
Cam

I sure everyone did they're best, and I've said nothing but good things about everyone involved in the DL3e project. That being said, it worries me that there were several times in which stuff was snuck in that had nothing to do with the novels or any other prior gaming materials.
Now when I saw that stuff I was like "oh my, how clever. But that's not Dragonlance". Many of these things came as modifications of earlier DL Nexus stuff. That is a textbook example of fanon-to-canon.

I really don't know how I can make myself any clearer. The DL 3e books were quite clever and nice and nobody is saying otherwise, it just took a few liberties it shouldn't have. I'm not vilifying anyone, I don't think anyone was sitting around while curling their mustache and snickering, I just think that many of the ol' DL Nexus guys snuck some of their stuff in that had no reference to anything and that was inappropriate.

One thing that the Dragonlance fanbase strives on is consistency. Cam said that he doesn't really gauge the message boards (i.e. this one) as a real measure of the fanbase, yet if you look at this thread, the majority of the older fans left DL once it got a little warped. Comparing it to FR, which has always thrived on change, is like comparing apples and oranges.

 

[teitan]

Wanting to get all things DL, I then bought the Tales of the Lance boxed set (2E) and it was "OK". Not horrible, not brilliant.

Horrible is the right word. Just look at the map and see if you notice anything... out of place... LOL