Dragonlance Dragonlance books to read for Dungeons and Dragons

[darjr]

What of the Dragonlance books should I read? Which are the best? For use at my table, for instance.

ive never read any of them.

 

[GSHamster]

The novels? The main ones are the original Chronicles trilogy and then the Legends trilogy. See DragonLance - Book Series In Order

After that you can pick and choose what you like. One problem is Dragonlance kept on having world-changing events, so I don't know which era your table is playing in. My favorite is the time just after those first two trilogies.

Novel-wise, I quite liked Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur. But I have fond memories of all the early 90s novels.

 

[Morrus]

As in novels or RPG book?

Novels the essential reading is the Chronicles trilogy, followed by the Legends trilogy. That’s the core of the setting and all you need.

 

[darjr]

As in novels or RPG book?

Novels the essential reading is the Chronicles trilogy, followed by the Legends trilogy. That’s the core of the setting and all you need.

Really?! Good to know!

mad far as RPG books, what should I read? What adventures are iconic or the best ones. What should or can I avoid?

 

[Morrus]

Really?! Good to know!

mad far as RPG books, what should I read? What adventures are iconic or the best ones. What should or can I avoid?

The core adventure series is for 1E, but has been updated/revised/compiled a few times. Not for 5E though.

It’s adventure modules DL1-DL13 (I think it was 13). They follow the exact same story that the Chronicles trilogy does.

The original hardcover setting book is Dragonlance Adventures, also for 1E, but I don’t feel it’s particularly essential.

 

[el-remmen]

I agree with Morrus that the hardcover 1E book Dragonlance Adventures is not very useful. The adventures are good for getting stats and maps of sites from the novels, but they assume (at least the original versions) the players play the same characters from the novels, and even if they don't each module must end where the equivalent novel or chapter ended and in the same way for the next one to make sense, leading to some pretty frustrating game experiences, in my opinion. I never looked at any DL stuff past 1E, though - so can't speak to that.

 

[RobJN]

See also: Penny Arcade - Comic - Double-Booked

 

[dave2008]

The novels? The main ones are the original Chronicles trilogy and then the Legends trilogy. See DragonLance - Book Series In Order

After that you can pick and choose what you like. One problem is Dragonlance kept on having world-changing events, so I don't know which era your table is playing in. My favorite is the time just after those first two trilogies.

Novel-wise, I quite liked Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur. But I have fond memories of all the early 90s novels.

Outside Chronicles I was going to recommend Legend of Huma and Kaz the Minotaur too!

 

[Dire Bare]

The wikipedia page for Dragonlance is pretty good, and lists the core Dragonlance stories (mostly) by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

It's been a long time since I've read any of them, but I loved (most of) the books as a young adult in the late 80s and 90s. The original trilogy was Weis & Hickman's first foray into novel writing, and it shows, but they remain classics. W&H get much better with the later Dragonlance stories, as well as their other non-Dragonlance novels.

Outside the core stories by W&H, there are over 100 additional Dragonlance novels. Some continue the stories of the main characters from Chronicles, or dive into their pasts. Others do the same for nations of the various peoples of Krynn (elves, dwarves, etc). There's even a few that aren't "history" focused and tell new stories with new characters. Of course, with that many books, some are great, some are terrible, and most fall in-between and are "OK". I enjoyed them all, with the exception of the humorous small people stories focused on gnomes, kender, and gully dwarves which I found not all that funny and very cringey.

In addition to the core stories, consider reading "The New Adventures", which are a YA series of books with entirely new characters. Aimed at the young side of YA (Young Adult), they are still pretty good reads IMO.

 

[el-remmen]

I didn't know there was a YA Dragonlance series! My wife is a YA author (though she writes thrillers, not fantasy) so I tend to sample different YA books. I will need to look into these.