Dragonlance Covers (Warning - Big Images)

[Gaius]

What's this Age of Mortals all about? I stopped following the Dragonlance chronology right about the time the gods left Krynn and the SAGA system came out. I think that would be the Fifth Age. It would have been the whole shebang when Sturm's son was a knight of Takhisis and all that jazz.

So what's the Age of Mortals? I don't know about the War of Souls. Are the gods back? Three moons in the sky? Magic is working correctly again? Armies of evil dragons? I know people have mentioned dragon overlords and whatnot. What's up with that? Someone bring me up to speed. My interest in Dragonlance died when its heroes did.

Gaius, who thinks that the depiction of the Heroes of the Lance has always been spot-on

 

[Stormprince]

Will the books have enough stuff to indoctrinate/ update someone that hasn't touched a book since the original Dragonlance?

Oh yes, most definitely. Our goal from the very beginning was to take two unfortunately rather distinct fan bases, the "4th Agers" and the "5th Agers" and try to bring them together. Yet, every day it seems that there are still new people learning to love Dragonlance, and we definitely don't want them to feel left out. We tried to put more than enough into the game that even someone who hasn't read any of the books could very easily play, and yet hopefully, be inspired enough to want to read the books

Christopher Coyle

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Okay, count me DROOLING...

Finally, it looks like we're seeing some works that LOOK like the D&D that I know and love, not a glorified computer game. (The FR materials have done a good job too, but if the insides look as good as the outsides, these will take the cake).

And I'm getting that adventure epic- I can't wait to hit the roads of Krynn again...

 

[Stormprince]

OK, I'm a little lost. Are these pictures of covers for the 3E DL, or are we just taking a look at the good ol' art?

Two of the covers are the actually covers. The other three covers are production mock ups for distributers and the book trade, so that there's an image to go with the blurb in catalogues

Christopher Coyle

 

[Stormprince]

What's this Age of Mortals all about? I stopped following the Dragonlance chronology right about the time the gods left Krynn and the SAGA system came out. I think that would be the Fifth Age. It would have been the whole shebang when Sturm's son was a knight of Takhisis and all that jazz.

So what's the Age of Mortals? I don't know about the War of Souls. Are the gods back? Three moons in the sky? Magic is working correctly again? Armies of evil dragons? I know people have mentioned dragon overlords and whatnot. What's up with that? Someone bring me up to speed. My interest in Dragonlance died when its heroes did.

Gaius, who thinks that the depiction of the Heroes of the Lance has always been spot-on

Oh boy. *laughs!* I opened a can of worms here... okay.... how about this....


S

P

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S

P

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Okay... to not give away any HUGE spoilers, it's basically like this.

Yes, the Gods have returned with a vengeance.

Yes, the Three Moons once more grace the skies.

Some of the Dragon Overlords have been killed, but their depredations remain.

The minotaurs have finally forged an army strong enough to start striking against the continent.

The elves (all of the surface elves) are now a people without a home. All of them are now homeless wanderers, searching for a new nation.

To find out more... *begins to plug the novels, which are now all out in paperback!* ... read Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star, and Dragons of a Vanished Moon.

The world has changed, but there is now more than ever a need for heroes, with plenty of stories to be told!

Christopher Coyle

 

[Olive]

<snip spoilers>

see that sounds like a dragonlance i could get my teeth into!

do i have to read all the 5th age stuff to get the new trilogy?

 

[Tuerny]

One of my major complaints with previous versions of the Dragonlance settings is that it seemed to be more of a "novel" setting than a "campaign" setting. That is it seemed that all the big and important things were being done by the novel characters rather than being left to be resolved by players in home campaigns.

Will this be continuing for the Age of Mortals?

What I mean is you mentioned homeless elves and armies of minotaurs but if I decide to purchase the book and run a Dragonlance campaign am I going to find in the next novel that the situations that I was working into my campaign have been invalidated?

I mean, I am well aware that I could just ignore the novels, but that takes away from some of the benefits of using a published campaign setting.

So what is it?

 

[Stormprince]

see that sounds like a dragonlance i could get my teeth into!

do i have to read all the 5th age stuff to get the new trilogy?

No, not really, as the novel brushes upon a lot of the important events as some of them are resolved. Of course, I do advice reading the novels, but then of course, that's just me I tend to read everything I can get my hands on.

And, to simultaneously answer the next comment...

One of my major complaints with previous versions of the Dragonlance settings is that it seemed to be more of a "novel" setting than a "campaign" setting. That is it seemed that all the big and important things were being done by the novel characters rather than being left to be resolved by players in home campaigns.

Will this be continuing for the Age of Mortals?

What I mean is you mentioned homeless elves and armies of minotaurs but if I decide to purchase the book and run a Dragonlance campaign am I going to find in the next novel that the situations that I was working into my campaign have been invalidated?

I mean, I am well aware that I could just ignore the novels, but that takes away from some of the benefits of using a published campaign setting.

So what is it?

One of the purposes of the War of Souls trilogy was to reaffirm the fact that the world of Krynn is a vast place, with plenty of huge events unfolding across the world. Although the storyline was resolved, there were a TON of threads left hanging... the homeless elves, the minotaur empire, the fate of the Knighthoods, the future of the Towers of High Sorcery with the return of High Sorcery, lots of things. With Margaret helping to spearhead our side of things, as well as maintaining ties with the novel side of things, we are going to work very hard to balance the two. You may see things in the novel influence things in the game and vice versa, without stepping too far into each other's specialities. One of the events at the end of the War of Souls Campaign trilogy of adventures will have a MAJOR impact on the world, it will influence the novels, giving the players the sense that their actions are truly changing the world, without having to play out the roles dictated by pregenerated characters.

*blinks* Man, it's late... methinks I'm beginning to babble... I hope that answered your concern... if not, I'll try again tomorrow

Christopher Coyle

 

[The_lurkeR]

Thanks for the info Stormprince, I had no interest in the upcoming DL books until I read this thread.

 

[Kai Lord]

*hrms* We haven't started gathering artists for the Bestiary yet, but soon, I'll be choosing artists for the book!

I highly recommend Wayne Reynolds! Did you know that Wizards of the Coast let go their entire in-house art staff? Let that be to Dragonlance's benefit! Todd Lockwood, Sam Wood, Wayne Reynolds, Brom! But above all, Stawicki, Stawicki, Stawicki.

Nothing in 1st Edition D&D could compare to Dragonlance art, let those days return!

On to the next questions

Okay...

1. Will there be Regional feats ala Forgotten Realms?

2. Prestige Class for archers? Elven archers?

3. I'm just starting to read the War of Souls trilogy. Will this actually spoil some of the events in the Age of Mortals mega-adventure? If I were to play through the adventure, and want maximum enjoyment, would you recommend I wait till after I've played through it to read War of Souls?

Thanks for the teasers!