Dragonlance, do you like it?

[Cam Banks]

Still... it doesn't matter how powerful your heroes become, or what adventures they have-- they're still going to be sitting in the shadow of the Companions. My exposure to post War of the Twins material is fairly limited, though.

That's unfortunately part of the problem. When creating further materials for gameplay in Dragonlance, we're hit with two contradictory yet perfectly understandable issues: that people remember the War of the Lance as it was played out in Chronicles and think the setting is too limited and only the Companions matter; and people who see anything new, revised, added, or changed and express frustration or complain that it isn't the same as it was in the War of the Lance as it was played out in Chronicles.

Ideally, folks would look at the new material, recall that it grew out of rather than remained fully within the original material, and see that there's a great deal of stuff to play with now that has 20 years of experience behind it to work with. In writing the current Age of Mortals campaign modules, I've made very sure to provide many options, alternate paths, explanations, and suggestions for how to run the campaign and not burden the DM or the players with those elements which they didn't necessarily like about the older modules. I'm not sure how successful this has been -Spectre of Sorrows is, in many ways, something of a leap of faith in that regard. The third and final part, Price of Courage will be a high-level (14th-20th level!) Dragonlance campaign adventure, which has never been done before. The heroes are going to have marked influence over the various factions, organizations, and events in the course of the story, because they ought to.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Bestiary of Krynn isn't available through the EN World store, bah.

 

[Cam Banks]

Bestiary of Krynn isn't available through the EN World store, bah.

It's out of print! There might be some copies floating around at other online vendors, and Sovereign Press might have some on sale at GenCon this year. A second printing or revised edition may be forthcoming, depending on how things go.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Dragonhelm]

The third and final part, Price of Courage will be a high-level (14th-20th level!) Dragonlance campaign adventure, which has never been done before. The heroes are going to have marked influence over the various factions, organizations, and events in the course of the story, because they ought to.

One thing I want to stress about the Age of Mortals trilogy too is that these modules are designed to be set up to where the heroes have a definitive impact on the world.


As for the so-called "humorous races" (kender, gully dwarves, and gnomes), I'll admit that they've had a bit too much focus on their stereotypes. That being said, though, there is a certain amount of movement to expand on peoples' perceptions, and to have a variety of ideas on how to play those races. For example, there's both true kender and afflicted kender (which might work better for those that love halflings). There's a neat prestige class called a kender nightstalker which is a kender mystic who speaks with the dead. You can see an example of the form of Nightshade Pricklypear in Amber and Ashes, by Margaret Weis. Spectre of Sorrows has a look at a group of gnomes who have taken on more rustic qualities.

With a little imagination, a DM can work with these races to achieve any number of results. Do the gully dwarves seem too silly? Create a cult of them dedicated to Morgion who wander the countryside spreading disease. Create themes for gnomish Life Quests, and come up with themes for kender that make them more than a "Tas Clone".

And if you think a kender can't fit in a dark themed game, think again! An old DM of mine had a kender in his Cataclysm era game. The kender taunted soldiers in the service of Istar once upon a time, and they cut his tongue out for it. When our characters met him, he was a tragic figure who had lost his innocence.

So I think there's more to those humorous races than the stereotypes. It requires a little work from DM's, but no more so than with any race in any world.

 

[Ranger REG]

You misunderstand. It's the Fifth Age and SAGA that brought me back to DL after I burned out on the novels in 1991. It's the way they took the setting for 3.5E, combined with other baggage, that I'm not interested in. No offense to the design team--it's just a different direction than I care for.

Ugh! I was driven away from DL because of SAGA, and that period of time when magic have gone away ... again.

I try not to read all of the Dragonlance novels as some doesn't actually appeal to me, like most of the Prelude series.

 

[Akrasia]

DL gave me a bad taste in my mouth back in the 80s that still hasn't gone away.

Hop aboard the dragon railroad!!

My sentiments precisely.

I've never understood the appeal of DL -- either the novels or the RGP products. :\

 

[RFisher]

I enjoyed the first to novel trilogies, but I didn't care for any of the later books that I read. (So, I stopped reading anything DL after a while.)

I've considered running a DL game but never have--except for running DL1 once. My current group has expressed active disinterest.

 

[painandgreed]

The modules seemed well done and the world had bits that I might glean for my own world, but I'd never be caught dead playing the setting. There are certain things like kender and gully dwarves I just can't abide and I have come to realize that I usually just do not like playing with people who really enjoy the setting.

 

[kolikeos]

this setting really stinks!
for three reasons, two of them maybe coincidence.
-i really don't like the idea of dragons being the ordinary mount, dragons are alot more powerful then any humanoid and are very unlikely to act as amount for one.
-the first dragonlance novel i read was pretty bad (it wasn't the first in the series i think) and i never tried another since, maybe if i would've read another one instead i would have had a different opinion.
-the first and only time i played a dragonlance campaign was with a very bad dm, whom made me hate the setting ever since. maybe if i had another dm my opinion would be different.

 

[Shining Dragon]

From 'Dragons of Summer Flame' onward it really bit the dust big time. Once TSR wrecked the campaign I migrated off & won't ever be tempted back...

My feelings too.