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Dragonlance, do you like it?
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Ranger REG
Explorer
Be like me and my group and play from the Fourth Age to a different direction so we don't have to deal with the event when the gods went away (the Fifth Age "SAGA" cra- , err, thingie).Matthew L. Martin said:
Psychotic Jim
First Post
Hmm... There's a lot of thing about Dragonlance I like (tinker gnomes, Lord Soth, etc) and a few things I don't particularly care for (kender), so I wouldn't mind playing in a Dragonlance game. I haven't really read any of the novels and don't know much about the overall metaplot or greater setting, so I probably would never run a game there. For some reasion, get the feeling that capturing the essence of the setting a DM really has to be an insider deep in the Dragonlance fanbase. The 3E DLCS seems very cool and has some very interesting character options.
Forgotten Realms has a similar backhistory and metaplor to Dragonlance, but it has become so big and generic that it includes everything and the kitchen sink. In an ironic way, this helps me be able to run FR because you can include anything and give an explanation for it.
Forgotten Realms has a similar backhistory and metaplor to Dragonlance, but it has become so big and generic that it includes everything and the kitchen sink. In an ironic way, this helps me be able to run FR because you can include anything and give an explanation for it.
Darrin Drader
Explorer
Loved the books, but the RPG setting holds no interest for me. I would like to get the War of the Lance book, just for Nostalgia's sake. There are some good rules in the main setting book for aerial mounted combat.
demiurge1138
Inventor of Super-Toast
It's not really my cup of tea. I never read the novels, have paged through the sourcebooks and thought it was kind of cool, but not worth the cost to do a little exporting for my homebrew. I wouldn't mind owning a Bestiary of Krynn, but it's not at the top of my list.
Demiurge out.
Demiurge out.
I read the novels and played the adventures back in 1e days, but I never really enjoyed the adventures. Too linear, although I think draconians are cool, and I'd use them in any campaign. The Bestiary of Krynn is nice, but I think I'd rather pilfer from Dragonlance than play.
Pinotage
Pinotage
Green Goblin
Explorer
I really liked the novels and i am really looking forward to get the revamped Warofthelance-Adventures. I will start to run this campaign as soon as I can get my hands on it. The epic feel, the part of the heroes in somme major changes in the gameworld, cool, just cool.
Viktyr Gehrig
First Post
Well, the new campaign setting hardback is really well done. Friend of mine has a copy, and it's lush, and I'd say pretty well-designed. I've taken material from it for my house rules.
The setting, as a setting for many, many novels, is actually pretty good. I've got fond memories of the Chronicles trilogy and the War of the Twins. I've read a handful of other Dragonlance novels that I've enjoyed, though I remember them less clearly.
As a playable world... it isn't. Not only is the metaplot inescapable, it's too thick for the PCs to meaningfully affect. There's no real continuity of sourcebooks, because of how drastically the setting changes every couple of years-- for comparison, the Forgotten Realms has had a number of major plot events that changed the campaign world, but none of those completely reshaped the world's cosmology or stripped (semi-permanently) the abilities of the player characters.
There's also the Tinker Gnomes and Kender-- either of which could have been a fine player race and a good plot element, if the racial stereotypes weren't turned up to 11. If the Gnomes were relatively compotent and the Kender didn't actually have to roll to resist blatant stupidity... Later mechanics have spared the small races the worst of these blunders, but they are still part of the idea of the race-- whether in the minds of players who insist on using these horrors or in the minds of DMs who try to enforce the stereotypes.
The setting, as a setting for many, many novels, is actually pretty good. I've got fond memories of the Chronicles trilogy and the War of the Twins. I've read a handful of other Dragonlance novels that I've enjoyed, though I remember them less clearly.
As a playable world... it isn't. Not only is the metaplot inescapable, it's too thick for the PCs to meaningfully affect. There's no real continuity of sourcebooks, because of how drastically the setting changes every couple of years-- for comparison, the Forgotten Realms has had a number of major plot events that changed the campaign world, but none of those completely reshaped the world's cosmology or stripped (semi-permanently) the abilities of the player characters.
There's also the Tinker Gnomes and Kender-- either of which could have been a fine player race and a good plot element, if the racial stereotypes weren't turned up to 11. If the Gnomes were relatively compotent and the Kender didn't actually have to roll to resist blatant stupidity... Later mechanics have spared the small races the worst of these blunders, but they are still part of the idea of the race-- whether in the minds of players who insist on using these horrors or in the minds of DMs who try to enforce the stereotypes.
Simon Collins
Explorer
I use the DL campaign setting as my standard campaign setting (and have done for the past ten years or so). Reasons why?
1. I like the epic fantasy feel - the over-arcing plots, the good vs evil theme, the focus on character and story.
2. Ansalon (never mind the other continents) has a plethora of unexplored areas that allows me to develop my own adventures completely unrelated to the metaplots of the gaming and novel material. This makes it quite possible to run a standard dungeon crawl when my players and I are in the mood for it. I can also mess with the good vs evil thing and run a 'grey' adventure with scheming local politics. The standard setting need not restrict DMs.
3. To play devil's advocate regarding some of the previous comments in the thread, there is an advantage to the way the world has changed so much - bearing in mind the potential for time travel in DL, it means I can take my group anywhere in the history of the DL world for very different types of adventure.
There's plenty of stuff in DL I don't like too - some pretty iconic stuff - I hate DL gnomes, I'm not massively keen on kender, and I didn't like the dragon overlords (and other iconic characters) impinging so much on the metaplot. But when I run my games, I mostly ignore that stuff. I tone down my kender, I tend to use the dragon overlords as distant plot devices rather than in-your-face villains, and I blow up most gnomes before they get anywhere near an adventure of mine. I believe DL is there to be used and abused.
Those who don't like certain aspects of DL should look at the existing and upcoming product lists for DL:
Liked the old novels and original DL gaming series? A 3.5 conversion is on its way of the original series.
Don't like them? A completely new mega-adventure is 2/3 completed, mostly unrelated to the original series, several decades on. Its even got cool dungeon crawls in.
Don't like the new Chaos War/Age of Mortals thing? Pick up the War of the Lance (or upcoming Legends of the Twins) hardback and run your games back before it got 'so screwed up by WotC'. I'm expecting they'll release sourcebooks for previous ages too.
And as many people have said, there's plenty to mine for your own games outside the DL setting, too, with products covering arcane and (upcoming) divine magic, and the excellent bestiary.
/fanboy rant ;-)
But, horses for courses, nothing can appeal to all of the people all of the time (to mix my metaphors). I just believe that DL can offer excellent gaming for old school DL fans and to some of those who found the old DL not to their tastes.
Simon Collins
1. I like the epic fantasy feel - the over-arcing plots, the good vs evil theme, the focus on character and story.
2. Ansalon (never mind the other continents) has a plethora of unexplored areas that allows me to develop my own adventures completely unrelated to the metaplots of the gaming and novel material. This makes it quite possible to run a standard dungeon crawl when my players and I are in the mood for it. I can also mess with the good vs evil thing and run a 'grey' adventure with scheming local politics. The standard setting need not restrict DMs.
3. To play devil's advocate regarding some of the previous comments in the thread, there is an advantage to the way the world has changed so much - bearing in mind the potential for time travel in DL, it means I can take my group anywhere in the history of the DL world for very different types of adventure.
There's plenty of stuff in DL I don't like too - some pretty iconic stuff - I hate DL gnomes, I'm not massively keen on kender, and I didn't like the dragon overlords (and other iconic characters) impinging so much on the metaplot. But when I run my games, I mostly ignore that stuff. I tone down my kender, I tend to use the dragon overlords as distant plot devices rather than in-your-face villains, and I blow up most gnomes before they get anywhere near an adventure of mine. I believe DL is there to be used and abused.
Those who don't like certain aspects of DL should look at the existing and upcoming product lists for DL:
Liked the old novels and original DL gaming series? A 3.5 conversion is on its way of the original series.
Don't like them? A completely new mega-adventure is 2/3 completed, mostly unrelated to the original series, several decades on. Its even got cool dungeon crawls in.
Don't like the new Chaos War/Age of Mortals thing? Pick up the War of the Lance (or upcoming Legends of the Twins) hardback and run your games back before it got 'so screwed up by WotC'. I'm expecting they'll release sourcebooks for previous ages too.
And as many people have said, there's plenty to mine for your own games outside the DL setting, too, with products covering arcane and (upcoming) divine magic, and the excellent bestiary.
/fanboy rant ;-)
But, horses for courses, nothing can appeal to all of the people all of the time (to mix my metaphors). I just believe that DL can offer excellent gaming for old school DL fans and to some of those who found the old DL not to their tastes.
Simon Collins
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