Dragonlance DRAGONLANCE LIVES! Unearthed Arcana Explores Heroes of Krynn!

The latest Unearthed Arcana has arrived and the 6-page document contains rules for kender, lunar magic, Knights of Solamnia, and Mages of High Sorcery.

In today’s Unearthed Arcana, we explore character options from the Dragonlance setting. This playtest document presents the kender race, the Lunar Magic sorcerer subclass, the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery backgrounds, and a collection of new feats, all for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

Kender have a (surprisingly magical) ability to pull things out of a bag, and a supernatural taunt feature. This magical ability appears to replace the older 'kleptomania' description -- "Unknown to most mortals, a magical phenomenon surrounds a kender. Spurred by their curiosity and love for trinkets, curios, and keepsakes, a kender’s pouches or pockets will be magically filled with these objects. No one knows where these objects come from, not even the kender. This has led many kender to be mislabeled as thieves when they fish these items out of their pockets."

Lunar Magic is a sorcerer subclass which draws power from the moon(s); there are notes for using it in Eberron.

Also included are feats such as Adepts of the Black, White, and Red Robes, and Knights of the Sword, Rose, and Crown.

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[darjr]

I wonder if we’ll get pregens of these folks for 5e?

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The part about cynicism was in response to cbwjm. I think that the rest of my post stands; it can't be just nostalgia, inasmuch as 5e hasn't already employed some serious callbacks. But beyond that, in short:

Epic battles
Deep personal relationships (using a system like Strixhaven has makes total sense here)
A land and people scarred by the cataclysm
Lots of dragons
Lord Soth (hopefully)
Krynn (specifically Ansalon - I know I'd be aghast if Dragonlance came back but was set on Taladas or somesuch). This goes back to nostalgia, I know, but it's not Dragonlance without the tall Vallenwoods of Solace, the mountain kingdom of Thorbardin, the Towers of High Sorcery, the city of Palanthas, and so on.

What a Dragonlance reboot specifically should have, though, is a way to uncouple the story from the novels so that the PCs are 100% the focus of the tale. That's always been something the property struggled with.

I was being serious here. What should actually be in a Dragonlance campaign setting? It can't just be nostalgia.

 

[James Gasik]

I am having a hard time finding this guy (Waylorn)! He's in the re-release of Dragonlance Classics volume 3, but where he originally comes from is really elusive. I did find that his story is expanded on in later novels- apparently the guy was in hibernation since the First Dragonwar and was a contemporary of Huma, and woke up in the third!

Ok, found him, he's in DL10 but he's apparently an NPC. His bio (from DL14) says he's a powerful, yet mysterious figure and kind of a loon.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The questions seems to be becoming, "should a fantasy race be defined by any negative traits at all?"

The obvious answer is no, they shouldn’t.

It’s trivially easy to instead define them by positives, and traits we consider negative shouldn’t be racially inherent.

It'd be a shame if they couldn't be. Empowerment is a fantastic thing, but there should be room for overcoming adversity for those who feel comfortable roleplaying such things. For that matter, succeeding or failing at overcoming one's own flaws should be on the table as well. Not saying that can't come from any source other than one's own biological nature or cultural upbringing, but I'm certainly not going to say those must be excluded as sources either.

You don’t need a race to have inherent disabilities to have characters overcome adversity.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And sometimes the reasons of the censure are ridiculous, for example Winnie the pooh and Pepa Pig in China.

Mod Note:

This is unnecessarily opening a potential line of discussion on RW politics. Avoid that, please.

 

[DarkCrisis]

The part about cynicism was in response to cbwjm. I think that the rest of my post stands; it can't be just nostalgia, inasmuch as 5e hasn't already employed some serious callbacks. But beyond that, in short:

Epic battles
Deep personal relationships (using a system like Strixhaven has makes total sense here)
A land and people scarred by the cataclysm
Lots of dragons
Lord Soth (hopefully)
Krynn (specifically Ansalon - I know I'd be aghast if Dragonlance came back but was set on Taladas or somesuch). This goes back to nostalgia, I know, but it's not Dragonlance without the tall Vallenwoods of Solace, the mountain kingdom of Thorbardin, the Towers of High Sorcery, the city of Palanthas, and so on.

What a Dragonlance reboot specifically should have, though, is a way to uncouple the story from the novels so that the PCs are 100% the focus of the tale. That's always been something the property struggled with.

How is it any different from Faerun novels etc? Do your characters have to be the Heroes of the Lance? Can they not be over somewhere else saving the world in some other way? Crit Roles heroes are THE HEROES of Emon etc... can you not play in that area then?

If you play a Star Wars RPG should Luke and Vader and the Emperor etc etc not hae been a thing?

I really dont get how people cant play in a world that has an established tale in it. Its one point in time in one area of space. Theres a lot of space to tell your own stories without conflict.

Maybe the story is set 500 years before or after the War of the Lance and your PCs are the ones who fight and stop Takhesis.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Planetouched races are possible, although they would rather in cosmopolitan places with better tolerance, maybe in other planets of the Krynnspace. Of course in the age of the despair the tielflings wouldn't be wellcome in any place, and the order of the seekers had launched a witch-hunt against them. But maybe the aasimars would be welcome, and even too popular, as a sign of a family blessed by the gods (we guess when the aasimar is the descendant of a no-planetouchd marriage). I imagine elemental genasies as the offspring of genies and concubines.

Now I am thinking about the idea of powerful spellcasters before the Cataclysm created the equivalent of a equivalent to a fallout shelter, a demiplane with a group of followers. Maybe in someone happened something really horrible and the refuge became a dark domain.

* How would be the Krynnspace for the age of the despair? Maybe a group of binders (vestige pact magic) and totemist shamans (incarnum soulmelders) traveled to some far zone to create a secret lair, and later they sent explores and spies to other places.

* What is the relationship between Absalon and other continents? Maybe there are ships traveling for trade.

* I guess WotC will open the DMGuild for Dragonlance to see the creations by 3PPs and the reaction by the fandom, and "borrow" the most popular ideas.

 

[James Gasik]

Dragonlance actually brought a lot of people into D&D, so I can imagine there is a love for those stories and not wanting to meddle with them. To use the Star Wars example, some people feel it would be wrong to run in the Empire era and have the PC's be the heroes and defeat the Empire and have Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie be some random NPC's.

But yes, obviously, there are other tales, and other heroes in any world.

"Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice—and somewhere else, the tea is getting cold. Come along- we've got work to do!"

 

[doctorbadwolf]

How is it any different from Faerun novels etc? Do your characters have to be the Heroes of the Lance? Can they not be over somewhere else saving the world in some other way? Crit Roles heroes are THE HEROES of Emon etc... can you not play in that area then?

If you play a Star Wars RPG should Luke and Vader and the Emperor etc etc not hae been a thing?

I really dont get how people cant play in a world that has an established tale in it. Its one point in time in one area of space. Theres a lot of space to tell your own stories without conflict.

Maybe the story is set 500 years before or after the War of the Lance and your PCs are the ones who fight and stop Takhesis.

Even if it's set during the War of The Lance, it's not like the only major events that happened were those that involved Tanis and friends.

Hell, even when I run games in a homebrew world, there are heroes that are/were much greater than the PCs will be before their levels reach double digits, at least. I get that some people prefer to have their PCs just be something completely unlike the rest of the world, and play Herculese in a world that otherwise has no demi-gods anywhere, even in legends, but I find that sort of play completely unsatisfying.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Dragonlance actually brought a lot of people into D&D, so I can imagine there is a love for those stories and not wanting to meddle with them. To use the Star Wars example, some people feel it would be wrong to run in the Empire era and have the PC's be the heroes and defeat the Empire and have Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie be some random NPC's.

But yes, obviously, there are other tales, and other heroes in any world.

"Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice—and somewhere else, the tea is getting cold. Come along- we've got work to do!"

If it wasnt for Dragonlance, i would never have gotten into the Fantasy Genre and my life would be completely different today.