Dragonlance: Our LotR?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think you missed my point entirely. I didn't mean "our LotR" as in people born in the mid to late 70s. I meant "out LotR" as in gamers, particularly D&D gamers, born in the mid to late 70s.

Not me. LotR is my LotR.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I was born in the mid '70s (1973) and I was reading LotR and Dragonlance for the first time at exactly the same time. I don't equate the two.

 

[pawsplay]

I say, "No." A lot of Dragonlance stuff is strictly DL. There are no orcs; instead, goblins, ogres, and minotaurs fill the role of minions, and they have a culture of their own. Wizardry, in DL, has its source in the divine. It has no halflings, instead, it has kender, which along with gnomes possess a uniquely DL form of insanity. It is a setting where the practice of clerical magic once dwindled. It has Knights instead of paladins.

In short, virtually everything about it is variant, and it simply doesn't work as a cultural bible for D&D.

Mystara is D&D's Middle Earth, and Greyhawk is its Hyperborea.

 

[Reynard]

Not me. LotR is my LotR.

See, I love LotR, too. But a) I didn't read it until later in high school, and b) I have a degree in literature. Therefore, I look at LotR from an academic perspective, with a critical eye and its value as honest-to-goodness literature always in the back of my head. What's more, I have used ME as a gaming setting exactly twice. By contrast, I read the Chronicles when I was in junior high, beofre I knew the first thing about "literature" and have played in the DL setting more times than I care to count (or admit, even). It seems to me that most people 10 years older than me think of LotR much the same way I think of DL, as opposed to academically.

 

[Reynard]

I say, "No." A lot of Dragonlance stuff is strictly DL. There are no orcs; instead, goblins, ogres, and minotaurs fill the role of minions, and they have a culture of their own. Wizardry, in DL, has its source in the divine. It has no halflings, instead, it has kender, which along with gnomes possess a uniquely DL form of insanity. It is a setting where the practice of clerical magic once dwindled. It has Knights instead of paladins.

In short, virtually everything about it is variant, and it simply doesn't work as a cultural bible for D&D.

Mystara is D&D's Middle Earth, and Greyhawk is its Hyperborea.

I am obviously not communicating my meaning well at all.

Therefore, I respectfully withdraw the question.

 

[Accursed]

My sesibilities aren't the issue. this issue is that mods usually use red when they are trying to get a point across -- and if you haven't noticed, there's been a lot of mod activity around the last few days. It was a simple request and one that didn't require a snarky response, thanks.

EDIT: Wrote this while Henry was typing, I guess. I didn't mean to get huffy.

My apologies if I seemed "snarky", twasn't my intent at all. "Cheeky" was what I was aiming for.

 

[mmu1]

I'm going to be 30 in a few months, and LotR is the only book which has permanently colored my perceptions of fantasy. I've read it first when I was 12 or so, having read The Hobbit a year or two before that.

Sorry, but DL has never even come close to seeming like the living, breathing place that Middle Earth has always been, for me. (I read it in my early teens, and even then I thought it was merely ok)

 

[Henry]

As for Dragonlance:

Dragonlance was indeed my "Lord of the Rings." It was only years later, when I got to actually read Tolkien, that I realized how many conventions and themes had been borrowed from Tolkien in Dragonlance. Heck, the stories even have hundreds of parallels, from Ruined dwarf cities, to tragic heroes, to a magic Macguffin, to a Sauron-entity, to the gods of good interacting through old wizards (though Fizban could be seen as Gandalf and Tom Bombadil rolled into one) -- there's a ton of Middle-earth hidden in Dragonlance's tale, whether accidentally or intentionally.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I grok what your saying. I didn't read the DL stuff when it was new; I didn't really get into RPGs until the late 80s and was pretty limited on access to gaming material. It wasn't until college that I, and lots of friends, really got exposure to the DL novels. It probably wouldn't have had as much impact if four or five of us weren't reading the books at the same time, spawning several DL campaigns.

I actually run a variant DL game now. Been running for 6 years so it predates the 3.5 books plus I ignored the existence of Saga so it's completely diverged anyway. the world is pretty rich in flavor, especially when you factor in the Taladas material. Dragonlance will always be a fond memory for me, regardless of what stupidity the publisher might do, even if some of the details tend to get (metaphorically) stuck in my teeth.

 

[Accursed]

I am obviously not communicating my meaning well at all.

Therefore, I respectfully withdraw the question.

Don't. As a big time fan of Dragonlance I understand completely what you mean and I personally think in a similiar vein.