Dragonlance: Our LotR?

[Henry]

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

To this day, I still bemoan my inability to portray a proper Cockney accent so I can spout off the phrase, "Cheeky Little Blighter" as it was intended....

 

[hexgrid]

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.

This is pretty much how it went for me, too (except that the very first fantasy novels I read were The Chronicles of Prydain.) I discovered Dragonlance at about the same time I got into D&D, and the first Dragonlance module was one of the first adventures I ran.

I didn't read Tolkien until my mid-twenties, and was then embarrassed to realize that I read all those D&D novels in high-school with no idea how derivative they were.

 

[Zaukrie]

What is wrong with derivative anyway? It's not like most of Tolkien's work isn't derivative of mythology.

As for the OP, I can say that for my son, DL is his LoTR (at least in book form - the movies are LotR all the way - we'll see how the DL cartoon is).

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I didn't experience it that way, though I may be a little older and got into gaming a little younger. I'm not even a half-generation ahead of you, anyway. I don't see the lasting influence from DL in games aside from the Tasslehoff fetish that some people exhibit. Most of the people I knew that were into DL got there through D&D, not vice-versa. OTOH, I know a lot of people that would say "Oh, like Lord of the Rings" (or "The Hobbit") when you explained D&D. I'd be more inclined to think "Sword of Shannara" filled the post-LotR spot.

But whatever holds that fond spot in your heart is cool. It's the feeling, not the specifics, that we all share as gamers.

 

[Reynard]

I didn't read Tolkien until my mid-twenties, and was then embarrassed to realize that I read all those D&D novels in high-school with no idea how derivative they were.

To this day I have yet to read Sword of Shannara because I have been told it is a terrible Tolkien pastiche. yet, because I read DL before I read Tolkien, I don't mind that DL is a LotR pastiche. Like I said, due to the order in which I read them and when in my life and for what purposes, the LotR and the Chronicles are effectively "equal" in my mind, even if I know that LotR is far superior in every literary and academic way -- but then, it is far superior in every literary and academic way than pretty much everything on the "sci-fi/fantasy" shelf at the bookstore, simply because it was not ever intended to be popular literature.

But rather than head down the road of squabbling over the merits of LotR, I'd like to swing this back on topic: did you cry when Sturm died? I did.

 

[Henry]

I will say that Dragonlance was DEFINITELY easier to read than Lord of the Rings. To this day, I still can't get past their trekking to the Inn of the Prancing Pony - I always lose interest somewhere before that. Dragonlance moved at a pace I couldn't put down, and I've read the core six books multiple times. (Autmn Twilight, Winter Night, Spring Dawning, Time of the Twins, War of the Twins, and Test of the Twins).

 

[Technomancer]

I think Krynn -- both as a D&D setting and as a fictional world -- very much serves the same function as Middle Earth did for those born a generation before me.

I don't really care for either one, but I would think Toril is a stronger contender for that title than Krynn.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

The thing that was special with LotR that Dragonlance didn't have, too, was that by the time most of us got into LotR and gaming, etc. Tolkien was already dead, and the world was (subsequent actions of the estate aside) complete and self-contained.

With a new Dragonlance book out every week (it seemed) by different authors, it just diluted any lasting impact it might have had for me.

 

[teitan]

I seriously doubt it. While Dragonlance/Krynn is popular as fiction and as a campaign setting, it's hardly comparable for popularity and influence with LotR/Middle Earth.

I think you are missing his point. I think he is trying to say that Dl is to gaming as LOTR is to the general public.

 

[Zaukrie]

I can say with certainty my son really wants a Sturm miniature. He asked if I thought we'd get one in the next set or not. He really, really thought Sturm was a true hero, as do I (ya know, for a fictional character and all).