Dragonlance: Our LotR?

[freyar]

If you count the audio books and dramatizations my wife has gotten me, I probably "read" LotR around once a year. At some point I did read the actual books that much, but I'm often busy reading D&D sourcebooks these days. BTW, for fans, I'd recommend especially "The JRR Tolkien Audio Collections" for readings by JRR and Christopher themselves (from Harper Audio/Caedmon). There's something about the author himself reading "Riddles in the Dark" from The Hobbit that just gets me.

I have to say that my teary moment is when Sam and Frodo wake up and hear the minstrel's song toward the end. Some Mercedes Lackey Valdemar books have done that to me, too (even if they seem pretty much derived from McCaffrey's Pern).

 

[GAAAHHH]

I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Dragonlance around the same time and I liked them equally well. I was a lot younger then, but I have read a lot of books since then, and I always remember both series fondly.

Kender aren't so bad, once you get used to them (although players using them as an excuse to steal from the party really gets me mad). But Tinker Gnomes deserve a special place in the lowest levels of the Abyss.

 

[Reynard]

Kender aren't so bad, once you get used to them (although players using them as an excuse to steal from the party really gets me mad). But Tinker Gnomes deserve a special place in the lowest levels of the Abyss.

Indeed. Kender tend to be a player problem -- that isto say, some players will tend to take kender asan excuse to be a pain in the posterior. But both gully dwarves and tinker gnomes; these are the worst of the worst. I have never played or run a DL game in which either of these character races were played in a way that added to everyone's fun, rather than detracted from it.

 

[JRRNeiklot]

JR, before you, there was people saying the same thing about this Tolkien guy and how his fiction couldn't hold attention nearly as much as stuff from authors like Howard, Lewis, Leiber, and Moorcock. Who was this guy saying this kind of stuff... I think his name was Gary something-or-other...

And I'm a big fan of those guys too. To me Tolkien is neither better or worse than those, just...different. But comparing LotR to Dragonlance is like comparing Shakespeare to John Valby.

Hell, I LIKED Dragonlance. It's still a good read, well, the first two trilogies anyway, but it's no LotR.

 

[Mycanid]

Not me. LotR is my LotR.

QFT!!!

 

[Mycanid]

Eh, even so, I think the LotR of gaming is still just LotR.

Fraid I agree with this one too.

 

[Mycanid]

Hmm ... this has actually been a pretty thoughtful thread. Many thanks to all.

Before I say anything I should say out front that Tolkien is and has been my favorite fantasy author. Also that I read him (when I say "him" I mean the Hobbit AND the LotR) about once a year and listen to the "books on tape" about 2 or 3 times a year ... sometimes abridged, sometimes unabridged versions.

That being said... I first read him when I was about 10, around the exact same time I came across DnD ... lessee ... this was in 1979. When DL came out I read them and thought they were only okay stuff.

Upon reflection two things bound up with the OP come to mind.

1.) I just don't know whether or not it would be accurate to say that DL is to DnD'ers what Lotr is to non-gamers in the realm of fantasy. I know many, many gamers who just didn't like DL - either the setting or the fiction. Equally I know many gamers for whom JRRT was boring and uninspiring.

2.) OTOH, I think JRRT had a big influence on helping to form the various versions of DnD up to the mid 80's. I don't know if it would be equally valid to say DL had as big an influence on future versions of DnD. I tend to doubt it personally.

Any thoughts or feedback on this?

 

[Ravellion]

I read DL right after the LotR. I was *so* relieved that DL actually had some pacing. I must confess though that I later became a literature student, but I still find any novel longer than 300 pages cannot impress me. Especially all that 19th century crap! Yeck! So I specialized in drama (but DL and LotR are both not that great from a literary standpoint, just for different reasons).

But DL, oh DL! Those characters are still more alive in my head than any other, with the possible exception of Gatsby. Maybe Heathcliff (from Wuthering Heights - pretty much the only 19th century novel I like). Remember Sturm saying "Run? From this rabble?". Or in Legends, the alternate future where Raistlin had conquered everything: the vitriol, the rage, used by Raistlin in his words in the tower of high sorcery. I love Sturm and Raistlin.

For gaming, I always had problems with DL though. I couldn't get my PCs to shine like the main characters did in the novels. But the novels definitely had their influence on my games, even in other campaign worlds.

 

[Ravellion]

2.) OTOH, I think JRRT had a big influence on helping to form the various versions of DnD up to the mid 80's. I don't know if it would be equally valid to say DL had as big an influence on future versions of DnD. I tend to doubt it personally.

Any thoughts or feedback on this?

DL's influence was HUGE - almost all off its influence went to adventure, campaign and setting design for later D&D products though, so it might be easy to miss. But the D&D game, product wise, can nearly be divided into a pre and post DL phase.

 

[Mycanid]

I read DL right after the LotR. I was *so* relieved that DL actually had some pacing. I must confess though that I later became a literature student, but I still find any novel longer than 300 pages cannot impress me. Especially all that 19th century crap! Yeck! So I specialized in drama (but DL and LotR are both not that great from a literary standpoint, just for different reasons).

But DL, oh DL! Those characters are still more alive in my head than any other, with the possible exception of Gatsby. Maybe Heathcliff (from Wuthering Heights - pretty much the only 19th century novel I like).

Hmm ... I LIKE 19th c. novels. I especially love Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott (both 600-1000 page novelists with ease). Guess that may be part of the reason? Must admit that I am not much of a drama fan (with the shining exception of Shakespeare!), but I DO enjoy Opera.... Guess that is kind of drama, eh? But most on-stage drama frankly bores me.

Ah well.