Dragonlance Dragonlance "Reimagined".

[Faolyn]

Just out of curiosity, what's your vision of a Neutral that isn't "kinda evil in itself"? Because if "recognizes the existence of Evil and doesn't dedicate itself to its destruction" disqualifies you from being Neutral, I'm curious about how you define that particular term.

That's the problem with neutrality and with the alignment system in general, and more specifically, with using alignment to cover both cosmic entities and personal morality.

From the standpoint of personal morality, the Krynnish gods of Neutrality are, in fact, neutral. They are gods of craft, wisdom, trade, etc. Things that are neither good nor evil (or can be used for both good or evil purposes).

In Krynn, there's supposed to be a cosmic balance of good and evil. The Krynnish Neutral gods allowed this balance to be disrupted by allowing Good to perform great evil even though by doing so, the Neutral gods went against their own divine portfolios. It is not wise to destroy a nation to stop one person. Zivilyn, god of wisdom, did nothing. There are smarter, more efficient ways to go about stopping the kingpriest. Gilean, god of knowledge, did nothing. Destroying a nation disrupts trade and the practicing of crafts. Shinare, god of trade, and Reorx, god of crafts, did nothing. By inaction, they caused the balance to tip to evil. But if they had acted to prevent the Cataclysm, the balance would not have been disrupted.

If you'll pardon the trite phrase, "Not saying no is as good as saying yes." And in a case of cosmic Good versus Evil, the Good gods performed great evil, the Neutral gods did nothing, and the Evil gods got a big boost.

 

[Faolyn]

My point. If you don't like the novels, and you don't like the Cataclysm, why the heck do you want to play Dragonlance?

I would imagine so you can fight in a good vs. evil war while on dragonback. That is the main draw of the setting. The novels and Cataclysm are background knowledge and actually pretty unimportant--unless you're trying to recreate the novels.

 

[beancounter]

If they change Dragonlance so much that it becomes a different story (or at least a shell of the original), can they still honestly call it Dragonlance?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If they change Dragonlance so much that it becomes a different story (or at least a shell of the original), can they still honestly call it Dragonlance?

If the 3 wizard towers where reset to just be the moons not the good/evil spectrum
If the good gods had to after the cataclysm had been forced to leave the world so the evil gods would too (and have the cosmic imbalance be that good was getting so strong that the evil gods got 'revenge' by corrupting the god king...)

then the war still plays out as it did... is that really that different?

 

[Stormonu]

If they change Dragonlance so much that it becomes a different story (or at least a shell of the original), can they still honestly call it Dragonlance?

They'll certainly try.

Using the name and discarding the contents is something a lot of companies have done over the years. Using the name gets people to look at it, because there's recognition of that name. Even D&D has done it before, with the (in)famous 4E Red box set, among other things.

Thing is, I've tried to run the old DL series modules several times, but they never stuck with the group. What I'm hoping with this new book is that they use as much of the old War of the Lance information as possible, but have the PCs start elsewhere (and it looks like that is the setup), participating in the war but not having to fill the Heroes of the Lance's shoes. I don't mind if they run across the Heroes once in a bit as they're on parallel missions, but neither being subordinates to those Heroes or doing the Heroe's job for them.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I would imagine so you can fight in a good vs. evil war while on dragonback. That is the main draw of the setting. The novels and Cataclysm are background knowledge and actually pretty unimportant--unless you're trying to recreate the novels.

The main draw for who exactly? I’ve seen this brought up before.

Because it’s the most famous part of the lore? Or because WotC focused their next adventure book on it?

You don’t need the war of the lance to “ride a dragon”. Other wars happened. Other conflicts.

I mean I’ve read a lot of Dragonlance and I’d never say the setting was about one specific war. Heck it’s always been described as “Romantic Fantasy” IE chivalry and knights and magic.

“It had dragons and wars” misses the point my miles.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I like the concept of good and evil on a cosmic scale (but not how it was implemented) I like the idea of 3 houses of magic school/tower (but not how it was implemented) I love the idea of a sneaky evil goddess creating a small army of draconian warriors out of eggs of her dragon creatures. I love the idea of a death knight that was once a paladin and lost his way and now leads his own third faction in a war.

I like the idea of dragon riders on two sides of a conflict

I like the idea a world without cleric/gods

I fully support you creating a world that has all of those things. But Krynn is the novels and the history. Without them, Dragonlance wouldn't exist.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The main draw for who exactly? I’ve seen this brought up before.

okay what is the main draw for you?

Because it’s the most famous part of the lore? Or because WotC focused their next adventure book on it?

um both...

I mean I’ve read a lot of Dragonlance and I’d never say the setting was about one specific war. Heck it’s always been described as “Romantic Fantasy” IE chivalry and knight and magic.

then why do we need good gods to do evil things and color coded alignment based wizards? neither of those are "Romantic fantasy"

“It had dragons and wars” misses the point my miles.

then what is teh point?

 

[Micah Sweet]

They'll certainly try.

Using the name and discarding the contents is something a lot of companies have done over the years. Using the name gets people to look at it, because there's recognition of that name. Even D&D has done it before, with the (in)famous 4E Red box set, among other things.

Thing is, I've tried to run the old DL series modules several times, but they never stuck with the group. What I'm hoping with this new book is that they use as much of the old War of the Lance information as possible, but have the PCs start elsewhere (and it looks like that is the setup), participating in the war but not having to fill the Heroes of the Lance's shoes. I don't mind if they run across the Heroes once in a bit as they're on parallel missions, but neither being subordinates to those Heroes or doing the Heroe's job for them.

If that's all they do, that would be fine.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I fully support you creating a world that has all of those things. But Krynn is the novels and the history. Without them, Dragonlance wouldn't exist.

again, why? what about those novels is so great that you can't have the campagin setting be a reimagining of the world?