Dragonlance wouldn't exist if TSR hadn't decided to publish a bunch of modules about a war fought on dragonback. The initial three novels were just there to support the module series. They grew into something more over time, given their unexpected success, but saying that Krynn wouldn't exist without them is just wrong.
Pretty much every time I hear people explain Dragonlance, that's how I hear it described. Look online. And I mean on sites that wrote about Dragonlance before WotC announced their book. Nearly every website that talks about the setting describes it as being about the war of good versus evil, with dragons. If magic is mentioned, it talks about the three towers, not that lack of clerical magic. If the Cataclysm is mentioned, it's listed as a side note and not as the main draw of the setting. I played in the setting a lot back in college in the mid/late 90s (there was a guy who loved kender), and while the DM was not going out of his way to stick to canon, the Cataclysm wasn't even mentioned. I literally didn't learn about it until years later.
Because what you want is a different world. That's great! You don't need the proper nouns to play in the world you want.
The novels were written concurrently with the modules. They supported each other, and nearly every other product published for Dragonlance since then draws on material from the novels. Without them, Dragonlance would be unrecognizable.
as far as I am concerned what I want is base dragon lance with some slight tweeks to fit modern play
Yes. They own the IP.
It fits modern play now.
open.library.okstate.edu
That's the answer though.
