Dragonlance Thoughts

[CruelSummerLord]

Tracy and Margaret are giving a little more air time to the B-list characters in the Lost Chronicles novels, but you're right - and they admit it. Margaret even jokes that she forgot about Elistan from time to time and had to remember to stick him in. However, if all of those things had been in the novels, there would have been a lot more than three books.

Cheers,
Cam

Hey, I wouldn't have minded if there were six books-in fact, I'd probably enjoy the greater depth, and the fact that everyone got some time in the spotlight.

In fact, the DL modules themselves gave me a number of ideas:

-Laurana shows off her tactical knowledge in the High Clerist Tower by solving Yarus's chess game, thus unsealing the tower and getting the ghost knights to help the living knights out against the monsters.

At the same time, Tasslehoff retrieves a map of Kitiara's battle plans from the kingfishers' nest at the top of the tower. When Laurana sees it, she realizes Lord Derek's battle plan is suicide, and so she devises a counter-strategy. When Lord Derek protests, she uses the authority vested in her by Lord Gunthar to strip Lord Derek of his command, and so inspires the knights with her leadership and strategy that Derek finally snaps.

Several incidents-Sturm standing up for Silvara in Southern Ergoth, getting to ride Silvara in battle after retrieving the Dragonlances, pointing out that Derek was lying when he told his tale to the Whitestone Council-have caused Derek's hatred to boil over, and with this final straw, Derek attempts to murder Sturm while the latter is fighting to buy the defenders time to set the dragontraps. Kitiara is about to kill the exhausted Sturm, when she throws her spear high and impales Derek, who was attacking Sturm from behind. Sturm Brightblade is exhausted and wounded, but very much alive.

-At Icewall Castle, the heroes are facing certain death at the hands of Sleet, until Tasslehoff slips away, open the lock on the remorhaz's pen, hides as the creature comes out, and uses ventriloquism to taunt the creature into attacking Sleet's egg nest. The enraged dragon turns away from the doomed heroes, and focusses her wrath on the remorhaz, allowing Laurana and company to escape with the Dragon Orb.

-In DL 10, there's a reference to how Huma's Dragonlance, the only one that could defeat Takhisis, was hidden by Cyan Bloodbane in the Ruins near Kendermore. Tanis's group, after meeting with Kronn and Serinda, come across this lance, and bring it to Neraka in the final showdown with the Queen of Darkness.

It's been revealed that, to banish the Dark Queen, someone must brandish Huma's lance and drive her back the way Huma did so long ago. The knight who volunteers for that task is, of course, Sturm Brightblade. Following in his hero's footsteps, Sturm uses Huma's lance, drives the Queen of Darkness back into the Abyss, and seals the portal.

Meanwhile, Flint and Tika have made their way to the top of the temple to destroy the gem and free Berem Everman from his curse. Flint and Tika battle Gorzaug, Tika finally slaying the wicked demon with a backstab, and Flint wields the hammer that crushes the stone, destroying the item the Dark Queen needs to permanently open the gate to the Abyss.

-Raistlin figures out the riddle of the Dark-Night Child, and how to survive in Lorac's Nightmare, even as Goldmoon uses the Icon of Truth to dispel Cyan Bloodbane's illusions and even up the fight.

-All the fighters would get some kind of battle-glory: Caramon would slay the likes of Hammerfall, and develop a bitter rivalry with Lord Soth as the only warrior to ever fight him to a standstill; Riverwind would slay Strokelightning, Verminaard and Lucien, Flint would slay Marshal Volger and Derek Quartzhammer, Tanis would defeat Bakaris and Mandracore, Tika would best Ettel, Kronn and Serinda would defeat the Minotaur King from DL 12, Raistlin would destroy Realgar the derro savant, and so on down the line.

All of these ideas are based off details and characters in the modules that never made it into the novels. Hence why I love the modules so much-they have a lot of very cool details that sadly never made it into the official DL lore.

 

[GSHamster]

I loved Dragonlance. The novels introduced me to gaming, and the 2E campaign setting was among the very first D&D stuff that I bought.

But now, I'm scared to game in Dragonlance. It seems like everytime I look at the setting it's completely changed. First there was no gods, then the gods came back, then the gods left again, then they came back, and now some gods are dead. The Solamnic Order is possibly dead, or possibly at it's strength. There were crazy huge dragons ruling everything, but now these dragons are dead.

Too much, too soon, for me at least.

 

[klofft]

I actually thought we were doing comparatively well this time around!

Cheers,
Cam

As a newbie outsider, that was my impression too. This thread has been valuable to me and I hope that there is still more to be said by others. At this point, I'm strongly leaning towards picking up the non-adventure books for the setting.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I loved Dragonlance. The novels introduced me to gaming, and the 2E campaign setting was among the very first D&D stuff that I bought.

But now, I'm scared to game in Dragonlance. It seems like everytime I look at the setting it's completely changed. First there was no gods, then the gods came back, then the gods left again, then they came back, and now some gods are dead. The Solamnic Order is possibly dead, or possibly at it's strength. There were crazy huge dragons ruling everything, but now these dragons are dead.

Too much, too soon, for me at least.

It's true that the world has undergone some changes and that it might be hard to catch up. I had to catch up myself several years back.

What I would recommend would be to play a War of the Lance era game. That way, you don't have to worry about where the world has gone.

 

[lrsach01]

I actually thought we were doing comparatively well this time around!

Cheers,
Cam

I agree, Cam. Quite cordial....did I use that word correctly? Haven't even THOUGHT of that word since I took my SATs. At any rate, I think Cam and Company have done a tremendous job on the Dragonlance Campaign Path. To me, its the WORST thing about MWP productions losing the Dragonlance lisence. I was looking forward to the next campaign...what ever it would have been.

 

[Krieg]

Ah. The obligatory ENWorld crap on DragonLance thread.

It's been a few months. Welcome back thread - how ya been?

.../snip/...

Ahh the obligatory smarmy thread crap.

How you doin'?

To summarize: Nothing to offer except a veiled attack on those voicing opinions counter to thine own. Building a strawman to burn in effigy is certainly fun isn't it?

In the future if we don't want to take this exit...maybe we'd do well to just avoid the off-ramp altogether.

 

[Umbran]

Ahh the obligatory smarmy thread crap.

Okay, that's quite enough of the dismissive insulting for both sides. This thread has had its quota, and it will no longer be tolerated.

Respect, folks. If you don't feel like showing it, just hold your words until you do.

 

[Dragonhelm]

One thing I wanted to add about eras of play is that Dragonlance is kind of like Star Wars. It’s a setting of settings. You can play in all sorts of different eras, and each one will have its own feel. Yet certain themes will persist throughout. Likewise, you also have different continents upon which to play. So if Ansalon isn’t your thing, check out Taladas.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

I was thinking about how cool it'd be to play a post-apocalyptic Dragonlance, right after the Cataclysm (um...the one where the Priest-King did a Bad Thing), gathering the survivors, dealing with the chaos and destruction, and picking up the pieces.

 

[Dragonhelm]

I was thinking about how cool it'd be to play a post-apocalyptic Dragonlance, right after the Cataclysm (um...the one where the Priest-King did a Bad Thing), gathering the survivors, dealing with the chaos and destruction, and picking up the pieces.

I've played in just such a game. It was very brutal and very dark, but at the same time, the best campaign I've ever played in.