Dragonlance Thoughts

[Prince of Happiness]

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.

LUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I imagine that when that level of chaos enters the world, some pretty weird monsters start coming out of the wood work, and formerly allied races turn to some pretty extreme, paranoid, measures.

 

[Dragonhelm]

LUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I imagine that when that level of chaos enters the world, some pretty weird monsters start coming out of the wood work, and formerly allied races turn to some pretty extreme, paranoid, measures.

Our characters were all long-lived, so we got to see some jumps in the timeline. During the Dwarfgate War, we saw diseased bodies catapulted into Garnet. That was pretty brutal.

This game was in the 2e days. There were times that the DM had us roll 5d6 under our ability scores as ability score checks. My ranger had an 8 Int, so Int checks were always failed. Fair? No, but it gave us a sense that we weren't all-powerful or able to beat the (ahem) out of everything in sight. He also gave us a few bonuses, so it worked out.

Then there were the Blood Riders...

 

[Ulric]

So, if someone wanted to get into Dragonlance 3.0/3.5, what books would they buy? Is there a main campaign setting book? Then what....for a Dragonlance newbie?

 

[mhacdebhandia]

Wizards of the Coast published the Dragonlance Campaign Setting; Margaret Weis Productions has published the rest of the line.

There's a War of the Lance supplement, or an Age of Mortals supplement, depending on which one you want to play in. Legends of the Twins covers time travel, alternate worlds, and earlier eras of the setting's history. There are specific supplements for knightly orders, the Holy Orders of the Stars, and the Towers of High Sorcery, plus a races book, bestiaries, and era-specific campaign adventures.

 

[Warbringer]

The original DRAGONLANCE adventure modules from TSR, Inc. introduced some revolutionary concepts in the game industry. Never before had the D&D rules been used to tell an epic fantasy tale using full-realized pre-generated characters. It was also the first time that roleplaying adventures would match a story being told in fantasy novels on mass-market shelves.

DL changed role-playing. Role-playing as a media experience before online playing

Regarding 'rail-roading', well that;s a DM issue, not a module issue. All modules railroad to some extend or another, they have to.

I've run DL, in some form or another 8 times (inc. a Dragonquest conversion (now that's a dragon!!!)).

I've used pre-gen and player-gen. I've let players go where they want and it's incredibly easy to end up following the path without pushing players. Now, DL 7-12 is a little harder to run, but simply run duel characters, run part as a flshback series, run different parts with different groups!!!

As to kender, gully dwarves and gnomes. Well, kender are 3e halflings, gnome tinkerers are eberron artificers (even a flying machine in there as I recall). And gully dwarves, well, yes they are there for comic relief in a 'tense' portion of the first novel. But, they're fun.

DL is a great serialized campaign setting for 1-2 years play.

Damn... I'm thinking its time to replay it!!!

 

[klofft]

Wizards of the Coast published the Dragonlance Campaign Setting; Margaret Weis Productions has published the rest of the line.

There's a War of the Lance supplement, or an Age of Mortals supplement, depending on which one you want to play in. Legends of the Twins covers time travel, alternate worlds, and earlier eras of the setting's history. There are specific supplements for knightly orders, the Holy Orders of the Stars, and the Towers of High Sorcery, plus a races book, bestiaries, and era-specific campaign adventures.

What are the best supplements for pure crunch (which I can steal from most easily)? Are the campaign "era" supplements crunchy? Or are they all story and fluff?

 

[Cam Banks]

What are the best supplements for pure crunch (which I can steal from most easily)? Are the campaign "era" supplements crunchy? Or are they all story and fluff?

We put a lot of crunch and fluff in every product. There are dozens of new prestige classes shared among the various sourcebooks, a hefty amount of new feats, substitution levels, and alternative class features, and many new spells and magic items. The number of stat blocks (now using the current WotC stat block format) is enormous - Price of Courage, for instance, has all kinds of templated, classed, and advanced creatures ready to go.

Early on, people asked for more detail about cities and organizations, so we added those. People asked for more gazetteer-like information, and so we added that. People wanted some things revised from the DLCS, so we did that too - the Wizard of High Sorcery, the Knights of Solamnia, and the Legion of Steel have all been updated to meet revelations in the novels.

Overall, therefore, I think it's a great balance. We have a sourcebook for almost everything, and while we're not going to be able to do some of them now that the license won't be renewed for 2008 (like the Primal Magic sourcebook or the Taladas Campaign Setting) we have the Races of Ansalon sourcebook and Dragons of Krynn coming out this year, so there's still some great stuff on the horizon.

I will be happy to provide more information on any specific areas.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Overall, therefore, I think it's a great balance. We have a sourcebook for almost everything, and while we're not going to be able to do some of them now that the license won't be renewed for 2008 (like the Primal Magic sourcebook or the Taladas Campaign Setting) we have the Races of Ansalon sourcebook and Dragons of Krynn coming out this year, so there's still some great stuff on the horizon.

$@#&!

I love Taladas more than Ansalon, its a shame the book won't see the light of day now.

 

[Dragonhelm]

$@#&!

I love Taladas more than Ansalon, its a shame the book won't see the light of day now.

Even though MWP won't be able to tackle Taladas, the Dragonlance Nexus is going to continue on in the MWP tradition. Sometime after Adlatum and the Taladas trilogy are wrapped up, we'll be tackling Taladas.

Meanwhile, check out James O'Rance's Taladas site.

 

[klofft]

I will be happy to provide more information on any specific areas.

/QUOTE]

Thanks, Cam.

A few more specific crunch questions (keep in mind that I'm pilfering for a homebrew rather than using DL specifically):

1) Is the crunch in the different campaign era supplements (of which I believe there are 3?) mutually exclusive? I.e., does any of it supercede other stuff in such a way that only one version is mechanically viable?
2) Was there a specific book that was a 3.5 update of the DLCS? (If it needed one - I'm not sure.)
3) As I love divine stuff specifically, what other book besides Orders of the Stars (I think I have that title right) might you recommend?
4) I also love substitution levels. What book might have a high concentration of those?

Thanks again!