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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CruelSummerLord" data-source="post: 3525271" data-attributes="member: 48692">Cam, let me just say for the record that that you're right: Clark and Sean do an excellent job of updating excellent modules.  Truth be told, the railroading thing doesn't bother me at all: I actually don't mind being taken by the hand and led through the DM's plotline.  As a player, I recall being very annoyed at fellow players when they insisted on wandering off and doing their own thing, straying from his storyline.  I think the "railroading" of the original modules wouldn't be so bad if the players had actually created Tanis, Caramon et al., and had a greater emotional investment in the characters and their goals and quests.  Having searched for the True Gods for so long, it's likely they would have jumped at the opportunity to finally find proof of what they're looking for.  They'd want to rescue the good people of Solace from Pax Tharkas, and to find a way into Thorbardin for them.  The players would likely see these plot developments as natural steps in the ongoing story arc.  Now, what cramps DL's style for me is, believe it or not, the novels.  I was extremely annoyed at how characters like Flint, Tika, Riverwind and Goldmoon never got the chance to "save the day" or contribute anything meaningful to the storyline-Weis and Hickman blatantly favored Tanis, Raistlin, Sturm, Laurana and Tasslehoff, and let them have all the fun while the B-list characters just followed them around.  Flint never got any meaningful development; all he did was complain, and then...oh, by the way, he's dead, even when it says in the original DL Adventures book that two hundred years old is the prime of life for a dwarf, and he's supposed to have an 18 Constitution, which presumably would give him the capacity to resist his heart disease and rheumatism.  Riverwind and Goldmoon were similar-did they get the ability to stand out in combat, or do anything meaningful?  Not really-they didn't even get to go to Neraka.  The deus ex machina was teeth-grindingly annoying at times; the good dragons just appear out of nowhere, and we don't get to see the Heroes go to Sanction to free the dragon eggs.  For a god who's not supposed to intervene in the affairs of mortals, Fizban sure showed up often enough, and directly acted on a couple of occasions.  When the Companions are caught red-handed committing a major security breach in Neraka, Kitiara just happens to show up at the last minute and vouch for them.  No King of the Deep.  No epic showdown in the Temple of Neraka.  No Kronn or Serinda.  So much was cut out, and some of the characters were treated as secondary NPCs by the authors, that the novels were a serious letdown.  I can't help but think that DL was overall weakened by its adherence to the weaker novel storyline than the stronger module one, which had more action, and more capacity for development for all of the characters, not just some of them.</blockquote>

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