Dragonlance versus Forgotten Realms

[johnsemlak]

I just posted a summary of the the interview with Margaret Weis and Jamie Chambers on Mortality Radio. They talked a lot of Dragonlance and the upcoming support for it and it sounds impressive. In addition to the WotC setting book, there will be 3 hardcovers (I believe three, maybe two) from Sovereign stone, some adventures and a DM's screen. There will be eight DL products next year. The production values for the Sovereign Stone books are supposed to be pretty good--full-color hardbacks with lots of art by Larry Elmore.

Now, I'm going on about this because my DM is a Forgotten Realms fan but complains that FR isn't getting enough support now. This year there were/are only three books: Races of Faerun, Unnapproachable East, and Underdark. The production values were good, but he (and others I presume) want more.

Which brings me back to Dragonlance. Based on Sovereign Press's lineup so far, it looks like DL will be getting excellent support. I know it's early days and the quality of SP's work is to be seen, but does anybody anticipate switching to DL because of the better support? Should WotC put out more FR stuff?

 

[Melkor]

I started working on a Forgotten Realms campaign because I didn't think I would have the DLCS book before we went on a 21/2 day gaming trip next weekend.

I ended up getting my hands on a copy of the DLCS last week, so I started planning a Dragonlance campaign.

Now I have campaign frameworks for both games, and I am planning on leaving the details up to my players.....We can play one or trade off and play both....I'll keep planning on each and we will see where it goes.

Best of both worlds. (pun intended)

 

[JoeGKushner]

In some ways, your audience for this question may be smaller than you think.

There are many campaign settings out these days, official, Kalamar, Ravenloft, Warcraft, and unofficial, Erde, The Hunt, Scarred Lands, Everquest, and others.

A more broad question might be, will you switch to Dragonlance from your current campaign?

If that's an applicable question here (and if not, sorry for highjacking the thread), then the answer is not right now. I am highly enjoying a FR campaign that's going Planescape soon, and an AU campaign and when I start DMing again, I anticipate going the route of Scarred Lands again.

 

[johnsemlak]

I can't say this better myself, so I'm quoting:

Originally posted by BiggusGeekus here

I think suppliment books are the way to go. Nobody cares about non-WotC campaign worlds. Nobody.

But Biggus! What about the Scarred Lands, Midnight, or Diamond Throne?

Oh, all right. Very few people care.

Look, that new WotC setting Eberron is generating longer threads a year before publishing and all we've seen is a few pages of hobbits on dinosaurs and hover trains. Whereas for the Scarred Lands, the only reason it has so much intrest is because Nightfall is such an uber-pimp he could hype Rossanne Barr into the centerfold of a lad magazine. Yes, the non-WotC settings draw interest, but EN World is lucky enough to have the company representatives post here. All the Forgotten Realms/Eberron have supporting them is a random post by SKR/Keith and there's still more interest.

My point is, FR and DL are WotC settings and therefore draw more far more interest than 3rd party settings. Kalamar might be an exception, but it has the D&D logo on it and is 'semi-official' I suppose.

Also, though many 3rd party settings are excellent (I like the Scarred lands books and Kalamar), very few match the production values of WotC. Full color interior, high-class artwork, etc. clear, well-written text, etc. I'm not saying WotC is better--full stop, but many more people are going to buy WotC settings.

That's why I'm impressed by the production values that Sovereign Stone claim they are going to try to maintain with the Dragonlance line.

 

[The Blue Elf]

Well my DM is sort of experanced some of those Campagin setings before he mostly play Greyhawk he mostly DMs that Campagin. When, I asked If he would consider changing to Dragonlance Campagin, he said, that its too Constrited for players, because Its a way too Lawful because he had issues with the Knights of Solamnia, and the Tower of High Sorcery in his Campagin experance. You all know very well the background story on Dragonlance about the Knights and the Wizards.As for Forgotten Realms it isn't losing any support its just geting expensive to buy the campagin seting books. I would play a Dragonlance just to see how fun it is.

 

[Desdichado]

You're forgetting City of the SpiderQueen and Draconomicon, though. The FR well isn't exactly drying up.

 

[Olive]

You're forgetting City of the SpiderQueen and Draconomicon, though. The FR well isn't exactly drying up.

The draconomicon isn't an FR book tho...

 

[Mucknuggle]

Note: I'm biased as I love Dragonlance and sort of dislike the Realms.

As it stands right now the Dragonlance setting is perfect for playing in. DL has just as much, if not more, support through the novels compared to the FR. The world is rich in history and everything in the setting fits together nicely (ie its much less of a copy/paste select earth culture here world). If you were to play DL where the metaplot is right now, you'd have thousands of adventure options as the world has been left wide open for your PCs to be the next Heroes of the Lance thx to the War of Souls Trilogy.

Also, as you pointed out, the setting has TONS of support. In just the next 5 months we have:

-Campaign Setting
-Age of Mortals supplement (details the world of Krynn as it is in the current metaplot)
-DM Screen
-Bestiary of Krynn (full colour with lots of art from Jason Engle and others)
-A magic book
-The first part of a trilogy megaadventure

Wow, that's a lot of stuff. All of it will be checked over by WotC to ensure that it meets WotC standards. Plus, many employees at Sovereign Press frequent the DL boards @| www.wizards.com, so it's super easy to get errata, etc... There are a ton of products planned for next year (a Races of Krynn book has been all but confirmed). My guesses would be, Races of Krynn, a Faiths and Pantheons Krynn Edition, region books, maybe some DL splatbooks, part 2 and maybe 3 of the megaadventure and a book on the 4th age.

And don't forget, you have some of the creators of DL working on it (Margaret Weis is a writer/editor for Sov Press, Elmore is a key artist, Hickman is a consultant).

I don't see how DL is too constricting for players. Sure, all wizards have to pass a test at a certain level and join a guild, or be treated as renegades, but so what? Does this in any way limit what a player can do? Not really. Do you have to join the knighthood? No. These things exist in all campaign settings, they are just more important in DL than in the others.

Even though I've said all this, I would avoid switching to DL right now. Why? Well, go read some of the novels first so that you can get a better grasp of the DL feel. I'd recommend the Chronicles, Legends, the first 3 5th age books and War of Souls. Anyway, hope I helped.

EDIT:
I'll probably become Nightfall's DL equivalent around here.

 

[Desdichado]

The draconomicon isn't an FR book tho...

Really? Good for them, then. That was one of the things that always bugged me about the book in the past.

 

[Technik4]

But doesnt that just mean that Dragonlance 3e is entering the game late and trying to catch up quickly? Let me count the FR books in my possession:

-Monsters of Faerun
-Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
-Magic of Faerun
-Silver Marches Regional Sourcebook
-Lords of Darkness
-Faiths and Pantheons
-Races of Faerun
Forgotten Realms DM Screen
City of the Spider Queen

Thats 7 books, DM Screen, and 1 adventure. I'm "missing" Unapproachable East (although I'm not sure I ever intend to buy it) and awaiting The Underdark. Also, I don't have the 2 other decent size FR 3e adventures - Into the Dragon's Lair and Return to Myth Drannor (or something about Myth Drannor). Next year if they do 4 more FR books (this year 3 books and 1 book-size adventure), even with Dragonlance doing 8, FR has much more source material updated to 3e.

Of course, part of the appeal is that for Dragonlance its all already 3.5, so we won't need to buy a Dragonlance Player's Guide to update it, and hopefully the mechanics show the result of 3 years of toying with the system (whereas in FR some things are pretty broke - Incantrx, Spellcasting Prodigy, etc).

I don't see why anyone has to pick, but personally I'm on the boards about Dragonlance. I'm going to see how they Campaign Setting looks, and probably wait for a few of the other books to come out before I dive in and start buying stuff, after all - I have a lot of FR stuff already.

Technik