Crothian
First Post
It seems that even with a lot of great Dragonlance products out there the license is going to get pulled. That is a sad thing and hopefully the rest of the classic modules will be able to be updated. I have been a long time Dragonlance fan and these are some of the best supplements they have ever put out for the setting. It is a setting that will be missed.
Dragons of Autumn is a collection of the first edition modules. It presents the first four Dragons of Despair, Dragons of Flame, Dragons of Hope, and Dragons of Desolation. Each one is fully written up here and converted to the 3.5 D&D system. The original ones are by Tracy Hickman, Harold Johnson, Douglas Niles, and Michael Dobson. The books were adapted by Clark Valentine and Sean Macdonald. The book has a good lay out with items organized together. All the creature stat blocks for instance are in an appendix in the back of the book. They are organized by module so the creatures of the Dragons of Hope are separated from each of the others for instance. The maps are all functional and easy to follow. Everything is black and white and there is a good mixture of art throughout the one hundred and seventy six page book.
I never ran all the first edition modules or even had them to read through. I know there is quite a lot of mixed emotions over them. But this review is not going to reflect how the modules were updated to the new edition since I simply do not have all the old ones to do that. I am looking at the modules as if they are just new modules. I hold no bias from the previous editions.
Dragons of Autumn presents the start of the adventures of the Inn of the Last Home. The adventures start the characters at fifth level and it suggests that the DM slow down the pace of advancement. They recommend that one just levels the characters after certain key events and the PCs will be ninth level once it is all over. If one uses the normal rate of experience that 3.5 uses it is quite possible the player characters will level fast and start to out pace the encounters in here.
The modules assume that one have the D&D core books as well as the Dragonlance Campaign Setting, War of the Lance and the Dragonlance Bestiary. Other Dragonlance books will be very useful but they are not needed.
The adventure is designed for the characters from the books. Each one is fully stated out and will be easy for players to run. In the introduction though it clearly states that these characters do not have to be used. It offers some great advice on how to fill the different classic roles. Of course players can have a wide variety of characters and that can easily change the style of the campaign some.
Hopefully, the PCs one is running through these modules is familiar with the back story because there is quite a bit of it. The gods seem to be gone and now there is a dragon army trying to conquer everything. Dragons of Despair is a very good title for this because things are not looking good. The first encounter though has one of those DM hand wave moments I am not a fan of. It is a combat encounter and introduces a bad guy. But the module wants the bad guy to live so he gets an initiative of a 20 automatically so he can escape. Other then that the module is well constructed. There is sa good modular feel to the module. Before the heroes all meet back up if there are lots of them it is suggested they come into the city in small groups allowing each of them to have their own minor encounters and difficulties. There is plenty of chance for role playing and investigation as the player characters try to figure out what is going on and what course of action they should take. The module includes a good over land trek and some good fighting as the characters in this chapter get some thing from the gods so they can be a bit more effective especially any cleric in the group.
The second chapter is the Dragon of Lames and that is meant both figuratively and literally. There is a lot going on here and it is possible for the PCs to go outside the scope of the module. That is one of the reasons the War of the Lance book is so important. There are places the characters may go that are written about in that book and that information is not found in the module. Here they will see their beloved country burn and really start to run away and keep ahead of the quickly advancing Dragon armies. There is a table in the front of the book that shows the timetable of the dragon armies advancement. The time schedule the player characters have to be one might not allow for much time to do side quests or indulge anything but the plot of the module. The player characters will also be dealing with and guiding many refugees by the end of this.
Dragons of Hope is next and by this time the player characters are racing against the Dragonarmies and trying to keep the refugees from getting caught and killed. There are possibilities for mass combat here. There are some simple rules for mass combat but I prefer to find one of the actual mass combat systems and use that. There is also the chance of refugees dying if the characters panic, run out of food, do not let them get enough rest, etc. It can become very stressful as most player characters are not the types to have to deal with these situations. That can really get players to think and be creative and that is always a good thing. Player Characters will also have to deal with the politics of the refugees. They do not all get along and there can be some in fighting. There is a lot of role playing and organization that go on at the beginning of this module and a DM really will need to be ready for it.
The set of modules finished up with Dragons of Desolation. The climax battle with a very powerful dragon is a little anti climatic. The module has the dragon being all prideful so he does not get healed from an off camera battle making him a lot easier for the players characters to deal with. Of course if that were not the case he would probably just slaughter the player characters. I would be tempted to just use a younger and thus weaker dragon or try to construct a way to help the Player Characters in some manner. Other then that there is a lot of good and fun encounters in the module. They will really have to think and be creative to retrieve the legendary Hammer of Kharas here.
Dragon of Autumn does a nice job of handling a hard situation. The stories have been told in the Dragonlance novels and here the player characters are reliving them and doing things their own way. As with any set of modules the DM will really want to make the players will not mind what they have to do in these adventures. Some players will find this a little too railroading for their tastes. Other might not like the lack of simple dungeon crawls. These modules are a bit different from standard modules and require a different type of thinking then the usual D&D game. This is not better or worse just different. I do think fans of the setting will really enjoy these and I am looking forwarding to seeing the next collection of modules.
Dragons of Autumn is a collection of the first edition modules. It presents the first four Dragons of Despair, Dragons of Flame, Dragons of Hope, and Dragons of Desolation. Each one is fully written up here and converted to the 3.5 D&D system. The original ones are by Tracy Hickman, Harold Johnson, Douglas Niles, and Michael Dobson. The books were adapted by Clark Valentine and Sean Macdonald. The book has a good lay out with items organized together. All the creature stat blocks for instance are in an appendix in the back of the book. They are organized by module so the creatures of the Dragons of Hope are separated from each of the others for instance. The maps are all functional and easy to follow. Everything is black and white and there is a good mixture of art throughout the one hundred and seventy six page book.
I never ran all the first edition modules or even had them to read through. I know there is quite a lot of mixed emotions over them. But this review is not going to reflect how the modules were updated to the new edition since I simply do not have all the old ones to do that. I am looking at the modules as if they are just new modules. I hold no bias from the previous editions.
Dragons of Autumn presents the start of the adventures of the Inn of the Last Home. The adventures start the characters at fifth level and it suggests that the DM slow down the pace of advancement. They recommend that one just levels the characters after certain key events and the PCs will be ninth level once it is all over. If one uses the normal rate of experience that 3.5 uses it is quite possible the player characters will level fast and start to out pace the encounters in here.
The modules assume that one have the D&D core books as well as the Dragonlance Campaign Setting, War of the Lance and the Dragonlance Bestiary. Other Dragonlance books will be very useful but they are not needed.
The adventure is designed for the characters from the books. Each one is fully stated out and will be easy for players to run. In the introduction though it clearly states that these characters do not have to be used. It offers some great advice on how to fill the different classic roles. Of course players can have a wide variety of characters and that can easily change the style of the campaign some.
Hopefully, the PCs one is running through these modules is familiar with the back story because there is quite a bit of it. The gods seem to be gone and now there is a dragon army trying to conquer everything. Dragons of Despair is a very good title for this because things are not looking good. The first encounter though has one of those DM hand wave moments I am not a fan of. It is a combat encounter and introduces a bad guy. But the module wants the bad guy to live so he gets an initiative of a 20 automatically so he can escape. Other then that the module is well constructed. There is sa good modular feel to the module. Before the heroes all meet back up if there are lots of them it is suggested they come into the city in small groups allowing each of them to have their own minor encounters and difficulties. There is plenty of chance for role playing and investigation as the player characters try to figure out what is going on and what course of action they should take. The module includes a good over land trek and some good fighting as the characters in this chapter get some thing from the gods so they can be a bit more effective especially any cleric in the group.
The second chapter is the Dragon of Lames and that is meant both figuratively and literally. There is a lot going on here and it is possible for the PCs to go outside the scope of the module. That is one of the reasons the War of the Lance book is so important. There are places the characters may go that are written about in that book and that information is not found in the module. Here they will see their beloved country burn and really start to run away and keep ahead of the quickly advancing Dragon armies. There is a table in the front of the book that shows the timetable of the dragon armies advancement. The time schedule the player characters have to be one might not allow for much time to do side quests or indulge anything but the plot of the module. The player characters will also be dealing with and guiding many refugees by the end of this.
Dragons of Hope is next and by this time the player characters are racing against the Dragonarmies and trying to keep the refugees from getting caught and killed. There are possibilities for mass combat here. There are some simple rules for mass combat but I prefer to find one of the actual mass combat systems and use that. There is also the chance of refugees dying if the characters panic, run out of food, do not let them get enough rest, etc. It can become very stressful as most player characters are not the types to have to deal with these situations. That can really get players to think and be creative and that is always a good thing. Player Characters will also have to deal with the politics of the refugees. They do not all get along and there can be some in fighting. There is a lot of role playing and organization that go on at the beginning of this module and a DM really will need to be ready for it.
The set of modules finished up with Dragons of Desolation. The climax battle with a very powerful dragon is a little anti climatic. The module has the dragon being all prideful so he does not get healed from an off camera battle making him a lot easier for the players characters to deal with. Of course if that were not the case he would probably just slaughter the player characters. I would be tempted to just use a younger and thus weaker dragon or try to construct a way to help the Player Characters in some manner. Other then that there is a lot of good and fun encounters in the module. They will really have to think and be creative to retrieve the legendary Hammer of Kharas here.
Dragon of Autumn does a nice job of handling a hard situation. The stories have been told in the Dragonlance novels and here the player characters are reliving them and doing things their own way. As with any set of modules the DM will really want to make the players will not mind what they have to do in these adventures. Some players will find this a little too railroading for their tastes. Other might not like the lack of simple dungeon crawls. These modules are a bit different from standard modules and require a different type of thinking then the usual D&D game. This is not better or worse just different. I do think fans of the setting will really enjoy these and I am looking forwarding to seeing the next collection of modules.
