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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 2097437" data-attributes="member: 20741">MorrowLance? Uhm..no thanksNo, I wasn’t suggesting any such thing.  The classic War of the Lance campaign is a metaplot driven campaign. There IS a story line.  Sometime you can move off of it easily enough and adapt as you go  – and sometimes you cannot do so without some effort.  But if you are trying to suggest DragonLance would be as popular and successful as it was if it was some location based, non-linear Morrowindesque like RPG setting – I think not. The module series does not actually track the novels that closely, past DL1 and DL2.  The novel plotline shows up again briefly in DL 6, 7 and 10, and small elements of DL12 and DL14 but it never dominates play nor reveals actual goals and locations again to any significant degree.  DL 3, 4, 9, and 13 are never mentioned in the novels. DL8 is mentioned – but it is not at all like it is in the novels at all.The rest of the module series is great and most (not all, but most) can be played without too much messing around.  DL 3, 4, 6 and 8 and 13 are *excellent* modules. DL10, imo, goes beyond excellent and is one of the best AD&D modules of all time. The problem is DL1 (railroad is utterly broken) and DL2 (metagaming totally spoils it) and how those themes later show up again in your campaign if you are not careful.  They will prove most troublesome  for novice DMs. If you and your players prefer seat of the pants gaming where players will do whatever it is they please on a given night, actively resist playing the selfless good guys, or they really do not like the thought they are on a “pre-planned adventure” at all ; or if your DM style is to just show up and wing it: don’t bother with a DL classic War of the Lance campaign. Krynn as a setting may be fine for you  - but the classic module series is not going to work with you and your group so let’s not waste time with that. No amount of cajoling is ever going to change that.Save the world metaplot quests which last a few years of real world campaign time are not for every gaming circle. And there are a LOT of gaming circles who hate this style of play. I don’t think it’s a matter of good and bad, or a right and wrong way to game.  But it certainly is a stylistic choice and it has consequences in terms of adventure design and campaign flow.  There is no point pretending it does not.At the same time, there are a great many players and DMs – most, I would say – that do not have a problem with a pre-planned adventure path.  DL Classic Campaign will suit those groups nicely – with some work.My point is not that:1-    DragonLance is a railroad – and all railroads are inherently and irretrievably bad. Instead, my point is:2- “DragonLance is a railroad.  This railroad has certain undeniable strengths & benefits along with some weaknesses too. Overall, the good outweighs the bad especially with an experienced DM running it who is able to seamlessly adjust on the fly. Some of the current railroad elements work – but some of them do not. Upon reflection, you need to be prepared to compensate on the fly and you must discard the railroad elements that are broken in DL1 and fix them”  The railroad elements in DL1 before the party enters the swamp surrounding Xak Tsaroth are just badly broken. They never worked. Plain and simple.  Discard them and remake the module and alter the metaplot in the DL campaign to compensate.  This will probably necessitate a significant alteration to the story arc, depending on what you did to fix things.Why are you bothering to do this?  Because there are ten (10) modules after DL1 and DL2 that are completely worth the effort.  There is years of gaming here – and it’s great stuff if you do the things to let it shine.</blockquote>

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