Dragonlance Dragons Of Eternity By Margaret Weis And Tracy Hickman Coming August 6, 2024

[Reynard]

There was bad art long before AI became the acceptable target of the moment.

Just as it is difficult to get AI to create good art in the way a human would, it's just as difficult to get it to create bad art in the way a human would.

And humans are really good at bad art.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I've only read book one, and I was worried since in the beginning it seems like she's being set up as a Mary Sue, emphasizing how she's not only prettier and smarter than all of her peers, can outfight any knight her own age, and is trained not only as a knight but also (by her mother) how to thrive in the wilderness, etc. Throw in her starting her journey after being screwed over through no fault of her own, and the potential was there.

But then she spends the rest of the book not being a Mary Sue at all, as she acts ignorantly (and oftentimes naively), selfishly, and generally being her own worst enemy. It was quite a relief.

I wonder if they were purposely playing around with the Mary Sue trope, just to turn around and subvert it?

 

[GreyLord]

Won’t happen. Hasbro/WotC and Weis/Hickman are working in different Dragonlance canonicities/timelines/etc, as has been LEGALLY very well known since the court case a few years back. W&H have the ‘Dragonlance Classic’ label, and can non-exclusively use all their old characters. WotC has minimal control over what W&H write, but get to use the original ‘Dragonlance’ branding ad is not bound by anything W&H write, have written in the past, or might write in the future.

Besides, as of SotDQ, sorcerers already are in WotC Dragonlance. The don’t need to do anything with the fiction to make it happen.

I believe Sorcerers have been in Dragonlance since AT LEAST 2003. There is no reason they had to be added in for 5e as they already were there in the Campaign.

 

[humble minion]

I believe Sorcerers have been in Dragonlance since AT LEAST 2003. There is no reason they had to be added in for 5e as they already were there in the Campaign.

Yeah, that’s the point. DL had a post-War of the Lance in-world event aaaages ago that justified why sorcerers were around in that later time period. WotC in SotDQ just casually retconned in the assumption that they were there all along (which is an approach I agree with and took for my current War of the Lance campaign, for what it’s worth).

Theres no reason whatsoever for W&H to be writing a post-hoc justification for sorcerers into their latest novel on WotCs behalf.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Yeah, that’s the point. DL had a post-War of the Lance in-world event aaaages ago that justified why sorcerers were around in that later time period. WotC in SotDQ just casually retconned in the assumption that they were there all along (which is an approach I agree with and took for my current War of the Lance campaign, for what it’s worth).

Theres no reason whatsoever for W&H to be writing a post-hoc justification for sorcerers into their latest novel on WotCs behalf.

Actually the 3E Material kinda said sorcerers were there the whole time - in fact, it explictly said it was the "original" magic of Krynn. It did say mortal sorcerers were vanishingly rare, however. Basically only difference in SotDQ is the lack of rarity.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I believe Sorcerers have been in Dragonlance since AT LEAST 2003. There is no reason they had to be added in for 5e as they already were there in the Campaign.

Technically Dragonlance has had sorcerers since 1996...

 

[M.L. Martin]

Technically Dragonlance has had sorcerers since 1996...

The resemblance between Fifth Age sorcerers and 3E+ D&D sorcerers is primarily in the name. 5A sorcery was still a learned and intellectually-based (Reason, under the SAGA rules) ability, limited in what it could control and effect, but capable of being shaped in the casting within the schools the sorcerer knew. It doesn't much resemble the inborn, Charisma-based, 'pick from the same spell list and cast in the same way as the wizard' of 3.5, but the name similarity, the interests of compatibility, and other factors squeezed the round peg into the square hole.

I still suspect it's likely to be a moot point, as a) WotC doesn't want to do anything more with Dragonlance, b) Weis & Hickman don't care much about WotC's plans, and c) I'm strongly suspecting this novel will undo everything post-Legends to at least some extent, since Weis & Hickman seem to have regretted Dragons of Summer Flame for about twenty-five years now.

 

[Alzrius]

The resemblance between Fifth Age sorcerers and 3E+ D&D sorcerers is primarily in the name. 5A sorcery was still a learned and intellectually-based (Reason, under the SAGA rules) ability, limited in what it could control and effect, but capable of being shaped in the casting within the schools the sorcerer knew. It doesn't much resemble the inborn, Charisma-based, 'pick from the same spell list and cast in the same way as the wizard' of 3.5, but the name similarity, the interests of compatibility, and other factors squeezed the round peg into the square hole.

Don't forget that they were also restricted to using magic that had no direct influence over other living creatures, i.e. no friends or charm person-style spells.

 

[M.L. Martin]

Don't forget that they were also restricted to using magic that had no direct influence over other living creatures, i.e. no friends or charm person-style spells.

Yes, that's what I had in mind with the 'limited in what it could control and effect' clause. Unfortunately, not all authors picked up on that nuance even before the changeover, so we get a 5A sorcerer using a sleep spell in the "Raid on the Academy of Sorcery" short story.

 

[humble minion]

Actually the 3E Material kinda said sorcerers were there the whole time - in fact, it explictly said it was the "original" magic of Krynn. It did say mortal sorcerers were vanishingly rare, however. Basically only difference in SotDQ is the lack of rarity.

Actually yeah, you're right. I'd forgotten about (among other things...) the genuinely good novel Renegade Wizards, set in the Towers of High Sorcery a generation or so before the War of the Lance, which had all sorts of people running around using in-born 'wylding' magic that sounded a LOT like sorcery.