Has anyone run the entire Dragonlance saga?

[Gingerprince]

Hey,

I agree with qstor, if you are going to run the classics campaign it would be best to use newly created PCs. I tried running a group through DL classics using the original characters and we packed it up after 3 sessions or so. There's too much of a compulsion to follow the plot of the novels, particularly if your players have read the novels.

My advice would be to get the players to roll all-new characters and not to worry about straying from the plot of the novels, there are several large sections of the adventures that are not detailed in the Chronicles series (finding the Hammer of Kharas, the adventures in Icewall). Plus there are several alternate endings supplied in the final module.

The way the story is supposed to pan out can lead to rail roading, but this is frequently driven by events in the campaign that are not directly caused by the players. There is enough detail in the Events that are listed throughout each module that you can get the players back on track without seeming to force them into a decision. (unless they know the novels well...but that's another problem).

The final module also has a small but significant reference to what would happen if the heroes fail. Even though it goes against the traditional Dragonlance motif of good rewards its own and evil turns on itself, it might be interesting to fight against the Dark Queen even after she has found a way onto the Prime Material Plane. Especially if you use the ELH.

The first two modules have been converted to 3.0/3.5 at

http://www.dragonlance.com/d20/product.asp?id=SVP-4801



Nick

 

[MerricB]

The interesting thing is that most (no, all) of my players have never read the Dragonlance books and aren't familiar with the story at all.

I wonder what effect that might have on the game?

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

I also have all these Draconian miniatures from the D&D Miniatures Dragoneye set. (7 Kapaks and 8 Baazs, last I checked). I want to use them, but they're out of place in my Greyhawk game.

Cheers!

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

I ran the whole series and easily the most fun part was the battle for the High Clerists Tower.

Basically though I was forever winging whole sections and skipping the parts where the PC's didn't want to go.

Certain npc's needed powering up and Lord Soth is a prime candidate. I simply made him overpowering and the pc's just bumped into him before backing out of his road.

Oh and I used heaps of side-treks. I introduced the dictator of Lemish, an assassin, whom the party surgically ambushed his carriage+escort and he promptly assassinated one of them.

Some of the treasure was monte-haulish. I guess that was pretty good though.

 

[johnsemlak]

The interesting thing is that most (no, all) of my players have never read the Dragonlance books and aren't familiar with the story at all.

I wonder what effect that might have on the game?

Cheers!

Didn't the modules actually come out before the novels, and were meant ot be played w/o reading them?

Regarding the Draconian miniatures, are the similar enought to Lizardfolk to be used as such?

 

[MerricB]

Didn't the modules actually come out before the novels, and were meant ot be played w/o reading them?

I think the first couple of modules came out before, but the entire process was fairly simultaneous - I'm not 100% sure, though.

There are some fairly significant deviations in the modules from the novels. DL3 and DL4 are summarised in about 2 paragraphs in the second novel, for instance!

Regarding the Draconian miniatures, are the similar enought to Lizardfolk to be used as such?

Judge for yourself:

Baaz draconian on the left, Kapak in the middle, Lizardfolk on the right.

Cheers!

 

[talinthas]

the novels and the modules came out roughly simultaniously. the first arc dictated book 1, but the second and third arcs were more based on the novel than the other way around. If your players have no idea, its not a big deal, but as a DM i hate running the war of the lance for folks who don't really know the setting because i know it so well that deviations would be remarkably jarring and unfun for me. I'd rather run them on a parallel course doing other things that happened during the war, while making sure to hit the key areas, like the disks of mishakael and stuff. However, if you're willing to go with it, it's a ton of fun to run as written with the HotL =)

main problem for me is that the first edition writing style for modules is incredibly sparse and info light, and forces the DM to come up with a ton of stuff. Like DL1 has no real clear way of getting from solace to xak tsaroth, motivation wise.

/edit- the draconian minis, btw, have the worst paint jobs ever. the kapak should be copper, not silver, and the bozak should be more bronze. these look more like aurak and sivak. but thats just a personal gripe =)

 

[MerricB]

main problem for me is that the first edition writing style for modules is incredibly sparse and info light, and forces the DM to come up with a ton of stuff. Like DL1 has no real clear way of getting from solace to xak tsaroth, motivation wise.

I find that one of the most interesting parts of DL1 - and why it requires an experienced DM. At least more experienced than I was the first time I ran it.

The first time I ran DL1, it was for people who had read the books. They entered Solace, went to the Inn of the Last Home, and talked to the old man. "You must find the Blue Crystal Staff and go to Xak Tsaroth," he said. (That's what he does according to the module!) They went - yep! Let's do it... and did so. Throw out entire first section of module.

Xak Tsaroth is a really interesting place, though.

The first section of DL1 is all about getting the PCs to Xak Tsaroth. Generally, it's not so much railroaded as in having lots of hints. The PCs get the Blue Crystal Staff and then they can do plenty of things. Go to Haven. Go to the Plainsfolk. Go into Darken Forest. I'm sure that in the hands of a good DM, you could make the mystery of what's going on in DL1 extremely effective.

DL2 - now that's railroaded!

It might be very interesting to run a "prequel" campaign to get PCs from 1st to 4th level and familiar with the setting before moving on to the DL series - that way the effect of the invasion is far more unsettling.

One of the problems of the DL modules is that there are obviously places where they'd forgotten that they'd done things differently in the modules than the books. Look at DL7, Dragons of Light and compare what it says about Laurana to what actually happens in DL2.

Similar problems occur between DL7 and DL9!

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

/edit- the draconian minis, btw, have the worst paint jobs ever. the kapak should be copper, not silver, and the bozak should be more bronze. these look more like aurak and sivak. but thats just a personal gripe =)

I don't think they're the worst paintjobs ever - I've seen worse - but they're not good.

However, the shape of the miniatures is fairly accurate.

Cheers!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I played most of the first three adventures. The DM told us not to read the books, then got upset when we didn't do what the characters in the book had done.

For example I was playing Raistlin, and when the 'voice in my head' started urging me toward evil I dug in my heels and turned good. The DM penalized me a level for changing alignments, but I suspect he would have let that slide if I had done what the voice was telling me to do.

We eventually dropped that DM. It was the second time I had seen a group tell the DM to take a hike. (The first was a DM who let his room mate/ best friend Charm Person every other character in the group, and allowed him to tell people who were charmed to fail their saves on subsequent charms. Him we booted so hard he flew.)

So, while I have ba memories of the Dragonlance Saga I think it was more of a failing of the DM than the adventures.

The Auld Grump