D&D General New Summary and Release Date for 'Dragons of Deceit'

There's a new Amazon Kindle page for Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's new Dragonlance novel, Dragons of Deceit with a release date of August 9, 2022.

There has been an older Amazon page for the book for a while, with a now-expired release date of July 2021. The existence of the new trilogy from the Dragonlance Chronicles authors was revealed in 2020 when they initiated a lawsuit against WotC for breach of contract.

The book description reads as follows (typos are on the actual Kindle page):

The first new Dragonlance novel from Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman in over a decade, and featuring fan-favorite characters from the iconic first two trilogies, Dragonlance Chronicles and Dragonlance Legends--books that brought a generation of readers into the fantasy fold.

Destina Rosethorn--as her name implies--believes herself to be very much a favored child of destiny. But when her father dis in the War of the Lance, her carefully-constructed world comes crashing down. Not only does she lost her beloved father, but the legacy he has left her: a wealthy fiance, and rule over the family lands and castle. With nothing left in the world to support her but wits and determination, she hatches a bold plan: to secure the Device of Time Journeying she read about in one of her father's books and prevent her father's death.

The last known holder of the Device was one of the Heroes of the Lance: the free-spirited kender, Tasselhoff Burrfoot. BUt when Destina arrives in Solace--home not only to Tas, but to fellow heroes Caramon and Tika Majere--she sets into motion a chain of events more deadly than she had ever anticipated: one that could change not only her personal history, but the fate of the entire world, allowing a previously-defeated evil to once again gain ascendancy.

Dragonlance - Dragonlance's Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman Are Suing WotC for Breach of Contract

For fans of the Dragonlance D&D setting, there's some mixed news which has just hit a court in Washington State: it seems that there's a new Dragonlance trilogy of books which was (until recently) being written; but we may never see them. On 16th October 2020, a lawsuit was filed in the US...

www.enworld.org

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

She's not an adventurer, she's merely going on a quest to find a magical device to help bring her father back. Totally not an adventure.

T'was more with the idea of going dungeon-raiding for loot and glory. Adventurer-as-a-profession, if you want.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Perhaps.

If they do a time-travel reboot a la J.J. Abrams Star Trek . . . . if they do a good job of it, I'm on board. It's all about the execution, not the concept itself.

Invalidating decades of stories with a time travel retcon is weak. Especially when they could do so many other things to get the setting to a recognizable place while moving forward.

Hell, even the reboot aspect isn’t inherently bad. It doesn’t need an in-universe erasing of past stories, though.

 

[Dire Bare]

Star Trek at least left the Prime timeline intact and continued to tell stories set there. All that movie stuff is literally an alternate universe.

If what we are speculating comes true, this is pretty much the same type of scenario.

Krynn already has multiple timelines in the canon, so it would make sense that a new, rebooted Dragonlance would simply be a new timeline. The existing stories still happened, in the multiversal sense, but are no longer part of the "prime" timeline.

Ultimately, how they fashion a reboot, if they even do . . . . I don't care. If the new stories are good stories, and hold on to the essence of Dragonlance, I'll be happy.

I'd probably be happier with a straight up reboot without the time travel shenanigans. Take the original trilogy, the "Lost Chronicles", the original modules, and all of the other bits-and-bobs that belong to the original War of the Lance saga . . . . reboot that with some much needed changes to some of the problematic characters, events, and races/cultures. That would be my preference. We're not getting that, of course . . . .

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Yeah, I didn't see that at all in his post. All I see is keeping the existing canon intact is important to you. It isn't to Umbran, or myself. Different strokes, no offense need be taken.

The speaker doesn’t get to determine whether offense is appropriate.

 

[Dire Bare]

The speaker doesn’t get to determine whether offense is appropriate.

I'm not the speaker. But even so, I disagree with this point also, that the receiver gets to decide what is offensive. I mean, clearly, you were offended, but I think you are intent on finding offense where there is none offered nor intended. I think disagreeing with Umbran's point is reasonable, but to insist he was being dismissive, no.

These types of discussions sometimes do unfortunately stray into unnecessary personal attacks. We nerds can get passionate about things sometimes. But . . . not this time. I'm not saying you should change your preferences or opinions on canon, but perhaps take a step back and breathe?

 

[Parmandur]

Invalidating decades of stories with a time travel retcon is weak. Especially when they could do so many other things to get the setting to a recognizable place while moving forward.

Hell, even the reboot aspect isn’t inherently bad. It doesn’t need an in-universe erasing of past stories, though.

The concept is pretty weak tea, storytelling wise. I'd be more excited by a fresh redo of the DL modules without reference to any outside metaplot, if WotC wants to do a reboot: let DMs and players make the original adventures their own.

 

[Dire Bare]

The concept is pretty weak tea, storytelling wise. I'd be more excited by a fresh redo of the DL modules without reference to any outside metaplot, if WotC wants to do a reboot: let DMs and players make the original adventures their own.

That could be a cool product! A new hardcover adventure, adapting the original 12 or so modules.

I'm curious how WotC will treat the Dragonlance line starting with these novels. Are the novels all we are getting? Will Dragonlance continue only as a literary setting for now? Or will there be official game products also? Which will take primacy, the setting meta-plot or the setting as a place to play games and tell your own stories?

To me, even though R.A. Salvatore is still pumping out Dark Elf novels, the current treatment of the Realms is as a game setting first, rather than a literary setting with a constantly evolving meta-plot. Will Dragonlance get a similar treatment? More importantly, how will I feel about it?

 

[Dire Bare]

Invalidating decades of stories with a time travel retcon is weak. Especially when they could do so many other things to get the setting to a recognizable place while moving forward.

Hell, even the reboot aspect isn’t inherently bad. It doesn’t need an in-universe erasing of past stories, though.

While I disagree with the idea that a time-travel retcon is inherently weak storytelling . . . . it's not my preference. I really enjoyed J.J. Abrams "Kelvin-verse" Star Trek movies, but felt the most unnecessary part was the time-travel aspect linking back to the original canon. Although, admittedly, as an excuse to include Leonard Nemoy as "Spock Prime" it was worth it to me . . . .

At this point though, I think we're getting worked up over a storytelling element that MIGHT happen. I refuse to let my dander get too fluffed until we have more concrete information closer to August.

We could get an very well-written time-traveling reboot . . . . or a poorly written story that maintains existing canon . . . . or something else entirely! I've enjoyed most of Weis & Hickman's books, both together and separately, (plus I'm a big DL fan) so I'll be downloading this to my Kindle on release day regardless.

 

[Parmandur]

That could be a cool product! A new hardcover adventure, adapting the original 12 or so modules.

I'm curious how WotC will treat the Dragonlance line starting with these novels. Are the novels all we are getting? Will Dragonlance continue only as a literary setting for now? Or will there be official game products also? Which will take primacy, the setting meta-plot or the setting as a place to play games and tell your own stories?

To me, even though R.A. Salvatore is still pumping out Dark Elf novels, the current treatment of the Realms is as a game setting first, rather than a literary setting with a constantly evolving meta-plot. Will Dragonlance get a similar treatment? More importantly, how will I feel about it?

Given the weird legal drama, I am skeptical that this is part of any wider plans by WotC, but time will tell!

 

[JEB]

Given the weird legal drama, I am skeptical that this is part of any wider plans by WotC, but time will tell!

Not to mention the declaration earlier this year that novels in general are not canon for 5E RPG products.

That said, an Abrams-style literary reboot would certainly have strong synergy with a rebooted Dragonlance game setting for 5E. In fact, a non-rebooted Dragonlance setting for 5E would seem kind of odd at that point. So this is probably the writing on the wall, assuming a 5E Dragonlance product is in the works (which is hard to doubt after Fizban's). (And a reboot for 5E Dragonlance would not really be a surprise, after 5E Ravenloft. Though as already evidenced by reactions in this thread, kind of a risky move...)