Okay so you hate Dragonlance, how can the current designers improve it?

[Banshee16]

Is "railroading" more prominent in just DL campaign setting alone?

Maybe we need a DM book that teaches how to railroad a campaign without letting the players know, especially when it has to do with prophecies-type, event-driven, story-based adventures.

The trick is how obvious the railroading is Sometimes a little railroading is necessary....otherwise players have a nasty habit of completely missing the cool encounters you spent hours preparing etc.

I think people resent DL because of the influence of Chronicles and the Companions. There's a certain perception that nothing can be done outside of what they did. I don't see why, though. I ran successful DL campaigns for several years that had nothing to do with the companions.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

No, that is the major problem faced by people who can't come up with their own storyline ideas. That's like saying nothing significant can happen in the FR or GH until a novel is written about it. Our campaign has never had a problem with the PCs being the heroes of prominence.

I agree. In my campaign, the characters solved an ancient prophecy and saved the world in a climactic battle....and none of the PCs were named Tanis, Sturm, Caramon, or Raistlin.

All you have to be willing to do is step away from what's been written. My main problem with DL back in the day was the extremely limited amount of material that TSR released that *didn't* have anything to do with the War of the Lance, and the Companions. Otherlands, several of the modules, including the elven module trilogy, and Time of the Dragon were all very cool. But there wasn't enough of that type of stuff.

I think DL has as much chance for adventure as FR....and it's less hyper-powered as well.

Banshee

 

[Ranger REG]

One thing I've noticed on this thread is that a lot of people mentioned that they liked playing in Taladas the best. Perhaps one way of making Dragonlance more appealing to players is by developing Taladas further, and present it as an alternative to Ansalon.

Lucky for them. I've been trying to ask that Kara-Tur be an alternative to Faerun.

Perhaps the timing is ripe for Taladas to be presented, since that part of the world is obscure and lesser known. Besides, I've been wanting to play a toga-wearing Minotaur Senator.

You could always market Dragonlance as a way to teach DMs how to be better storyteller in their job, especially the railroading schemes.

 

[Cam Banks]

Taladas is essentially a campaign setting in its own right, and although it shares many things in common with the core setting of Ansalon I think it has entirely different thematic and design goals. So, while it's cool that it's finally seeing some attention (beginning next month with the novel Blades of the Tiger by Chris Pierson) I don't think it's the "Dragonlance solution" so to speak.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[DragonLancer]

Wow. I have never heard this kind of criticism back in the mid-80's, during their initial release and introduction of Dragonlance.

So fast-forward 20 years, you don't want more of that kind in adventure modules published today?

If I understand you correctly, then no, I don't want more railroady modules.

 

[Ranger REG]

Oh dear Lord, no thankyou. Not even in jest.

You prefer to run a non-linear adventure, and let the players take you to what story they want to make, instead of you?

You must be good at improv.

 

[Gez]

Improving Dragonlance would require making Kenders, Tinker Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves into deep, interesting races. Interesting both from a metagaming standpoint (making them useful in an adventuring party) and from a roleplaying standpoint (providing real heroic archetypes for them, rather than poop-joke comic relief à la Jar Jar).

When the starting material you have features things named "Mount Nevermind" and races so irritating they are given a racial trait to model their annoyance factor, it's a Herculean feat to be able to turn that into semi-serious setting info.

Alternatively, keep gullinkerders as obnoxiously "comical" as they are, and give the rights to George Lucas. Jojo loves him some Gungan humour. He could make a sequel to the D&D movie with that. Snails would fit like a glove in a party with a kender and a tinker (and the dwarf was already a gully dwarf).

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

Reworking DL into a playable setting would be more effort than just writing a new setting. They'd need to disown about 150 novels...

DL's beyond help and in need of mercy-killing imo.

 

[Ottergame]

Taladas is essentially a campaign setting in its own right, and although it shares many things in common with the core setting of Ansalon I think it has entirely different thematic and design goals. So, while it's cool that it's finally seeing some attention (beginning next month with the novel Blades of the Tiger by Chris Pierson) I don't think it's the "Dragonlance solution" so to speak.

Cheers,
Cam

I dunno, that's almost like saying "We found this paradise in South America, where's there's no crime, no pollution, and everyone gets along", and the first thing that comes out of the person in charges mouth is "Lets drill it for oil!" I think pretty much everyone has a problem with DL feels the stuff wrong with the setting comes from the novels. Starting a new novel line in a pristine and free part of the DL world is going to ruin what people like about it.

Right or wrong, when you have a novel written about where you are playing, the attitude changes to "unless we're playing with things like they are in the novel, we're playing wrong".

 

[Dragonhelm]

Improving Dragonlance would require making Kenders, Tinker Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves into deep, interesting races. Interesting both from a metagaming standpoint (making them useful in an adventuring party) and from a roleplaying standpoint (providing real heroic archetypes for them, rather than poop-joke comic relief à la Jar Jar).

How do you feel about afflicted kender and mad gnomes?