Sovereign Stone / Weis & Hickman

[Gez]

Their society is basicly lawful evil, they fear magic, etc. Different from normal elves, sure, but...

Not by much. Elves in the Forgotten Realms like magic, and generally don't are assumed to have slanted eyes, but they are otherwise like what you described.

 

[Ranger REG]

* shrugs shoulders *

Maybe Sovereign Stone is better than Dragonlance. Then again, maybe not.

All I know is that I grew up with Dragonlance, and perhaps I'm nostalgic, but I'm glad it is back by popular demand.

There is something to be said of "old school."

 

[jRocket]

3) Uh, no. Pecwae are not kender wannabes.

They sound like Willow wannabes. The little people in the Willow movie were called "Pecks".

 

[Sir Trent]

Isn't Sovereign Stone a world Elmore created? I thought it was, at least I recall reading some thing along those lines when the 1st novel came out. I guess I should go find that novel and read it again. Or maybe I don't know what I am talking about. Since I havn't read that book in awhile and I never started the second novel yet.

Yes, Larry Elmore did design the original concepts of Sov Stone, including the basic ideas for the 2nd and 3rd novels. Margaret Weis and Don Perrin and others added greatly too it. I assume the 1st novel was all Weis, and you can definitely tell the difference if you are looking for them. I have heard Mr. Elmore speak of his original ideas, and not using the races in the same old ways were a part of that. As for Dwarves being too small to be good horsemen, have you ever seen a child ride a horse? I have, they have no problems whatsoever if they are experienced and the horse is well trained. Yes dwarves are heavier, but since when has a few more pounds mattered to a horse? I mean, if they can carry Hoss Cartwright, they can carry a Dwarf, right? One thing that Sov Stone shares with Dragonlance is the concept of enormous armies of hideous Taan (draconians) living and training for years and decades without anyone knowing. I mean, give me a break, someone has to see something eventually, you know?

 

[Ranger REG]

That said, as soon as I was into roleplaying, I tried to give dragonlance its fair shake. I had the old orange-spine Dragonlance Adventures book. Didn't like it. 2nd Edition came around and with it, the Tales of the Lance boxed set. Didn't like it. Hated Time of the Dragon.

Many will say that DL is "played out" or that the "best story has already been told," or whatever. Look, I don't know why, but DL has never clicked with me as a RPG setting. Things that worked great in the books never came together well in a game.

The argument could be said of those R.A. Salvatore books about a Forgotten Realms drow elf ranger.

Suffice to say, before the books came out, there was a series of Dragonlance adventure modules for 1st edition AD&D (prior to the Dragonlance Adventures soucebook written by DL co-author Tracy Hickman). The books' storyline were based on the mega-adventures played by then-TSR game designers.

Personally, I think the books' authors embellished a bit.

 

[s/LaSH]

To return to the original topic: Yes, I'd like to see a Death Gate product. The story might have become a little weak towards the end (in my opinion), but the setting was right up my 'weirder the better' alley.

SPOILER: Because the setting is (as explained in an appendix somewhere) actually some weird-out future planet earth (never mind the fact that there are five-plus distinct worlds involved), the history of the setting is also worth examining... there's some kind of Shadowrun-type event, and some seriously weird singularity manipulation that causes the bifurcations in reality that allow all these planes of existance. The level of reality-shaking power necessary for that is appealing, in a kind of Age Of Wonders (Wheel of Time) type of way.

 

[Cam Banks]

Suffice to say, before the books came out, there was a series of Dragonlance adventure modules for 1st edition AD&D (prior to the Dragonlance Adventures soucebook written by DL co-author Tracy Hickman). The books' storyline were based on the mega-adventures played by then-TSR game designers.

Personally, I think the books' authors embellished a bit.

Actually, they didn't play out all of the modules - it was a one-shot run by Tracy of the first, DL1 Dragons of Despair, from which several amusing scenes were draw for Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The first 4 modules were written more or less before the first novel was published, but the entire project was under simultaneous development. They knew who the characters were, what the world was like, what would happen, etc before anything hit the shelves. After Dragons of Winter Night, in fact, the modules began to follow on after the books and not the other way around, so that by about DL8 Dragons of War its the novels which formed the basis for the modules.

Dragonlance Adventures was published after the Legends trilogy, and possibly even at the same time as Legend of Huma - certainly, it's representative of the shift at the time towards Dragonlance being a bestselling series of novels and less an AD&D world. DLA is a fine example of the post-Unearthed Arcana heyday of 1st edition, what with new classes, including some funky split-classes (the Knights of Solamnia and Wizards of High Sorcery, which owe a lot to the Thief-Acrobat), new races, spells, and so forth. It's still extremely popular today, even with newer fans.

Of course, there's that lovely book coming out in Summer that's going to blow it all away.

Cheers,
Cam
Whitestone Council, www.dl3e.com & www.dragonlance.com

 

[Darrin Drader]

I read the first Sov. Stone book and honestly, didn't like it at all. None of the characters were heroic. They were all evil. What was the point? Its cool that its Elmore's world, but what I've seen of it just doesn't do it for me.

 

[Tsyr]

I read the first Sov. Stone book and honestly, didn't like it at all. None of the characters were heroic. They were all evil. What was the point? Its cool that its Elmore's world, but what I've seen of it just doesn't do it for me.

Well, you're not exactly looking at the big picture... The first book is the book where everything falls apart... It's just setting the stage for what happens many, many years later. And for the record, that one kid... the peasant one, who became the mage (name escapes me)... I wouldn't call him evil.

 

[Tsyr]

As for the Deathgate Cycle...

There are, what, 5 worlds total? Labyrinth ( plus the city on the outskirts of it), Air, Fire, Earth, Water, right? Of those, by the end of the series ...

*SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVN'T READ THE SERIES*
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Air is working more or less as intended, Fire is devoid of life and has a necromantic hoard inhabiting it, Earth is devoid of life except for like 2 elves and a dwarf or something like that, Water I'm not sure about, but it's messed up, and Labyrinth... well, it's the worlds biggest dungeon crawl, let's put it that way.

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Sure, the setting is cool, but I'm not sure how well it would do for an RPG world.