The Dragonlance Saga--your experiences

[Ulrick]

I'm talking about those wonderful adventures that went along with the original Dragonlance book Trilogy in the 1980s.

http://www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/modpages/dl.html

Has anybody played through them? All the way?

I have the three books that have all of the adventures.
I've never played or run them. But would like to someday.

So, what are your thoughts, experiences, etc?

 

[el-remmen]

If the term "railroad" was not invented for them, it should have been.

However, I did enjoy using the encounter locations from some of them as generic maps for my own homebrewed adventures.

 

[donremus]

I played them when they first came out. I was Sturm Brightblade and enjoyed the early ones immensely. The later modules using Battlesystem weren't so hot.

 

[DaveyJones]

Chugga chugga choo choo

 

[kigmatzomat]

With a decent GM and players who are "in" on the concept, it's pretty fun. Let's honest, at the time DLA came out there were few adventures that were not horribly linear. That's what DMs and players were used to in canned modules. Most of them did so by simply not having any information going in any other direction but many flat out say "the players make their way from X to Y..." with no solid justification or explanation on how that happened.

I think with the amount of campaign materials available now, the WotL adventures could be executed in an excellent fashion since a DM could extrapolate the series of events. The Gods could appear in any location as can the Arm and Hammer of Karres.

Regardless, the story feels rushed because it is rushed. The whole point of the first module is a panicked flight ahead of the armies. The real question is are the players Knight-in-shining-armor Heroes or mercenary adventurers out for cash and glory? Modern semi-heroes don't mesh well with the older modules.

 

[Land Outcast]

Haven't read/GMed/Played any of them, but the general concensus across time and forums seems to be is RAILROAD

 

[Mark CMG]

A group I was in played through them when they frst came out and all of the players avoided reading the books so as to come at them fresh and without bias. We were constantly pushed, prodded, cajoled, funneled, and railroaded through the entire experience. Not knowing what we were expected to do, toward the end we would play a bit of a metagame where we would brainstorm among the players which path to follow. We even made side bets. Before it was all over, even the DM was jaded and would run through a series of negative replies to our queries until we'd alight upon the proper course, to whit he would despondently acknowledge (I paraphrase), "Yup. That appears to be something they will allow you to do."


It might prove more enjoyable to just have the group sit in a circle, passing the novels around and taking turns reading from them.

 

[Umbran]

Yes, they were railroad - but at least is was a luxury sleeper car!

 

[Cam Banks]

I of course feel obliged to come along here and point out that A) they were incredibly innovative for their time, as they introduced story and plot elements to modules that had very little precedent and B) recent adventures from WotC are just as linear and not as ambitious.

Plus, we're in the processing of revising and updating this series to 3.5 as part of our Classics campaign trilogy. Dragons of Autumn is already on sale and updates DL1-4. Dragons of Winter is in production now and updates DL6-9 (DL5 was a sourcebook and not a module). Dragons of Spring will round out the trilogy and updates DL10, DL12-DL14 (DL11 was a strategy game in a module package.)

Once again, the "hop on the Dragonlance railroad" is a tired cliche and I don't think it's relevant now. I'm very pleased with how the current version of the saga is shaping up, given the new rules and approaches that have been developed over the last two decades since DL1 came out. Give it a look.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Huw]

Played, then DM'ed DL1. It reads better than it plays, but still fun, and definitely railroaded

Played DL2, then played DL6 and 7 together. They worked very well. Less railroaded - or rather, the railroad is more subtle.

I do have the entire series. There's a varied mix of ideas in there. DL10 (with the dreams) sounds the hardest to play or DM.