Dragonlance [+] What do you like most about DRAGONLANCE?

[GMforPowergamers]

1e Footman's Lances did damage equal to the hit points of the wielder. So a 54 hit point Fighter hit for 54 points of damage. Mounted lances did the combined hit point total of the wielder and dragon that wielder was riding.

thank you... that is what I was remembering (half remembering)

 

[Maxperson]

thank you... that is what I was remembering (half remembering)

You're welcome! When you asked me earlier, I thought you were trying to remind me about the 1e version as an idea for 5e, not actually asking. That's why I answered the way I did. Not to be a jerk.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

I like that steel is currency but that armor and weapons are still made from it.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Taladas is the best thing about Krynn.

Dragon’s of Autumn Twilight is a fine coming together story for a party.

The Atlas of Dragonlance was chef’s kiss.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I like that steel is currency but that armor and weapons are still made from it.

in mine craft they make diamond armor...

as a kid it never dawned on me that steel can't be both rare enough to replace gold/silver AND plentiful enough to outfit armies... then again we use pieces of paper and pieces of plastic for OUR made up economy.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

as a kid it never dawned on me that steel can't be both rare enough to replace gold/silver AND plentiful enough to outfit armies... then again we use pieces of paper and pieces of plastic for OUR made up economy.

I see it like the post-apocalypse currencies we often see in games:
In Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the currency is metal shards also used to craft weapons and other items.
In Fallout, they use bottle caps.

So in DL, I consider that it is more a thing where items cost their weight in steel, which could be hastily made ''coins'' or ''token'' or even steel ingots/bars or other metallic object. Because, in a pinch, I could smelt my steel pile a make weapons and armors out of it. In a post-cataclysm world, a symbolic currency based on an economic consensus would be hard to attain. So with a steel/iron economy its more of a barter system than a coin-based economy.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I see it like the post-apocalypse currencies we often see in games:
In Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, the currency is metal shards also used to craft weapons and other items.
In Fallout, they use bottle caps.

So in DL, I consider that it is more a thing where items cost their weight in steel, which could be hastily made ''coins'' or ''token'' or even steel ingots/bars or other metallic object. Because, in a pinch, I could smelt my steel pile a make weapons and armors out of it. In a post-cataclysm world, a symbolic currency based on an economic consensus would be hard to attain. So with a steel/iron economy its more of a barter system than a coin-based economy.

Reasonable head-canon, that's not how it's presented in the setting books though.

I think it's just ill-considered, especially as there are historical examples, which I suspect the writers were unaware of. Japan shows what happens when you have big feudal-esque (I know not exactly sigh) society trying to operate whilst iron-poor. The iron age shows how iron as currency works. None of the lessons of either are evident in Krynn, it's just like "We're special so we'll use a different currency!", like the currency version of "Our elves are different!".

I'm not a metallurgist but I strongly suspect that, given how many kinds of steel there are, and how you need to use the right kind for the right job, you could not, in fact, easily use steel coins to make weapons/armour, nor easily melt weapons/armour to make steel coins. Iron would make a bit more sense.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Reasonable head-canon, that's not how it's presented in the setting books though.

I think it's just ill-considered, especially as there are historical examples, which I suspect the writers were unaware of. Japan shows what happens when you have big feudal-esque (I know not exactly sigh) society trying to operate whilst iron-poor. The iron age shows how iron as currency works. None of the lessons of either are evident in Krynn, it's just like "We're special so we'll use a different currency!", like the currency version of "Our elves are different!".

I'm not a metallurgist but I strongly suspect that, given how many kinds of steel there are, and how you need to use the right kind for the right job, you could not, in fact, easily use steel coins to make weapons/armour, nor easily melt weapons/armour to make steel coins. Iron would make a bit more sense.

Rust.

The main reason coinage uses the metals it does is so the weight doesn't change due to corrosion.

But maybe the material called iron on Krynn has different properties to what we call iron.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Rust.

The main reason coinage uses the metals it does is so the weight doesn't change due to corrosion.

But maybe the material called iron on krynn has different properties to what we call iron.

Yeah iron might not be iron, it's true, though I'm pretty sure it was meant to be.

But people used iron as currency and got around the rust problem another way - they just used bigass blocks of solid iron, so whilst the exterior might get rusty, the overall weight wasn't likely to change much.

If they were using little coins like of other metals, which basically maximize the exposed surface area, well, yeah, rust would have become a constant problem.

All that said, steel rusts too, remember. Stainless steel is a special and hard-to-make version of steel (which would likely need magic or Dwarves to make in D&D), and I don't think is great for recycling/reusing (I could be wrong, steel experts please correct me). So steel coins would also rust - probably more slowly, but they would rust.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Reasonable head-canon, that's not how it's presented in the setting books though.

I think it's just ill-considered, especially as there are historical examples, which I suspect the writers were unaware of. Japan shows what happens when you have big feudal-esque (I know not exactly sigh) society trying to operate whilst iron-poor. The iron age shows how iron as currency works. None of the lessons of either are evident in Krynn, it's just like "We're special so we'll use a different currency!", like the currency version of "Our elves are different!".

I'm not a metallurgist but I strongly suspect that, given how many kinds of steel there are, and how you need to use the right kind for the right job, you could not, in fact, easily use steel coins to make weapons/armour, nor easily melt weapons/armour to make steel coins. Iron would make a bit more sense.

Yeah I know, like you said, its more of a head-canon than anything else. Like the thing with the King-Priest being ''too good'' or gully dwarves being genetically less intelligent. I mentally replace those with things somewhat more coherent.

As for steel, yeah, melting coins to make equipment would give you crap equipment in real life, but for game fiction at the table, let's just say that steel is steel is steel. I still makes more senses than having whole xenophobic countries who want nothing to do with their neighbors agreeing to stamp steel coins in the middle of a world war after a civilization crash

Other metals also usable in equipment (let's say) could also be use as higher-worth currencies, like Orichalcum, Adamantine.

Or even dragon scales, alicorn or cinnabar (mercury deposit from the radiation of dragon breaths) etc

EDIT: and on the subject of rust, this is another good reason to consider steel economy as a short-term solution brought by the cataclysm and the war times. In DL, people are living in a no-future, today may be the last kind of mental state, so having 1) food 2) water 3) cold hard steel/iron today is the only thing that matter.