Dragonlance What do you want from a Dragonlance 5e?

[The Big BZ]

War of the Lance Reboot adventure path and the original novels released in a revised edition.

 

[akr71]

I'd like to see factions leveraged in Dragonlance in a similar way to Ravnica. For instance, rather than creating a Knight of Solamnia class/subclass you instead have the Solamnic Knights faction. Then you can have levels within the faction based on renown.

That's a cool idea. What other factions would DL need?

• Towers of High Sorcery to cover the 3 arcane classes (wizard, sorcerer, warlock)
• Army of the Dragon Highlords

Rules for Moon Magic would be helpful too. I suspect that could pretty much be lifted whole cloth from the 3e (?) campaign setting.

 

[The Glen]

You kick it Forward a hundred years hire Weis and Hickman to get us what they would do storyline wise and make an adventure out of that. Far enough Advanced that you're not dealing with the original characters except for some cameos is with the elves but not far enough that you've erased the previous events from memory. You get a new event that the players can call their own while still living in the shadow of the books. Best of Both Worlds

 

[Urriak Uruk]

If you want to appeal new younger players who do not know the books then you would have to do some heavy promoting of these besides any RPG products.
Most of the guys in this thread do know the books, most of them would know how to play with the original characters and adventure path. For most who don't know nothing about it, the best part would probably be riding dragons and fighting with dragonlances while mounting them.
So this becomes pretty tricky, despite all of its potential.
The fan base is split up also, you got those who only like the original saga, and those who like the original saga but without the heroes and those who say this and that period afterwards is better.

So you got 4 different kinds of public to cater to, plus an epic story line for low level chars, plus very flashy combat possibilities which would translate to pretty high level D&D, readers of the books and newbies.

Perhaps from a marketing POV this is the most difficult to sell classic setting.

For me personally a UA with rules for dragonlances, clarifying how to represent knights of solamnia with three different paladin oaths (which is the best idea I have encountered so far cannot recall it atm who wrote it in this forum but big kudos for that once more), maybes some rules on flying mounted combat, and a bit on the three different schools of magic and the moons influencing them would be enough.

Oof I don't like this take. The idea that making one book to cater to 4 audiences is too difficult, so the compromise is to instead make a single UA... yeah that might backfire even worse.

 

[Gadget]

Lot's of opinions on this, I'm not sure most of what I feel for Dragonlance isn't mostly nostalgia. It was Dragonlance that really made me get on board with Vancian caster and many other D&Disms. I'll make a go of some things that came to mind:

• Dragonlance is High Fantasy, but not as High Magic as later D&D has become, despite the premise of Dragonriders & Dragonlances and such. I'm not sure how to capture this feeling in modern D&D well, as AD&D was much closer to that level of magic, despite some Montey Haul tendancies.
• There seems to be a big emphasis on having everything from the base game in or compatible with every product released. While Dragonlance is not as much a problem in this area as something like Darksun, it could feel very forced. There could be some adaptation such as Dragonborn = Draconians, Half-orcs = Half-Ogres, and Tieflings = Irda(?), but there would have to be a limit. Sorcerer's probably would not fit into the Towers of High Sorcery model, and Warlocks definitely would not. Other classes might have similar issues.
• Age of Mortals and such. Some people like, some people hate what amounts to 'blowing up the setting for a new Edition.' Other settings have had this maladay, but Dragonlance seems to suffer from an acute case. Don't 'blow up' the setting for a new release, you'll likely loose what was unique about it in the process. Cover other Ages, maybe expanding the setting, but don't Forgotten Realms without orcs or something.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Lot's of opinions on this, I'm not sure most of what I feel for Dragonlance isn't mostly nostalgia. It was Dragonlance that really made me get on board with Vancian caster and many other D&Disms. I'll make a go of some things that came to mind:

• Dragonlance is High Fantasy, but not as High Magic as later D&D has become, despite the premise of Dragonriders & Dragonlances and such. I'm not sure how to capture this feeling in modern D&D well, as AD&D was much closer to that level of magic, despite some Montey Haul tendancies.
• There seems to be a big emphasis on having everything from the base game in or compatible with every product released. While Dragonlance is not as much a problem in this area as something like Darksun, it could feel very forced. There could be some adaptation such as Dragonborn = Draconians, Half-orcs = Half-Ogres, and Tieflings = Irda(?), but there would have to be a limit. Sorcerer's probably would not fit into the Towers of High Sorcery model, and Warlocks definitely would not. Other classes might have similar issues.
• Age of Mortals and such. Some people like, some people hate what amounts to 'blowing up the setting for a new Edition.' Other settings have had this maladay, but Dragonlance seems to suffer from an acute case. Don't 'blow up' the setting for a new release, you'll likely loose what was unique about it in the process. Cover other Ages, maybe expanding the setting, but don't Forgotten Realms without orcs or something.

I could see using those races reflavored, though I'd consider justing using the full orc stats for the half-ogre. Or Goliath. The main thing of the half-ogre is being incredibly strong, right? Irda could be a tiefling variant, but I don't think the base version makes sense for it. May be just as easy to simply make a new race, there.

Definitely don't blow up the setting. I'd rather see the twilight of an age of relative peace, as a new darkness falls over Ansalon. Make the continent feel like it did in the Chronicles, without any time warping or retconning. Some things will be different. The knights of solamnia aren't basically in disrepair and many of them are paladins now, there are gods, the Towers of High Sorcery are...maybe a couple human generations into a new era of being a thing again, but there is a perhaps a rival faction with it's own tower that takes in those the Towers of High Sorcery would shun or persecute?

The most important thing is, there is no strong good empire to take on Golden Army of New Ishtar, or the New Dragon Armies, or The Horde of Mithas, or whatever. The heroes begin in a small town inn, and an NPC or two arrive who need help on the same day that the evil army arrives.

Rather than the gods being gone, Paladine and Takhisis are still missing, but rumours stir of their impending return, or perhaps she has returned by Paladine has not yet, etc. Maybe do something with the gods of magic being gone, and magic greater than 3rd level spells being extremely rare and requiring special arcane focuses to channel even for the most learned mages, etc.

A new story, the same world, full circle without being a retread.

 

[The Glen]

Some Publishers don't grasp what the old fans want. Nostalgia is great but it doesn't replace a decent story. And we can't forget that the setting is brand new to a huge number of people. Dragonlance might be decades-old, but for a lot of Gamers is brand-spanking-new. And it needs to be treated as such.

You don't have to shoehorn in any of the new races or classes they just don't exist in dragonlance. That was part of what made the setting unique when the ink was still wet. There were no halflings or Orcs the Gnomes were completely original. You don't have to turn every setting into the Forgotten Realms. The same sense of wonder for the grognard is going to hit the new player just as hard. Don't rehash the old Adventure, give us a new one that the Next Generation can claim for themselves.

 

[Bacon Bits]

Honestly, I'm not interested in a 5e Dragonlance.

Kender are obnoxious in actual play, as are gully dwarves. Weis and Hickman seem to have made the general mistake of thinking that being over-the-top obnoxious, annoying, or idiotic is the same as being funny, and while that works in a novel where you're only indirectly subjected to it it's just not the case when it's a player at the game table doing it. Baaz draconians turning to stone upon death is iconic in the novels, but it's pretty terrible for actual play to routinely deprive PCs of their weapons. You have to choose between the "no gods, so no healing magic at all" theme that most people are more familiar with (which makes adventuring more difficult and skews class balance), or you change it to be after the War of the Lance in which case a lot of the interesting parts of the setting... aren't that interesting.

There are so many little aspects to the campaign setting that are great for a narrative in a book and make for a very memorable world. I think not including those things kind of defeats the purpose of playing in Dragonlance. At the same time, these elements would be completely miserable to experience in-game or they are otherwise terrible for gameplay at a real campaign table. I would just rather not play in Dragonlance anymore.

 

[Umbran]

I think folks thinking of the War of the Lance as a set of adventures are missing the mark.

The War of the Lance is a setting. The world, during that time period, is a setting, just as Eberron, after its war, is a setting. The only thing difficult to manage is how that setting has major metaplot, that very specifcially comes to an end.

I am not sure "replace the Heroes of the Lance with your own PCs" really gets us anything particularly interesting. We all know what's at stake, the major issues and plot points that'd have to be hit. I can just read the books. I think we'd be better off with, "While the Heroes of the Lance are in motion, what else is going on?"

 

[cbwjm]

I think folks thinking of the War of the Lance as a set of adventures are missing the mark.

The War of the Lance is a setting. The world, during that time period, is a setting, just as Eberron, after its war, is a setting. The only thing difficult to manage is how that setting has major metaplot, that very specifcially comes to an end.

I am not sure "replace the Heroes of the Lance with your own PCs" really gets us anything particularly interesting. We all know what's at stake, the major issues and plot points that'd have to be hit. I can just read the books. I think we'd be better off with, "While the Heroes of the Lance are in motion, what else is going on?"

That's exactly how I feel. I seem to read too many people who think that the only way to play is by following in the footsteps of, or playing as, the heroes of the lance is the only way to play in dragonlance when they have this whole rich, vibrant setting. There are a lot of areas you can explore, and dealing with the fallout of the ongoing war of the lance is one of them.