The Big BZ
Explorer
War of the Lance Reboot adventure path and the original novels released in a revised edition.
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.
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.
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.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.
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.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?"