What is the attraction of Dragonlance?

Henry, I stand corrected. I guess it's probably my age showing (I wasn't even born until 1984). A big part of it I guess is that by the time I came along and tried to read them, those stereotypes were already in place (though I honestly can't refute the argument that DL may well have set those stereotypes). All I know is that when I read about those characters, it made me want to bang my head against the wall.
 

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Things in DL I liked

While there were many things I did not like (Green Gemstone Man) here are some of the things I did like:

From the books

Lord Soth was great,

Draconians were great,

I loved how they used consistent italic (latin?) words for spell verbal components and command words, I found it very evocative.

Weasel's luck is probably the best D&D novel I ever read. The villain one about verminaard was pretty good as well.

For gaming,

You could play a minotaur or an ogre (munchkin, yes, but fun).

The idea of a deadly ingame magic test was good plot hook.

Draconians are cool cannon fodder.
 

Geez, I read those way back in middle school, mainly because some of my friends were reading them. I didn't think they were anything special back then. But for some of my friends it was their first foray into fantasy type books and although now they don't think the books were that great, they do share a nostalgia for them. The first fantasy books I read were the Elric books for my 4th grade project, so I guess I am a sucker for Elric books. So everyone probably has their own series that they are a sucker for.
 


I loved the first two trilogies. I really got attached to the characters and the setting. The series was fun to read and wasn't pretentious like Tolkien(who is the most boring fantasy author I've ever read*. Maybe one day I'll finish the Return of the King, but I really doubt it. There will always be paint to watch dry.) It was high fantasy like many have said, and the world was much more alive to me than Middle Earth or any of the other fantasy series I've read. Never gamed in it, but I think I'll pick up the book when it comes out. Since I haven't read anything since the last book of the Twins series I can't comment on the 5th age or chaos war stuff.

*next to ed greenwood of course.
 

Amendment to my earlier post (where I listed cliches I noticed in the DL Chronicles characters): After re-reading Henry's rebuttal, I went and checked the title of the book I started reading and never finished. It was in fact Dragons of Autumn Twilight. :)
 

Re: Reasons I hate DL

Psion said:
Let me count the ways:

1) My first exposure to DL was the adventures, which we quickly learned to hate. They had the tragic flaw of trying to follow in the footsteps of the book. It was a railroad fest of the worst order.

While I agree that the adventures did railroad you, but do you realize where they came from? Weis & Hickman were playing in their own world where they wanted dragons to be a large and integral part of the world. Thus they created the adventures and ran their own characters, Raistlin, Caramon, Tanis, etc. through the adventures. Then they wrote novels about the adventures and published the setting in the series of adventures they ran in their home campaign. Thus the adventures were designed to force you to play the books because the books WERE the adventures that they themselves played.

Now whether or not these adventures are good for your campaign is a different matter, but that is why they were released as they were.
 



Just because one group makes certain choices about how to proceed, doesn't mean that all groups should have to make the same choices.
 

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