What makes Dragonlance, Dragonlance?

[The_Dood]

or more specifically what themes need to be present in an adventure for the players and DMs to regard an adventure as a draglonlance adventure and not just a DND adventure?

 

[hong]

or more specifically what themes need to be present in an adventure for the players and DMs to regard an adventure as a draglonlance adventure and not just a DND adventure?

Dragons.
Lances.
Ninjae.

 

[the Jester]

Personally, I see anything set in the World of Krynn as Dragonlance and anything set elsewhere as not-Dragonlance, regardless of themes or similarities. Heck, I even used dragonarmies in my old Oerth game (figuring it as a multiplanar Tiamat-Bahamut conflict that spilled over with disastrous results) and that was by no means Dragonlance.

 

[The Little Raven]

Friendship.
Tragedy.
Loss.
Hope.

All of these are necessary to make a good Dragonlance game.

As well as ninjae.

 

[tarchon]

Dragons.
Lances.
Ninjae.

Not just dragons and lances, dragons WITH lances.

 

[Dirigible]

Sub-orbital tactical nuclear bombardment.

 

[Gnome Berzerker]

The Moons affect magic. You need to be a member of the Wizards order, or arcane spells will get you in trouble.

Solamnic Knights.

Civilized Minotaurs, Kender & Tinker Gnomes (for better or worse)

 

[Null Boundry]

From personal experiance...

Bickering about how the game doesn't fit with the books.

Followed by...

Further bickering about how the game doesn't fit with the books

And a side order of...

Even more bickering doesn't fit with the books.

Not even fun arguements but the sort that goes "In book X charecter Y stopped here and they didn't buy any fish so fish can't be bought here".

Also there is no magical healing and DMs who feel 6 months bed rest following any combat is acceptable.

 

[DragonLancer]

Theres more to it than that. Any campaign world can have all that and not be Dragonlance.

Any campaign world can be roleplay based as opposed to being hack n' slash based (which unfortunately most are geared towards as D&D standard), but Dragonlance is meant to be 90% roleplay based. You don't get dungeons like the ToEE. You don't get wandering monsters for the hell of it. Magical treasure is very very rare. Its these differences combined with what others have said (seriously) that makes Dragonlance differ.

 

[Tsyr]

Solamnic Knights.

More than just that anymore; Knightly Orders in general are a big part of the Krynn landscape.

Gods are always a major player in the world; if not by their presense, then by their absense. Gods have a way of making you think about them in Dragonlance, not just take them for granted.

A good - vs - evil theme.

Growth and Development, for the characters. More than just gaining levels and XP, characters should develop distinct personalities, change over time as things happen to them, etc. Raistlin changed many times, Caramon went from happy-go-lucky warrior to drunk to leader of men to... and so did all the other characters. About the only character that never really changed in his life was Sturm... And we know what happened to Sturm.