What's the deal with Dragonlance?

[jonesy]

Nothing for the PCs to do: The Heroes of the Lance have done everything of note that is important to the setting. So the PCs are either the HotL, or do things that have little to do with the setting, and could be done just as well in FR or greyhawk.

Only if the DM has no imagination and tries to base everything on what happened in the novels. So do your campaign's in say FR always center on stuff Drizzt has done?

Kender, Tinker Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves are incredibly lame and silly.

Only if the DM or the players don't know anything about them, or how to play them. Or try to play them exactly as the ones in the novels. Does every human act the same way? Neither do they.

 

[Ravellion]

War of souls trilogy conclusion.

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I mean it! I'll give you a bit more time to read over it again, because this will ruin books that you haven't read yet.

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Is it just me though, or is the post war of souls absence of Paladine and Takhisis a real letdown. The eternal struggle of those two was something that really appealed to me. That conclusion left an ashen taste in my mouth, it really did. I was looking forward to Dragonlance 3e, now I feel that I can wait. I'll buy the book to see how it is done, but we are talking about me requiring the flavour of KoK and the production quality of FR if I am ever going to run a game in it.

 

[Zenon]

As long there is sufficient game material to play in the 4th Age, in the time period after the War of the Lance, I'm friggin' content.

Here's a second to that! My friend is reading the newest novels and giving me summaries of them. Sorry, but compared to the WotL period they're just plain strange sounding.

For me, this would be playing a generic fantasy adventure plopped randomly down into the world of Dragonlance. Part of Krynn's appeal is that it is not just a massive amalgamation of every little cliche-able fantastic concept, including the presence of vampires, or Illithids, or Beholders, or any of that other stuff. You have some death knights (Soth and his men), a (ONE) lich-like being (Fistandantilus), but not roving bands of wacked-out creatures for no reason. Dragonlance isn't just Forgotten Realms with different gods and a different history, thankfully.

Well, this is true of almost any type of scenario. Let me say that the BBEG that was the crux of the plotline was the ONLY vampire we every knew of (and I believe the storyline had him receiving vampirism from Chemosh as a reward). We never fought "roving bands of wacked-out creatures for no reason". In 6 years there, I never fought much that wasn't already in Krynn, and when we did, it was something special. Our DM was a great one, everything we dealt with was very much tied in in a "Krynnish" fashion and made sense for it to be there. Was it Canon DL? No, but reference the part of my previous post that talks about the group agreeing what parts of the world are canon from the novels.

The point of my small story was to show that the 4th age DL world could deal with something other that the War of the Lance, and have another "sweeping" plotline that had the PC's as the heroes instead of the Companions. Most of the "unusual" non-canon creatures that we fought were directly tied the the BBEG and were faced in the final battle of that plot.

Just one of the many reasons why Wiess/Hickman's vision of Dragonlance is the only palatable one for me.

I agree with you here, especially in relating to the novels. Although I have heard that some of them were very good, I tried one or two of the 3rd party written ones, and they just didn't seem to have the same feel.

Stupid Comedy Races:
Kender, Tinker Gnomes, and Gully Dwarves are incredibly lame and silly. Most Dragonlance DMs love them and insist on including as many as possible. And you can't do anything to get rid of them as that would be evil and you're supposed to be the good guys.
Or a player plays a kender just so he can be a totally annoying ******* 'in character'.

Wrong is any way other than how Tas was wrote, basicly, to my mind. And only wies-n-hickman Tas, at that.

Tas was *not* just comedic releif. Tas could be a coldblooded killer at times. Read the opening to DoAT again. Those first few pages are how I see kender having the potential to be.

Why do I dock XP so badly? I don't with most things. Only with Kender... to prevent people irritating the party with kender doing whatever the heck they feel like.

On the two above quotes, I'll tell you how our DM handled Kender and the like - they were strictly NPC races. Our DM announced this at the beginning of the game and then told us why (paraphrasing, it's been too long to remember it accurately):

"Kender will "handle" things, it is in their nature and they cannot help it. BUT - it will never be something absolutely critical from you sheets and it will never be done maliciously. Most, if not all items will be able to be recovered when it is realized that they are missing."

Basically the DM told it to us straight. Again, our DM had an awesome grip on the feel of DL, and the Kender that travelled with us was played along the lines of Tas. We never found him annoying ("Sorry! Is this yours? You dropped it and I picked it up for you. It's lucky I did or you might have lost it!"). However, I have heard stories of other games that included kender and realize how they can be abused. To me, this rests in the DM's hands to control it by some method, either by setting them as an "NPC only" or through XP docking for inappropriate action like Tysr states.

But again, any race/class combo can be overdone in many worlds. Just play in FR and try to play a Drow ranger wielding two scimitars and watch the looks you get (and get ready to duck in case things are thrown at you)....

I'll also say that unfortunately for TSR's handling of DL, they released the DL modules series which many people base their dislike of DL gaming on. I have seen them and they are terrible - you are basically playing the novels and you are railroaded into doing exactly what the Companions do in the novels! I think the only module of any worth was the one (DL 11?) that included the mass combat game for determining the course of the war.

I am looking forward to the SS release of DL - to me it is a fine game world with developed history, waiting to be taken in new directions by the next heroes, the PC's.

 

[megamania]

any more questions...?

Seriously, I applaud the thorough descriptions above. I have never played the game but read several books and some of the gaming material. The above descriptions fit well.

 

[blackshirt5]

Lance is a Pink Dragon. He spends all his time thinking about how to properly decorate his lair, what curtains would match the horde, and then at around 4 oclock, he watches Oprah and thinks about that dreamy hunk Drizzt Dourden...

That wasn't what you were asking, was it?

 

[jonesy]

Check out Kencyclopedia.com and their newest creation, the
Kencyclopedia, on how to use kender in Dragonlance campaigns.
Contains lots of helpful hints on how to not turn them into a
'stupid comedy race'.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I'll also say that unfortunately for TSR's handling of DL, they released the DL modules series which many people base their dislike of DL gaming on. I have seen them and they are terrible - you are basically playing the novels and you are railroaded into doing exactly what the Companions do in the novels! I think the only module of any worth was the one (DL 11?) that included the mass combat game for determining the course of the war.

Actually, AFAIK, the modules were Dragonlance, and the novels went along with them, not viceversa.

For myself, when I ran a game "in dragonlance" I didn't run it in Krynn. The Knights of Solamnia were in some control after the war, and sent ambassadors to other worlds. The adventurer's were tasked to spread the word of the Knights... in greyhawk

It drew on the Dragonlance setting, and they eventually did return to Krynn where they lived and there was another large war, blah blah.

But, basically, playing during the war would of necessity be secondary. Following the war, there are plenty of things to do.

 

[Zenon]

Actually, AFAIK, the modules were Dragonlance, and the novels went along with them, not viceversa.

This is kind of a "chicken & the egg" thing. IIRC, Weis and Hickman used what eventually became the modules to shape the DL story. I recall reading something about the player who ran Raistlin using a whispery voice which was incorperated into the novel.

Either way, the modules exactly following the novels was a terrible idea. Imagine this:

You and your friends read the DL novels and think "Wow! Cool world! I want to play in it!" so you run out and start picking up the modules. The DM breaks them open and begins and suddenly all the players are saying "Wait a minute! This is right from the books! I know exactly what's going to happen! WTF???"

Imagine the new LotR game by Decipher. You've just see LotR:FotR with your friends and think "Wow! Cool movie! I want to play in that world!" so you buy the game, but it seems that the only thing you can play in it are 9 PC's called the Fellowship, the the adventure is exactly the same as the movie. How many people do you think that would turn off/disgust? (Edit: p.s - I know this is NOT how the new LotR actually is, this is simply a "what if?" example)

What I meant by the utility of the wargame part of the DL modules being useful was that a DM could swipe it for rules in case of another was across Krynn.

 

[myrdden]

I'll also say that unfortunately for TSR's handling of DL, they released the DL modules series which many people base their dislike of DL gaming on. I have seen them and they are terrible - you are basically playing the novels and you are railroaded into doing exactly what the Companions do in the novels! I think the only module of any worth was the one (DL 11?) that included the mass combat game for determining the course of the war.

I had always thought that the modules came first and the novels were second. I seem to recall reading an interview with Weiss and Hickman in which it iwas revealled that many of the events/actions in the novels were actual actions that were undertaken in a game using the modules. For example (since my memory seems to feel this was cited in the interview), Raistlin's charming of Bupu the Gully Dwarf happened in game and was translated into the novel.

Myrdden

 

[Zenon]

Is this the interview you're thinking of? (on pg 3, watch out, big .pdf!.):

http://www.wizards.com/dragonlance/Legends1.pdf

The Acaeum isn't too clear on which came first, only that they were complimentary.

http://www.acaeum.com/DDIndexes/ModPages/DL.html

I'm not too sure, I know I read the novels before I saw the modules (and I read them around '85 for the Dragons of Autumn Twilight).