What's the deal with Dragonlance?

[Vocenoctum]

also this;
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/dl/viewfromcubical

btw, I didn't like most of the modules myself, but Dragons of Dreams was probably one of the best adventures I ever played in. The Dreamweb was great.

I don't know when the adventures and novels were released, time span wise.

 

[Kai Lord]

Dragonlance was the first and still best, IMO, campaign setting to really make a concerted effort to cross the line from "game" to "novel or film that you're the star of."

Fantasy highlights of the setting are of course the prominent dragons and their sweeping dragonfear, Solamnic Knights, and Wizards of High Sorcery.

But its the context they're presented in. Compelling archetypes and bittersweet melodrama. Nefarious villains and a fantasy world you'd actually want to visit, live in, and fight for.

People complain about having been "railroaded" and "living in the shadows of the Heroes of the Lance" in 1st Edition DL, but I applaud the designers for the labor of love to bring that kind of adventure to consumers.

How do you provide a setting tailored to much more than looting crypts and smashing wandering monsters? How do you combine the satisfying drama of a tightly scripted novel with a free form role-playing system? One approach is to provide an example of DL-specific adventure and they did that with the novels.

Most game systems stop there. Win fans with a (usually already established by someone else) popular story, then just give them a box of maps and city names to let them play however they want.

The DL team went beyond that. With the modules they were providing a template for gamers to experience the very adventure that everyone fell in love with in the first place. Was it quite linear? Sure. Most stories are. This wasn't Davidlynchlance or Mementolance. It was Dragonlance. But only the slightest amount of creativity was needed to tailor the modules to each group. I know, because a friend of mine ran the War of the Lance using the novels as the modules, and its impossible to get anymore linear than that. Our player characters replaced some of the companions, but we pulled it off, and made the story our own, almost going chapter by chapter!

As for living in the shadows of the heroes from the books, all I can say is I can't count the number of times we as players relished the possibility of actually meeting one of those heroes as an NPC. They were great characters, and good benchmarks with which to compare our own characters. They were a part of the world, and we enjoyed recognizing that.

I think with some of the info shared on these boards by Christopher Coyle, DL will only get better. I'm glad they're staging the new three-part mega adventure six months after the most current novel release. It gives everyone a fresh start and opens endless possibilities for adventure.

Retaining the services of Matt Stawicki will only ensure a greater level of presentation; beautiful, compelling, and totally consistent with the quality of the novels.

 

[Shadowlord]

?

I'm new to DL too but I'm eager to see it. It seems so... fantasy! All the typical values of the genre come into play: romantic, epic, sinister, melodramatic... It's less "Hollywood" than FR. Right? And it's definitely not cramped with silly dungeons like in GH.

What I wondered is not the beauty of the world, but its playability. The power from DL comes from its literature, but is it well suited as a gaming world? Is there much to do outside the main storyline or are you forced to follow its course?


PS: What was first: the novels or the game?

PPS: will there be a 6th age? Where's the 5th age at now?

 

[Stormprince]

Many did seem to believe that the game was too constrained because of the novels. I never found it so, personally, but then I've always been one to look between the cracks of a story and want to know what's going on elsewhere.

Heck, if you think of it this way, Dragonlance as a gaming world is far less constrained than the Wheel of Time. Yes, big things happened in the Dragonlance books, but there's a whole world out there to explore, and plenty of stories to be found. I've always been fascinated by the idea of two groups of "heroes..." the ones that end up with all the glory, the one "novels" are written about, and then the secret heroes, the ones who operated behind the scenes, away from the limelight, yet without them, the first group of heroes would never have succeeded. To one group goes the glory, while the other group exists in ignomity, and yet, in the grand scheme of things, they're the true heroes. But, I digress.

Currently, Dragonlance is STILL in the Fifth Age. From the end of the Chaos War (and the Beginning of the Fifth Age) to the end of the War of Souls is only a period of about 40 years. There are no plans for the world to undergo ANOTHER turning of ages anywhere in the near future. This is the Fifth Age, the Age of Mortals, the Age of Heroes, because there's a DESPERATE need for them across the world.

Christopher Coyle

 

[Shadowlord]

So basically, those 'novel heroes' made the world as is today, a world where the 'game heroes' can adventure. But can those gamers adhere to equally epic goals?

My question is: how much free space do you have as a DM/PC ?

Do the novels come before the game or vice versa? Or together?

 

[RyanL]

* The ultimate triumph of good over evil.

Sorry to snip so much from Stormprince's nice post. I just wanted to sort of respectfully disagree with the above and emphasize the theme of balance, which I feel to be major part of Dragonlance. The novels put a lot of emphasis on the idea that extreme good and extreme evil are both detrimental to the world. Remeber, it was the arrogance of the good clerics that brought down the cataclysm. I think this theme was reflected a great deal in the heroes, who were often conflicted and/or morally ambivalent. Just my 2 cents.

-Ryan

 

[Kai Lord]

The novels put a lot of emphasis on the idea that extreme good and extreme evil are both detrimental to the world. Remeber, it was the arrogance of the good clerics that brought down the cataclysm.

Goldmoon or Elistan might serve as examples of "extreme good", but certainly not the Kingpriest. His arrogance was anything but.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Re: ?

PS: What was first: the novels or the game?

Their were adventures made for AD&D (1e) in the Dragonlance world before any novels were written.

 

[Stormprince]

Okay, okay...I did oversimplify...or rather, I didn't explain myself correctly. There is a strong theme of Balance within Dragonlance. That either EXTREMES of Good and Evil are just as destructive, regardless of whether or not they believe they are doing it for the greater good or for their own twisted gains. In the case of the War of the Lance, Evil was too strong, thus in order to restore the Balance, Good had to win. During the War of Chaos, however, the Gods of Balance decided that the forces of evil, with their uncompromising drive to win regardless of the cost, was what was necessary to combat the primal entity known as Chaos.

Yes, the Kingpriest was Good. He was so good, he was blind to his own hubris, believing himself so far above sin and human failings that he could confront the gods as an equal. But, everything he did, he did truly beieving it was what was best for the world--the abolishment of all evil, of all sin, of those who were different and didn't conform to what he taught was Good. He believed there was only one single right way to reach the heavens, and he was willing to risk angering the gods in order to bring it about for everyone.

Okay...speaking on a different subject, yes, Ansalon is more than big enough to provide DMs with freedom to run countless stories, either in conjunction with the novels, or completely separate from them. The current world of Krynn, perhaps (maybe) more than any other time, has not had all its "problems" fixed by a trilogy of novels. Instead, the trilogy has provided a stepping stone, a stepping stone built upon a rich history of other novels and games, stretching back about 20 years now...there's plenty of back story to make even Tolkien proud, but now it's time for a new generation of players and DMs to determine the future!

So, get together a group of your friends, grab up your dice, order for delievery, sit around a table, and get ready to help shape the future of Dragonlance!



Christopher "The Harbringer of Krynn" Coyle

 

[Stormprince]

Re: Re: ?

Their were adventures made for AD&D (1e) in the Dragonlance world before any novels were written.

Actually, they were both designed concurrently. Which is why the early part of the novels and the early adventures do tend to shadow one another, but the novel authors learned rather quickly that what makes a good adventure doesn't always make for the best storytelling Which is why only Chronicles has any adventures tied into it.

Now, our belief, is that the novels and the game need to reflect one another, but cannot be constrained to one another. What happens in the novels will be reflected in the game and vice versa, but neither one will be truly dictating what unfolds. It's a true collaborative effort.

Christopher Coyle