Why is Dragonlance Your Least Favorite Setting?

[Sir Trent]

When you look at the constant cataclysm on Krynn, I have to wonder sometimes how the various populations maintain themeselves. I mean, how many continous generations can you have millions die without some areas becoming depopulated? And how can there be that many dragons on one small continent? Even greyhound bus sized dragons are gonna eat alot! Where are they finding that much meat? And if the original draconian armies were produced from the eggs of the good dragons... that means that at one point there were enough good dragons to have produced tens of thousands of eggs in a few years! Damn! There wouldn't be an animal larger than a mole alive on that whole continent after a few years of feeding that many dragons! Oops, sorry. Getting off thread here.

 

[Storm Raven]

Yes, indeed, we don't use oil as a currency, but we don't use any other base, stragegic, material as a currency either anymore !
We use only paper money ! And actually the paper dollar is the reference. And the first to reply that dollar is guaranteed by gold will have the disagreable answer of my ill-breathed, uncontrollable laughter in his face (for which I apologize in advance)! As anyone knows, it hasn't been since the early fifties...

Yep, it is backed by the solvency of the United States. Which is better than gold since the US has never defaulted on financial obligation.

In a world where (refined) iron is not so easy to come by (like... any medieval setting), it is not so stupid. And, by the way, in the 13th-15th century in Western Europe, iron and/or steel bars were used to pay Privateers and even Markgraves and Other nobles, so they could finance their canon-making and armament.

Rarely done, mostly because steel was so heavily used for other warmaking material. And because it had such a low value by weight that you had to transport large amounts of it to make it valuable. An iron bar was never more valuable than a sword made of the same metal.

By contrast, a Dragonlance longsword wieghing 4 pounds costs 15 coins as a sword. But melt that sword down and cast it as coins results in 200 coins by weight. Why would you ever make a sword in that scenario?

So I don't think it stupid, and, on the contrary, it may be one of the, in fact, rarest original and well-thought insights in any RPG fantasy world.

No, it is stupid. Because it generally makes an adventurer's sword more valuable if it is melted down and cast as coins than it is as a sword. In that environment, why would anyone do anything but make coins with their steel, as opposed to making armor or weapons?

 

[Henry]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Dragonlance for D&D3e/d20

That's good to hear. So does that mean Sovereign Press or WOTC will be providing the artwork? I hope its the latter. The art in the Forgotten Realms sourcebooks blows the doors off of anything I've seen from Sovereign Press.

I'm sorry, and vrykyl, you need to hear this shouted from the rooftops, but IT ISN'T DRAGONLANCE WITHOUT AT LEAST SOME LARRY ELMORE ART IN THE BOOK.

 

[Henry]

...And how can there be that many dragons on one small continent? Even greyhound bus sized dragons are gonna eat alot! Where are they finding that much meat?

Didn't you know? Dragons are true omnivores - they can eat and sustain nourishment from animal, vegetable, or even MINERAL sources. They have no need to eat meat for their sustenance.

Source? Monster manual, first page of the "Dragon" entry.

 

[Sir Trent]

Didn't you know? Dragons are true omnivores - they can eat and sustain nourishment from animal, vegetable, or even MINERAL sources. They have no need to eat meat for their sustenance.


Nope, didn't know that. (Or more accurately, didn't remember that), So I guess i'll have to modify my vision of a depopulated Krynn and replace it with one where it is not only depopulated, but also totally devoid of all animals or plants, and has hundreds of thousands of dragons either eating each other or gnawing on bare rock for sustenance.

Thanks, that should cause a nightmare or two.

 

[Gargoyle]

Re: Re: On the coin issue

After the Cataclysm there was a severe economic breakdown and gold's value dropped. A crude barter system emerged, and steel arrowheads--forged by the hill dwarves--became one of the most commonly traded items. When the dwarves learned that the arrowheads were being traded, they began forging simple steel coins for trade. This became the foundation for the steel-based economy in the Age of Despair and the Age of Mortals.

Jamie Chambers
Sovereign Press, Inc.

Thanks! (And good luck with DL, I'll probably buy it for ideas and because I love the early novels, even though I don't plan on running it)

I think the problem people have with this concept is that if you're using "simple" steel coins, and steel is abundant (as evidenced by the cost of steel weapons) then counterfeiting would destroy the economy in no time.

I have a suggestion. Instead of "simple steel coins", the coins should be difficult to counterfeit. It's not too hard to imagine dwarves crafting steel coins in a manner that is difficult to reproduce, even magically.

An interesting result of this exclusive dwarven mint idea is that the dwarves get quite wealthy, and may even do some limited banking. Could make for some interesting adventure ideas.

 

[JeffB]

I like Dragonlance alot... but I HATE everything in the so called 2nd cataclysm (Dragons of Summer Flame onwards). Why change the world to a new freaky thing? Why not just make a new campaign world if they didn't like Dragonlance the way it was?

Take note..but just about EVERY Setting TSR has had at one time or another has had some gigantic war or cataclysm...

1) DL
2) FR
3)GH
4) RL
5) Mystara (Known World)

I even think Planescape had some kind of major war to shake things up...BloodWar or something? How about Dark Sun? Spelljammer? I don't know about them..anything else?

*sarcasm* Seems that was TSR's standard panacea..."ya know Bob...sales suck, we gotta do something.....I KNOW! LET'S HAVE A WAR (and/or Cataclysm)! that ALWAYS makes fans happy!"

 

[Victim]

True, but only Dragonlance has more cataclysms than thunderstorms. They go though ages - and have the disasters to show it - faster than computers become obselete.

 

[Sarellion]

@JeffB

What were the cataclysm of the other worlds?

FR: Time of Troubles?
DL: Cataclysm, 2nd Cataclysm, the whole Raistlin thing
MY: ?
RL: ?
GH: ?

 

[JeffB]

RL: had the Grand Conjunction or something...some demiplanes dissapeared, others were created...

Mystara had some big war with the (Shadow) Elves and surface elves, halflings and stuff...Don't know too much about it...but it seemed to pee off some of the Mystara fans...from what I've gathered...

GH: The GH WARS were mostly reponsible for the poor GH sales in the early 90's...it really peed off ALOT of fans....Enough so that when GH 98 came out, Roger Moore, Erik Mona and others basically had to reverse just about everything that ahppened in the GH Wars era....