Dragonlance Campaign Setting

[SensFan]

I need help from anyone who has experience with the Dragonlance Campaign setting, or to a lesser extent, any published campaign setting.

A quick background on me; I'm a college student in Canada, and been playing DnD for about 10 years now. I've DMed a fair bit, though always 1-shot adventures, and never a full campaign. I've played in several FR campaigns, but most of my DnD experience has come through various homebrewed/generic worlds.

I'm one of the Exec members in my school's DnD club, and today was asked if I could run a campaign this year in the Dragonlance campaign setting. The group would likely be a complete mix of experience, ranging from well-versed players to casual players who have played for a year or so, and possibly some new players. For our first club meeting of the year tomorrow, I need a quick blurb on the campaign to present to the club, and then will have a week or two to start planning for the campaign to start.

Having never DMed a campaign before, nor having any experience with published settings, I would appreciate any experience, help, suggestions or whatever else the playground has to offer. I borrowed the Campaign Setting books from a friend today, and am in the process of looking through them.

[Safety Sword]

One of the most fun things you can do if you have a Wizard in your party is to make them go through the "Test of High Sorcery".

Awesome fun was had when I separated the party Wizard from the rest and then "simulated" an attack on the tower they went to for the test.

The party defends the tower valiantly, ending up fighting a retreat to the central courtyard.

All the while the Wizard character is informed of the attack and given instructions from the High Mage of the Order they are petitioning to, to defend the courtyard, with several powerful magical devices (effective increases to Caster Level and powerful (for that level) spells) at their disposal.

(You guessed it)

The mage then engages the attackers, as do the party.

Yes, had them fight each other. To the death. The wizard narrowly comes out victorious. The party awakens from a strange dream, never quite knowing whether it was real. But all have the same experiences and memories. But yet, they live.

The wizard has now proven their love of magic is greater than their devotion to their traveling companions (a major theme in the test). They are granted entry into the Order.

Some good role playing kept the tension high for several sessions. Took a long time for the trust to become complete.

It was awesome because I have good players who appreciated the backdrop and didn't degenerate to PvP at the drop a hat. Great times.

EDIT: In before Kender haters. :smalltongue:

[Fenryr]

It's really, really romantic. Old school fantasy (well, of course). The trees are pretty, birds are flying and yada yada. Compared to Eberron where everything is grey and dark, Dragonlance is very straightforward: save the princes! Help the wizard! Defend your home! (or that's the impression I got by playing it)

For advice I suggest you to pick a date first. What year is in the game? This defines a lot of stuff, like gods and public organizations.

Also, be careful with Kenders. Well, not Kenders but the players that want to exaggerate the Kender behavior. It's annoying.

[ThiefInTheNight]

Also, be careful with Kenders. Well, not Kenders but the players that want to exaggerate the Kender behavior. It's annoying.
Every indication I have seen is that that "exaggerated" behavior is expected and intended by the authors; playing them otherwise is "toning them down"

Which you should require. Because Kenders as-intended are awful, and will ruin any campaign.

[Safety Sword]

EDIT: In before Kender haters. :smalltongue:

Told you :smallbiggrin:

[ThiefInTheNight]

They deserve all the hate they get.

[Fenryr]

Every indication I have seen is that that "exaggerated" behavior is expected and intended by the authors; playing them otherwise is "toning them down"

Really? Here in the forums I've read several posts sharing my opinion. Maybe 'm too optimistic? Anyway.Then SensFan, be careful with the Kender stuff. You may read the novels or ask someone for a summary of them, that may be useful.

[ThiefInTheNight]

I'm not sure on the rules here; I have a basis for my claims but it involves some NSFW language (various typical four-letter words), so I'm not sure if a link is OK...

If you do a Google image search for Kender, though, you should be able to find an image that consists of the Kenders' official description marked up with red underlines and commentary pointing out all of the utterly insane things that the book recommends and expects of Kender.

Basically, stealing from your teammates and foiling important plans because you got bored are apparently par for the course.

Seriously, Kenders' continued survival itself defies verisimilitude. They are described as so completely obnoxious, not to mention dangerous (to have as an ally because they are so unreliable), means that there would be plenty looking to get rid of them, and few interested in helping them.

[Saintheart]

They deserve all the hate they get.

Put it this way: even in the first novel they lampshaded how annoying kender are meant to be:

"The cruellest fate one can impose on a kender is to lock him up. (And arguably the cruellest fate one can impose on another living being is to lock him up with a kender.)"

[Forum Explorer]

Kender are a challenge to play as/if. If someone wants to be one require them to play like Tasselhoff from the books which still could be really annoying to deal with. If you're new you should just ban Kender unless you can really trust that person to be a team player. Exception to this are afflicted Kender who basically have been tramutized to the point where they have become sullen distrustful thieves.

Otherwise first step is choosing a period of time.

[Ozreth]

Pg. 278 of the 3e Campaign Setting has a nice little adventure for first level characters. Start there.

Get a notebook and go through the adventure, writing down a heading and general bullet points for each little section of the adventure. Have both open during play, it will go smoothly. After the first session or two start writing down notes for where you want the game to go based on what your characters are doing in the opening adventure and fill in the fluff with random crap from the sourcebooks : )

Oh and of course, this (http://www.dlnexus.com/).

[Coidzor]

Really? Here in the forums I've read several posts sharing my opinion. Maybe 'm too optimistic? Anyway.Then SensFan, be careful with the Kender stuff. You may read the novels or ask someone for a summary of them, that may be useful.

Or you're only going by the older books where it was subtle rather than the more recent books where it's practically explicit.

Actually, speaking of Kender and the hatred they inspire, that reminds me of this page from Dr. McNinja (http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/21p83/) which reminds me of Captain Ahab.

Which gives me the amusing mental image of a Captain Ahabesque Kender hunting Ogre-type or Minotaur or what have you as a possible NPC.

[Aneurin]

I'm running a Dragonlance campaign right now, actually.

One thing I would recommend is using the Curse of the Magi variant (arcane spell casters must make a fortitude save equal to 10+spell level whenever they cast a spell, or become fatigued. If fatigued they become exhausted, if exhausted they become unconscious). It puts a slight limit on the otherwise god-like power of your casters, and is nice and thematic.

Kender are... like anything. There are good ones and bad ones. Or, rather, well played ones and badly played ones. Depends on the player. It's pretty pointless hating on them just because they're kender. If they're badly played, how is it the fault of the campaign setting's designers? Especially when there's advice to not play them like suicidal kleptomaniac idiots. It's in Races of Krynn, and I'm pretty sure it says so in the Kender section of the Campaign setting.

Anyway, I'm willing to bet the OP doesn't want this to devolve into a why I love/hate/don't care about kender, I'll move on.

I would advise you to be careful with tinker gnomes, to be honest At least ff you're going to use the Contraption rules in Races of Krynn, as I've found them to be somewhat unclear in places.

Two interesting things about the setting it's worth bearing in mind;

1.) Krynn is low magic. Wizards are fairly rare and quite powerful. Which means truly magical items are rare. So +5 swords are pretty damn rare. What's the plus side? There's rules and a class in the War of the Lance sourcebook that lets you make +5 Masterwork weapons.

2.) There aren't so many monsters per-se. Which means that the players have other options for characters, and you as DM have a great deal more flexibility in creating encounters, villains and other NPCs.

What do I mean her by monsters per-se? Well, they aren't shambling, mindless drones there for the express purpose of munching on any wanderers. The minotaurs have an ancient, rich culture of their own and can be bother good and evil. There's a goblin nation in Ergoth - there's also one in Qualinesti depending on when your campaign is set, but only the Ergothian one is recognised as a sovereign realm by humans. There's quite a few kinds of dwarf, lots of elven types. The draconians eventually have their own city and nation. The ogres are one of the oldest races, and whilst not even remotely nice they have their own empire and are quite civilised for a given value of civilised.

If you want to get a feel for the setting and have time, I would recommend reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning.

If you want a fairly simple, the baddies-are-the-baddies type of campaign, the War of the Lance might be a decent starting period.

Does that help at all?

[ThiefInTheNight]

If they're badly played, how is it the fault of the campaign setting's designers? Especially when there's advice to not play them like suicidal kleptomaniac idiots. It's in Races of Krynn, and I'm pretty sure it says so in the Kender section of the Campaign setting.
The section I read said the opposite. It said that Kender love to take things, and a well-played Kender will be constantly stealing from his party, and getting bored and foiling plans.

[Tyndmyr]

1.) Krynn is low magic. Wizards are fairly rare and quite powerful. Which means magic is broken

Fixed. If the designers of Dragonlance knew what balance was, they decided they didn't want anything to do with it.

The races of Dragonlance tend toward either the uninteresting and mundane or the horribly disruptive. Kender can be played good? Technically. In practice, nobody actually does so (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?581818-Kender-Good-bad-or-ugly). This is by design. Read their racial description. It explicitly says what their behavior is, and it does not mesh well with generally accepted team behavior.

Good and evil are fairly black and white. Wizards are color coded for your convenience. The whole premise of good winning because evil turns on itself is pretty terrible. The universe is set up to explain that your PCs winning isn't actually because of their actions. Woo. Epic.

And look at the PrCs. They range from wildly broken to utterly terrible.

I guess what I'm trying to say is...don't play dragonlance. It's the worst setting I've seen published for 3.5, and this includes some third party stuff. Instead, find out what sort of games your party likes in general, and pick one that caters to that. I suspect the dragonlance loving is just because someone enjoyed the books. Sometimes, what makes a good book does not make a good RP.

[Garagos]

Dragonlance is generally meant to be a lower level campaign setting, at least it was always described as such before the War of Souls. There are also certain creatures that supposedly do not exist in Dragonlance: vampires, were-creatures, drow. There are more but I'm AFB right now so I can't look them up. If you're using the campaign setting book you're probably best off setting the campaign during or post-War of Souls. I think it would be easier if you could set it during the War of the Lance though.

[SensFan]

Wow. Thanks so much everyone for all of your help!

To those of you who are suggesting I pass on Dragonlance, I appreciate your opinion but won't be changing my mind. I was asked to run a Dragonlance setting, and so I will.

I appreciate all of the advice regarding the races and other things that I'm not used to seeing/playing with. The advice I've received about the Kender is particularly well-put.

I've made the decision to set this campaign in the Age of Mortals. Before I see who is in the playergroup and what ideas they have for their characters, does anyone have any suggestions as to a good starting place for the campaign? I don't mean in the 'Tavern' sense of starting place, but in terms of geographical region.

[Ravens_cry]

I like what I have read of the short stories and novels associated with the setting. I love the description of two dwarves fashioning a sword at the start of Stormblade. It's heinously inaccurate for all I know, but it captured exquisitely for me the religious joy of making that is such an important part of Dwarf culture.
The trouble I have heard from several sources, including on this forum, is that the setting loves its NPC so much that it doesn't leave much room for the players to leave their mark.

[Garagos]

I've made the decision to set this campaign in the Age of Mortals. Before I see who is in the playergroup and what ideas they have for their characters, does anyone have any suggestions as to a good starting place for the campaign? I don't mean in the 'Tavern' sense of starting place, but in terms of geographical region.

Palanthas is one of the biggest cities on Krynn, so that might be a decent place to have everyone meet/start. I'm not sure what types of characters your players are gonna make so hard to say if a large city would make sense or not.

[Aneurin]

Fixed. If the designers of Dragonlance knew what balance was, they decided they didn't want anything to do with it.

I don't actually understand what you mean here. Dragonlance isn't any more unbalanced than any other setting that lets wizards play in it. In fact, less so as it has rules for toning them down. So... unbalanced? Just not seeing it here.


The races of Dragonlance tend toward either the uninteresting and mundane or the horribly disruptive. Kender can be played good? Technically. In practice, nobody actually does so (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?581818-Kender-Good-bad-or-ugly). This is by design. Read their racial description. It explicitly says what their behavior is, and it does not mesh well with generally accepted team behavior.

Alternatively, read Races of Ansalon, which suggests not playing a stereotypical kender. Page 142, hunder the heading "Kender As Characters".


Good and evil are fairly black and white. Wizards are color coded for your convenience. The whole premise of good winning because evil turns on itself is pretty terrible. The universe is set up to explain that your PCs winning isn't actually because of their actions. Woo. Epic.

Eh. I'd say it's more set up to explain why your characters got a chance to sneak into the otherwise impregnable dark lord's fortress through an unguarded back door. Anyway, seriously, for everyone who has played Dragonlance, how often have you been in a situation that felt like your characters have done nothing to influence the outcome? In any case, how is the premise of good winning because evil turns on itself not rife throughout D&D and fiction in general? The hobbit who sneaks up on the trolls who are arguing over their dinner. The endless groups of ragtag adventurers who foil the dark conspirators who (if they'd stop backstabbing each other and squabbling) could obliterate them in seconds. Or, for that matter, how is it different from having a cleric that lets everyone win by healing them with god-given magic?


I guess what I'm trying to say is...don't play dragonlance. It's the worst setting I've seen published for 3.5, and this includes some third party stuff. Instead, find out what sort of games your party likes in general, and pick one that caters to that. I suspect the dragonlance loving is just because someone enjoyed the books. Sometimes, what makes a good book does not make a good RP.

Well, that's your choice, really. Some people, myself included, like the setting. You don't. That's okay. Personally, I like it because I like the setting, I like the world, I like the races. Liking a setting because of the novels set is silly. The novels only matter for background material in the setting, or if you're playing through the plot of those novels.


SensFan - A lot of the novels focus on Abanasinia, the around the Kharolis mountains on the world map, and Solamnia, so they might be worth avoiding. On the other hand, I'd argue they are good start locations as they're nothing extreme in environment, and have a good mix of races living there. Just avoid places like Solace, Palanthas and Kalaman if your players are familiar with the novels, as they're the some of the best documented places in novels (particularly Solace), and your players will be more likely to notice bits that don't match up with the pictures in their heads. Of course, it's up to you if that's a problem.

[Toliudar]

I'm in Aneurin's aforementioned game, and am also a player in a long-running PBP campaign (see, NOT an oxymoron!) doing the war of the lances.

My sense is that Dragonlance does capitalized Good and Evil very well, in a Lord of the Rings underdogs working to upset the inevitable march of vastly overmatched forces of evil kind of way. Age of Mortals is less so, since there's a lot more moral ambiguity and compromise built into the period. My guess is that a game set there can be smaller scale, and have a bit more of the grit that settings like Eberron seem to focus on.

My only caution about using the latter ages is that if players are asking for a Dragonlance game, they may want exactly the kind of sweetness and innocence that the earlier eras and modules are predicated on. It might be a good time to clarify whether the players want Dragonlance in general, or the classic War of the Lances adventure path.

And kudos for actually thinking about what's going to be fun for everyone.