DRAGONLANCE Couldn't Be Worse... WRONG!

[geneweigel]

Heh, I was at Target and spotted 30% off a novel that said Dungeons and Dragons. Then I saw "DRAGONLANCE" with original writers. Then I saw that the cover has the standard "Elmore girl" switched out for... "today", of course. So I was like meh and moved on. Then I saw the Dragonlance game book. So bad... Pure WOTC era threetardy of course but that is the good part. It had me wincing to read through. I can't repeat. So bad. So bad. No wonder it's 30% off. One section sounded like the weakest D&D game that you could imagine with a fishing contest for some kind of fantasy "downtown urban area". Don't look! Save yourselves!

[GRWelsh]

I have a hard time connecting with any modern D&D products. When I browse them I have no urge to buy them. To be fair, I've never played 3rd, 4th or 5th edition rules, so it is possible I would like them if I played them -- but I doubt it. The adventures and sourcebooks don't appeal to me... Too much fluff and the wrong sort of vibe. The campaigns are all in these huge hardbacks that cost a lot. What ever happened to 'modular'? Or 'succinct'?

As far as DRAGONLANCE, I'm not a hater but I've never really been a fan. I read the first two trilogies back in the 80's, and even then I thought they paled in comparison to THE LORD OF THE RINGS or the pulp sources like Conan, Elric, etc. They were readable but not classics. Raistlin was an intriguing, break out character, but so much else seemed derivative and gamey. I've heard Tracy Hickman in interviews and he said that when he started at TSR he thought what was missing was that the published adventures didn't have enough of a story element. He had a point, and I understood what he was saying since you don't want the campaign to just be a random or unconnected series of events because that is meaningless. But going too far in the other direction by introducing plot into a game is railroading the players.

[geneweigel]

I had such a knee jerk disgust the other day but I didn't provide the details because then it would be all about me. In this age of cancel its better to tread lightly.

DL was a personal disappointment that hangs over like a shadow. Total fizzling out as it went. The saddest part about DL was people around me actually demanding to play it and a lot of excitement and hope. That is the burn that sits right down back in the memory of the good times. So I kind of was hoping for something that gave some game energy but same old, same old.

[GRWelsh]

I remember people liking the fiction but not many playing the modules. I may have played in the first module DL1 because I remember the 3D cutaway map fad which was also in the Ravenloft module. The subterranean city of Xak Tsaroth with black dragon living in the well shaft was pretty cool as a setting. From what I recall the modules were railroady assuming you'd play the DragonLance "main characters" which I don't think anyone wanted to do. There were weird things about Krynn like steel currency, clerics not having spells or divine abilities without special disks or medallions, and kender leaning into being kleptomaniacs which was perhaps because of the way many D&D players played halfling thieves, presumably... And oh yeah, the less said about gully dwarves who were the "mentally challenged" knock offs of petty dwarves, the better! The first book read like an entertaining account of someone's AD&D campaign set in a home brewed world with its own quirks.

[Scott]

Dragonlance was a big shift in the game. The story driven style that ignored most of the brb experience rules became official. I was not a fan. I have not looked at any of the 5E stuff because I have no interest. I will say that 5E made Forgotten Realms more palatable than it’s been in a long time.

[geneweigel]

Its weird years ago that I refused to jazz up DL-1 like I originally wanted to "save" it because I dreaded giving any positive energy to something that I knew would sink into total crap the minute any attention was given it. I think we have to look at "bad D&D" as a gift. Its a celebration of how shitty anything can be without creative energy. Also it makes "good D&D" seem even better. A few years ago I saw a merchandising campaign with a stuffed "flumph". Considering that big bloated corp D&D can't even get their baseline correct how can they even mock a flumph?

[geneweigel]

There was a sealed box that said "Dungeons & Dragons" and honestly, anticipation was low after seeing the official D&D waffle maker with D20 logo burnt into the waffle and then a bland small coffee maker with a D20 symbol over the Dungeons and Dragon name on it.

So as I got closer, the back of my mind said," Give it a chance, Gene..."

The only thing worse than the creepy renaissance gibberish of Forgotten Realms and the blandy romantic comforts of Dragonlance? Ony the totally brain dead crossover: A new version of SPELLJAMMER. Thank goodness that I couldn't open the package.