Dragonlance was born out of a publishing initiative for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. With sixteen module releases, a hard cover Adventure book, atlas, sourcebook and art book, not to mention the twelve novels released before second edition. Buy Dragonlance Adventures: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/162788/Dragonlance-Adventures-1e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
There was a plethora of Dragonlance content released for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Let’s take a look…
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Dragonlance in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate link. All of these titles are available as digital editions through my affiliate link.
Discussion
Dragonlance was a major publishing initiative for TSR. It featured sixteen modules, one hardcover adventure book, a world sourcebook, atlas, art book, calendars, boardgame, twelve novels, and more! The overwhelming success of Dragonlance is due to its imaginative worldbuilding and backing of the entire game designing team. As much as we rightfully credit Laura and Tracy Hickman with creating it, it was truly fleshed out by many talented game designers, writers, artists, and more! And the hard truth is that if we as an audience didn’t accept it, it never would have made it past the first novel and module. Let’s take a closer look at the role-playing game products of Dragonlance in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
March 1984 saw the release of DL1 Dragons of Despair by Tracy Hickman. It was the first module to introduce Dragonlance to the gaming community and introduced the world to the innfellows. Designed for a party of 6-8 player characters, of levels 4-6, it centered around the return of both dragons and the gods after a calamity in the distant past. It featured the three dimensional dungeon crawl through Xak Tsaroth which included the encounter with a black dragon named Onyx, new monsters, music and poetry. DL2 Dragons of Flame by Douglas Niles was released in July of 1984 and picked up with the heroes returning to their starting town of Solace, and becoming embroiled in the larger land of Abanasinia and the Red Wind of the Dragonarmy. The module included two red dragons that you didn’t need to fight named Ember and Flamestrike. It featured the 3d map of Pax Tharkas, another song and an evolved poem. September 1984 saw the release of DL3 Dragons of Hope by Tracy Hickman, and aside from opening up even more of the land of Ansalon, it included the 3D map of Skullcap, and saw the players trying to find a home for the eight-hundred refugees they liberated from Pax Tharkas in DL2. It also is the first module to introduce a good dragon in the form of a Brass Dragon named Blaize. In November 1984 DL4 Dragons of Desolation by Tracy Hickman and Michael Dobson was released. This concluded the first story arc, and connected with the end of the first novel, Dragons of Autumn Twilight as well. It featured the underground dwarven Kingdom of Thorbardin, the 3D map of The Floating Tomb, and a Gold Dragon named Evenstar. It concludes with the final defeat of Verminaard and features yet another song for the Wedding. DL5 Dragons of Mystery by Michael Dobson was released in December 1984 and is the first sourcebook for Dragonlance ever! It featured the history and gods of Dragonlance, yet to be clearly defined, and more information about the companions and the entire continent of Ansalon for the first time.
In May 1985, DL6 Dragons of Ice by Douglas Niles was released. It featured the first real urban environment of Tarsis and the ice reach wastes of the south. It also includes the first integration with Douglas Niles’ Battlesystem to be used in the Battle of the Ice Reaches; this would be an optional tie-in with many of the modules to come. It also introduced the first white dragon named Sleet. DL7 Dragons of Light by Jeff Grubb was released in July 1985 and introduced us to yet even more elves of Krynn, and introduced the first silver dragon named Dargent. It finally saw the artifact of the Dragonlance in the game and had an interesting exploration of Southern Ergoth. DL8 Dragons of War by Tracy and Laura Hickman was released in July 1985 and is perhaps the most iconic of the series, as it truly introduced the full scale War of the Lance for the first time. It included a massive Battlesystem war game component with the Battle of the High Clerist’s Tower, featured the Solamnic Knights for the first time and threw a new song into the mix. The map to the Tower of High Clerist is particularly intricate and beautifully crafted. It also featured the blue dragon wing with Skie as Kitiara’s mount and Soth, the Black Rose Knight. DL9 Dragons of Deceit by Douglas Niles was released in September 1985 and concluded the second novel Dragons of Winter Night. It is considered the copper dragon module with the copper dragon named Cymbal. It deals primarily with infiltrating Sanction and various evil temples to discover good dragon eggs, discovering the source of Draconians and even aerial dragon battles!
December 1985 saw the release of DL10 Dragons of Dreams by Tracy Hickman, which picks up where the companions split in Tarsis back in DL6. This is the green dragon adventure featuring Cyan Bloodbane. It focuses on Silvanesti in Loracs Nightmare. DL11 Dragons of Glory by Douglas Niles & Tracy Hickman was released in February 1986 and was the second deviation from the game modules, but this time in the form of a war simulation game. It presents the most birds eye view of the entire War of the Lance thus far, with historical background information yet unreleased. You can use it to track the Dragonarmies, play specific campaigns, or replay the entire War of the Lance. It is important to note that while Battlesystem was a war game expansion to AD&D, DL11 is a standalone war game that does not inject your player characters or AD&D rules. DL12 Dragons of Faith by Harold Johnson and Bruce Heard was released in April 1986, and focused on the blood sea of Istar and the sunken city of Istar, but also featured sea dragons and the bronze dragon Clarion, completing the dragon per module setup. It introduced the Talis Cards which would carry through to 2nd edition, and integrated even more Battlesystem scenarios with the Battle of Istar. DL13 Dragons of Truth by Tracy Hickman was released in August 1986. It includes an opportunity to enter the Glitterpalace of Paladine, who is the dragon of focus, or dragon like god. It also makes use of the Talis Deck and directs players to Neraka as a setup for the end of the war. DL14 Dragons of Triumph by Douglas Niles was released in August 1986 as well. It’s the conclusion to the Dragonlance story, and the largest module to date, coming in at 96 pages! The novel focuses on Takhisis as the dragon or dragon god in the module, and finally reunites the characters from the split in DL6. It features Battle System wargaming as a final confrontation, and includes the second sourcebook which presents the first pre-cataclysm map of Ansalon.
While this saw the end of the Dragonlance campaign and novel connections, a few more entries to the DL series would fill out the world, post War of the Lance. Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home would be released in February 1987 as well. While it’s not exactly a roleplaying book, it’s not a novel either. It presents information from DL5 in addition to more of the songs found throughout the DL series. It provides recipes and character breakdowns in addition to new fiction accounts from characters in the saga. The Art of the Dragonlance Saga edited by Mary Kirchoff was released in March 1987. It is not simply a collection of all art pieces in Dragonlance, but rather a contextualizing collection of character and world development, providing invaluable insight to the creation of the series and artwork. The official hardcover sourcebook, Dragonlance Adventures by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis was released in September 1987 and gives players and dungeon masters all the tools they need to play in Krynn throughout the War of the Lance and the Blue Lady’s War. It is considered the fifth and final core book of AD&D 1.5 edition. The Atlas of the Dragonlance World by Karen Wynn Fonstad was released in October 1987. It is a unique geographic look at the world of Krynn, featuring all major building and city locations, presented in beautiful detail. Two years after DL14 was released, DL15 Mists of Krynn edited by Mike Breault was published in July 1988. It is an anthology of adventures ranging from level 0 to 15, which take place before the cataclysm, during the darkest times of the post cataclysm world and after the War of the Lance. It details many iconic characters in Dragonlance including Fistandantilus and Lord Soth. In December 1988 DL16 World of Krynn by Michael Gray, Harold Johnson, and Douglas Niles was released. It featured four adventures set after the War of the Lance including one where you could enter Dargaard Keep and face off against Lord Soth himself!
Dragonlance would move on to be further developed in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition, but for purists like myself, nothing beats these admittedly flawed, but truly original and imaginative Advanced Dungeons & Dragons entries which truly shaped the direction of Dungeons & Dragons forever.
Outro
But that is all the time I have to talk about Dragonlance in A dvanced Dungeons & Dragons. What do you think of AD&D? Did you ever explore the original modules, the Battlesystem connections or the war game Dragons of Glory? Leave a comment below.
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