Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition or d20 was not only a refresh of the entire game, but a new direction free from the Gygax influence. Buy Dragonlance Campaign Setting: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28592/Dragonlance-Campaign-Setting-35?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition would open up their rules with the d20 system and open game licenses for third party publishers.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about Dragonlance in D&D 3e or the d20 System. 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
With the acquisition of Dungeons & Dragons by Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro buying them in 1999, they saw an opportunity to not only connect the IP with digital devices but also roll out a whole new game system that would drop many of the Gygax rules and philosophies of the game for greater player attraction and interaction. Hasbro would roll out D&D to board games by Parker Brothers, and give it a go with films, while the Dungeons & Dragons brand would drop advanced from its title and roll out the new system in the year 2000. This new edition would hold to its promise from Jim Butler that Dragonlance would no longer be published by Wizards of the Coast and they would not develop it out for the new d20 system. So we saw Dragonlance in AD&D run from 1984-1987, AD&D 2e from 1989-1993 and SAGA System from 1996-2000. This seemed to be the end of Dragonlance as a campaign world in role-playing games. However, Tracy Hickman and the Dragonlance-L mailing list would come together and form the Whitestone Council to create unofficial Dragonlance conversions online for D&D 3e. The website dl3e.com, the progenitor of DragonlanceNexus.com, would be backed by twelve fervent fans and Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman. In March 2002, Margaret Weis’ RPG Publishing company Sovereign Press acquired a license to publish Dragonlance material for D&D 3e. This new endeavor would be supported by the fan group Whitestone Council, and would end with the best 20 Dragonlance sourcebooks and adventures ever released in the setting.
What made them great was arguably the passion and love for the setting that those involved had, and the return to Weis and Hickman’s view of what Dragonlance should be. Christopher Coyle was said to have speed-read 90 novels and filtered them down to canon vs. non canon, using them as well as every previous release of Dragonlance products as source material to unify what was a random assortment of contradictory and confusing information. Wizards of the Coast gave the team a heads up about the coming 3.5 edition of D&D so all the work that had gone into the Dragonlance Campaign Setting thus far, needed to be updated for the new edition, which made Dragonlance the first setting for D&D 3.5e/ the d20 system. The Dragonlance Campaign Setting was then handed off to Wizards of the Coast who printed this first manual, and forced Sovereign Press to print the rest of the planned supplements. The Dragonlance Campaign Setting by Margaret Weis, Don Perrin, Jamie Chambers, and Christopher Coyle was released in August 2003 at the first Gen Con Indy. Because the SAGA System wasn’t entirely dissimilar to D&D 3e in spirit, the new Sorcerer class fit perfectly with the SAGA version and the prestige classes were a perfect fit for classes like the Knights of Solamnia and the Wizards of High Sorcery. The book would also push the timeline from 414 AC to 422 AC after the War of Souls trilogy novels events.
Age of Mortals by Margaret Weis, Jamie Chambers, and Christopher Coyle was also released in 2003 as the first campaign setting companion book. This actually got held up at the Port of Chicago, so Jame Chambers had to drive from Indianapolis to Chicago and rescue part of the shipment for the Gen Con Indy release. It was entirely crafted and released through Sovereign Press with the aid of the Whitestone Council, who would continue to contribute to the line until its end. It describes the entire Fifth Age for the first time spanning 384 AC to 422 AC. It introduces new races, clases feats, spells, etc. specific to Dragonlance. Bestiary of Krynn by Cam Banks and André La Roche, released in April 2004, was the Monster Manual for Dragonlance. They referenced all past edition modules and sourcebooks including Dragon magazine, the short lived Legends of the Lance newsletter and novels for inspiration. It sold out in the year, prompting a reorganized and errata corrected revised version in April 2007.
Key of Destiny by Christopher Coyle was released in May 2004. It was the first in the Age of Mortals Adventure Trilogy. It was an adventure that would take characters from level 1 to level 20 in 176 pages! And this was the smallest of the three adventures. This was a flawed release but its source information for eastern Ansalon and possible reclamation of Goodland by the Kender made it an epic post war follow up to The Sylvan Key adventure in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting Book. Towers of High Sorcery by Margaret Weis, Chris Pierson, and Jamie Chambers, was published in August 2004. It is the definitive wizards sourcebook. In addition to profiles, classes, items and spells it included a rule system for the Test of High Sorcery and detailed out all five of the original Towers of High Sorcery! War of the Lance by Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, and Jamie Chambers published in October 2004 was the second campaign setting companion. Tracy Hickman’s AD&D 2e adventure The Lyceum was included, after being updated for 3e by Cam Banks. It would focus on the years 351-354 AC, while giving the best detail to the Fourth Age, the Age of Despair yet.
Tasslehoff’s Map Pouch: The Age of Mortals by Sean Macdonald was released in March 2005. While the style was very much Sean’s own, it included funny Tas maps and original looks at areas both previously explored and unexplored. It was the first map to make note of the fan-created continent of Adlatum. Specter of Sorrows by Cam Banks published in July 2005 is the second adventure in the Age of Mortals trilogy. It focused on the time before and just after the return of the gods and detailed out north eastern Ansalon. It also attempted to curtail the now even more powerful wizards in 3e with the artifact the Tears of Mishakal, preventing them from teleporting around the world while holding it. Holy Orders of the Stars by Sean Everette, Cam Banks, Chris Pierson, and Trampas Whiteman was released in July 2005. This is the clerics sourcebook for Dragonlance. The new approach to gods came from a Gen Con breakfast between Cam Banks and Tracy Hickman, where Hickman relayed the Krynn cosmology as Cosmic Forces rather than powerful beings, and thus the aspects took over for avatars in the volume. It detailed out the entire cosmology of Krynn, while ignoring and decanonization much of the appendix from Dragons of a Vanished Moon, referring to it as too Miltonian or Tolkienesque.
Legends of the Twins by Tracy Hickman, Margaret Weis, Chris Pierson, Seth Johnson, and Aaron Rosenberg was released in February 2006. It is the third and final Campaign setting companion and focused on time travel and alternative timelines. It also includes Hickman’s Anvil of Time updated by André La Roche for 3e. It focused on the era of 354 AC to 362 AC through the Blue Lady’s war and alternate realities. Tasslehoff’s Map Pouch: The War of the Lance by Sean Macdonald was released in April 2006. It showcased the youngest Tasslehoff on the cover and continued Sean’s cartography and original view of the lands of Krynn. Dragons of Autumn by Clark Valentine and Sean Macdonald was released in August 2006. It is the first of 3 War of the Lance adventures, reimagining the original DL 1-4 modules for 3e, and is seen as the most faithful of the four printings. Knightly Orders of Ansalon by Sean Everette, Nicole Harsch, Clark Valentine, and Trampas Whiteman was also published in August 2006. This is the third and final class based book focusing on Knights. It reimagined the Knights for a third time in this new line and presented some new and complete versions of all major three orders of knights in Krynn.
Price of Courage by Cam Banks was released in November 2006. It is the final volume in the age of Mortals adventure trilogy and also the largest, coming in at a whopping 320 pages! It features the end of the last of the Dragon Overlords and brings back Gilthanas and Silvara. It details Northern Ansalon, Bastion and Southwestern Ansalon. Dragons of Krynn by Cam Banks, Sean Everette, and Amanda Valentine was released at GenCon Indy 2007. It was a monster splatbook for Krynn, giving the best detail yet of the history and diversity of Krynn’s Dragons. It additionally includes an entire chapter on the draconian nation of Teyr. And it also began the final year of Sovereign Press and Margaret Weiss production’s license of Dragonlance with Wizards of the Coast. Tasslehoff’s Map Pouch: Legends by Sean Macdonald was published in June 2007. It is the last of the Map Pouches and features a middle aged Tasslehoff on the cover. It highlights and presents the best pre-Cataclysm maps of Ansalon yet.
Races of Ansalon by Cam Banks, Sean Macdonald, Clark Valentine, and Trampas Whiteman was released in August 2007. It gave the most in-depth presentation of the eight major races of Krynn ever printed: Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Goblins, Humans, Kender, Minotaurs, and Ogres. And of course we had to continue the ‘Leaves of’ series with Lost Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home edited by Margaret Weis, and published in December 2007. This continues the trend of the previous 2 ‘Leaves of’ books and the History of Dragonlance book, featuring lore, music, poetry and recipes. Dragons of Winter by Cam Banks and Sean Macdonald was released in December 2007, but appeared as a PDF earlier in the year. It was the second of the reprint War of the Lance modules DL6-9, leaving the release of the final volume Dragons of Spring in doubt, as the licence from Wizards of the Coast had run up. However Dragons of Spring by Sean Macdonald, Clive Squire, and Heine Kim Stick would be released March 5, 2008 with a PDF available in January of the same year. Wizards of the Coast understood the importance of finishing out the release and extended the license into June of 2008. It was not only the end of Margaret Weis working on Dragonlance and Dungeons & Dragons material, but also the end of Dragonlance until December 2022 in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth edition! It concluded the reimagining of the original Dragonlance DL modules.
This ultimately left Dragonlance where 3e found it, in the hands of the fan base. Dragonlance Nexus continued adapting Dragonlance into different editions and releasing original content, and fan YouTube sites like this one would keep the flame of Dragonlance alive until the lawsuit with Weis, Hickman and WotC was resolved and Dragons of Deceit, Dragonlance Destinies volume 1 was released in August 2022, with the promise of Shadow of the Dragonqueen adventure and Warriors of Krynn war game being announced.
Outro
But that is all the time I have to talk about Dragonlance in D&D 3e or the d20 system. What do you think of the products released? Do you have a favorite volume in D&D 3e? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
Bertrem? Who the hell is Bertrem?
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