Romance is integral to the Dragonlance Setting. It’s often too on the nose, contrived, or uncomfortable for players to role-play, but when it works, it’s great fun! Let’s explore a few romance adventure seeds. Buy DL5 Dragons of Mystery: https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/16890/dl5-dragons-of-mystery-1e?affiliate_id=50797
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Transcript
Cold Open
Love comes in many forms, not all of which are familiar.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about romance adventure seeds for Dragonlance. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, 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 links. I am referencing the long line of romance greats from novels to films. If I miss a genre element that you enjoy, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
Dragonlance has always been steeped in romance. It’s a core aspect to the series. From the love triangle between Tanthalas Half-Elven and Lauralanthalasa Kanan and Kitiara Uth Matar, to Caramon Majere and Tika Waylan. We have cross species love with Huma and the Silver Dragon, and Gilthanas and Dargent. We even saw a touch of friendly love between Bupu and Raistlin Majere. But love is not alway a mutually received emotion. There is a reason for all of the heartbreak songs and poetry in our various cultures after all. Love is a drug that can lift you up, or tear you apart, and romance, the celebration or chasing of that love can be just as rewarding or destructive. Since we just passed yet another Valentine’s Day, let’s take a look at a few adventure seeds that begin with love, but perhaps not in the way one might expect.
But first, allow me to present a bit of a disclaimer. I am a romantic at heart, and I do not kink shame. Whatever anyone does in the privacy of their own homes is their business, so long as it’s between consenting adults. This being a set of fantasy role-playing adventure seeds, I am going to have to request the same level of tolerance from you. For while your characters may not understand or accept interspecies love, in a fantasy game, it seems to be inevitable that it will come up, so let’s embrace it in the spirit in which it’s intended.
This first adventure seed I like to refer to as unrequited love. And while the idea of having romantic feelings for someone who does not return them is an act as old as time, I think we can do it one better. The heroes overhear Constable Hixen muttering disbelief under his breath while he is drinking in the middle of the day at the Steel Tankard Tavern in Haven. This is odd behavior for the constable. Upon inquiry the heroes either overhear his mutterings or they ask him and receive the tale. Apparently Mini Lowen reported her fiance Baslen Frethers missing. Upon investigation of their home however, signs of a struggle and murder are everywhere. The scene was one of carnage with blood present, but no actual body. Mini refuses to say anything more about it, and suspecting some form of foul play, the Constable placed Mini in a cell until the investigation can be completed. But the Constable is beside himself, knowing Baslen murdered but unable to prove it, and without a body, he will have to let Mini go free. He implored the heroes to go to the Frether farm, and find the body of Baslen.
The heroes will have an opportunity to question Mini Frether who reveals Baslen and she were to be wed, but that he has been having an affair, and ran off with the harlot. Mini keeps referring to the ‘other woman’ as a different piece of furniture with each reference. When the heroes search the home, they notice a shovel hidden under hay in the barn loft. This has traces of swamp mud, and leads them to the nearby marsh near Haven River. In typical dramatic fashion, the foul weather makes unearthing the remains challenging and what they find throws them for a loop. They unearth a chest, within which is the mutilated body of Braslen Frethers, but the chest itself, is a mimic. When the heroes open the chest it wails in grief and if given a chance to speak, it reveals that Braslen and Beauty, what Braslen named the mimic, have been in love for decades. Mini was a close friend who grew feelings for Braslen, but he refused to return them. In a night of passion, Mini threatened Braslen and gave an ultimatum: marry me or die, believing his love for Beauty unnatural. But Braslen couldn’t return her love, and paid for it with his life. In an act of jealousy and spite she murdered Braslen and stored his remains inside Beauty, burying them both. If Braslen wanted Beauty, they could be together forever.
Not every love story ends in murder, but that doesn’t always equal a happy ending either. We have seen inter racial relationships, even interspecies, but what if they are forced to be separated? Not by family animosity, but by necessity? For years in one of your heroes’ youth, they saw a beautiful creature off the coast of Goodlund who would visit with them daily. This young siren first was curious about the land mammal, but that curiosity grew into friendship, and eventually love. But they could never be together, the Kender from Goodlund and the Siren from the Blood Sea. As the Kender went on their wanderlust, they ended up forgetting about the youthful love, and when they returned to Goodlund, they found only loneliness. One day on the coast they noticed a song carried on the waves. A song of sorrow, but incredibly familiar. The kender gets in a boat and rows into the ocean, led by the song. They come upon a wounded siren who they recognise as their youthful love.
She has been wounded by a ravaging tribe of koalinth. The kender helps the siren by bringing the siren home to tend to her wounds. They are quickly faced with the reality that the siren cannot live on land with the kender, and the kender cannot live in the sea with the siren. While time never extinguished the passion they shared for each other, they are forced to accept that their lives are worlds apart. The Kender and Siren meet at the coast every day for hours, but when night falls they are forced to return to their separate homes and lives. This leads them to forsake everything else in their life. And while they are draped in their love for eachother in the day, their lives suffer for it as family and friends witness them wasting away. This can lead to an intervention, or possibly a missing Kender or Siren for the heroes to investigate on behalf of the family and friends.
The final adventure seed deals with finding love when it’s not sought after, and in fact, wholly absent in the start. Two of the heroes’ characters grew up together. One tormented the other, bullying them mercilessly for years. Adulthood and adventuring separated them giving them perspective and a chance meeting in the coastal town of Beacon in Northern Ergoth. In the furthest point from the world that they could possibly get from their hometown, they run into each other again. What begins as verbal jabs and a barroom brawl ends in sharing a cell in the local jail. They share their perspectives of their youth. One liked the other but didn’t know how to show it, and that behavior grew into bullying. The other hated the bully and became indifferent to the world due to their youthful abuse. The next morning they are released and decide to have dinner. That dinner turns to breakfast and after so many years, finding each other so far away, they connect, apologize, forgive and find love. This lasts through one adventure to another until they are captured by minotaur pirates and sold into slavery.
They are placed in a gladiator pit and forced to fight, eventually facing off against one another. The former bully cannot take the pain of killing their one true love, and the other cannot bring themself to fight their newfound love, regardless of the complexity of their past. The minotaurs are clear in their ultimatum, either one of them dies, or they both do. Allow the heroes to make a choice. Does the former bully give their life for love? Does the other give theirs sharing forgiveness and adoration in their last moment? Or do they face off against their oppressors and do their best to stand together until the end? I can’t think of any reason except for love that would be worth dying for. It doesn’t mean you have to, and perhaps they can make it out of the pit, and live their lives on the run until they reach civilization.
Outro
But that is all I have to say about these romance adventure seeds for Dragonlance. What do you think of the stories? Do you have any you would like to share with the community? And finally, do you enjoy adding character romance to your campaigns? 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:
Don’t start trouble you can’t finish.
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