Is there a reason why there's no more project for new game in the DrgaonLance world?

There's a time where a lot of game that take place in DL world where introduce, but now, its almost all in Forgotten Realm.

Is it because its less popular that it use to be?

That's one reason, FR is more popular as a setting then all the others.

Second is that the Forgotten Realms are just much better developed by WoTC. A game of the size and grandeur of BG set in Dragonlance would require lots of thinking and adding from the makers of the game, time they can better spend at enhancing graphics, improving the game engine, etc. In the old days, when SSI ran the D&D-market, the games were much smaller, so they didn't need a very complex campaign world.

I like both.

I like then both as well but Lord Bane is right FR is much more developed than DL. More book written about it, more modules released in it, etc.

I think for the common user of a BG-like game the setting of 'D&D' is enough for them. Most people who don't play table top don't know about the different worlds. Therefore, it's easier for Bioware to put the game in FR to save themselves time and effort in making a whole new world.

I think it's just the real hardcore gamers (like many of us) that know the difference between FR and DL and have a opinion about which one we like the most. But we do not repersent the normal population who those buying the game, or at least only a part of it. Thus Bioware can't pick the FR with many problems.

Since we're on the topic of DL, is Raistlin good or evil? I've just started reading DL books and he seems like a pretty messed up fellow to me.

Hmm... now to answer that would be to give away too much. Raistlin is one of the most intriguing characters in the series. If you're reading the Chronicles, check out the Twins series after. It's excellent!

You are at the beginning? So he have his red robe, so he's neutral. Cant say much. You will learn the rest in your reading.



[This message has been edited by Wassup (edited March 23, 2001).]

SSHHHHH !!!!!

What is your favorite caracter in DL ?

Mine was Sturm. Sad story... And Kitiara.

Well, aside from my abiding infatuation with a certain bearded half elf...

Definitely Raistlin!! His character development hooked me from the very beginning. Then I'd have to say Kitiara. I guess I tend to enjoy the complexities of the conflict within the two of them.

I thought they were all fairly well done, however if you look at most of the characters they were quite predictable. Caramon would die for his brother, Tanis was perhaps tempted several times but generally did the right thing. Tasslehoff just had such child-like innocence that continually drove Flint crazy.
I agree with Darien on this one, Raistlin has to be my favourite. That's not to say I liked him the most, just that I found him the most interesting. There were times when you just never knew how he would react. Generally he did things for his own benefit, but there were times such as with Bupu or with Lady Crysania (sp?) that I was just never sure.

Ertuu kicks everyone's ass.

Tanis kicked ass then and kicks ass now

I got interested into D&D through Forgotten Realms so I have to give it a lot of credit. Although, recently I've been reading Dragonlance and I enjoy that a lot too. It's very hard to say which is better. They both are full of goodies.

I've only heard of Dragonlance in passing, such as now.

Can anybody tell me what is it, and if it has any merits?

It's fantastic... Check out the list here, and start at the top. The Chronicles Trilogy is a great adventure, with some very interesting characters. I highly recommend it.
http://www.sorcerers.net/Books/index_drag.htm

I would also recommend the chronicles triology. Assuming, of course, you don't think about the plot too much. Don't get me wrong-it's fantastic (pun intended) writing. It's just that I have problem with a group of completely average people (with the exception of Raistlin) saving the world from evil. If that doesn't bother you, go buy the Chronicles Triology now.

Thanks Darien, but those are only the titles of the books. I was hoping that somebody could tell me about the campaign setting, what makes it unique, what "feel" it has, etc.

The only campaign settings I have been exposed to are Greyhawk, FR and Planescape. In my opinion, the Planescape setting is the best. FR feels like stock fantasy, whereas Greyhawk has little that I find unique. Actually, this is because I'm biased towards the Planescape setting.

Then again, I see the need to have exposure to the Prime worlds. Experiences are different.....right now I'm favoring Greyhawk although I think it lacks colour, if only because I think too much has already been written about Faerun.

And another thing about Greyhawk, the sappy names. Man, the names are even sappier than in FR!

Countries, places, towns, people, all sappy!

I think I'll use the Oriental Adventures setting instead.

Maybe you could have a master swordsman called Shura the Kensai as an NPC in your campaign Rak.
All your paladin PCs will tremble in fear.

Ah yes, I'll definitely have something like that. Need to balance those munchy Paladins.

Not only that, but those players expecting to bully goblins and orcs will soon find themselves sucked into the Blood War! :D

How about a lamp which when rubbed unleashes a "subservient" Glabrezu which will perform anything they ask for? ;)

And legions of anti-paladins giving them a taste of their own medicine with Smite Good! And Word of Chaos! MUAHAHAAH

Forgotten Realms for life ;) Only thing that sucks is I either gotta steal em with my level 4 Thief skills from the library or order them online, because the only thing this crappy country sells is DragonLance

Raistlin...now that IS one serious badass.
Elminster's an ass compared to him. And Khelben is an incompetant buffon.

Raistlin and Sturm were my favs in DL

FR is growing on me

But Greyhawk will always have a place in my heart!

Bah! Tell them their days are numbered, Artemis Entreri's out to get them ;)

Artemis is one serious badass, I agree, but him and Drizzt together could not even scratch Raistlin.

We'll throw in fyodor and call it even ;) World's greatest swordsman and warrior duo with their Natural "Hamfriggen" (ShapeShifter) Berserker Ally vs. some raisin heh. This should be quick ;) btw.. Raisin is a mage or what?

He is a god-like mage.
Lessee, it'll be disintegrate, disintegrate, oh Drizzt's got spell resistance? I'll just Imprison him then.

As an reply to some of the earlier posts: The problem with Dragonlance is that everything in the world is explained in Chronicles and Legends. There is simply no room for a game.

When compared, forgotten realms is more like your average run-of-the-mill high fantasy settings. Ok, I need to write a novel, I just make a place up. There is tons of more room in the forgotten realms.

Elminster would kick the crap out of Raistlin.

Who cares about the whole Goddess of evil thing, I mean really. Any half assed wizard or Cleric can do that if they try hard enough, just look at Cyric. ;)

And good old El is tens times the wizard that Cyric ever was. Just doesn't have the whole heart of evil bit.

Besides you all know that every tenth wizard in the Realms is more powerful than the High Wizards on Kyrnn.

*raspberry*

Of course I still love DL. Great books, poor game setting.

I would bet that a few DL adventures will be designed once NWN is finally released! I can't wait!

I can remember when the 1st DL book came out back in 1984. I couldn't put it down. I almost went crazy waiting on the 2nd and 3rd books to come out. I think that it is a very interesting world to have an adventure in. But then again, I still like the World of Grey Hawk as well. I still have all of the original maps ect. As well as a few of the original D&D books from BEFORE 1e rules. God save Gary Gygax. I wonder what ever happened to him.

i think fr is so much more popular because of all the computer games

Indeed... I prefer to play in Middle-Earth however FR is cool also. From Dragonlance I don't know anything.

Realms Vs Krynn hmmmmmm.....

....this a no contest.

Realms wins hands down. Reason being that Krynn pretty much homes in one plot hook; the dragons. FR is a lot more varied, no single "epic" plot governs the workings of the game world. This one of the reasons that Dark Sun didn't last very long. The Dragon Kings plot thread is the backbone of that game world.

FR is huge(or should I say ARE huge) which gives plenty of scope for other themes and plot stories with a multitude of flavors.

Now don't get me wrong I love DL(in fact the Chronicles were one of the reasons I got into D&D)but FR offers so much more.I would love to see Weis and Hickmans classic trilogy made into a film. It has evrything that would translate over onto the silver screen,comedy, action, high dramaa and tragedy(Sturm....sniff,sniff)and who wouldn't pay $10 to see the flying citadels swollowing up the screen! A sight only rivaled by that of the first time we saw the Death Star in Star Wars!

And one last thing to consider...


....the Bhaal trilogy was set in a part of the Realms that had little development in terms of game material. Amn and Tethyr was almost like a little void that exsisted between the Savage Fronter(Waterdeep, Silverymoon etc) and Calimsham untill BG I arrived . And yet a fantasicaly rich history was uncovered with the release of BG, BG II and III(including the expansions) making one of the little known areas of the FR into its most well known locals thanks to the PC games!

The only problem I had with both the Dragonlance books and roleplaying in the world were the Kender. They always seemed to strike me as more of a Disney sidekick than an adventurer. And of course, whoever roleplayed a Kender had pretty much free reign to play the most obnoxious, annoying character around. Otherwise, I could really enjoy DL, but I'll take FR and Greyhawk over it anytime.

My experience with D&D scene ends at FR CRPG's and a few table-top games I played yrs ago, I've never read any of the books. What are they like?

I really enjoy Dragonlance as a novel setting, but I agree that FR is far better as a game setting. Everything important is taken care of by Weis and Hickman's characters.

I actually don't like the early DL books(Chronicles), I think it's too...blah. Predictably heroic. Raistlin is it's only redeeming value.

The newer stuff is far superior. Dragons of Summer Flame, plus the books just coming out now(The Chaos War, then the War of Souls series, and opposed to the War of the Lance books). Heroes formerly invincible find themselves decrepit no longer able to run out and save the world, the new heroes are not what you would expect(especially the War of Souls books).

Go buy the new ones, if you haven't. The series is continuously improving, something that bodes very well for the future. (May as well buy them at Sorcerer's Place, as long as you are hanging about lollygagging. :D)

I have to say that I prefer the FR gaming world for the reasons almost everyone mentioned. The world is much more varied in plotlines and has received infinitely more development. Most of the other D&D worlds have a single plotline while FR's plotline is that there is a lot of stuff going on.

As for the favorite character from DL, after reading his novel, Verminaard (sp? don't have the book with me) was an incredibly interesting character and makes a run for the favorite. But, for someone who didn't get as much attention as most of the other heroes from the Chronicles, Gilthanas was remarkably deep and interesting.

I like the Dragonlance books better compared to the FR. I've only played one campaign set on krynn and it was decent.

Deviant, i have to disagree with you about the heros. They frickin ran at the first sign of danger and even had trouble with goblins!!

That was the reason why i didn't like the icewind dale books and why i hate drizzt. I was beginning to expect arrows to bounce off drizzt and have him fly.

But Tyresian, they were still so...so...so unbearably herioc. The dragon-riding, goddess-thwarting, shiny-armored type...not my cup of tea(most of the time).

I agree with you wholeheartedly about Drizzt(that applies to all Salvatore, everything I've read at least...which is most of it).

ok drudging up an old topic i missed..lol

Have to say I have never read any Forgotten Realms, but have been forced to play the campaign setting blindly, quite often.

As for my fave DL characters the obvious is Kitiara, 2nd would definately be Raistlin, and 3rd would be Tas. I love kenders!!! hehe :grin:

I dont want to offend anyone in here but I wonder if you have read any literature at all if you call Raistlin an interesting and complicated character. The few dragonlance books I have read have been utter crap, heck the story and characters are more interesting and complicated in the P&P game I am playing now. Dragonlance seems to be written by a bad dm with too much time on his hands. It is all about your standard party combos adventures. No fun, nothing interesting, not a twist near them. I will end my rant but I am baffled that so many people find the Dragonlance books worth reading, even more baffled that they say that they are excellent. Salvatores FR books may not be top of the line but they far exceeds the DL books I have read in every way.

Joachin that doesn't make sense. Yes the dragonlance books might have a soap opera feel to them at times but far worse is the marvel superheroes feel that plagues almost all of Salvatore's books. I always know what's coming in the next few dosens of pages in Salvatore's works when I'm reading.

What I like about the dragonlance books is that the rules of storytelling are not set in stone. The heroes might just as well die, and indeed almost all of them do.

I like the Raistlin character not only because he's a cynic, well developed as a character and unpredictable at times, but mainly because he's the main character that is not a hero by any means. I can relate to him whereas Elminster... *sigh*

I suppose it's a matter of taste after all. But if you think there are no plot twists in the twins trilogy, then I'll beg to differ.

As I said I havent read all of the dragonlance books, I think I got as far as when Raistlin was in somekind of wasteland and he had to choose something in some way. Dont remember, as I didnt like them they didnt stick in my mind.
I dont like Salvatores FR books either, if you look in my topic "Salvatores Books" you will find my view on most of his books and characters.

joacqin, Dragonlance is even more "shared fiction" than FR. Dozens of different writers write those novels. Some of them can be very bad, but it's generally accepted that the main books that carry the whole saga (those by Weiss & Hickman) are quite good.

What did you read that you thought was bad?

It was Weis and Hickman =P. And I truly enjoy Weis´s Deathgate novels, they are truly great. But the Dragonlance was about the worst fantasy I have ever read. I thought it was on such a low level, so easy if you know what I mean.

Ah well, if you're looking for deep & enthralling fantasy you'll hardly find it in any FR or DL novels. Most of them are a quick and ok read at best.

Problem is that when you read Tolkien's books, all other fantasy-books that are also quiet good seems suddenly a bit less good... for when you compare Quiet Good with Fantastic, Quiet GOod already seems a bit bad.

Well....

It was DL that originally hooked me on fantasy. I admit that the books aren't exceptionally good, but good enough. Nowadays, I hate most of the characters, except for Raistlin, Dalamar and Steel. They rock! I mean, Aargh, I can't spoil for those who haven't read, but those who have read know what I mean...

FR, on the other hand, I like a lot more due to the complexity of it all, and, well, the characters are way more complex than Sturm or Caramon. I mean, Artemis, Jarlaxle, heck, even Drizzt (Who is an annoying moron) are incredibly developed in the literature meaning... The only char that was developed that much in the whole chronicles&legends&DoSF thing was Raistlin.... the others were way more superfical.

/end rant mode

Ara
(Raistlin rocks! Or, wait.... wouldn't they rather be gold naggots? Dunno....)

Realms vs Dragonlance?
That's a draw.

The first fantasy book i read was the dragonlance cronicles trilogy, and that rocked!!!
But most of the other sucks with an exception of the legends trilogy.
Forgotten realms however rules too.
The avatar trilogy (what's up with those trilogies?)was the first i read and that rocked too!
A lot of the FR books are cool but they are not as cool as the leader books of DragonLance.

Oh and my favourite characters from dragonlace are: Tasselhof (That's where i got "Tasohan") and of course Raistlin.

Definately Dragonlance. At least the first 6 orgiginal books. Every D/L novel I tried to read after those were basicially crap. I didn't even like Dragons of Summer Flame.

As far at Salvatore's books go they are good, but not nearly as good as the D/L novels. I think that the characters, and story telling in D/L was much better, and more developed.

I just finished re-readig the D/L novels, and all of Salvstore's books(except for the 3 "prequels" that take place when Dizzit is still in the underdark). You can definately tell that old R.A.'s writing skills have improved over the years.....but D/L still takes the cake in my book. Tas and Raistlin were my favorte characters.....and, of course, FIZBIN

Ah good ol' Fizbin I had forgot all about him actually. Thanks for reminding me Llandon ;)

Artemis, Jarlaxle, Drizzt... In that order. I doubt Dragonlance could come up with more original and interesting characters. Drizzt, who sometimes annoys people with that goody crap, is incredibly powerful in capturing the reader in the novel.
For me, Artemis is the coolest and most intriguing character, and with Charon's Claw he can take out a few mages with no problem at all.
BTW, Ivan and Pikel from The CLeric Quintet are hilarious!! :)

i never read any forgotten realms or tolkien books, just the dragon lance chronicles (more than 10 years ago). gamewise, just played the pc games, the board games were never really a fad here in our country, warhammer is more popular (with the boardgame). and i only know about 3 or 4 locations that actually have warhammer in this country.

for the pc game, most of the dl games i played are the ad&d, and they don't seem to have real new heroes to lead them. you only get to read about some of the chronicle heros/heroines being mentioned and they are set in a very distant past. fr, however, have actually heros/heroine of its present time mingling with the pc gamers. and i liked that better.

the dl trilogy, i like the book except for the ending. it never appealed to me, even after more than a decade. my favorite chars are laurana and kitiara, two completely different character and attittude yet posses something intriguingly similar traits. also i would have to agree with elijah, gilthanas still have me wondering just who he really is. he is an elven prince, older brother of laurana. yet laurana have somewhat exceeded him in the leadership field. and he allowed it and content himself as a baby sitter. not much was talked about him, only that he is good with the bow and arrow (i wonder if he is as good as legolas). to me gilthanas is probably the most mysterious hero/character in dl books or fr games.

Speaking of FR and DL, I think the Realms are the victor-simply because they are the nearest thing to Earth-and the Realms are the most developed. Speaking of characters-Elminster is a GOD-like mage (closer to a god than a mage, I think). Second, If Raistlin went against Artemis Entreri or Drizzt- well these guys aren't stupid. And they wouldn't fight him on a field. Let's put it this way-can you really cast a spell on time if you wake up in the middle of the night and find a jeweled dagger piercing your throat?