I can tell you that we won’t likely see the rise of guns in DL. So far all I’ve seen is the gunpowder formula used like dynamite. It’s more likely to be used in the form of a bomb (remember Helm’s Deep in the Lord of the Rings films), rather than in form of projectile firing weapons. What we may see though is the powder put in some small container and attached to the end of ballista bolt (see the Minotaur Trilogy) or to be thrown with a catapult or trebuchet.
As long as a certain gnome popcorn popper remains mostly unknown, we won’t see canons or bombards in any significant shape, form or numbers.
Though that’s just my easement based on DL books I've read, I could be wrong.
Matthew L. Martin
(Although, on some level, I have to say that might be really nifty.)
I have integrated gunpowder into my DragonLance Campaigns that are fun and innovative and I feel fit the theme, and just use a few following rules.
***Gunpowder on Krynn is mixed like it is on Earth. BUt is ONLY works if sanctified by a True Cleric of Reorx. Otherwise, it is just like flash powder. As such, only the Dwarves and Gnomes have it, whom jealously gaurd their secrets. I also use this as a justifier of why there is no gunpowder weapons in the WAR OF THE LANCE, because all the true clerics were gone.
***Practically ever Dwarf Kingdom has it's Engineer Guild, where gunpowder is processed and sanctified.
***Dwarves have developed Muskets (called THunderers, a rip off of what they are called in WARHAMMER) and pistols.
***I have more or less a list of the warmachines from the Warhammer game and applied them to DragonLance as well.
That's it. To me, the introduction of gunpowder into DL is a very dubious thing, even in "small" doses.
And I hope that dwarves officially have no more cannons (I guess Matthew refers to the Dragonmagazine short story ... I hope it doesn't count as official cannon .... oops canon, [any more?]).
Luckily, the popcorn popper is destroyed.
guns, gunpowder, etc ruin fantasy for me. So I avoid it like the plague.
guns, gunpowder, etc ruin fantasy for me. So I avoid it like the plague.
In defense of guns in fantasy, I'd like to say in some worlds/campaigns I feel it works. Take the Iron Kingdoms setting. It is a very good world that makes use of guns and what not. I highly recomend it.
To me though, I dont play in worlds containing guns, gunpowder, etc. As I said, the few instances I might have to deal with it FR, Ravenloft, etc.. it has been easy for me to omit them and not have much of a problem really. If they become "mainstream", then I can't deal and must quit it. Not saying its the best solution, its just my personal preference.
Basically I realize that a world stuck in the medieval way is stagnant, unrealistic, etc... but when I play my games it doesnt bother me at all
I enjoy my games a certain way and make sure that those are the games I play.But, since I like technology, I've been workign on a Dragonlance Modern setting. The Tower in Nightlund becomes a Techno Wizard Tower, and Dalamar and Raistlin roll over in their graves.
I'm sure some divine research would show them of the destructive potential and they might ban it or just make it so hard to create (and work) that only certain peoples/races would have it (gnomes for instance).
Well, I have no problem with guns, as long as it's not too much. I mean, there were guns in the real Middle Ages, they were just too expensive to make, and anyhow, they where one-shotters for a long time (the barrel's would melt from the heat). I think it would be awesome to see some Solamnic knight with a pistol blast an ogre, then discard his ruined gun and go sword. THat'd just be cool.
But, since I like technology, I've been workign on a Dragonlance Modern setting. The Tower in Nightlund becomes a Techno Wizard Tower, and Dalamar and Raistlin roll over in their graves.
Then don't let anyone stop you. Have the GNome's of Sancrist develop muskets and pistols at Mt Nevermind and have Knight-Commanders and above issued a pistol for use in battles.
But, since I like technology, I've been workign on a Dragonlance Modern setting. The Tower in Nightlund becomes a Techno Wizard Tower, and Dalamar and Raistlin roll over in their graves.
Nifty.
I wonder what it'd be like to mesh DL with d20 Past. Hrm... ;)
Also, consider what the gnomes are known to have invented, which mainland Ansalon has just flat-out ignored. Gnomes are highly technologically advanced, by Krynnish standards, yet magic is such a cheaper (not to mention safer) alternative to gnome machinery that almost no one ever uses gnomish inventions other than the gnomes themselves. So, yeah, Mt. Nevermind could easily have long held the secrets of gunpowder, cannons, and even primitive muskets; but it's cheaper, easier to procure, and safer to use, to simply hire a bunch of spellcasters to provide firepower for your armies, than it is to acquire rifles that will likely just blow up in your face and are next to impossible to create in the first place!
--remember, on Ansalon, magic, while distrusted, is far more reliable to the natives than technology NB
The dwarves have had cannons since the early Fifth Age at least, but they don't appear to have moved beyond stationary defensive weaponry.
Though Douglas Niles isn't following this, because in "Lord of the Rose" the dwarves view sulfur as a relatively useless material.