I started to write something, touching on the History, Races, Organizations, Classes, and No No's of Krynn. But I'm over two pages already!?! How can we expect people to reasonably jump in with a limited knowledge of the world? So instead of trying to familiarize them with the Setting, I approached it from "What is common knowledge to a human character who would be set to adventure in the 5th Age? (Elves would know considerably more.)
The War of the Lance? Is that something they should be aware of? There was a Cataclysm, but do they need to know more than that? Do they need to know about the Kingpriest? A human would know that there was once an order for wizards, but it was disbanded (most likely before they were born). Recently great dragons have been killed and the Gods have returned. Maybe this is two different things, but what do you tell a player to draw them into trying the game, and what is the minimum amount of info needed to get them in the right frame of mind for playing?
Just curious what you think.... ;)
Being DM of our group and wanting more than just diablo style hack-n-slash games, I remembered the dragonlance setting and decided to have a go, so I search my memory from back when I read the books. Let me tell you I'm 25 years old and started reading dragonlance when I was 12, so it's been a while.
Right, so I start looking around for stuff on the web and find Dragonlance.com, dl3e.com, kencyclopedia.com and this board (or rather the old board).
I start downloading like crazy from the sites and start choosing good stuff from the various fan made rules and other tidbits.
So I find a timeline and read about the fifth age.... the wha? I remember something about some heroes, alot of dragons and some ancient dragonlances, and an annoying kendar....what the? Oh well, I read on and investigate, and find a huge description of the various lands on dl3e.com and find it to be 4th age descriptions. Ok, so I read on about the 5th age and get a fair idea of what that setting is like in general.
Then someone on the boards tell me Qualinost is now a big lake and the world has gone to hell and back on a hopeless horse.
After a few weeks of reading and sorting and reading some more, I get enough data to create a fair overview of the 5th age, at least enough to start working on a campaign setting.
I choose the late 5th age as setting, but before the war of souls, so the players get to experience the total decay of ansalon but get to stick in there with all the dragon fighting later on.
But then I forgot how the dragonlances were made and basically everything about those nice pointy things. I forgot everything about the Knights of Solamnia and I know nothing about the knights of steel.
It seems that unless I want to put our gaming on hold till I read the entire dragonlance series and the upcoming DLCS and 5th age sourcebook, I need some sort of quick guide to DL.
Here is what I would like to see in a guide for both DMs and Players new to DL:
- A quick guide of what races are common (ogres, minotaurs, humans, kendar etc.) and that orcs are non-existant. Not elaborate, just quick guides to give you an idea where the races live, how they live (alignment, government, who they hate and who they like etc.)
- A quick timeline but elaborating the 5th age. (someone posted a good one on the old board in reply to one of my posts.)
- The Inn of the last home. Being a key location it kinda deserves a mention of how it has been through the ages.
- The dragons and their history, from the period leading up to the War of the Lance and up to the war of souls.
- The dragonlances, a quick guide.
Wizards of High Sorcery - An organization that most wizards aspire to belong to, gaing admission through a dangerous test of their magical abilities. Those who do not wish to join are considered "renegades" and are hunted to face exile, imprisonment or death. The organization consists of three uneasy factions, the black robes (practioners of the dark arts), the white robes (the good mages) and the pragmatic red robes (who put magic before ambition or ethics).
Sure, you could tell them about Wayreth and such, but isn't something they need to know at 1st level when they first start playing.
The Nations are Nereka, Solamnia, Northern Ergoth, Qualinesti, Silvanesti, Abanasania, and well that's about it. We've visited a few cities, but they are so minor that a player could get along without knowing their history (or even existance). After all, if you are playing a campaign in Abanasania, what do you need to know about Port Balifor? Again, all these nations can be summed up in a paragraph. Heck, since Silvanesti and Qualinest are destroyed they can probably share the same paragraph.
Silvanesti and Qualinesti: Elven kingdoms that were destroyed during the War of Souls. Now their people exist in exile, living in foreign lands but hoping to someday reclaim their homelands.
I mean, the caste systems, the conflict between the two kingdoms, the kinslayer war. All important for the setting, but not something that an elf first starting out really needs to worry about.
A timeline (for beginning players) is frankly unnecessary. If they are completely new to the setting, the history of the setting is less important than the current events. The cataclysm completely reshaped the planet, and the players can learn about the old cultures by sifting through their ruins like the good old days of the original modules. The WotL, in terms of the current campaign had no lingering effects worth thinking about. The collapse of the Dragonarmies was complete and total. The Chaos War, according to the 5th Age team, was negligible and really didn't much of an effect except for disbanding the WoHS (who have since returned anyway). The only thing frankly that they really need to know about is the dragon purge and the War of Souls.
For the dragon purge, all they have to know is that Big Dragons came from another dimension, ate other dragons, destroyed everything they could for unfathomable reasons. The War of Souls occured when a dark god named Takhisis used the Apocolypse known as the "Chaos War" to hide the world from the other gods. Binding the spirits of the dead to serve her, she unleashed another reign of terror which ended with her death. The gods have since returned, and a new age has dawned where the gods have lost their omniscience and omnipotence. Thus, an "Age of Mortals" has begun.
There, you're pretty much finished. Now, the returning players are more of a problem, but they'll be able to read the DLCS and be caught up to speed just as much as we will. After all, we don't know anything yet either because nothing has ever really been detailed.
Perhaps I missed it, but don't forget about D&D players who have never read the novels, nor played Dragonlance before. Consider that in the equation as well.
Edited for clarity.
Originally posted by Richard Connery
hmm... question: do you want our views on how to introduce a non-DL fan to the setting or how to introduce a new character of a non-DL fan in the 5A? (or both?)
I would say both. For example. I am just one player short of having enough people (4) to play a game sometime. Since we are just starting out it would be cool to start them in DragonLance. But since they know nothing about the setting I would need to fill them in before we begin to play. Or even sort of make my "bid" on what setting we will play in since we are starting fresh.
Originally posted by Kipper Snifferdoo
I would say both. For example. I am just one player short of having enough people (4) to play a game sometime. Since we are just starting out it would be cool to start them in DragonLance. But since they know nothing about the setting I would need to fill them in before we begin to play. Or even sort of make my "bid" on what setting we will play in since we are starting fresh.
I can sympathize on "the bid", since I want to DM a Dragonlance game... I think. After all, I'm the only one in my gaming group who even remotely cares about playing a Dragonlance game. I think we, as fans who tend to have rose-coloured glasses, tend to ignore the fact that Dragonlance has a really bad (and completely deserved) reputation for suckitude. I mean, I was explaining the 5th Age setting to a fellow who hadn't even looked at it since way back in the early 90's. Once and awhile he would trot out what he though were completely ludicrous sarcastic comments, and I'd have to say "yeah, that's exactly what they did" and hang my head a little more.
So it is going to be hard to convince people to even look at the DLCS despite my anxious please when I (hopefully) say "But it's all better now!".
After all, I'll have to compete with "In Nomine" (the current favourite), Elizabethan intrigue and alchemy, D20 modern, Warcraft, Harnmaster, and a BESM space opera game.
The hardest part will be to convince them to even look at DLCS.
Originally posted by ferratus
After all, I'll have to compete with "In Nomine" (the current favourite), Elizabethan intrigue and alchemy, D20 modern, Warcraft, Harnmaster, and a BESM space opera game.
Most of those sound pretty good.
I think your real problem is the attitude of the players, not the setting. Dragonlance has a poor reputation for some who haven't heard anything about it since the late 80's, but there's a lot to be said for turning something around and dropping people into it with recognizable elements and just giving it a go. My advice for people in your situation is to run a one-shot, and if the players go for it, Bob's your uncle.
If they don't like it, despite your best efforts to showcase the setting in a single night or two of gaming, then they're unlikely to commit to a long-term campaign. I managed to run a Lovecraftian Elizabethan D&D campaign for a year and a half despite the furrowed eyebrows of my players purely on the strength of the first adventure, and that's the kicker.
Cheers,
Cam
I had only ever read 'the legend of Huma'and 'Kaz the Minotaur'.
We all had a great time. Now there are all these ages. I don't know what people mean, when they talk about the 4th age or the 5th age.
Just having some sort of basic timeline would be great!
So do any of you guys know where I can find one?
Thanks.
So, to me, if your players need to be sold a world's history and cultures, you've already lost a major part of the magic that made you and any dino fall for the world in the first place.
Quick player's guide? I'm of two thoughts. just give the players what they need to know in terms of allowable classes and races, so they can choose among the options. nothing more. if you're going to sell the world, you're going to have to upsell what the players can do, like kill uber dragons, or fight some really nasty organizations and evil gods.
History? Minimal. there was a cataclysm. Then a war of the lance, where gods and dragons returned. then there came a war against chaos, a dark mad god. and the gods left. but the dragons started taking over individual lands, and from what I hear, started screwing everything up. give individual players background on the races they've choosen, but only give them racial outlooks, not the complete history. And give players their local history as their characters would have seen when growing up in their areas. Expand the world in-game, through locals describing what they've learned. it makes it easier for a DM with the knowledge to handle the game, and will encourage your players to really learn more about the world themselves.Or go the other route and give them total knowledge of the setting. give them the DLCS when it's released. it'll be 288 pages, but then they'll know everything they'll probably need to know.
So, if a character is thinking of playing a wizard-type character in the upcoming campaign (whatever it is) just mention how the grand majority of wizards in Ansalon belong to a continent-wide organization. The character has access to a lot more knowledge than in other worlds or can hunt down renegades; describe the 3 orders etc. If you have a player who likes Paladins tell her of the Knights of Solamnia and how their great and extensive history can sometimes make them narrow minded. Explain in general terms the connection between the KoS and the good dragons. In essence describe how their "regular" archtype can be enriched by the setting.
As for introducing the players to the setting after DL is chosen as campaign, again I prefer the character approach. Tell each player whatever their characters would reasonably know. An elven cleric of Gilean will know ALOT because of his age and patron deity. On the other hand, a Khurish Ranger will know very little beyond the geography of her village and hunting grounds. Whatever (fuzzy) legends she might know about were probably learnt at the campfire so it's safe to give her incomplete or even fake information.
When I started the DL campaign I'm currently running I took each player apart for an afternoon and worked with them on their character and character knowledge. Because they didn't know what each other knew it made the first couple of sessions even more interesting because it wasn't just the DM _unloading_ information onto the players.
Never mind, I see the dragonlance nexus is very complete in this respect.