“Over there, Sass. A blue is nearly upon Huma! Dive!”
“I’m already on it, love.” The female brass certainly had earned her nickname. She always referred to him as “love”, which made him feel uncomfortable. He was pretty sure she knew this, too.
The brass dove as the skies around them became a blur. Air whooshed past Darrick’s head, and he felt like he was going to black out. No! He must not.
“I am a Knight of Solamnia,” he said to himself. “I am a Knight of…
“…Neraka.”
As Darrick looked about, he saw several figures in dark armor, the likes of which he had not seen before, and yet they seemed familiar, like brothers. In the sky…a single moon! It was pale, and sickly – nothing at all like Solinari or Lunitari.
“Indeed, the rest of you pathetic fools could learn from Draskil uth Drastin. He has single-handedly brought down the brass dragon, an ancient one at that! He is to be commended for showing no mercy to the child of our enemy.”
As Draskil turned his head, he saw her – it was Sass!
“My love…?”
“So she still yet draws breath. No matter. The deed can easily be finished now. Draskil, we give you the honor of delivering the killing blow…”
Dragonlance Generations is a campaign model that takes the heroes from various points in time in the world of Krynn, and transports them throughout the River of Time. At each point in history, they portray a different role, although some things remain the same.
In the example above, we see Darrick uth Drastin, a Solamnic Knight who flew with Huma during the Third Dragon War. He is transported through time to another lifetime, where he has traveled down a darker path, and he apparently brings down the same dragon that he rode in a former lifetime.
Each character is a time-traveler, living in multiple timelines (think “All Good Things”, final episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation). They may find that they fill similar roles in the various timelines they inhabit, or totally different roles.
For example, a Wizard of High Sorcery may find that he was an Academy Sorcerer in another lifetime, whereas a cleric of Mishakal may find that she was a mystic in another life. Knights of Solamnia may find themselves to be Knights of Neraka, mercenaries, Legionnaires, Dragonarmy officers, or any number of roles in other lifetimes.
A person can switch roles entirely, being a knight in one era and a wizard in another, but this is a bit confusing. It is recommended that similar roles be taken from era to era.
As the campaign continues, the party realizes the journey through time, and realizes that it is for a reason. There is some greater plot, and they have to figure it out. What they will also discover is an overreaching scheme by a villain who seems to always be a step beyond them.
NOTE: This form of campaign would be a role-playing challenge, and is not for the novice player.
Players would have to have several character sheets, representing the character in each era. The DM may wish for each character to have different stats, although having some continuity between sheets would make playing these characters easier. Having the same ability scores could be helpful. The DM may also wish to apply this to skills and feats, although this could potentially be bad in regards to prestige classes. This would be similar to a character tree, ala Dark Sun. XP is applied to the character across all eras, allowing each character sheet to advance at the same rate.
The key to a successful game will be role-playing, and providing a sense of continuity between eras. Things should tie together to a degree. The heroes may not be the only ones traveling time. Perhaps the villains are too. What makes it interesting is if a villain is unaware that he has multiple lifetimes, and lives a good life in one era, and an evil life in another.
No matter the case, the overreaching goal of the game should be something that spans multiple eras. Perhaps there’s a villain who is immortal, or perhaps he travels time in order to fulfill his schemes. Remember, those races of original creation cannot change time. Only greygem races can.
Anyway, that’s my idea for a Dragonlance game. I hope you will find some use and enjoyment from this campaign model.
I must say that I utterly fail to understand the fascination with time travel in Dragonlance.
Its an interesting idea if nothing else, but the DM and players would have a hell of a lot of work ahead of them to play it properly.Nice idea though.
Originally posted by SweetMeats
Sounds more like Quantam Leap than Star Trek.
Yeah, that just hit me this morning. lol
Originally posted by SweetMeats
Sounds more like Quantam Leap than Star Trek.
Well, Star Trek: Enterprise might as well be more like Quantum Leap than Star Trek.
Between Bakula being the star and the whole "temporal war" stuff. ;)
1st generation-
The War of the Lance heroes
Valance Black Robes
The Speaker of Paladine
Solarus Greywords, KoS
Linna Red Robes
2nd Generation
The Knights of Takhasis to Dragons of Summer Flame
Valance Greywords (elf)
Poadrus, apprentice of Valance
Eliza Redrobes daughter of Valance and Linna
Isaiah Greywords (son of Solarus and Prince of Solamnia)
3rd generation
5th Age to Age of Mortals
Isaiah Greywords (transformed into gold Dragon
Valance
Luna Red Robes (daughter of Eliza and Isaiah)
Terrace Greywords (son of Eliza and Isaiah- determined to wipe the Legion of Steel off the Map)
4th generation
Isaiah and Valance Epic
Elron (the son of the Speaker of Paladine)
Daniel (son of the slain Terrance and only 11 years old)
Ogg (son of Poadrus the Ogre mage and a normal ogre)
We also have a distant past game where
Valance's grandfather is actually Fistandalius's apprentice
Isaiah's grandfather on his mother's side is of course a younger dragon Pyrite
Teannar Greywords is a High Priest of the Kingpriest (not Paladine)
and Eliza, Lina, Luna's distant ancestor "mattie" whose just a barmaid with knives
We're considering doing a Age of Might game now