The idea is that the Knights of Takhisis discover a way to corrupt dragonlances, and use them to turn the tide against the forces of light. A new age of ice turns what was once known as the Summer of Flame into a Summer of Frost. The Blood Sea freezes, and the minotaurs mobilize on a dangerous journey across the ice in order to invade Ansalon.
Check it out for yourself!
War of the Dark Lance
Originally posted by Ravenmantle
As far as I know it´s a Dragonlancian campaign...I think D-Helm will give a detailed description shortly. If I remember correctly (and feel free to shoot me if I don´t!) it´s his creation. Or at least part of it is...
Well, close. Darklance is based on some games that some old friends of mine and I played years ago - before Dragons of Summer Flame ever came out.
My buddy Dave began with the idea of corrupting the dragonlances in his old game, which was sort of a "next generation" type of thing. I expanded on this with the Knights of Takhisis in my own games after reading The Second Generation. Alas, Dragons of Summer Flame caught up with me. I was pleasantly surprised to read about the fall of the High Clerist's Tower in the novel, as I had just used that same thing in my own games shortly before.
A couple of years back, I recruited Rooks and Rath, who were much more active on these boards, to help bring Darklance up to speed for 3rd edition (before 3.5). There was no sourcebook for Dragonlance yet, and so Rooks (the madman that he is!) worked feverishly to create a rules section for the book. Meanwhile, Rath and I worked on the setting (and summarily destroying what we could ;) ).
I've thought about updating Darklance to the modern era, showing how this alternate setting progressed through what we call the Age of Mortals. I've considered a couple of names, such as Darklance Adventures or Age of Dragons. I haven't gotten around to it yet, though. It's been a bit busy of late.
So that's the history in a nutshell. It's basically a couple of campaigns that history and continuity caught up with, making it a fun look into what might have been.
I hope that you guys enjoy it.
Originally posted by Dragonhelm
I've thought about updating Darklance to the modern era, showing how this alternate setting progressed through what we call the Age of Mortals. I've considered a couple of names, such as Darklance Adventures or Age of Dragons. I haven't gotten around to it yet, though. It's been a bit busy of late.
Now there´s an excellent idea! I´m reading through Darklance now and from I´ve seen so far it´s very good! An update would give us DMs even more possibilities :D
We'll see. I've been pondering this for some time now, but every time I sit down to try to work it up, I get busy again.
I did mention that Real Life is a 752-HD monster, right? ;)
Originally posted by Dragonhelm
I did mention that Real Life is a 752-HD monster, right? ;)
So you have said on numerous times before.
I like that setting and have been studying it to use on some of my unaware players. Nothing like a shift in the timeline to mess a bunch of players up.
Player interactions can be so fun at times and frustrating for a DM. Sometimes the best laid plans are turned to mush.
http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=101580&highlight=darklance
There is nothing wrong in making new threads. Thread necromancy is frowned upon here so make something new!
The basic concept behind Darklance is "What if Chaos never came?". The Summer of Flame (now the Summer of Frost) is when continuity diverges.
Ambient magic, of course, is boosted by the power of Chaos after his defeat and is then usable in the Age of Mortals. However, this never happens in Darklance.
So my question is this - should I keep ambient magic and create an alternate way for it to come about, or should I drop it?
If I keep it, I can say that Takhisis tries to use the Greygem in order to enter the world, and that it shatters, sending the power of chaos (little "c") into the world, which in turn boosts ambient magic.
If I drop ambient magic, it becomes a 4th age centric alternate setting, which would mean that several options would be lost (i.e. bard, sorcerer, and mystic classes, and several prestige classes). I don't think 5th age fans would be too happy with that, either.
So what do you guys think? Which way should I go, and why do you think I should go that way?
I know its a little shaky......but give me some time on it and we'll have something really cool Dragonhelm.
Originally posted by Dragonhelm
Let me add an addendum to my question then. Beyond how magic works, would there be objections to having the sorcerer gain magic from High Sorcery? Or is that too confusing at this point?
My suggestion would be to use dragons to infuse magic into people as sorcerers. You don't need to have half-dragons, but you could use sorcerers as a variant of dragonspawn, or have Sivaks, Auraks and dragonspawn able to have human children with sorcerous abilities.
Otherwise you could draw upon the fey or outsiders for sorcerers.
Finally, you might just allow for magical items to grant sorcerous abilities, such as that Gauntlet in "The Seventh Sentinel" or various Irda artifacts from the Age of Dreams.
There is however, nothing wrong with not using sorcerers at all.
Option #1 would be to make Darklance a setting that is 4th age centric, where ambient magic never comes about. In a way, it would be a look back towards DLA where the modern age begins at the War of the Lance, and continues through the War of Souls.
Option #2 - The idea is that Takhisis uses the Greygem to help her enter the world. As she's manifesting herself on the material plane, she grabs hold of the Greygem. Steel Brightblade, in a self-sacrificing act, realizes his mistake of following Takhisis and plunges his own darklance into the Greygem, shattering it and releasing chaos (little c) energies into the world. This act divides Takhisis up into 5 separate dragons (overlords, if you will), each of which is an aspect of Takhisis (green is temptress, blue is dark warrior). Meanwhile, there's a subconscious of Takhisis that is also at work. As the 5 dragons become more and more separate, each developing its own personality, the subconscious works to bring the aspects of Takhisis back together again in the War of Souls.
I thought as well that the divine power of mysticism might be the fallen divine power of Takhisis and Paladine, now available for use by the mortals of the world. Not sure on this.
There's advantages and disadvantages either way. Would I be adding ambient magic just to add it, or would it be a good story element? Would it be good to have more options, or would it be better to keep things more limited?
One thing I want to explore in all of this is how the 5th age would have gone had the world of Krynn not been stolen.
Thanks for your thoughts, everyone! Keep the thoughts and suggestions coming.
Originally posted by Serena DarkMyst
Well Dragonhelm.....I have a really interesting plotline to take the DarkLance world all the way through the War of Souls if you are interested. It incorporates ambient magic of course lol. It even includes that particular organization you and I spoke of a year or so ago. So...let me know if you'd like to see what Ive come up with and Ill get it right to you.
Please, I'd love to see it!
Originally posted by Serena DarkMyst
Expect an outline in your inbox soon Dragonhelm....your email addy is the same as always right?
Send it to dragonhelm (at) dl3e (dot) com. I hate spam. ;)
Amaron - War of Souls still may have happened, just in a different way. ;)
Originally posted by Amaron Blackthorn
If the Chaos War didnt happen would the War of Souls have?
No, because Tak wouldn't have been able to steal the planet, she wouldn't need to enslave the dead to gather magic, and the souls wouldn't be hanging around as the cycle wouldn't have been broken.... so no, the war of souls would not have occurred... but some other war would have...
EDIT: To Dragonhelm....It will be a matter of days before I get that outline to you, a few new ideas popped up, and unfortunately they popped up before the typist behind my screen takes a sojourn to Canada....I will return upon the begining of the week and send it right off to you
Originally posted by Serena DarkMyst
Oh trust me Apocalypse.........THe War of Souls occurs in the version of Darklance that I am cooking up for Dragonhelm....not the way we know it though......
It occurs with what I have in mind too.
Basically, the uber-subconscious of Takhisis, trying to pull her separate aspects together, draws upon the souls of the dead to leech magic in order to make the return of Takhisis possible.
Serena, looking forward to the e-mail.