Sometime that covers about 25-30 years worth
A period with lots of conflict
A time when godly worship, magic and dragons are at an all-time high
A time when all the major races are plentiful in numbers
I'm trying to avoid the War of the Lance and the Chaos War entirely, because I want to do something different.
I'd appreciate the help
I'm going to be picking up the 3E book soon, and I want to run during this time period. However, I can't decide which particular era during pre-Cataclysm to run as there's a lot of years to consider. I'll narrow down what I'm after:
Sometime that covers about 25-30 years worth
A period with lots of conflict
A time when godly worship, magic and dragons are at an all-time high
A time when all the major races are plentiful in numbers
I'm trying to avoid the War of the Lance and the Chaos War entirely, because I want to do something different.
I'd appreciate the help
Sounds like you're describing the Third Dragon War, a war that lasted some 50 years and ended around 1,000 years before the 1st Cataclysm. It was the war in which Huma fought and banished the Dark Queen. It was the war where clerics of Paladine strived against clerics of Takhisis. It was the war where the Dragonlance was first forged. It was the war where White and Red Robe wizards strove against the Black Robes and renegades. Where wizardly magic in combat and war laid waste to whole countrysides and whole countries. Where tends of thousands of humans fought against armies of ogres, minotaur slave-soldiers, and human mercenaries while hundreds of dragons of metallic and chromatic hue wheeled in the sky above.
- No dragons
- Good nations (Solamnia, Istar) triumphant
- Evil races in hiding or extinct
- World is mostly at peace
- Dwindling number of true clerics
- Wizards are also sequestered away, especially after 19 PC.
Depends on what stage of the Age of Might you are dealing with. If you are dealing with Huma then dragons are very much apart of the landscape.
The Age of Might started after the Third Dragon War. Huma and the events of the Third Dragon War occurred during the Age of Dreams.
I have had a lot of fun with the time period about 2200 years before the Cataclysm, in a time period that I developed as I first read the Dragonlance books back in the early 90's. In a nutshell.....
1) Set 2200 years before the Cataclysm.
2) 3rd Dragon Wars have not happened yet.
3) KinSlayer Wars are about to happen.
4) Solamnia was founded about 300 years earlier after there secession from Ergoth. This caused a ripple effect where other area's, like Tarsis and others also seceeded from Ergoth. This has given Ergoth the reasonings it needs to start encroaching on the Silvanesti's Territory.
5) Dragons are still in the world, albeit they do tend to keep to themselves. Many Dragons of Light are torn between serving the Silvanesti (from old trdtiions whom think they are the "chosen" of Paladine) and the Knights of Solamnia, whom other dragons think are the chosen of Paladine.
6) Obviously, Huma has not happened yet. Neither has the banishment of the Dragons. The Dragon Orbs have been created, the Orders are at the height of their power.
7) Ishtar is a powerfull city/state, like Tarsis. And the KingPriest is respected by the realms for his faith in the gods (I don't buy into the "Kingpriests are always corrupt" theory. At some point, they had to stand for something pure, and at this time, they did) but has little real power in Ansalon during this time.
8) The Powers of evil are in Central Ansalon and in all 'wild' parts of ansalon'.
I personally prefer the Pre-Cataclysm era, as there is simply so much to do in this age it is unbelievable and best of all, does not need to rain in on the books. Even the crossover's I have done with the lead up to the KinSLayer war's work out pretty well.
1) Set 2200 years before the Cataclysm.
2) 3rd Dragon Wars have not happened yet.
3) KinSlayer Wars are about to happen.
4) Solamnia was founded about 300 years earlier after there secession from Ergoth. This caused a ripple effect where other area's, like Tarsis and others also seceeded from Ergoth. This has given Ergoth the reasonings it needs to start encroaching on the Silvanesti's Territory.
5) Dragons are still in the world, albeit they do tend to keep to themselves. Many Dragons of Light are torn between serving the Silvanesti (from old trdtiions whom think they are the "chosen" of Paladine) and the Knights of Solamnia, whom other dragons think are the chosen of Paladine.
6) Obviously, Huma has not happened yet. Neither has the banishment of the Dragons. The Dragon Orbs have been created, the Orders are at the height of their power.
7) Ishtar is a powerfull city/state, like Tarsis. And the KingPriest is respected by the realms for his faith in the gods (I don't buy into the "Kingpriests are always corrupt" theory. At some point, they had to stand for something pure, and at this time, they did) but has little real power in Ansalon during this time.
8) The Powers of evil are in Central Ansalon and in all 'wild' parts of ansalon'.
Per the DLCS, Ergoth was founded 300 years prior to 2200 PC and Solamnia gained independence from Ergoth circa late 1700s PC.
Oh yeah, not 100% sure about this, but officially I believe the Dragon Orbs were created during the Third Dragon War.
EDIT: This is a fanboy nitpick ... but it's spelled Istar, not Ishtar. Okay, just checked the DLCS, the dragon orbs were created in the third Dragon War.
There isn't a Kingpriest until 280 PC, before that, Istar is ruled by an Emperor, or even before hand, a King.
I would just like to sit down and actually play in a DL campaign rather run one.Per the DLCS, Ergoth was founded 300 years prior to 2200 PC and Solamnia gained independence from Ergoth circa late 1700s PC.
Oh yeah, not 100% sure about this, but officially I believe the Dragon Orbs were created during the Third Dragon War.
EDIT: This is a fanboy nitpick ... but it's spelled Istar, not Ishtar. Okay, just checked the DLCS, the dragon orbs were created in the third Dragon War.
Yeah, I am well aware of all that. However, I like my timeline, which I developed when I first started reading DragonLance books back in the late 80's/Early 90's, and I keep the above storyline in my Pre-Cataclysm books as it fits into what I like/want about dragonlance. If you read the early dragon lance books as much as I did, there were a lot of "fill-in-the-blanks" periods, which is what I wanted to do, and when it came down to it, I was much happier with the "history" that I developed then the one that sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, that has developed from other official publications.
But that is just me. Remember, if you are the Dungeon Master, you can develop any kind of campaign you want to.
I might as well throw out the rest of the "differences" in my DragonLance campaign setting....
***Ansalon is located far to the south of the continent of Mystara. The Isle of Dread is about midway between each continent.
***In Krynn's far past, there was an "Ancient Empire" somewhat drawn upon from the WarHammer Fantasy board game.
There's some more to it, get to it later.
KingPriest is respected by the realms for his faith in the gods
There isn't a Kingpriest until 280 PC, before that, Istar is ruled by an Emperor, or even before hand, a King.
Aware of that now. However, like I said, you can do whatever you want in your campaign.
WHen I first started reading DragonLance (I hit it really big from the late 80's to about 95 or 96, I think) and as I kept reading , back then, there was not a very "set' timeline or storyline for stuff like that. So I did a lot of "filling in the blanks' on my own, and in my setting, when all I knew is that Istar was ruled by a KingPriest. It was easy to see it was a theocracy basically. But I decided that the KingPriests could never had gathered the suppoert that they had if they had not at one point, been as dedicated to the true teachings of Paladine at some point in their past. So I decided that while by the end, the reign of the KingPriests had become corrupt, I decided that in my campaign (which are always set pre-cataclysm and usually severla thousand years before it), the Kingpriest's would "still be pure" in their beliefs and teachings, which is how and why Istar would have began it's climb into the respect of the other nations on Ansalon anyway.
edit
This is off topic a little bit, but does anyone know anyone running an online DL game or anyone in the SE Wisconsin area running one. I only ask because when I DM it's a DL game, whenever I get the chance to play in a game it's always FR. I'm sooo sick of FR.
Yes, I am the dungeon master of an online DL campaign, located at www.roleplayinggames.net . Feel free to PM me or email me at [email]gmjoesolarte@yahoo.com[/email] if you are interested. Like I posted above, that pretty much sums up what I am doing in my campaign.
Yeah, I am well aware of all that. However, I like my timeline, which I developed when I first started reading DragonLance books back in the late 80's/Early 90's, and I keep the above storyline in my Pre-Cataclysm books as it fits into what I like/want about dragonlance. If you read the early dragon lance books as much as I did, there were a lot of "fill-in-the-blanks" periods, which is what I wanted to do, and when it came down to it, I was much happier with the "history" that I developed then the one that sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, that has developed from other official publications.
But that is just me. Remember, if you are the Dungeon Master, you can develop any kind of campaign you want to.
I might as well throw out the rest of the "differences" in my DragonLance campaign setting....
***Ansalon is located far to the south of the continent of Mystara. The Isle of Dread is about midway between each continent.
***In Krynn's far past, there was an "Ancient Empire" somewhat drawn upon from the WarHammer Fantasy board game.
There's some more to it, get to it later.
Ahh. Well that's cool then. What publication is Isle of Dread from? Sounds vaguely familiar.
What publication is Isle of Dread from? Sounds vaguely familiar.
Isle of Dread is the (in)famous X1 module from the old bD&D game.
It is set in the Known World (aka Mystara from 2E forward)
Recently, it was updated to 3.5E in Dungeon #114 (but was also "relocated" to Greyhawk at the same time)
Isle of Dread is the (in)famous X1 module from the old bD&D game.
It is set in the Known World (aka Mystara from 2E forward)
Recently, it was updated to 3.5E in Dungeon #114 (but was also "relocated" to Greyhawk at the same time)
I loved the Isle of Dread. It was one of the first, in fact, it might have been the VERY FIRST modules I ever played in DnD. Granted, the Dungeon Master I had at the time used AD&D rulebooks. But the adventure was fun, FUN, FUN. Lots of good stuff on that island, lots of good ways to take the game.
It was pretty fun.
Obviously, because Solamnia still had a good rapport with the gods, and thus there were more notable true clerics in the lands. it was noticable, especially because both the High Clerist and the Grand Master both disappeared in the Night of Doom that something was amiss. But at the end, as they were marching east from Vingaard Keep, the Cataclysm hit with all the things that happened afterwords.
There was a year or so when the people did "embrace" the Knights, wanting them to protect them. To counter that, I had the party sent from Palanthus first to Sancrist, to consult there, and then on to Tarsis, to bring back the Solamnic garrison there. Obviously, they realized all their charts were no good and thought Tarsis destroyed. And when they returned to Palanthus, the people were rising against the Knights.
It was pretty crazy.
That sounds like a deadly campaign. Tell me more
what would you like to know??
My PCs are going to be key elements in first discovering the masses of Dragon Eggs Takhisis hid(too late to stop them hatching though of course), and then later help in the creation of the Dragon Orbs, and the early years of Huma's knighthood.
what would you like to know??
Well, is the campaign now wrapped up, if not where is everyone at now, how many PCs have died? Basically everything that happens after the "To Be Continued" has scolled onto the screen.
Ironically, I'm about to start a campaign just before the Third Dragon Wars myself.
My PCs are going to be key elements in first discovering the masses of Dragon Eggs Takhisis hid(too late to stop them hatching though of course), and then later help in the creation of the Dragon Orbs, and the early years of Huma's knighthood.
How about your campaign? Is it up and running now? Whats happened so far?
Basically, all I really need to do is detail the nations at the time, and sketch out the beginnings of the campaign. Starting at 1st somewhere in the boondocks of Solamnia. I don't plan on having the Third Dragon War officially starting until the pcs reach their low-teens, most of the campaign will be build up, exploration, and lots of foreshadowing the things to come.
I'm fairly certain one of the PCs will be a Knight, and I'm going to have him join the Knights at the same time as Huma, so they may have some low-level interactions and history with him by the time of the final battle. Most of my plans for the PCs are things like doing all the background work/discovery of what's going to take place. (i.e stumbling upon the red dragon caching the eggs all over Ansalon, gathering power components for creating the dragon orbs, being messengers to the other nations to try and garner support for the coming war, etc.)
Once this campaign is completed, I'll probably run a follow up campaign during the War of the Lance, with flashbacks/hints to the first.
Ever since reading the timeline of Krynn, and after reading Chronicles/Legands over ten years ago, I've always thought this would be an awesome time frame to run a campaign. The world is practically a clean slate, and I can run PCs through towns/cities/locations that by the time of the books are mere memories, or ruins. The PCs will see first hand the glory of Palanthas, the High Clerists Tower, Pax Tharkus, etc.
Not yet, I'm still shaking the dust off all my old DL books from 1st and 2nd edition.
Basically, all I really need to do is detail the nations at the time, and sketch out the beginnings of the campaign. Starting at 1st somewhere in the boondocks of Solamnia. I don't plan on having the Third Dragon War officially starting until the pcs reach their low-teens, most of the campaign will be build up, exploration, and lots of foreshadowing the things to come.
I'm fairly certain one of the PCs will be a Knight, and I'm going to have him join the Knights at the same time as Huma, so they may have some low-level interactions and history with him by the time of the final battle. Most of my plans for the PCs are things like doing all the background work/discovery of what's going to take place. (i.e stumbling upon the red dragon caching the eggs all over Ansalon, gathering power components for creating the dragon orbs, being messengers to the other nations to try and garner support for the coming war, etc.)
Once this campaign is completed, I'll probably run a follow up campaign during the War of the Lance, with flashbacks/hints to the first.
Ever since reading the timeline of Krynn, and after reading Chronicles/Legands over ten years ago, I've always thought this would be an awesome time frame to run a campaign. The world is practically a clean slate, and I can run PCs through towns/cities/locations that by the time of the books are mere memories, or ruins. The PCs will see first hand the glory of Palanthas, the High Clerists Tower, Pax Tharkus, etc.
More or less, what you are building up to, somewhat sounds like what I have paralled, which lead up to the 3rd Dragon War. So where are some pointers.
1) IN My game, where the Knights have been formed for a couple hundred years. Dragons are still in the world, albiet they keep to themselves. I have had an ongoing...struggle, where many dragons want to keep their long standing "kinship" with the Silvanesti, and more and more are believing the Knights of Solamnia to be the true representative of Paladine on Krynn.
2) The KinSlayer War's took place before the 3rd Dragon Wars. Ergoth obviously is teetering after losing the conflict. While expended , the Silvanesti almost certainly would believe that their victory means they are truely the ones of Eli. While the Knights of Solamnia sat out of the war (in my campaign, they already had a garrison in Tarsis, which was neutral in the war (and profitted obscenely in the war, i might add). I did do it where the Knights aided Kith Kanan against that wizard that was described in book 3 of the Elven Nations Trilogy.
3) In any case, the whole "Elves vs Human" thing can be done well. Silvanesti characters wasted little time finding fault in humans as proof of their supremacy. And of course there is that new real called Qualinesti as well with plenty of history there.
4) Keep the High Clerist Tower already built, as well as the DragonOrbs.
5) The KingPriest of istar rules that city/state, but to the most part, Istar is a large city but is not an empire yet (like rome became). At this time, the KingPriest should be pure in his faith.
6) Even in civilized area's, there should be a lot of "uncivility". Actual city's and stuff are safe, but the area's inbetween them should be ample exploring abillity.
7) Huma should not come till much later, as it is clear the 3rd Dragon war was very destructive and long.
You may want to throw in something where a powerfull KNight of the Rose may be "selected" for something but is not in the end worthy of the quest that Huma will some day complete.
More later, back to the football game.
Running a campaign set in an era pre-1st cataclysm would be difficult as there are no adventures or anything like that written for the time, it does make it a bit easier though as you can make stuff up. Let us know how it goes?
Well, it is actually very easy. All one has to do is what George Lucas did to create his Galaxy far, far away and borrow ideas from other things.
I think the biggest challenge to a DungeonMaster is to bring up fun, innovative campaigns that are done in such a manner that one could say
Hey, that could well have happened in the official histoyr from a certain point of view. I feel I have been very successful at that, in finding ways to introduce actual DragonLance characters and doing things in such a way that continuity is continued.
And then, it just becomes a measure of finding a way to do so in the timeline you want.
For example, one revolving arc I am pursuing is that the KinSlayer Wars were initiated by Hiddukel and kept going by Morgion for several purposes. In my campaign, the 3rd DragonWar has not happened yet. So the KinSlayer wars were provoked and encouraged for the following reasons....
***To severely weaken the Silvanesti, Ergoth, and the Dwarves to ensure they won't have the strength to stand up to the DragonQueen's forces once she is done with the Knights of Solamnia.
***Morgion benefited by having the decay of the area happen for so long. I could argue the moral decay shown by Kith (cheating on Sithas for Hermathya) or Sithas (subverting Paladine's love for the races of Krynn for Racial purity).
***The untold numbers of dead will be unfound after teh war. The books are clear how lush and fertile and how high the grass grows in the plains. Enough that the dead will have a hard time being found and given proper rites....and thus there would be countless tens or hundreds of thousands of skeletons ready to be animated by the Necromancers of Chemosh for a war of his own in Southern Ansalon.
So in a sense, even after the 3rd Dragon Wars were over, I would still be able to have an army of the undead rise up and thus a campaign vs the followers of Chemosh will work, which will give me time to run afterwords.
Essentially, the theme being that with Takhisis banished, it is up to the other Dark Gods to win the war for her. And I would essentially come up with some grand scheme for each of them to dominate Ansalon in the place of Takhisis, first with Chemosh. I could argue that perhaps the way the KingPriests were corrupted that HIddukel had a hand in it. Anyway, I would come up with something for Zeboim as well, and as far as Sargonas goes.....
I am pondering with essentially paralleling The Lord of the RIngs on Dragonlance, with Sargas in the place of Sauron. It would essentially take place after the Undead War's are over, again after the 3rd Dragon Wars.
As I ponder this right here, I can think of many parallels to LOTR and the DragonLance Campaign I would run. It would essentially have.....
***Wayreath/Qualinesti in the place of Rivendell
***Kith Kanan in the place of Elrond.
***The WIndRiders in the place of the Giant Eagles.
***SkullCap Fortress and whatever Evil wizard I place there in the place of IsenGard and Saruman
***Pax THarkas in the place of Helms Deep
***The Knights of Solamnia in some capacity as the Riders of ROhan
***either Tarsis or Xax Tharoth in the place of Minas Tirith and Gondor
***General Giarna, now transformed into a Death Knight, in the place of the Lord of the Nazgul
***Sargas in the place of Sauron.
I could go on and on, but I think I can swing it. It would be a challenge, to be sure.