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I’m getting all of my notes together, because come 2020 I will be running a D&D campaign which will likely be a long running one - Dragonlance!

THis is one of my favourite settings, as I remember reading the old novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman when I was very young. I can probably credit them with the first tiny spark in my soul which eventually became a fully fledged tabletop roleplay and D&D enthuasiast. So having the chance to go back to them and run the original Chronicles story - the opening trilogy in what became hundreds of novels in the setting - is fantastic.

This is the basic briefing on the world I’ve so far given my players:

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THE WAR OF THE LANCE takes place in ANSALON, a continent on the world of KRYNN. The world's major gods are the High God and his children: good Paladine, neutral Gilean, and evil Takhisis, opposed by Chaos, who seeks to destroy Krynn. Evil chromatic and the good metallic dragons are things of legend, and tied to the gods as divine beings. Humans are Krynn's most common humanoid race, but Elves, Dwarves, Kender, Gnomes, and Minotaurs occupy the world as well. Clerics derive magical powers from their gods, and wizards derive their power from the three moon gods.

At this point in history, it has been three hundred years since the Cataclysm obliterated the great empire of Istar and changes the entire surface of Krynn. The Age of Despair followed, during which the gods were entirely absent, having left behind the world they felt had abandoned and shunned them. The disrespect of the Kingpriest went on, ignoring the thirteen warnings sent, convinced by his own hubris that only he – a mortal – could defeat evil.

The gods sent a “fiery mountain” to completely destroy Istar and the Kingpriest, the impact shattering other areas of Ansalon, drowning some areas and raising new mountains. Following that, contact with the gods was cut off entirely.

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The group I’m running for are currently neck-deep in a long Call of Cthuluhu game, just stepping in to what I’ve been told is the third and final act of Horror on the Orient Express, which is why I’m making sure my notes are together now and ready to go next year. It gives me time to go over my plans and make sure of what I’ve got and what needs adapting. Anyone with Dragonlance experience is of course welcome to offer advise, but the crux here is that the last time the setting had rulkes was D&D 3rd edition. We want to play 5th. So some adaptations need to be made.

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If you’re actually one of my players, this is where you should STOP reading.

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As the narrative of Chronicles goes, five years ago a group of friends would frequent the Inn of the Last Home in the treetop city of Solace. Having adventured together for some time and grown weary of the actions of those serving the new religions since the Cataclysm, they made a pact to separate. Each would take a different path and travel Ansalon searching for some sign of the true gods, agreeing to meet back in that inn five years later.

I plan to start my party at Lv5, as brand new characters of their own devising. They will completely replace the Innfellows in the narrative of the War of the Lance, starting the game with their return to the Inn of the Last Home after their five year journey. My plan is that the world will exist as though the classic set of characters never existed. After their original encounters and the introduction of the Blue Gem Staff, the party will be visited by none other than Raistlinn Majere. He will explain that HE has erased his own cohort from history, because they FAILED to defeat the Darkness. As such, he has twisted time using forbidden magics to give another group of characters a chance to succeed.

Its quite a twisting of the ending of the Chronicles trilogy, and I should point out for those who have read other books in the series that I am basing this SOLELY on the mythology of the Chronicles trilogy (so assuming Legends, etc has not happened yet).

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In order to make it work of course, some changes need to be made. Dragonlance, the world of Krynn, the continent of Ansalon, are not the same as Faerun, Eberron, etc. Different races have prominance, others are more common than in other places, and some are outright unheard of (because they didn’t exist in D&D at the time Dragonlance was being written and developed). So in terms of races, these are the changes being made:

The most common races, those developed more in the stories, are Humans (Civilized and Nomadic, Elves (Qualinesti, Silvanesti and Kagonesti), Dwarves, Gnomes, Kender (Halflings), Centaurs and Minotaurs.

Rare but accessible races in clude Half-Elves and Half_Ogres (Firbolgs and Goliaths).

Very rare races, with my apporval only, include Kyrie (Aaracokra), Phaethons (Aasimar) and Thanoi (Loxodons).

Races I’ve banned outright, because they are to be used as purely evil or isolationist races, include Dargonesti (Sea-Elves and Tritons), Ogres, Orcs, Half-Orcs, Goblins, and Hobgoblins.

I have also banned Dragonborn, Lizardfolk and Kobolds as player races, because there will exist only as the evil Draconian race.

Other races which are never mentioned in the Dragonlance stories (as far as I know) are a tricky question I haven’t addressed yet. I’ll probably base my decision on them on whether someone can come up with an interesting concept for them in the game world. These are of course the Tieflings, Gith, Genasi, Changelings, Kenku, Kalashtar, Tabaxi, Shifter, Yuan-Ti, Warforged and Tortles.

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Some alterations also need to be made to character classes before we begin, as some are represented very differently within the world of Dragonlance, and need addressing.

Mostly everything can stay the same, the key difference being however a complete lack of Divine Magic at the start of the story.

As Chronicles begins, the gods do not grant power to any beings on Krynn. The restoration of that link is part of what the Chronicles story is about - finding the old gods and trying to get them to come back, and dealing with the one or two who already have.

As such, I’m putting in the rule that as the story begins, no Cleric or Paladin has Spellcasting, or any other healing ability. The exception of course, will be if one characters WANTS to play a Cleric, then they will find themselves as the chosen wielder of the Blue Gem Staff, the first artifact of the gods to be seen on Krynn in three hundred years, which LETS them use their class spellcasting ability. This helps kick the party into the narrative too.

As part of this though, I’m making the world a little harsher. There is a point in the story at which Divine Magic does return should the party choose to do as the original Innfellows did and make it happen (at Xak Tsaroth). However I am ruling that no spellcaster can use any healing or divine-influenced spells until this event occurs (or something like it at least).

As part of that, seeing as there are no gods and no truly god-like beings on Krynn, I’m ruling that no levels can be taken in the Warlock class until this event occurs (because there are no beings around to be a Patron other than the central villain of the narrative!).

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The final note in my planning is based in Paladins, which I think need a full re-flavouring. My intention is that Paladins will stand-in as the Knightly Orders of Ansalon, very intentionally to allow something special should somoene wish to affiliate with the Knights of Solamnia (such as Sturm Brightblade in the novels). I think the concept stands well for them, and makes the Knights more than just Fighters. The spellcasting part of the class makes it a bit weird though, which is what I think needs adjusting to make it fit. I think the Healing restriction I already mentioned will help itigate it, but I will likely have to strip down the spell list for Paladins and maybe replace a few spells entirely with new ones. This way I can make every spell they have more of a martial ability than an explicit spell, which would work nicely for the Knights of Solamnia. I might even be able to flavour each new rank in a Paladin’s Oath as rising to a new Order within the Knights.

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I’m very interested to know what other people think, and waht advice they’d give based on this framework. People with better knowledge than I might be able to offer new ways to address a few of the alterations I’ve made, and hopefully I’ll have it all organized in a good, structured way and ready for when the game begins next year.

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