Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

A Short Guide to the "Core" Dragonlance Novels As of 2008, Dragonlance novel series (or more accurately "series-es") now numbers close to 100 books, so for the new reader the confusion of what to read is a genuine concern. Consider this... if you pick up the wrong book you could find yourself at the dawn of the world, in the middle of the reign of the Kingpriests, in the time just before the War of the Lance, decades after the "last war" (be it the War of the Lance, the Chaos War, or the War of Souls), or even on a totally different continent! If you survey a bunch of fans, you'll come up with a lot of variation on what to read and what not to read, but there are a few consistent responses, most of which I agree with, so here's a chronological list of a portion of the Dragonlance saga: The Meetings Sextet and The Preludes Sextet These books detail the early stories of characters that appear in the Chronicles trilogy. While set before Chronicles, a...

Hey, on paper, or in someone's head, I'm sure the idea of a custom made doll based on Raistlin Majere , one of the most popular characters in all of Dragonlance literature, sounded like a good idea. In actual execution, the result seems highly creepy, as seen in these Raistlin doll photos . But kudos need to go to the creator of this doll. The attention to detail is quite good--from his trademark hourglass eyes, to the Staff of Magius. I almost half expect him to call out "Shirak!" to make the staff glow it's faint light that has guided him on many a journey. Sadly, I wish the doll had more of the golden skin tone that he's known for, not to mention, I'd love to see a black robe version of him. In the meantime, at least I still have my D&D Miniatures versions of Raist: * Raistlin (red robe) * Raistlin (black robe promo) - repaint of the red robe sculpt

With the upcoming release of the 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons rule set, the web has been all abuzz about what the new game will have, what it won't have, and why you need it at your table... Along those lines Verys Arkon (not sure if that's a screen name or not) has compiled all the bits scattered here and there around the Internet on the new edition into a "lite" 4th Edition PHB pdf. On the other hand Paizo Publishing (recent home to Dragon and Dungeon magazines), and current publisher of the Pathfinder modules has announced their plan to continue supporting 3.5, with modifications. Their "4th" edition (or is that 3.75 edition?) product, the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game , recently released the free alpha version of their rule set. So let the dueling games begin... and call me when it's over. In the mean time, I gotta go out and get a Blu-Ray player .

After the events earlier that night , Theodonis took a few moments to rest at the top of the tower before continuing on. In addition to the kender ("Theo"), waiting down below were: * Hunter, the half-elf ranger. * Arterion ("Arti"), the elven mage * Greybear, the druid * and Bergin, a minotaur cleric Thinking that the tower was empty, Theo continued down to the sleeping area, only to find himself under attack by a pair of hobgoblin spear-men. These warriors were much better trained than the guards Theo had previously fought and he soon found himself seriously wounded and overwhelmed by the attack. With few options, he fled down a second set of stairs to the ground floor, and hopefully a quick exit from this tower. But the tower defenses were prepared for such an assault. They had overturned their feast table for cover and trained their bows on anyone coming down. One arrow and one crossbow bolt later and Theo was unconscious and bleeding at the foot of the stairs.....

The history of Dragonlance comics is an interesting collection of stops and starts; success and failures. In the mid 80's DC comics had acquired licenses to several TSR settings (including Dragonlance, The Forgotten Realms, and Spelljammer) and released comics based on those properties. For the Dragonlance comics, the stories were told in an anthology format, with about 3-4 issues completing one tale. One of the bad things in the series at this time was that the stories were bouncing around in time, from just before the War of the Lance, to many, many years later and was slightly confusing, even for someone familiar with the setting and the timeline. Later in the run, the comic settled on a set of characters and kept the stories at around the same time. Unfortunately the comic had moved from the content of Ansalon, where all the previous novels and most of the gaming products had been set, to the new content of Taladas. This coincided with the TSR release of the new lands in a few...

A great clip from Reno 911 showing what could happen if you take the game too far...

After the events of the party's most recent adventure (detailed here (part 1) , here (part 2) , and here (part 3) , the PCs spent some time on personals matters. Greybear presented the leader of his druid circle with the lost scroll he'd found as well as spent some time training and gaining a new wolf companion before returning to Flotsam and rejoining the others. Arterion, also continued his training, under Browyn the Red, and researching the darkly-magical claw they had found, with no luck... With a little time for relaxation on their hands, Greybear, Hunter, and Davyn (Hunter's mentor) spent time in the woods enjoying the natural landscapes of the area, the peace and tranquility from the hectic city, and learning a little about each other. The trip lasted several days, but it was the last day that was most notable! On that day, just after Hunter was showing off some of his tracking skills by pointing out the old markings of a small group of hobgoblins who had been in the...

Early reports are that Gary Gygax, who along with Dave Arenson, is one of the creators of the Dungeons and Dragons game has passed away. Here's a thread on the topic. For more on his life, check out his page on Wikipedia . Let's all dedicate our next nat-20 to the man who gave us this wonderful hobby! UPDATE: Here's more details in this Yahoo article .

I've used a variation of the following rule for a number of years, almost since I started DMing... aaalllll the way back in 2nd edition (when the game was still called AD&D!) Normal Rule: PCs die when their hit points reach -10 House Rule: PCs die when their hit points reach -10 + CON bonus The upside is that most characters now probably last a round or two longer. Particular weak characters could expire sooner, but at least there's a logical relationship on a PCs heartiness and how long before they die. Back in second edition, my rule was a bit different. A PC would die at -CON value. It probably had a more beneficial effect, since I recall most of the PCs having a con value in the 12-16 range. Interestingly, years later I found this post on Monte Cook's website with his house rules on death and dying . Seems he uses -CON for death in his 3e games, along with a modification to the unconscious below zero rule. Lastly, it'll be interesting to see what D&D 4t...