I'm way late to this topic, but I would personally guess that they'll reboot / revise it, and center it mostly around the time of the original (and most popular) 3 novels. Probably make it so there's a stable period where you don't have to worry about the War of the Lance or any cataclysmic events, and you can just be whatever you want without worrying about it all crashing and down and becoming unrecognizable in no time.
Edit: If they wanted to be meta hipsters, they could even rework the War of the Lance to become instead the "Bore of the Lance" where Takhisis and the evil Dragons plan to steal Good Dragon eggs and take over everything but then they decide "Nah, that would be really hard, let's not." so instead just mess around, make a few Draconians, and then spend the rest of the time playing collectible card games (which would of course, be Wizards CCG's like Magic the Gathering.. it would be meta-advertising IN GAME) and just leave Krynn alone.
So players can go fight Evil Dragons and Draconians, or they could not. Or they could get their own card decks and challenge them in an epic fight of card vs card Yugi-oh style and it'll be 10 rounds of "Takhisis! You've just activated my TRAP CARD!" and Takhisis would be like "Oh NOO!!!1 You can't beat me at my own card game, I literally invented this, and I am a GooOOD11!!"
Also: Sturm doesn't die and is caught in a love Quadrangle with Kitiara, Tanis, and Laurana, except for the fact that he doesn't like Laurana that way, but of course Gilthanas is going to like Sturm better than Tanis even though he's full human and there's going to be soap-opera like romance drama, especially when Kitiara reveals that she's pregnant, but doesn't love Sturm.
It'll be like "Days of our Dragonlance Lives". Trust me, it'll be a great reboot. It'll have everything, including Drizzt, and Wizards will just throw in everything they ever thought was popular within the entire History of D&D and AD&D and even just some stuff that was not.
I've been running a conversion of the original Dragonlance DL series for quite some time. I posted some Draconian updated conversions as homebrew here. I think I've also posted a Lesser Dragonlance conversion/update.
I really should write up my full concept for an updated, but not rebooted, Dragonlance.
The idea, imo, is to bring the setting *around* to where it began, rather than *back* to where it began. Move forward a generation from wherever it is now, and have things happen in between that make the setting feel like it did.
*The world is missing something. First time, it was the gods, and divine magic. This time, only some gods are missing, but the balance has started to go wrong, and *arcane* magic has lost its potency and reliability. The Towers have gone missing. The only wizards anyone can find are hedge mages and warlocks.
*An threat rises. First time, it was dragon armies of the dragon queen. This time, it's the mysterious armies of New Ishtar.
*Heroes rise. The Heroes of The Lance are long dead, but New Ishtar has great dragons of its own, and the Lances are needed again.
**last time, there was a cleric. The first in centuries. This time, maybe the AP has an arcane artifact that gives hope of returning the Wizards to the world? Perhaps the Staff of Magius.
*rebuild and regrow the classic homes of heroes, like Solace's great trees, Kendermore, etc.
*overview the history of the setting, just like the history of any other setting. *focus* on describing the world as it is.
1. Wizards of High Sorcery will be 3 archtypes of wizards with certain limitations. (Opinion: Wizards of High Sorcery as a group is a faction, while individual members are archtypes.)
2. Renegade wizards will also be an archtype. However, there will be rules on how to stop as well as become a renegade.
3. The Solamnic Knights will be a faction.
4. Draconians will not be a playable race if they are of the evil branch (Baaz, Sivak, etc.). The good draconians didn't come until much later. Once they do appear, they will then be playable.
5. Since black robed wizards are evil, they probably will be restricted to lawful evil as a playable archtype.
6. The colored robed wizards being affected by the phases of the moons will probably be simplified. It was really hard to keep track of in the modules, even with the "moon phase wheel."
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
1. Wizards of High Sorcery will be 3 archtypes of wizards with certain limitations. (Opinion: Wizards of High Sorcery as a group is a faction, while individual members are archtypes.)
2. Renegade wizards will also be an archtype. However, there will be rules on how to stop as well as become a renegade.
3. The Solamnic Knights will be a faction.
4. Draconians will not be a playable race if they are of the evil branch (Baaz, Sivak, etc.). The good draconians didn't come until much later. Once they do appear, they will then be playable.
5. Since black robed wizards are evil, they probably will be restricted to lawful evil as a playable archtype.
6. The colored robed wizards being affected by the phases of the moons will probably be simplified. It was really hard to keep track of in the modules, even with the "moon phase wheel."
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
1) It's tricky because you can't change archetype, so what if a wizard were to change robe colors, or become renegade, or go from renegade to member of an Order? I'm not sure they would go with archetype here.
2) Renegades-Depending on the era, you can't have them be a wizard archetype, because not all renegades are wizards. So a renegade would be just wizards. Or sorcerers or warlocks.
4) Draconians were a playable race in 3.5 and we have dragonborn in 5e, I would expect something similar for the weaker draconians races (Baaz and Kapak) to be playable races.
5) Black robed wizards can be any evil alignment, as can any PC technically, so there's no need to restrict a black robed PC.
8) No need to tweak, just state that Qual and Silvanesti are high elves and Kagonesti are wild elves. Simple as that.
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
I don't really see them making much in the way of changes, certainly not now that the Racial feats UA is available for Wonder Maker, would pretty much cover being a more tinker-ey. Elves don't need significant differences, R&R has the right idea, I guess you could change around their bonus weapon proficiency or give Silvanesti a language or bonus skill proficiency but really pretty minor.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
1. Wizards of High Sorcery will be 3 archtypes of wizards with certain limitations. (Opinion: Wizards of High Sorcery as a group is a faction, while individual members are archtypes.)
2. Renegade wizards will also be an archtype. However, there will be rules on how to stop as well as become a renegade.
3. The Solamnic Knights will be a faction.
4. Draconians will not be a playable race if they are of the evil branch (Baaz, Sivak, etc.). The good draconians didn't come until much later. Once they do appear, they will then be playable.
5. Since black robed wizards are evil, they probably will be restricted to lawful evil as a playable archtype.
6. The colored robed wizards being affected by the phases of the moons will probably be simplified. It was really hard to keep track of in the modules, even with the "moon phase wheel."
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
1) It's tricky because you can't change archetype, so what if a wizard were to change robe colors, or become renegade, or go from renegade to member of an Order? I'm not sure they would go with archetype here.
2) Renegades-Depending on the era, you can't have them be a wizard archetype, because not all renegades are wizards. So a renegade would be just wizards. Or sorcerers or warlocks.
4) Draconians were a playable race in 3.5 and we have dragonborn in 5e, I would expect something similar for the weaker draconians races (Baaz and Kapak) to be playable races.
5) Black robed wizards can be any evil alignment, as can any PC technically, so there's no need to restrict a black robed PC.
8) No need to tweak, just state that Qual and Silvanesti are high elves and Kagonesti are wild elves. Simple as that.
1b) Oathbreaker paladins in the DMG. 1 and 5) The Towers of High Sorcery do seem to lean towards lawful alignments, so there would probably be something like the "elves only" note on Bladesong, indicating that there really shouldn't be chaotic-aligned wizards in the Orders.
What about kender?
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
1. Wizards of High Sorcery will be 3 archtypes of wizards with certain limitations. (Opinion: Wizards of High Sorcery as a group is a faction, while individual members are archtypes.)
2. Renegade wizards will also be an archtype. However, there will be rules on how to stop as well as become a renegade.
3. The Solamnic Knights will be a faction.
4. Draconians will not be a playable race if they are of the evil branch (Baaz, Sivak, etc.). The good draconians didn't come until much later. Once they do appear, they will then be playable.
5. Since black robed wizards are evil, they probably will be restricted to lawful evil as a playable archtype.
6. The colored robed wizards being affected by the phases of the moons will probably be simplified. It was really hard to keep track of in the modules, even with the "moon phase wheel."
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
1) It's tricky because you can't change archetype, so what if a wizard were to change robe colors, or become renegade, or go from renegade to member of an Order? I'm not sure they would go with archetype here.
2) Renegades-Depending on the era, you can't have them be a wizard archetype, because not all renegades are wizards. So a renegade would be just wizards. Or sorcerers or warlocks.
4) Draconians were a playable race in 3.5 and we have dragonborn in 5e, I would expect something similar for the weaker draconians races (Baaz and Kapak) to be playable races.
5) Black robed wizards can be any evil alignment, as can any PC technically, so there's no need to restrict a black robed PC.
8) No need to tweak, just state that Qual and Silvanesti are high elves and Kagonesti are wild elves. Simple as that.
1. I suppose you are right. It was only a speculation. There will definitely be needed some type of mechanic to be able to switch between the colored robes as well as between the robes and the renegades.
2. I completely forgot about the other arcane classes. In the official canon, there doesn't seem to be any sorcerers or warlocks. So, I speculate for official play, those classes will not be allowed. However, for homebrew, they must be included. Also, rangers don't seem to have spells (Tanis). I haven't seen any spell-using bards in the official canon either.
4. I was talking about official play vs. homebrew. For official play, the evil draconians will not be allowed. For homebrew, the DMs will have the option to allow them.
5. You are right about the black robed wizards. Again, I was talking about official play, similar to what was done for FR. LE was only allowed if you belonged to a couple certain factions. I believe the black robes would work the same way. Again, however, for homebrew, the DMs will have the option to allow all evil alignments.
8. I think they should be tweaked. The races have been apart long enough to develop their own set of traits. The tweaking I would think would happen would be to add one minor trait to each. Otherwise, how do you tell them apart? I suppose, for fluff, qualinesti would tend to NG, while the silvanesti would tend to CG.
This post may contain SPOILERS if you haven't read anything of the 5th Age of Dragonlance (anything past Dragons of Summer Flame)
I am assuming you haven't read anything past Summer Flame here, but in dozens of books beyond that book, sorcerers are very common and the 5e version of the wild sorcerer is a very good fit for the Dragonlance sorcerers of the 5th age. The dragon sorcerers fit as well, but the setting even calls them wild sorcerers, and seeing the wild surge tables in the PHB, it makes a lot of sense why the gods of magic wanted to codify and organize magic users in the world.
I also don't recall any spellcasting bards or rangers in any novels, but Tanis can be explained as a fighter with light armor, since he is required to wear heavier (ceremonial) armor at later points in his life.
Draconians also come into their own, and many turn from the evil they were bred into to for a civilization of their own. Female draconians were found, and babies were made. They are not all evil now, taking a more neutral stance in their little corner of the world, just south of Nordmaar. So in the canon of the 5th Age, they are absolutely a playable option. If they (WOTC) were to rewind the clock to take the timeline back to the War of the Lance, then yes, I would restrict draconians from playable characters (unless there was a good story behind it, of course). But in the 3.5 DLCS, Baaz and Kapaks were playable races and later in the Dragons of Krynn sourcebook, it had rules to play any draconian race.
Re:elves in the PHB "As a high elf, you have a keen mind and a mastery of at least the basics of magic. In many of the worlds of D&D, there are two kinds of high elves. One type (which includes the gray elves and valley elves of Greyhawk, the Silvanesti of Dragonlance, and the sun elves of the Forgotten Realms) is haughty and reclusive, believing themselves to be superior to non-elves and even other elves. The other type (including the high elves of Greyhawk, the Qualinesti of Dragonlance, and the moon elves of the Forgotten Realms) are more common and more friendly, and often encountered among humans and other races." So, they've already laid the foundation that both nations are just high elves. Their only differences are their attitudes. Keeps it simple that way, at least.
It's interesting to read this thread and see so many people waxing nostalgic for this series. Don't get me wrong, the books were fun.
The modules on the other hand... If memory serves me correctly, this was the major transition from sandbox style adventures to a true railroad model. The modules were basically Choose Your Own Adventure Books with every avenue leading back to three specific unavoidable plot points (chapters) per module.
I would love to see Krynn reimagined, but maybe this time the author's could allow for...imagination.
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I'm way late to this topic, but I would personally guess that they'll reboot / revise it, and center it mostly around the time of the original (and most popular) 3 novels. Probably make it so there's a stable period where you don't have to worry about the War of the Lance or any cataclysmic events, and you can just be whatever you want without worrying about it all crashing and down and becoming unrecognizable in no time.
Edit: If they wanted to be meta hipsters, they could even rework the War of the Lance to become instead the "Bore of the Lance" where Takhisis and the evil Dragons plan to steal Good Dragon eggs and take over everything but then they decide "Nah, that would be really hard, let's not." so instead just mess around, make a few Draconians, and then spend the rest of the time playing collectible card games (which would of course, be Wizards CCG's like Magic the Gathering.. it would be meta-advertising IN GAME) and just leave Krynn alone.
So players can go fight Evil Dragons and Draconians, or they could not. Or they could get their own card decks and challenge them in an epic fight of card vs card Yugi-oh style and it'll be 10 rounds of "Takhisis! You've just activated my TRAP CARD!" and Takhisis would be like "Oh NOO!!!1 You can't beat me at my own card game, I literally invented this, and I am a GooOOD11!!"
Also: Sturm doesn't die and is caught in a love Quadrangle with Kitiara, Tanis, and Laurana, except for the fact that he doesn't like Laurana that way, but of course Gilthanas is going to like Sturm better than Tanis even though he's full human and there's going to be soap-opera like romance drama, especially when Kitiara reveals that she's pregnant, but doesn't love Sturm.
It'll be like "Days of our Dragonlance Lives". Trust me, it'll be a great reboot. It'll have everything, including Drizzt, and Wizards will just throw in everything they ever thought was popular within the entire History of D&D and AD&D and even just some stuff that was not.
I've been running a conversion of the original Dragonlance DL series for quite some time. I posted some Draconian updated conversions as homebrew here. I think I've also posted a Lesser Dragonlance conversion/update.
I really should write up my full concept for an updated, but not rebooted, Dragonlance.
The idea, imo, is to bring the setting *around* to where it began, rather than *back* to where it began. Move forward a generation from wherever it is now, and have things happen in between that make the setting feel like it did.
*The world is missing something. First time, it was the gods, and divine magic. This time, only some gods are missing, but the balance has started to go wrong, and *arcane* magic has lost its potency and reliability. The Towers have gone missing. The only wizards anyone can find are hedge mages and warlocks.
*An threat rises. First time, it was dragon armies of the dragon queen. This time, it's the mysterious armies of New Ishtar.
*Heroes rise. The Heroes of The Lance are long dead, but New Ishtar has great dragons of its own, and the Lances are needed again.
**last time, there was a cleric. The first in centuries. This time, maybe the AP has an arcane artifact that gives hope of returning the Wizards to the world? Perhaps the Staff of Magius.
*rebuild and regrow the classic homes of heroes, like Solace's great trees, Kendermore, etc.
*overview the history of the setting, just like the history of any other setting. *focus* on describing the world as it is.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
Speculation:
1. Wizards of High Sorcery will be 3 archtypes of wizards with certain limitations. (Opinion: Wizards of High Sorcery as a group is a faction, while individual members are archtypes.)
2. Renegade wizards will also be an archtype. However, there will be rules on how to stop as well as become a renegade.
3. The Solamnic Knights will be a faction.
4. Draconians will not be a playable race if they are of the evil branch (Baaz, Sivak, etc.). The good draconians didn't come until much later. Once they do appear, they will then be playable.
5. Since black robed wizards are evil, they probably will be restricted to lawful evil as a playable archtype.
6. The colored robed wizards being affected by the phases of the moons will probably be simplified. It was really hard to keep track of in the modules, even with the "moon phase wheel."
7. Rock gnomes will probably be tweaked to be true tinker gnomes.
8. High elves will probably be tweaked so that qualanesti and silvanesti elves will be subraces of the high elves which are in turn sub-subraces of the elves.
"Where words fail, swords prevail. Where blood is spilled, my cup is filled" -Cartaphilus
"I have found the answer to the meaning of life. You ask me what the answer is? You already know what the answer to life is. You fear it more than the strike of a viper, the ravages of disease, the ire of a lover. The answer is always death. But death is a gentle mistress with a sweet embrace, and you owe her a debt of restitution. Life is not a gift, it is a loan."
1 and 5) The Towers of High Sorcery do seem to lean towards lawful alignments, so there would probably be something like the "elves only" note on Bladesong, indicating that there really shouldn't be chaotic-aligned wizards in the Orders.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
This post may contain SPOILERS if you haven't read anything of the 5th Age of Dragonlance (anything past Dragons of Summer Flame)
I am assuming you haven't read anything past Summer Flame here, but in dozens of books beyond that book, sorcerers are very common and the 5e version of the wild sorcerer is a very good fit for the Dragonlance sorcerers of the 5th age. The dragon sorcerers fit as well, but the setting even calls them wild sorcerers, and seeing the wild surge tables in the PHB, it makes a lot of sense why the gods of magic wanted to codify and organize magic users in the world.
I also don't recall any spellcasting bards or rangers in any novels, but Tanis can be explained as a fighter with light armor, since he is required to wear heavier (ceremonial) armor at later points in his life.
Draconians also come into their own, and many turn from the evil they were bred into to for a civilization of their own. Female draconians were found, and babies were made. They are not all evil now, taking a more neutral stance in their little corner of the world, just south of Nordmaar. So in the canon of the 5th Age, they are absolutely a playable option. If they (WOTC) were to rewind the clock to take the timeline back to the War of the Lance, then yes, I would restrict draconians from playable characters (unless there was a good story behind it, of course). But in the 3.5 DLCS, Baaz and Kapaks were playable races and later in the Dragons of Krynn sourcebook, it had rules to play any draconian race.
Re:elves in the PHB "As a high elf, you have a keen mind and a mastery of at least the basics of magic. In many of the worlds of D&D, there are two kinds of high elves. One type (which includes the gray elves and valley elves of Greyhawk, the Silvanesti of Dragonlance, and the sun elves of the Forgotten Realms) is haughty and reclusive, believing themselves to be superior to non-elves and even other elves. The other type (including the high elves of Greyhawk, the Qualinesti of Dragonlance, and the moon elves of the Forgotten Realms) are more common and more friendly, and often encountered among humans and other races." So, they've already laid the foundation that both nations are just high elves. Their only differences are their attitudes. Keeps it simple that way, at least.
I'm sure it will be good if the movie really does end up being set on Krynn, but man someday I NEED to see Sharn on the big screen.
It's interesting to read this thread and see so many people waxing nostalgic for this series. Don't get me wrong, the books were fun.
The modules on the other hand... If memory serves me correctly, this was the major transition from sandbox style adventures to a true railroad model. The modules were basically Choose Your Own Adventure Books with every avenue leading back to three specific unavoidable plot points (chapters) per module.
I would love to see Krynn reimagined, but maybe this time the author's could allow for...imagination.