Dragonlance Campaign Setting

Krynn is a world of conflicts. This sourcebook is one of conflicts as well, in more ways than one.

A disclaimer upfront is that Dragonlance is not on my list of favourite official settings, though it is one of the earlier ones I got acquainted with. As I got older, I just found the core (and constant) morality conflicts, to be too clear cut, and thus unappealing to me.

The campaign setting presentation starts off with an introduction to the world of Dragonlance, the continents, and the history of the setting. Like many, my introduction to this world is heavily coloured by the beautifully written novels, especially the earlier trilogies. This section kind of summarises it, and presents it as a world that constantly sees a conflict between good and evil, and scales of balance.

The first chapter presents the races, focusing on their outlooks, and giving readers an easy comparison on how the standard races are different from the core game (not really in a good way - just exchanging one set of stereotype with another). We also get a first look on how the new edition allows for draconian PCs. The “joke” races are included too (kender, gnome, and gully dwarves) and while they make for comedic reading material, in general, I feel like these races are unrealistic. They always throw me out off - one minute it's all serious and heavy, and suddenly one of these characters would do something ridiculous, yet completely in-character.

Chapter 2 introduces all the character and prestige classes available. This is the first taste of the uniqueness of Krynn, where the Knights of Solamnia and the Wizards of High Sorcery truly set the world apart. They come with a rich and detailed explanation that oozes with flavour. Of note is the mystic (kind of like favored soul, but Krynn-flavoured), the Knights of Neraka, and the Steel Legionnaire. Although the existence of the latter two is a prime example of the ever-present mirroring of good, evil, and neutrality found in Krynn. There's also a dragon rider prestige class, but it's extremely unlikely to see any PC play, for obvious reasons.

Chapter 3 explains magic in more detail. The new spells are interesting, but it's great exposition to exlain the various states of magic in Krynn. An age where arcane magic is gone, another where divine magic is gone, another, both. It's quite flavourful, although somewhat irrelevant since most campaigns aren't unlikel to take place across the different ages.

Deities are in chapter 4. I've always found the divine conflict to be mostly limited to Paladine and Takhisis. The rest of the deities are more like side characters, given how little they affect the narrative compared to the primary two. The gods of neutrality are even more in the background. It's a strange kind of conflict. All the problems on Krynn are directly caused by the deities, but they always end up indirectly resolving the conflicts, through mortals. Makes for great storytelling though, if nothing else.

Chapter 5 presents the continent of Ansalon in detail, but unfortunately not detailed enough. It is divided into regions, but it only presents short overviews, so unless you're very familiar with the setting (or have forgotten much), there's really not much material to go on. Many of the regions end up feeling generic (i.e. “this region was devastated by a dragon overlord”, “trade was severely disrupted”, “the terrain was completely messed up”). One really huge miss was the lack of a world map. Each region presents a regional map (all in different scale), but it's really hard to visualise where they are.

Side note: Neraka means “hell”. The very first time I came across Neraka (before the internet became a common one), I thought it was a coindence. Then I saw Taman Busuk, and I just found it really funny that Weis and Hickman basically just took words from another real world language.

Side side note: One aspect of the worldbuilding in Dragonlance I found to be poor was in names. Peoples and locations in the same region can have different naming styles.

Chapter 6 finally brings up adventuring in Krynn. The default is after all the books are done - basically, all the major wars and magic upheavels have come and gone, and things are finally settling down. It touches on the aftermath of all the wars, and how different regions have changed. The whole continent is kind of “known”, but the wars have left enough ruins and altered landscapes for “typical” adventures to take place.

Chapter 7 presents some of the unique monsters and creatures found on Krynn. Of note are the draconians and the unique types of undead.

Chapter 8 focuses on the dragons themselves. As with the treatment of the standard races, dragons of different colours are narrowed down into stereotypes. But it makes for good reading to see the myriad conflicts on Krynn from a dragon's point of view.

Finally, the final chapter presents gameplay and rules changes to place campaigns during the earlier Ages. It could be fine to adventure alongside heroes of the past, but depending on how one feels, the strength and epicness of the novels could be a hindrance to such adventures. The primary obstacle being the fact that PCs either end up doing side quests and playing side characters to the true heroes, or end up overshadowing or replacing the story heroes.

Overall, the seting is fine. The presentation of the material makes for an easy read. My quips are that in several places, the mechanics don't quite match the flavour, and the artwork is strangely inconsistent (some great pieces, some horrible). There's a decent amount of details and flavour, but some pre-knowledge of Dragonlance is likely necessary to make the any Dragonlance campaign richer.