This is old news, but I think I should at the very least mention it here since I think it is a significant move by Wizards of the Coast.
I think there are three key take awas from this announcement:
A classic setting is receiving an update. This could mean that we will see other updates, for instance the Mystara setting deserves an update.
Luke Gygax will be involved. The Gygax name is holy among people my age. Given the history of TSR and Gary Gygax I think this is a small step towards making things right. And to be honest, Luke Gygax seems like a really cool guy and having someone like him involved in Greyhawk going forward would be really good for everyone.
Wizards acknowledged that D&D lost its way. For a long time now, the material relases has been lackluster. Unimaginative rehashing of old material does not make something creative or exciting. Coupled with a lack of respect for the source material – you know where I am going with this.
I hope to see the setting moving forward based on the source material in a fun way. Maybe we can finally find out why Rary decided to attack the Circle of Eight.
For a while now, I have been wanting to write a blog post about how one could move Dragonlance forward in the timeline, without destroying what came before. I think the Greyhawk community did a pretty good job of doing this on their own, after the setting was abandoned by Wizards of the Coast, however, the Dragonlance community has not really done the same thing. Truth be told, I wonder if there really is a Dragonlance gaming community around?
The starting point should be the end of the Dark Disciple trilogy, as that was the last published work on Dragonlance that moved the setting forward. Obviously Dragonlance Destinies opened the possibility of a different timeline, one in which Chaos is never released, but let’s not assume it will have an impact on any future releases.
So, if we stick to the published work, there are several constraints we need to consider:
Takhisis and Paladine are dead.
The other gods are back
The elves have been driven from their homelands and now reside in the valley of The Blue Phoenix.
High Sorcery is being rebuilt
Sorceres and mystics excist
There are still a few Dragon Overlords around
The minotaurs have conquered Silvanesti
Lord Golgren is trying to rebuild the ogre nations with one hand
The Tower of Palanthas is now located in Nightlund
Lord Soth has left the building
The knights of Takhisis/Neraka are still around to some extent
Mystics and sorcerers are around
Mina excists now
There has been a tendency to build the storyline around grand wars, so maybe the future should take a different turn, and make the storyline more focused on rebuilding the world. However, this could sow the seeds for new conflicts. Conflicts that start small with the potential to develop into something much bigger.
Maybe the future conflicts are less about what the gods want, and more about what the peoples of Krynn want? Here’s a list of random ideas that could be developed:
Lord Golgren wants to expand Ogre culture and Ogre territory and decide to attack the minotaurs in Silvanesti.
The Knights of Neraka try to re-establish a powerbase in the valley of Neraka but must be covert.
The Wizards of High Sorcery attempt to secure the Tower of Knightlund but seeking to appoint a new master of the tower.
The elves create a new homeland in the valley The Blue Phoenix but plan to go back to Qualinesti and re-establish that kingdom.
Since the minotaurs have invaded Silvanesti, maybe they are vulnerable to attacks at home.
Tarsis is being rebuilt. After the forest of Qualinesti has expanded Tarsis has a new opportunity to rekindle its economic future. Maybe there are various factions in the city vying for control of tis future. And let’s not forget about the library of Khrystan.
I believe there are many more ideas that could be explored here, but these are just some of the ones I have been toying with. There could be many great campaigns still to be had in Krynn all one needs to do is to dream a little and come up with some good ideas.
In an attempt to rid myself of all the social media brain rot, I have decided to contiue my reading routine. However, since I am getting older, and I have read pretty much all the D&D novels, I figured it is time to diversify a bit. I am going back to my academic roots, so this year I plan to read more non-fiction. Actually, I haven’t read non-fiction since grad school, so actually I will start reading non-fiction again.
Obviously, I will buy Dragonlance Legacies when it is published, but I expect that it will reach European shores this summer, so hopefully I can finish these three before that.
In addition to these books, I am rebuilding my Blureberry collection, so I will get my grubby hands on the rest this year too.
I guess the algorithm actually works for me for once. Since I was looking at the new HOMM game, I have stumbled across a bunch of Youtube channels that have made an AI generated real life version of aspects of the game.
Yeah, it’s AI generated, which I am not sure how I feel about, but the results are stunning. The amount of work the creator has put in to this is impressive. I have put one of the snippets in this post, but if you are into Heroes of Might and Magic 3, I can highly recommend this channel.
The blog has been laying low for quite a while now. Things in the real world have required my energy, or rather, I have focused on other things.
The dark months have hit the northern hemisphere, and will only get worse for the next three months, so hopefully I can get more stuff on the blog. It seems like the winter thing to do.
Lately, I have been less in Dragolance than usual. Probably because I feel the urge to spend my cognitive energy on something new as opposed to rehashing already known stuff. Despite this, I did manage do start a couple of writing projects that are based on Dragonlance.
I have been working on Tarsis write up, to be used post War of the Lance, as well as a piece called Dark Citadel: The Legacy of Fistandantilus. The idea is to take some of the older elements of the setting, and making them usable again, but with a twist.
The Fistandantilus piece lets the players research the Dark One’s background while exploring some of his old lairs including Skullcap. I was inspired by Castle Greyhawk in the sense that it is possible to explore the dwellings of a long lost wizard, essentially asking the question “What did he leave behind”?.
As always, I am far from done, and I will most likely never finish any of these projects, but hopefully the work will turn into a couple og mildy interesting blog posts that someone out there might find useful.
In my younger days, I was an avid comic book reader. I had a subscription to Marvel, as well as a comicbook called Trumf. Not affiliated with the orange terror who will destroy the world.
Anyway, when I got married I made the unforgivable mistake of throwing those things out. Can you imagine my horror all these years later. However, since I am not longer a poor student, I have been rebuilding over the past three years or so.
I am no longer a Marvel fan, so I don’t purchase any of those comics. I am a big fan of the French and Belgian comic books like Asterix and Blueberry. My Asterix collection is now complete, although I should probably replace the more worn out ones. Therefore, I have turned my attention towards Blueberry.
These comics are works of pure art. Coincidentially, they were one of the reasons why, as a kid, got so into the american history and culture, which later brought me there as a graduate student.
My local book pusher sells these collections of three comics, making it super easy to collection the entire series. They didn’t have the first set, but it turns out that the second one contains my absolute favorite comic, so who can complain.
I have been sick more or less since late October. This means that I haven’t been able to run like I wanted to, but I have had the ability to go for some nice walks around where I live.
Climate change has meant that we don’t get the same winters around here, like we used to. This means that whenever we do get snow, I have to go for a long walk and enjoy what could be the last snow I will ever experience.
Yesterday we got some snow. Not a lot, but enough to merit a nice walk. I took some photos to preserve the memory.
