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this post brought to you by Dragon #102
Apr. 18th, 2011 01:40 pmBut you're a major dweeb who wants to play Ravenloft or Dark Sun. You've even thought about using 4e to do wuxia themed games. Is there any D&D setting you don't like?
Why, yes. Dragonlance. Like pretty much everyone else who played AD&D in the 80s, I was hypnotized by the sheer beauty of the giant Xak Tsaroth map. And I remember really being fascinated with the other continent on Krynn - the one with the gnome fanatics, shark cults, and quasi-Roman minotaur empire. I still want to have a shark cult show up in a game.
There were some things about Dragonlance which kindasorta bugged me. I couldn't get why the most beautiful Plainswoman was a blond instead of having flowing black hair, prominent cheekbones, and brown skin. I didn't get why anyone who appeared to have an IQ over 90 was either evil (Raistlin, Kitiara) or died (though honestly, Sturm was the character I admired, and that's part of it) while somehow I was supposed to root for Caramon and Tika. The bad guys were the standard ugly people with diverse hobbies like kicking puppies, drooling, and laughing maniacally, but hey, it's D&D, I can dig it. I was and still am ambivalent about the kender. They were a nice change from the standard portrayal of halflings at the time, and presaged D&D milspec halflings, but it's hard to figure out the exact mix of childish innocence versus wanderer's pragmatism needed to have kender show up as believable people, rather than as comic relief...
... and that gets us to why I dislike Dragonlance. Everyone's comic relief. Oh look, it's a dwarf, he's cranky and somewhat bombastic, isn't that funny? So is the way kender filch everything because they just can't get the idea that not everyone does communal property. Now we're going to see the gully dwarves, who are this downtrodden oppressed race, but by the way they're the funny comic relief with funny names who talk about themselves in the third person. But wait, now we can cross the sea to talk to the gnomes, who are even funnier little people who invent things, only it's all rubbish. And while you're doing that, you run into the machinations of the ultimate god of good, who of course appears as a funny comic relief little old man.
Comic relief is to Dragonlance the way elf poetry is to Lord of the Rings (at least Tolkien's need to describe the every bit of scenery the Fellowship camps in for two hours, evokes a sense of wonder). It's no wonder Takhisis thoroughly loathes the side of good and light, they aren't even a fraction as funny as Tracy Hickman seems to think they are.
Why, yes. Dragonlance. Like pretty much everyone else who played AD&D in the 80s, I was hypnotized by the sheer beauty of the giant Xak Tsaroth map. And I remember really being fascinated with the other continent on Krynn - the one with the gnome fanatics, shark cults, and quasi-Roman minotaur empire. I still want to have a shark cult show up in a game.
There were some things about Dragonlance which kindasorta bugged me. I couldn't get why the most beautiful Plainswoman was a blond instead of having flowing black hair, prominent cheekbones, and brown skin. I didn't get why anyone who appeared to have an IQ over 90 was either evil (Raistlin, Kitiara) or died (though honestly, Sturm was the character I admired, and that's part of it) while somehow I was supposed to root for Caramon and Tika. The bad guys were the standard ugly people with diverse hobbies like kicking puppies, drooling, and laughing maniacally, but hey, it's D&D, I can dig it. I was and still am ambivalent about the kender. They were a nice change from the standard portrayal of halflings at the time, and presaged D&D milspec halflings, but it's hard to figure out the exact mix of childish innocence versus wanderer's pragmatism needed to have kender show up as believable people, rather than as comic relief...
... and that gets us to why I dislike Dragonlance. Everyone's comic relief. Oh look, it's a dwarf, he's cranky and somewhat bombastic, isn't that funny? So is the way kender filch everything because they just can't get the idea that not everyone does communal property. Now we're going to see the gully dwarves, who are this downtrodden oppressed race, but by the way they're the funny comic relief with funny names who talk about themselves in the third person. But wait, now we can cross the sea to talk to the gnomes, who are even funnier little people who invent things, only it's all rubbish. And while you're doing that, you run into the machinations of the ultimate god of good, who of course appears as a funny comic relief little old man.
Comic relief is to Dragonlance the way elf poetry is to Lord of the Rings (at least Tolkien's need to describe the every bit of scenery the Fellowship camps in for two hours, evokes a sense of wonder). It's no wonder Takhisis thoroughly loathes the side of good and light, they aren't even a fraction as funny as Tracy Hickman seems to think they are.