 Cover to Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign | |
| Genre | Role-playing games |
|---|---|
| Publisher | TSR |
Publication date | 1993 |
Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published in 1993.
Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign illustrates key concepts in the Dragonlance setting with original fiction, essays, graphics, and sidebars, and does not include game mechanics, character stats, and role-playing game jargon. [1] The Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign includes a large selection of maps and portraits. Focusing on the continent of Ansalon, where most Dragonlance campaigns take place, the first half of the book comprises a guided tour of major locations, using first-person narratives. The tale of a seafaring Kagonesti elf, for example, sets up an overview of the empire of Ergoth. An encounter with a pirate ship leads into a look at the dwarven land of Kayolin. Each entry features concise but informative sections on culture, climate, and trade. The book also introduces a gallery of personalities, among them the undead Lord Soth and Sivart of the Kagonesti. The second half of the book contains less fiction but more history, which emphasizes gully dwarves, tinker gnomes, and other Ansalon races. [1]
Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game supplement published as a 128-page softcover book by TSR, Inc. The source material was by David "Zeb" Cook, Michael Dobson, Jeff Grubb, Tracy Hickman, Harold Johnson, Douglas Niles, and Margaret Weis, with compilation, editing, and original material by Jonatha Ariadne Caspian. Illustrations are by Denis Beauvais, Jeff Butler, Clyde Caldwell, Larry Elmore, Stephen Fabian, Keith Parkinson, Robin Raab, and Valerie Valusek. [1]
Rick Swan reviewed the Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign for Dragon magazine #210 (October 1994). [1] Having also reviewed the Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign in the same column, he declares: "For the hapless souls intimidated by the sprawl of Dragonlance (and the equally imposing Forgotten Realms setting) TSR comes to the rescue with these two Player's Guides. While the content is familiar—old hat, in fact, to veteran AD&D game players—the format is brand-new. Gone are [...] everything that makes novices feel like they've wandered into a foreign country. Instead of using rules, the books illustrate key concepts with original fiction, as whimsical as fairy tales and a treat to read." [1] Swan called the Player's Guide to the Dragonlance Campaign "the better of the two", explaining that it "boasts crisp writing and a generous selection of maps and portraits". [1] He also felt that "Lucid explanations make this a good resource as well as a good read. Take, for instance, the Knights of Solamnia, an order of chivalrous warriors who fell out of favor prior to the War of the Lance. The responsibilities and membership requirements of the knights have been discussed in umpteen previous supplements [...] But for the novice, the game lingo in the earlier books made life difficult; it's hard to get a handle on the ethos of a Knight of the Rose when you're still struggling with proficiency bonuses. The Player's Guide, however, provides clutter-free summaries. A novice who doesn't know a proficiency bonus from a ping-pong ball will come away with a clear understanding of the Rose Knights' commitment to justice and how it relates to the legacy of Huma Dragonbane." [1] Swan did have a few complaints: "By downplaying the conflict between good and evil that forms the backbone of the Dragonlance mythos, the book fails to capture the epic scope of the early novels. [...] Familiar characters, such as Flint Fireforge and Sturm Brightblade, receive only single-paragraph biographies. For those interested in using Ansalon as a campaign setting, it would've been nice to suggest which supplements they need. [1] Swan concluded his review by saying: "Make no mistake. These books are intended as introductions, providing broad overviews for beginners. Serious players who want serious answers can skip the Player's Guides and go right to the Tales of the Lance boxed set (for the Dragonlance setting) and the revised in 1993 edition Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting set. But if you’re not ready for the big time, or if you're more curious than committed, try the Player's Guides first." [1]
Forgotten Realms is a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. Commonly referred to by players and game designers alike as "The Realms", it was created by game designer Ed Greenwood around 1967 as a setting for his childhood stories. Several years later, Greenwood brought the setting to publication for the D&D game as a series of magazine articles, and the first Realms game products were released in 1987. Role-playing game products have been produced for the setting ever since, as have various licensed products including novels, role-playing video game adaptations, comic books, and an upcoming film.
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job interview. Tracy Hickman met his future writing partner Margaret Weis at TSR, and they gathered a group of associates to play the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventures during that game inspired a series of gaming modules, a series of novels, licensed products such as board games, and lead miniature figures.
Ed Greenwood is a Canadian fantasy writer and the original creator of the Forgotten Realms game world. He began writing articles about the Forgotten Realms for Dragon magazine beginning in 1979, and subsequently sold the rights to the setting to TSR, the creators of the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, in 1986. He has written many Forgotten Realms novels, as well as numerous articles and D&D game supplement books.
The Monstrous Compendium is a series of accessories for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game released from 1989 to 1998. The title was then used for a series of 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons supplements released on D&D Beyond.
Jeff Grubb is an author who writes novels, short stories, and comics and a computer and role-playing game designer in the fantasy genre. Grubb worked on the Dragonlance campaign setting under Tracy Hickman, and the Forgotten Realms setting with Ed Greenwood. His written works include The Finder's Stone Trilogy, the Spelljammer and Jakandor campaign settings, and contributions to Dragonlance and the computer game Guild Wars Nightfall (2006).
Kender are a type of fantasy race first developed for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role playing game published by TSR, Inc. in 1984. The first kender character was created by Harold Johnson as a player character in a series of role-playing adventures co-authored by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance shared world novels introduced the kender to readers and players alike, largely through the character Tasslehoff Burrfoot, who became one of the main protagonists in the series.
Dragonlance Adventures is a 128-page hardcover book for the Dragonlance campaign setting for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
The Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting is a role-playing game sourcebook first published by TSR in 1987 for the first edition of the fantasy role-playing game Advanced Dungeons & Dragons that describes the campaign setting of the Forgotten Realms. It contains information on characters, locations and history. Various revised and updated editions have been produced over the years.
Krynnspace is a supplement published by TSR in 1993 for the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons that is a crossover between the Spelljammer and Dragonlance campaign settings.
Douglas Niles is a fantasy author and game designer. Niles was one of the creators of the Dragonlance world and the author of the first three Forgotten Realms novels, the Star Frontiers space opera setting and the Top Secret S/I espionage role-playing game.
A dwarf, in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game, is a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for player characters. The idea for the D&D dwarf comes from the dwarves of European mythologies and J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954-1955), and has been used in D&D and its predecessor Chainmail since the early 1970s. Variations from the standard dwarf archetype of a short and stout demihuman are commonly called subraces, of which there are more than a dozen across many different rule sets and campaign settings.
The elf is a humanoid race in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, one of the primary races available for player characters, and play a central role in the narratives of many setting worlds of the game. Elves are renowned for their grace and mastery of magic and weapons such as the bow and sword. Becoming physically mature by the age of 25 and emotionally mature at around 125, they are also famously long-lived, capable of living more than half a millennium and remaining physically youthful. Possessed of innate beauty and easy gracefulness, they are viewed as both wondrous and haughty by other races; however, their natural detachment is seen by some as introversion or xenophobia. They were usually antagonistic towards dwarves.
The DL series is a series of adventures and some supplementary material for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. These modules along with the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy of novels, which follow one possible adventure series through the modules, were the first published items that established the Dragonlance fictional universe. The original DL series was released from 1984 to 1986, with the final two modules added to it in 1988. In the 1990s these roleplaying adventures from the original series were collected and revised for 2nd Edition AD&D as the three DLC Dragonlance Classics modules. There were also versions of the module series released in 1999, 2000 and 2006.
Dragons of Mystery is a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook published in 1984 as part of a series of modules for the Dragonlance (DL) campaign setting. It is the fifth of fourteen Dragonlance modules published by TSR between 1984 and 1986. Its cover features a painting by Larry Elmore of the characters Tanis Half-Elven, Laurana Kanan, Tasslehoff Burrfoot, and Tika Waylan standing in front of a dragon highlord and a blue dragon. The sourcebook received middling reviews from White Dwarf magazine.
Heroes' Lorebook is an accessory for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting for the second edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Time of the Dragon is an accessory for the Dragonlance campaign setting of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.
Tales of the Lance is a boxed set issued by TSR for Dragonlance. It includes maps, source books, and player stat cards for various non-player characters (NPCs).
Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms Campaign is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.