Help with DragonLance campaign

[finarvyn]

I've been re-reading the DL Chronicles novels -- the original three that launched the setting -- and am thinking about maybe running my group though some adventures. My DL gaming stuff is boxed away at the moment, so I don't have immiediate access to it, so I thought I'd see if folks here have any campaign wisdom for me.

I think I still have the following:
* DL Chronicles trilogy and DL Legends trilogy (novels)
* Hardback "DL Adventures"
* The DL module with a world map (wargame?)
* The SAGA rulebook (for 5th Age)
and not much else.

I haven't looked at this stuff for a long time, so I'm not really certain what I have and what I need. I owned most of the modules at one point, but seem to recall that they were railroad-y and really just followed the novels.

It seems to me that I would really need a few key things:
(1) Stats for main charcters (as PCs or as NPCs)
(2) Stats and maybe pictures for the main monsters (flavors of Draconian)
(3) Game info for key magical items
(4) Basic places of interest and what can be found there

Any good place to find this stuff? I'd prefer to have everything in OD&D terms, but I seem to recall that the original DL was in AD&D so that would be easy to convert.

[Necromancer]

Hmm, I'm probably not the right one for advice concerning this - a friend of mine gave me a bunch of DragonLance books some years ago, but I actually haven't read them yet (beautiful cover artwork by the way). However, I do own a copy of Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home sourcebook, so if you ever find yourself in the need of the recipe for Fizban's fireball chili or the piano arrangement for Lord Soth's Song, you just let me know, finarvyn!

[waysoftheearth]

Hey Fin,

I while back I got hold of some old copies of DL1-4 with the intention of converting them from AD&D to OD&D. Not long after I found myself getting a bit dismayed by the "railroad" nature of the story arc in the originals, so I set them aside as more-or-less "unsuitable" for sandbox-type play.

But there are still some great dungeon locations in the original modules, and some useful campaign ideas.

I guess a lot depends on what kind of outcome you're looking for; there's some good ideas over on this thread.

[finarvyn]

Thanks, Ways. I had totally forgotten about that thread.

[Admin Pete]

Beyond the core books themselves and a few other items, I have not looked at much in the way of AD&D stuff, certainly not the modules. To avoid the railroady nature of the modules is use them as a basis of a campaign as the setting, but instead of following the railroad use them as the jumping off point. Let the players go where they will and they can hear about other stuff happening elsewhere. Let them write their own alternate history.

[finarvyn]

I found a copy of the 15th Anniversary booklet (which contains much of the old module material, dual statted for AD&D and SAGA) on amazon used for $20.

I figure it's better than trying to track down modules at $10 a pop on e-bay.

[Falconer]

Very untrue, Finarvyn. Unfortunately, that 15th Anniversary book is almost completely rewritten and is very, very, VERY abridged compared with the originals. The originals have keyed maps whereas the 15A version is presented in the abstractest possible storytelling style. I don’t recommend it at all.