The Heroes of the Lance

The first question is, does this involve the heroes of the adventure and novels, or can we bring our own characters to the table?

I think that there's something to using pre-generated characters. The relationships and range of attitudes between the heroes are key in the feel of romance and heroism in the Dragonlance setting. So, how easy will it be to convert them from second to fifth?

The Heroes of the Lance, mechanically, are a homogeneous lot by design. Magic-users are rare on Krynn. Of the eleven pre-generated characters, 7 (Tanis, Caramon, Flint, Sturm, Riverwind, Tika, Laurana) are fighters, 3 (Raistlin, Gilthanas, Goldmoon) are magic users, 1 (Tas) is a thief. Gilthanas is clearly designed to be a fighter rather than a magic user, and Tika has some minor thief skills. So the intent: 8 fighters, 1 thief, 1 mage and 1 cleric. To be honest, given the races of the team, I suspect this was created for first edition (wikipedia says this is true).

However, this makes for an uninteresting selection for players, especially those who are interested in being unique in both mechanics and personality. So how do I increase the interest, maintain some of the uniqueness of the characters, without compromising the rareness of magic in the world?

Rules:

1. Arcane magic users casting spells greater than a cantrip, must be a member of the Tower of High Sorcery.
2. There are no divine magic users at the beginning of the story, not even Goldmoon
3. Half- or quarter- casters
1. Effects need to be explained through non-magical means or
2. The Tower of High Sorcery will seek the character out as a renegade and this must be stated outright on the character sheet.

How to achieve this:

1. Tanis becomes a Half-Elven Revised Ranger (Monster Slayer) with the Outlander background, and Riverwind becomes a Variant Human Revised Ranger (Hunter) with the Sharpshooter feat and a custom Hunter background. Their spells will be chosen to be explained non-magically.
2. Caramon becomes a Variant Human Barbarian (Berserker) with the Charger feat and a custom Mercenary background. As the tank of the group, I felt he was the only good match for Barbarian, and I want variety.
3. Flint remains a Hill Dwarf Fighter (Champion) with a Guild Artisan background and Sturm becomes a Human Fighter (Cavalier) with the Knight background. Sturm was almost a Paladin, but I felt like he never actually makes that leap in the books.
4. Gilthanas becomes a High Elf Fighter (Arcane Archer) with a custom Elven Prince background. I chose Arcane Archer over Eldritch Knight because it gives the flavour of his 1e multiclass, but feels more 'Elven' to me, and suits his 'dabbler' approach to magic.
5. Laurana becomes a High Elf Monk (Kensai) with a custom Elven Princess background, because I felt that 'spoilt princess' wasn't compatible with strength based fighter, but dex-based weapon monk makes perfect sense for the Golden General.
6. Raistlin becomes a Variant Human Wizard (Enchanter) with the War Caster feat and a custom Order of Nuitari background.
7. Goldmoon becomes a Variant Human Cleric (Life Domain) with the Inspiring Leader feat and a custom Chieftan's Daughter background. She will receive no magical powers until she locates the Disks of Mishakal.
8. Tika becomes a Variant Human Rogue (Thief) with the Tavern Brawler feat and the Urchin background, as the 5e Rogue is a competent combatant.
9. Tasslehoff requires a new Halfling subrace, a new weapon, and becomes a Rogue (Swashbuckler), largely because it suits his combat style, with a custom Handler background.

Most of these characters were fifth level or above in the original text. I always prefer to start at Level 1, however, given the immediate backstory is 'we travelled for five years then the adventure starts', I think a good compromise would be to start at third level.

I like to use Emmet Byrne's Class Character Sheets, which aren't perfect, but are close. We might discuss each character separately as I complete them, and I hope Emmet doesn't mind if I make flattened (and hence unusable except for this campaign) versions available to you all as I do.

An Introduction, or Why Do This?

When I was in primary school, I lived in country Australia, a forty minute drive from the nearest kid my age, and went to school in a class of six, four of which lacked imagination.

I bought way too many of the second edition AD&D books, and spent a lot of time having lonely fun with the systems there, but never had a soul to play the game with. When I was around 9, in a table book sale on the street, I came across the Tales of the Lance boxed set, and I fell in love with Dragonlance. But I never played the adventures.

Twenty years later I rediscovered role-playing, at first through Fiasco and Apocalypse World, and then through D&D 5E and Edge of the Empire. I became a Dungeon Master.

I realised this week that every single Dragonlance product is available on the DMs Guild. So I grabbed a copy of Dragonlance Classics, and realised, horrified, that the players are allowed almost no agency. It reads as a choose-your-own adventure book. That's not my style. I am a lazy Dungeon Master.

But the story is so close to my heart, and I would like to try, so I'm going to attempt to render the War of the Lance into an adventure that I would actually run at my table. I want to capture the spirit if I can of Dragonlance, the romance and camaraderie, the sense of scale and heroism, but I will diverge from the material, in order to make the adventure better suited to the D&D 5th Edition rules and to make the material as exciting and fun to be a part of as I can.

And once I've developed a resource - a DM Binder - I will have to find a group to play it with, as my current group is dwindling as they become time-poor and child-rich. The original story has some forty chapters, and I'd expect this to be similar.

If I do find a group, I'll keep a campaign diary here.

In summary, the thesis of this blog is:

1. To develop a resource to run the War of the Lance in a way that encourages player agency.
2. To publish it here, and give full credit to all the resources I used to assist me.
3. To keep a campaign diary to record how it goes.
4. To reflect on the process on the way.

Wish me luck!