The DragonLance Campaign Setting: A Review
It is the hope of the DragonLance fanbase. A shining dream come true in the darkest hour of the gaming history of our beloved world of Krynn. Now.... I HAVE that dream, and since I can't share it individually with each and every one of you, I shall review it.
PRESENTATION
The binding of the book is solid, and the cover is of excellent quality. A lot of people may take this for granted, but after all the cheap gaming material I've purchased over the years, I most certainly don't. To me, nothing is quite as annoying as having a great gaming book and then having pages fall out of it. Rest assured, you'll have to rip this bad boy apart- It won't be coming apart on its own. The paper used is of a high gloss quality, which adds to the overall finish and adds to its professional look. I've heard complaints about the font size, but it looks pretty standard to me, its the same size as the print in The Players Handbook, so I doubt it was done as a space saver. One thing to address is the border on each page. It's an inch and a half wide and depicts a long Celtic knot style interweave with a Dragonlance through its middle. Indeed, the border is quite large, but I feel that it adds to the book rather than takes away from it. The book still maintains the typical two columns of text throughout, and the border is not wide enough to fit another column of text, so there was no space saving there, but a nice decorative touch to what otherwise would have been a glaring blank spot. The artwork, in my opinion, is hit and miss. While there are some pieces that are beautifully done, such as the Aurak Draconian, there are also some pieces that are not, like the kender, the illustration of whom will likely give me nightmares for days to come. Throughout the book are small asides, detailing miscelaneous information such as magic items or more detailed explanations on magic. These asides are done in rectagular boxes that typically take up both columns of the page. The interesting thing is that they are green, as are the topic headers throughout the book. This reminded me a lot of the later SAGA material. Whether or not this was done intentionally, it works, and for me it gave it almost an immediate familiarity when I flipped through the pages.
CONTENT
Skimming through the book, I felt like a child, all "Ooh"s and "Aah"s. Now that I've taken the time to read through it, however, I'm much less enchanted. The amount of actual NEW material is slim, most of what is presented is background, which is fine, but unfortunately a lot of us already know about it. There is plenty on the history of Krynn, the different ages, incredible amounts of information on locations, very in depth details on the Gods themselves, and tons about the different orders unique to Krynn, such as the Knights (both of Solomnia and of Neraka) and the Orders of High Sorcery. Again, however, the majority of what was presented was material already known to us, repackaged and represented in a more cohesive format. While this is not what I would consider a bad thing, it is a bit dull for those of us who already have a fairly extensive knowledge of Krynn and its history. I would also like to mention the fact that while Taladas is mention a few times, its only briefly, and there is next to no actual material on the larger continent or its people. This IS unfortunate, as quite a few people have shown a good deal of interest in Taladas, and I personally feel that it is quite overlooked. The asides that appear throughout the book are quite interesting, most of them remain topical, however a few seem strangely out of place.
GAMING MATERIAL
The amount of actual gaming material is surprisingly sparse. In most cases, such as in the main classes and nearly all of the races, DLCS simply refers you to the appropriate class or race in the Players Handbook and tells you to make one or two minor stat changes. The Feats section has a few interesting tidbits, such as Honor Bound, but the rest are generally rather humdrum in nature. I was REALLY looking forward to the inclusion of Racial Feats, and the DLCS has some interesting entries to offer in this category- but only if you're a Draconian. There are four Draconian only Racial Feats, One usable only by Minotaurs and Half-Ogres, and that's it. Most of the DLCS's gaming material comes in the form of the Prestige Classes. These bad boys will either make you scream in rapturous joy or utter confusion. The Knights especially have been loaded up with class abilities of all shapes and sizes, and playing one promises to at once be both an adventure and a chore. Being a knight has some monsterous advantages in gameplay, however the rigid system which you must maintain in order to KEEP those precious powers will make many players give serious second thoughts as to whether or not they should mess with the nighthood at all. I personally don't care much for the Legendary Tactician, I have never really played many campaigns where large forces were involved in battle. Exquisite work is done however through the Noble, Inquisitor, and Righteous Zealot classes. The Noble class especially lends itself to be very character driven, something that is abhorrently lacking in most gaming material in print today. The new spells are average, with one or two sticking out. All in all, the material is slightly above average, with just enough "quirky" additions to keep your interest.
OVERALL
The DLCS has been a long time in coming. It is without a shadow of a doubt a Holy Grail to DragonLance gamers everywhere, and regardless what anyone says, it WILL sell. Then again, who am I to even attempt to stop it? The book ties a lot of unanswered questions together, provides an unbelievably deep resource of background information, a handful of interesting new details and ideas, and just for the fun of it, provides just a wee bit of fresh air to the gaming materials itself. The book was OBVIOUSLY not meant to be a simple stand alone product although it can be used as such, but as the first in a line of gaming products. I fully expect handbooks on all the races, lands, and classes to follow suite, offering the in depth look into these seperate facets that the DLCS will undoubtedly leave you begging for. If any of these things sound appealing to you, and they definately SHOULD, then I suggest a purchase, and if you plan on gaming in Krynn any time soon, I'm flat out TELLING you to.
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