What is Dragonlance? | DragonLance Saga

Discover what the world of the Dragonlance Saga is all about, where it came from, who created it and why. If you have any comments or corrections, please add them to the comments below.

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Transcript
We all know and love Dragonlance, but where did it come from? Who created it and why?

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and I am going to attempt to explain what Dragonlance is. Though I am drawing my information from interviews, printed histories and trade publications, I am not Astinus, and I may accidentally overlook some information or misspeak. If you find any information lacking or quite simply incorrect, please leave a comment below and I will make corrections in the description of the video.

Now Let's get into it. Dragonlance has inspired readers and gamers for decades, but what is it exactly, where did it come from, and who created it?

Dragonlance is a high fantasy, or epic fantasy Advanced Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. It was originally conceptualized by husband and wife Tracy and Laura Hickman respectively on a road trip to TSR Inc.. You see, TSR had measurable success with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, an evolution of the Original and Basic Dungeons & Dragons games, but was looking to create ‘the next big thing!’

It turns out that with the help of Margaret Weiss, a writer and editor at TSR, Tracy Hickman was going to deliver them a media smashing, fundamental shift in role-playing which was to deliver the promise of the game system, which was admittedly lacking in the modules released thus far… with both Dragons and Story! It was code named Project Overlord.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons up until then was primarily a dungeon crawling, hack and slash game. Sure players assumed the roles of their characters but it was up to the individual Dungeon Masters to infuse story into the games, and if they were running modules, well it was presented at a bare minimum.

In 1984, Tracy Hickman designed a marketing campaign around this new intellectual property, Dragonlance, including teaser ads in Dragon Magazine, a game module, with the promise of eleven more, one for each color of dragon, a novel co-written by Margaret Weiss, which grew to over 100 novels in the setting by multiple authors, that would be used to introduce the campaign world to players and draw in other potential players to the system, mini lead figurines of the heroes featured in the module and novels for use in gameplay or display, and a calendar to feature the brilliant artwork of TSR’s talented artists Larry D. Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson, and Jeff Easley.

This media campaign fired on all cylinders and coupled with the amazing writing and imagery it was easy for players to get swept up and lost in the world of Krynn. But it wasn’t all about the media campaign, it brought dragons, great and terrible to players, and even rewrote some fundamental game rules and conventions.

Dragonlance focused on telling an epic and engaging story about the War of the Lance, a story as deep, rich and compelling as Middle Earth’s Lord of the Rings and Star Wars’ Galactic Civil War. It featured ancient histories, an elaborate pantheon of deities, exciting villains, inspiring and complex heroes, engaging adventure and sordid romance! Through it all it told a tale of the difficulty and consequences of choices made, staying true to one's moral codes, love and friendship against a backdrop of war, as Margaret Weiss puts it.

Dragonlance ended up being a promise of high adventure spanning five ages, alternate game editions a near endless supply of novels, source materials, and years of player excitement and fandom.

So what do you think about Dragonlance? Do you have some inside knowledge to expound on the campaign, or did I make any mistakes you would like to see corrected? Leave a comment below, subscribe to the channel and like this video.

This channel is all about celebrating the wonderful world of the Dragonlance Saga, and I hope you will join me in the celebration. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:

"No human in full possession of his sanity, who wanted to keep a firm hold on such sanity, would ever willingly associate with a kender."

[DLSaga]

Thank you for watching my What is Dragonlance? video. Let me know what you love about Dragonlance below!

[freakbiker]

I should add, this definitely needs a movie adaption like LOTR got. There is so much material it could literally start a DLCU (DragonLance Cinematic Universe)

[librapaladin]

Hello from a (nearly) life-long 'DragonLance' fan and a new subscriber. Thank you for creating this channel!

[tcslusher]

I had dinner with Larry Elmore at a convention when i was talking to a guy from 10ton hammer. He was introduced to me and i said "THE" Larry Elmore?! I was star struck to say the least, but he did recount a story about one of the paintings he did for the Tales Trilogy, in which i believe said he had a stroke, and still painted the painting in 3 weeks, was a great night and one of my favorite memories.

[freakbiker]

Loved these books as a kid, still have them packed away. My favorite of course was our friendly Kender that would gladly hold anything you might happen to drop. But I was also captivated by Raistlin and his story

[matthewdean]

Not just the channel I always wanted...its the channel I always read Chronicles in 1988 at 15 and have been all in ever

[JAFG_]

This is beautiful. I played back then in the 80's rhe DL campaign as a player. I was lucky to have an awesome DM. Since there where so many characters some of us had to play two characters. And I had the pleasure to play both Goldmoon and Raistlin. Not easy to honor them both as good as possible. I wish I had this rendition of the song back then. Thank You!

[rjhisle]

I first discovered DL back in the 80's starting with the novels then later the AD&D game version. It was my favorite game world.

Keep up the good work.

[flexorlamonticus]

I like how you summed it up. I once heard someone say the main element of Dragonlance that separates it from other D&D worlds is that there is always an epic battle happening. My own personal opinion is, the main feature of Dragonlance that makes it unique is its factions / races and their individual rules, lore, and history. The Towers of High Sorcery, the Solamnic Knights, the Dragon Armies, the Kender, the Elf factions, etc. etc.

[MrNicster]

It is a crime if this is never, properly, cinematized. It litterally has EVERYTHING!!

[cryingdemon]

Dragonlance chronicles was one of my earliest introductions to high fantasy, and remains the measuring stick for every fantasy book i read today.

[Joutja]

Dragonlance is something that I've always known about but for some reason never got around to actually starting with it. I'm excited to finally giving myself the kick and diving into the world.

[MaybeeT]

I remember liking the cover for "The legend of Huma" in the bookstore. 25 years later it's still my all time favorite book and you sir just gained a subscriber

[Gruntvc]

I'm not into Fantasy that much nor do I play tabletop games, but I ended up getting into and enjoying many Dragonlance novels during the early 2000s. I liked The Legend of Huma in particular lol.

Great video. 👍

[drewstar]

The first set of fantasy books I ever read over 25 years ago. Amazing world, amazing trilogies just simply amazing!

[TheRealClaylex]

Friend wants to run a Dragonlance campaign so I'm watching/reading all I can to get into it!

[alamo]

I loved Dragonlance when I first discovered it years ago.
Legend of Huma was the first book I read.
I wish I still had all my novels

[heathmcrigsby]

Mid 90s dragonlance reading in high school was good times

[fabioriccardo]

Finally a channel about DL.. DL is my second favorite fantasy saga (first being LOTR so can't beat it).. Hope to find lots of videos about all the novels..

[TrickyMcnickle]

First novel I ever read as a teenageer was Dragons of Autumn Twighlight. My love for Dragonlance assured at that point.