On a whim I decided to reread the Dragonlance Chronicles, starting with Dragons of Autumn Twilight, after buying the trilogy for less than $5 at a local bookstore. Over the years I have shied away from rereading books I originally read as a preteen or teen. I worried they would not hold up, especially after reading the Game of Thrones series at least three times. But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The read has been fast. While it is not the best series ever, it was not horrible.
As I write this post I am already onto Dragons of Winter Night and despite knowing the story I am pleased with it. Returning to Dragonlance is the first fantasy I have read (or reread) in at least five years. The closest I had come before this was reading the entire Camulod Chronicles (also known as Dream of Eagles outside the US) by Jack Whyte. I have never been a rabid fan of Dragonlance, but I am certainly not all butt hurt like certain folks on a thirty year jihad of “Dragonlance ruined AD&D!” It was an interesting concept: novels that spawned a series of modules, nothing more.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight was a quick read. I found myself getting immersed in the story and enjoying how fast the chapters went by (time is a premium for me these days). At only 441 pages it was a snap to blast through. Epic fantasy is also something I have not read in a while, so it was a nice change of pace. The authors Weiss and Hickman did a good job of moving the pace of the story along. One thing that struck me this time around is that a number of the characters come across as whiny, particularly Flint and sometimes Tanis. I also cringed when I thought I would dislike Tasslehoff, but I did not find him too irritating. Sturm is a bit of a downer (yes, being a dour knight and all), and Raistlin I found just right, squaring him with my memories (see below).
I am also finding an odd sympathy for Gilthanas, perhaps knowing what is coming. Maybe this is not surprising as my all time favorite character class is fighter/mage (or in 1st edition parlance, fighter/magic user).
Back in the day my gaming group and I read the Chronicles (most of us grabbing the same copy from the public library), but I do not recall any of us rigidly adhering to the books when playing the modules except for maybe Jim wanting to role play the death of Sturm (also see below). I also do not recall if we got that far.
When we played Dragonlance back in 8th/9th grade we only played a few of the modules. One distinct memory I have is of arriving later than everyone else at Jeff’s house, descending to the basement where we were playing, and seeing everyone with a grin on their face. I also remember why I was late and why they were all grinning. First, I had a football game and rushed over afterward, so it would have been the fall. In fact I still had my lower football pads and pants on. I am sure I must have smelled great (gully dwarf?). Second, the reason they were grinning: As I was last to arrive everyone else had already picked their characters. Back then the group was slightly larger than the core of Jeff, Dave, Daryl, Jim, Christian, Tom, Mike, and I. So guess who I end up with by random chance? Raistlin. At first I was not happy, but in fact he was quite fun to play. It was fun to play a sarcastic, scathing mage with a big fighter (Caramon) to stick up for him. Dave may have been playing Tasslehoff and Jim was probably playing Sturm.
After that I cannot quite recall. This also may have been the second time they played through it as I recall. This is a bit murky as they played together as a group when they were kids, at least 5 to 7 years before I joined them.
So there you have it. To reiterate I am not a huge Dragonlance fan per se. It was fun to play, and my personal demarcation line stops right at Dragons of Summer Flame (which is another story altogether). A few Dragonlance ideas have made their appearance in my games and overall I like the concept of the world. As an aside, draconians are a good bad guy, especially when orcs are overdone.
A few years later we returned to Dragonlance for a few all night games at Jeff’s where I played a dwarven paladin of Paladine named Duncan Steelmountain wielding a magical battle axe called "Gutripper" (I still have the character). Dave played a minotaur and Daryl played a human magic user. This is also interspersed with us watching Hellraiser those evenings. Unfortunately there are no notes listing the other player character names. This would have been one of our last 1st edition games right before we switched to 2nd edition.
(Edit: I found the character’s “back story” (and it is horribly written by me) but it does contain most of the names of the player characters from this second Dragonlance campaign. The roster is as follows:)
- Me (Mark): Duncan Steelmountain, mountain dwarf paladin of Paladine (mountain dwarves may be paladins in the Dragonlance Adventure book)
- Dave: Tolon (or perhaps Tolor), a minotaur fighter
- Jim: Zachariah Stormgren, aspirant to the Knights of Solamnia
- Daryl: Siward, a human magic user (no mention of which robe color)
- Unknown player: a kender handler named Gidenan
There you have it. I am reading Dragons of Winter Night now. At 399 pages it should be a snap to read. Light, fast reads these days fit my busy life and these are certainly that.
