Dragonlance Campaign Setting

Rating:
Summary: Great!
Review: Been looking for a book as fufilling for Dragonlance rpg as this for a long time. Way to go! From aerial combat rules, to the many dragonalcne specific races and Prestige Classess, love it.

Rating:
Summary: It's about time!
Review: Finally! An updated campaign setting for the Dragonlance world. While this book does live up to expectations, it's not quite perfect. The organization of the book comes across as somewhat sporadic, and the information within isn't as detailed as, say, the Forgottem Realms campaign setting book.

With several source books already planned for release soon, I believe the Dragonlance setting will become even more popular. If you're a fan of Dragonlance, and not necessarily a gamer, I highly suggest picking up this book.

Rating:
Summary: Dragonlance
Review: First off, yes, I'm a little bit biased. I've loved Dragon lance for a long time, but this book seems to be getting a lot of bad reviews that aren't all that justified.
Yes, there is an inch and a half margin which really shouldn't be that large. They should have at least added the chapter titles into the margin if they were going to make it that big.
The art isn't all that great. In fact there isn't a lot of art at all. Which means that the inch and a half margins don't sacrifice text, but rather pictures.
The other peeve I have about this book is that there is a lot of repeated information. The whole Chapter on other eras of play really isn't necessary, and everything that is in that chapter should have appeared somewhere else in the book.
The good thing is there are two new character classes, several prestige classes, and a lot of history for those people who don't feel like reading ALL of the Dragon lance books. But once again there is a lot of repetition of the history. There are also stats for some of the magic items used by the characters in the novels, and 2 mini adventures.
I want to comment on one prestige class. The dragon rider. Even if the dragon rider isn't used in your dragon lance campaign it can be easily changed to a different animal. I think I'm going to convert it to Star Wars and use it for the Rancor Riders.


Rating:
Summary: Not Really Worth it...
Review: I love Dragonlance...let me say that first and formost. However, I think they forgot a few things in this book. Some of the dwarven and elven histories are changed and you aren't really given enough info on alot of other races and classes of Krynn. Minotaurs are included under the ogre heading and thier history is very limited. I think Margaret could have done a much better job if she had broke the book down in order to actually give the players more information. If you already have D & D Monsters Manual and the Players Handbook, this book isn't even needed to play in Dragonlance.
I caried my book back for a refund..

Rating:
Summary: Great Book for a Great Setting
Review: I've been a fan of the Dragonlance Novels for a number of years now (well... 95% of them). I've also been running the original Dragonlance modules in a campaign for the past year. Until now, I've had to work with both my own 3rd edition convertions and unofficial materials I've found online. However with the return of the official campaign setting (designed for edition 3.5), my preparation for the RP sessions have gotten much easier.

The campaign book contains the history of the world of Krynn in its covers. Whether you're new to the world or if you are an old time DL gamer, the Campaign Setting has what you need to get started.

It has everything needed to play a Knight of Solamnia (of any order), a Knight of Neraka (of any order), or a Knight of the Legion of Steel. It also contains the information describing the full benefits of becoming a Wizard of High Sorcery, and shows how different the abilities of the three Robes are. A variety of races are available for play (including two of the Draconian types, Minotaurs, Gnomes, Kender, two Sea Elven races, etc...) along with good descriptions of each.

Although the book covers everything up to just after the end of the War of Souls novels, enough is here to let you run at any time in Krynn's history. Much more specific details for each era will be coming out in the upcoming years. I already have the 5th Age book, and it gives what I think of as additional 'required' information in order to play in those times. But the DLCS is what is needed to get the broad general overview which anyone (especially a newbie to the world) should become familiar with before diving into the details. But if you don't wish to get the additional books, don't worry. There is enough in here to get you going in order to develop your own Krynnish campaign.

In short, the book is well put together. The coverage of the pantheon is clear. The timeline explains clearly how things came about. The new classes I look forward to using. The prestige classes I'm already having fun with. And I'll stop there because I said 'in short'.

Rating:
Summary: Ick! Very Disappointed
Review: Let me first just say that I was very excited to receive this book. I have always loved dragonlance especially the art by Larry Elmore (www.larryelmore.com) which really does the setting justice. However this book was biggest letdown of all the D&D and d20 books I have purchased.

I don't know who the art director on this book was but all I can say is it looks like a bunch of high school students without any experience in life drawing were hired to illustrate this book. Half the characters and people illustrated in this book are out of proportion. I was really excited to see the illustrations on Draconians, but was sorely disappointed by the almost juvenile poses and horrible painting techniques. And I thought the Monster Manual 2 was ugly!

Compare this to the art by Larry Elmore, and you will see what I am talking about. I personally have taken some life drawing classes in college... and it looks like something I WOULD DRAW! (And this is not a compliment) Some Illustrators know how to draw the human form. Some need more practice. There were very few illustrations in this book that I found marginally acceptable.

Its sad the art director (or whoever was in charge of this book) decided to skimp on the art, and it shows. I am tempted to send the book back because I find the illustrations revolting.

Secondly, the graphic design is just stinky! Every single page has a Carved relief motif taking up nearly 2 inches of the left and right hand margins. I was okay with this for the opening of chapter... but it is HUGE and on every single page! Not to mention the font selection and sizes are less than desirable. The whole execution of the book looks clunky and unrefined... I would have expected some refinement for such a wonderful campaign setting.

And the organization of the book is horrible. Enough said... I think this is a disservice to the dragonlance setting.

Bottom line... don't buy this book if you are interested in some cool illustrations of dragons and other dragonlance characters. If you want to use the dragonlance setting in a game then perhaps you can ignore the horrid pictures, although the text and graphic design make the whole book an utter disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: If you love Dragonlance, buy this
Review: Ok - to sum this up briefly, if you want to play Dragonlance in 3rd edition rules, buy this book.

Doesn't matter if you didn't like the Fifth Age or the War of Souls. If you did, fantastic.

What this book provides is a comprehensive translation of all outdated material from the previous editions into a newer supplement. It explains the history of the setting from the creation of the world to the end of the War of Souls.

There are new races, new prestige classes and base classes. New magic items and artifacts. Now so, more than ever, DL3E is richer and more vibrant than ever before.

My pet gripes which prevents this from being five stars:
- The history had several spoilers, which, I think the book should have done a better job at warning the reader against.
- I found slabs of text which where copied and pasted from previous editions of Dragonlance campaign setting(sections on the Wizards of High Sorcery being a good example, ripped from the Tales of the Lance boxed set, and from the AD&D 1st Ed campaign setting as well IIRC).
- The art could have been greatly improved (the art in the Age of Mortals however, is the best I've seen in any recent d30 DnD 3e book, so that made up for it really).

The book lives up to reputation however, the material is substantial, well written (albeit poorly illustrated) and I thoroughly recommend it. I recommend you purchase Age of Mortals with it, as you'll wind up with a lot of questions which are answered in that book anyway.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderfull Start
Review: Ok, no index, but that is ok, i can deal with that. There is no spelcial items pages, but all the cool items that i as dieing to know that stats about are in there spread out...other then that it has everything you would want. It has fantasitic art work, detailed airial comabt rules, the poems of the dragonlance books, new classes, new prestige classes, a detailed history, new races, new critters, new gods, new spells, new domains, This is the book htat i ahve been waiting for and it did not disapoint...i would defently suggest buying yon book...you wont regret it...sorry for all the spelling mistakes...im not the best speller in the world

Rating:
Summary: Not Really Worth it...
Review: Perhaps I am bias because when I was young I read the original three Dragonlance novels, but I find this edition of the Dragonlance campaign setting to be very disappointing. I have seen the AD&D 2e boxed set of Dragonlance, and it was very fascinating.

However, I think that the main reason for my disappointment is that the authors felt it necessary to include the novels written in the Dragonlance world that occurred after the 2nd Edition boxed set, which gives the world of Krynn a very different flavor from its previous incarnation. I suppose I feel alienated because of this, but there are other reasons.

The basic classes are redefined, edited, or left out in this book, which is both good and bad. Some new basic classes are added for flavor, some of which seem redundant since other basic classes essentially do the same thing. There are prestige classes that could have been modeled better in terms of mechanical progression (3 progressive classes for an Order of Knights seems silly). The writing style failed to make the material interesting, as well as trying too hard to cover many novels in a short space of text.

For these reasons, I cannot possibly recommend the purchase of this book unless you're a D&D collector or a diehard Dragonlance fan.

Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: Perhaps I am bias because when I was young I read the original three Dragonlance novels, but I find this edition of the Dragonlance campaign setting to be very disappointing. I have seen the AD&D 2e boxed set of Dragonlance, and it was very fascinating.

However, I think that the main reason for my disappointment is that the authors felt it necessary to include the novels written in the Dragonlance world that occurred after the 2nd Edition boxed set, which gives the world of Krynn a very different flavor from its previous incarnation. I suppose I feel alienated because of this, but there are other reasons.

The basic classes are redefined, edited, or left out in this book, which is both good and bad. Some new basic classes are added for flavor, some of which seem redundant since other basic classes essentially do the same thing. There are prestige classes that could have been modeled better in terms of mechanical progression (3 progressive classes for an Order of Knights seems silly). The writing style failed to make the material interesting, as well as trying too hard to cover many novels in a short space of text.

For these reasons, I cannot possibly recommend the purchase of this book unless you're a D&D collector or a diehard Dragonlance fan.