Spelljammer is being rebooted for 5th edition and I'm so excited by this news.

I'm here to show all my inner nerd peeps. I apologize in advance, and this post is going to be about Dungeons & Dragons which is the nerdiest of things to do with one's free time. So as your eyes glaze over, and say..."I just...can't with this D&D stuff..." that's okay. I'm going to geek out here on my blog for this Friday and try to return to a semblance of normal blogging next week.

Without further ado...Wizards of the Coast (which is the company that owns Dungeons & Dragons) held its first ever D&D Direct web conference. This is a digital news release/conference/presentation meant to illuminate all things Dungeons & Dragons that are coming out in 2022.

First off, the biggest news was that they are bringing back the Spelljammer setting. If you don't know, Spelljammer came out during second edition, which had its heyday in 1990...so thirty years ago. I own all the supplements for that game, and as they are getting kinda faded and yellow with time, I was wondering if we'd ever see a modern ruleset (D&D is currently on its very amazing 5th edition). So, you might ask: why has Spelljammer got me so excited?

The Spelljammer setting had ships like this.

Well, the most popular D&D settings for games and stories are ones inspired by European folklore. They are kind of "Lord of the Rings" knock-offs if you will. Spelljammer was way different. It involved traditional sailing ships that had been empowered by magic so that they could fly through the void of space. You could explore different worlds, have space battles, and "space" itself was filled with all kinds of magical wonders. It also allowed your characters to travel from one setting to another that was akin to traveling to different universes. You could have space pirate adventures too.

Furthermore, Wizards of the Coast is going all-in on this product. The Spelljammer campaign setting is going to be a three-volume set complete with a handsome slipcase and a double-sided map and a screen to use while gaming. And the whole thing runs just $70.00. That seems like a lot, but it isn't for three full-color books, a map, and a screen. That's less than $25.00 per book, which is peanuts these days given how it now takes me $75.00 to fill up my truck with gas.

The first of the three volumes is titled the Astral Adventurer's Guide. This is going to be the main book and contain everything a DM (Dungeon Master) would need to run a campaign as well as tons of options for playable characters. The second book is called Boo's Astral Menagerie, named after a giant space hamster from one of the D&D video games. We're going to get evil space clowns, vampirates, sentient comets, and space dragons. 

The last of the three volumes is called Light of Xaryxis. Set in the astral sea (an even more magical place in the setting than normal magical places) it includes 12 adventure hooks, each of which end in a cliffhanger. This thing ships in August, and I'm so excited to get my copy.

All of that being said, there was other news mentioned in the webcast. For one, the Dragonlance setting from famous fantasy writers, Weiss and Hickman, is coming back as a board game that will include some kind of campaign module that you can play called Shadow of the Dragon Queen. A board game sounds intriguing, especially if it has cool miniatures. A module (as well) is extremely exciting as Wizards of the Coast has been knocking things out of the park with their modules in the last few years. These are fully integrated adventures that generally take characters from level 1 to level 10 and have enough playable material to last six months or more. And the Dungeons & Dragons movie that is in Hollywood and stars Chris Pine now has a title: Honor Among Thieves.

Anyway, there's a lot to be excited about regarding my hobby.

I'm enjoying my re-read of the Dragonlance Chronicles from the 1980's.

 

I'm re-reading the Dragonlance books by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I usually don't go back and re-read things, but nostalgia for the past and seeking out things that provide comfort seem to be the norm during 2020. So why shouldn't I indulge just a little bit? Truthfully though, it has been about thirty or so years since I last read these books, so I'd forgotten just about everything except the biggest plot details and the names of one or two characters (at most). Additionally, I don't think I appreciated the work and creative talent that went into the Dragonlance storyline when I was a teen. But now that I'm much older, I see that they are (in fact) works of great brilliance.

If you don't know, the Dragonlance books are based on a tabletop roleplaying game called Dungeons & Dragons. Now D&D is an incredibly fun game, but it is also really goofy. I like to tell people that a session is kind of like participating in some really bad improv. D&D is a hodgepodge of all the fantasy tropes. It is a huge mixing bowl filled with everything from Oni to hobgoblins to wizards to dragons to gods and to minotaurs. It pulls from every culture indiscriminately, and in many cases, it is the granddaddy of the term "cultural appropriation." You can have ki-rin in the same game session as you have a pyramid based on ancient Egypt. You can have kung-fu in the same story as Gandalf and Sauron. The words "one of these things is not like the other" does not apply to Dungeons and Dragons. Yet, somehow, with all of these goofy potentials, Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis pulled off something remarkable: a beautiful story in a world (Krynn) that essentially has all of these elements and somehow manages to take them seriously and give them respect. That is no small feat.

I half expected to hate these books on a re-read, and find them utterly unreadable. Instead, I'm marveling at how well the authors negotiate the different character classes and manage to integrate the monsters as well as pay homage to a lot of what makes the game of Dungeons and Dragons fun to play. It's all there, down to the spells that Raistlin Majere casts (taken from the Player's Handbook) and to the abilities that several of the characters in the story manifest. The clerics feel like D&D clerics and the equipment they use feels very much akin to how leveling feels like when I play this game. It's a fascinating thing, and yes, they manage to make it just as high fantasy and feel just as epic as anything that Tolkien wrote in The Lord of the Rings.

Honestly, I'm enjoying this re-read quite a bit. In a post Game of Thrones world, I would love to see Dragonlance turned into a high quality movie. The story is definitely there, as are the characters. They are as well-developed as anything that was turned out by George R.R. Martin. I've heard that there are some legal issues to making this kind of thing a reality. However, if it happens in my lifetime, I will gladly give the ones that bring it to the movies a fistful of cash.

My one complaint is that there are no good hardcover editions of the individual Dragonlance books that I can purchase for my shelves. Of course there are electronic books, audiobooks, and special edition omnibuses (which I hate because they are so unwieldy). Omnibus editions really should be restricted to either electronic book or audiobook format. Who wants to try and balance a huge hardcover book in their hands? Not I. And I found some weird overpriced handmade editions on Etsy (how is that even legal?) I didn't buy one...it was just a curiosity and way too expensive.

Anyone else out there a fan of Dragonlance? Are you giving them a re-read or are you reading them for the first time? If it's been a while, but you have a favorite character, please let me know in the comments. I think my favorite character is Tasslehoff Burrfoot. I didn't use to like him, but in this re-read, I can see how brilliant the character is, and it's easily the funnest one, pulling the whole party into his adventures. Plus, the way he sees the world is just too special. 

If I were in charge of Hollywood, every one of Hickman and Weis' books would be made into a movie

Click to EMBIGGEN

I have never met Tracy Hickman or Margaret Weis, but I've read the trilogy that kicked off Dragonlance and then the whole War of the Twins plotline. I've also read the trilogy that includes Rose of the Prophet. Based off this alone, I'd turn all of their stories into a movie. Io9 got me thinking about this with their article published yesterday (READ IT HERE), and I agree with most everything that's been said regarding Dragonlance. 

But I guess I'm not in charge of anything. However, I can add my voice to the silent multitude that asks, "How can you not look at this painting of Takhisis and Raistlin and not think OMG THIS IS THE COOLEST THING EVER!!??"

Seriously Hollywood, stop making Vampire Academy movies and give us fantasy lovers out here what we really desire: a story much different than "The Lord of the Rings" that's part of the fantasy zeitgeist. We will shower you with greenbacks if you do.

At least I will. I cannot speak with regard to my readers out there.

Have a great Wednesday.

And isn't that picture just the most awesome thing ever?