LFP - Dragonlance: DL1 Dragons of Despair

[Vodkard]

EDIT 09/22/2018: The game is full. Thank you everyone for all your quick responses!

I have converted Dragonlance: DL1 Dragons of Despair (1e) into 5th Edition. I’ve been really shy about running my products (Dragonlances in Faerûn, found on www.dmsguild.com) to complete strangers. Normally I run them with people from my D&D store. But I think it’s time I break out of my shell. Now, although my products are set in the world of Faerûn, when I first make them, they haven’t been converted to Forgotten Realms yet, only 5th Edition. So although I can’t give and sell my original versions, that doesn’t mean I can’t DM them. So that’s what I’m going to do. The link to my event in the calendar is at the bottom of this post. And without further ado:

Title: DL1 Dragons of Despair (5e)
FG License: Ultimate
Game System: D&D 5th Edition

Time Zone: MST (without daylight savings)
Day of week and time: Thursdays at 5:30pm-9:30pm Arizona time.
If new game, planned start date: I start on 09/13
Planned Duration & Frequency: 3-4 hours

Text or Voice: Voice, push to talk
Voice software used: Discord

Roleplay & Combat mix: 50% Roleplay / 50% Combat
Number of Players in game & needed: Need between 3-7 players
Character starting level & equipment: level 4. Will make characters on first session. I redid every race and added two new ones and a new class and a new background. Or you can play as one of the Heroes of the Lance!

Details of your scenario: You stand on the road east of Solace, tired from five years of adventuring, from a fruitless search for lost clerical magic. You know the old proverb that claims "You must return to find what you left to seek," but the saying never really made sense. Soon, however, it will.
For the world of Krynn is not the same: refugees stream out of the northernmost human lands, telling horrible tales. An invading army has burned their villages and put their families and friends to the sword. Among these stories you hear even darker rumors-that older evils, the dragons themselves, have returned to the world, for new and more terrible purposes.


Link to Game Calendar page: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/calendar/index.xcp?id=3186

[BlackPhoenix424]

Im interested if this ever gets going. I have been playing 5e for about 6 months and for trying something new for once. Dragonlance sounds like it might be a refreshing change from what im used to playing with 5e. i will go ahead an apply on the page then.

[hehaub]

We would not be able to make it for the Sept 27th session, but if that is OK and please invite Hehaub and Shehaub to the game

[Vodkard]

BlackPhoenix, I hope you'll like this. I saw you signed up thanks!
Hehaub, we can work around that date if needed. Glad to see you two aboard!

Forewarning, This is based on a 1st edition module. Even a faithful conversion still makes it feel a bit old. But still, so far all my previous players and I have thoroughly enjoyed running these modules. The story is still fun and if you know the story then it's like getting high on 'member berries. I put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into these conversions and this was the first one I ever made. So it's a bit amateur. Fortunately, after working on a few more of these, I just went back and revamped a LOT of DL1. I call it my 2.0 conversion for Dragonlances in Faerûn: DL1 Dragons of Despair, so this is a perfect time to test its strength and weaknesses. I think you all will be surprisingly pleased. See you all soon!

[mawgwy]

Hi this sounds fun!

[Lothar the Fellhanded]

I would love to play if you're still recruiting!

[Vodkard]

EDIT 09/21/2018: Two spots have opened up for my Dragonlance game. We are only about 4 hours into the game and our next session isn't until October 4th so this is the perfect time to jump into my game. Sign up on the Game Calendar link at the bottom of this post. Message me or find me on Discord if you have any questions. I will be continuing the Dragonlance modules with 'DL2 Dragons of Flame' once this module is done.

[RaiRai]

I advise against others joining this campaign as my experience with this campaign was terrible, and the Dungeonmaster has completely blocked from communicating with him because I simply wanted to play character that didn't fit his story, In turn, I am going to review his campaign and performance. His choice of setting was the dragonlance where basically it was after 1000 years of the gods abandoning the people, taking healing magic with them, thus in turn basically rendering certain classes or archetypes unplayable or at best undesirable, so I went with something that didn't adhere to normal spellcasting as Triton Great Old one Warlock with the Lawful Evil alignment whose secret goal was to summon his patron, or "God" into the world. After a few sessions, an impression became clear of this module of his design and by extent his style, the players had no room for developing their own agency and were simply being railroaded into delivering a macguffin to a place we had little to no information about in the first place aside from being a collection of temples dedicated to old gods. The story progresses where we find Draconians, or essentially dragonborn, cultists whom were easily dispatched by using an evil method of convincing them to kill one another by utilizing Awakened mind, who in turn enslaved the nomad villages we visited that were in pursuit of the macguffin, a blue crystaled staff intended to be delivered to some temple.

My character in the rationale of that if these rampaging hordes of draconian creatures were enslaving and murdering in pursuit of this staff, or macguffin, in order to obtain some power for an evil purpose, the best course of action would be to throw it in a volcano so to ensure that no one could abuse it or receive a gift that we hadn't any clue of what would be. The DM after this last session accused of me breaking the game when I was simply trying to prevent further mass murder, and thwart the hordes of evil, by convincing the party that the best course of action is destroy the staff. Not to mention when we strayed from the path he prescribed, he forced us on the track repeatedly, and basically wouldn't let us explore.

Now to review the DM proper: At character creation, he provided a massively unfair advantage to those who were willing to use pregenerated characters versus homemade ones and essentially castrated a lot of character options with both classes and races, creating an extremely restrictive, and by extension an unfun campaign. He also failed to explore a lot of key aspects to the world of dragonlance and the setting since most of the players only know of dragonlance, since most of us players were thrown under bus as far as knowing the world. His pacing of the story was to be noted, as he rushed us through various points as opposed to letting us explore and learn about the world, ala railroading the players into this story by just handing us the macguffin on a silver platter instead of having to search for it proper and give the players agency to find such an artifact as race against time before the antagonizing force finds it. Much less taking away the option to destroy said macguffin to prevent it from falling into evil hands, and to thwart the efforts of evil ala Ring of power preventing it from getting the hands of the big bad to save the world by destroying it.

His narration was drull, lacking any sort of inflection or emotion to give a sense of the environment or mystique to the world to the point I found myself losing interest in the story, accompanying the fact he rushed our sessions in effort to cram what should have been a 4 to 5 hours sessions into hour and 30 minutes if at best two hours. He failed to provide various opportunities to roleplay, and was focused on cramming the story down our throats to the point it was practically suffocating, draining the fun out of D&D for me as a player. The DM intensely lacked the flexibility and versatility that any great DM, like Matthew Mercer, expresses when DMing a game that creates a fun environment for the players where they have the agency to explore the world and interact with it, versus the feeling of being raped creatively by his lack thereof.

[Vodkard]

Whether your (RaiRai) post is sincere or vengeful, you obviously spent some time to write it, so I will not take it down. But let his post be a warning. I am very flexible, but I will not allow people to try and break the game (such as spending over 30 minutes arguing with, and pissing off, the rest of the party that we need to destroy the Blue Crystal Staff).

[damned]

Hi RaiRai

There are many, many ways to both run and play a RPG. Many of them are incompatible with the play/gm styles of some people.
If a game is not to your style you are far better off advising the GM you want to withdraw from the game and thanking them for the opportunity.
They may ask you for feedback and you can offer feedback but dont force the issue.
Public posts like this one tend to harm both parties.
Id personally remove the post, and if the GM hadnt posted above Id probably have suggested that to you.

My general advice here is to mark experience and move on.

[JohnD]

Posts like this are unlikely to be a magical key to having other DMs welcome you into their games RaiRai. You may indeed find this cuts you out of consideration for many games. In fact, it most certainly has already done that, but not much to be done now; can't stuff the genie back in the bottle.

Much better ways to handle it as damned has already said. Best would have been to respectfully withdraw and look for another game without poisoning the well in a public manner.

[RaiRai]

I have been forced to withdraw as he outright cut active communication, and my review was sincere especially if he intends to sell the adventure, particularly set in the Dragonlance setting, as a product on DMsguild or Drivethrurpg, much less DMing further campaigns. Forcing the plot of the adventure on the players harder than an Adventure League DM could with an official module is a sign of poor narration and by extension DMing, especially forcing characters to make a decision that they wouldn't normally agree to, which summarized a majority of our interactions with the world and by extensions some NPCs. Not to mention the glaring plot hole with the macguffin itself that you had to be Lawful Good to wield the bloody thing in the first place, which technically rendered the entire adventure moot and pointless to begin with in the first place.

Damned, he failed to communicate this facet with me after the session, much less approach me civilly about it, and I'm certain JohnD that people will emphasize with the unpleasant aspect of being accused for breaking the game when simply playing it how should be as a player.

[damned]

Rai Rai

Every game is different. Many, many games have a large element of a railroad. Many, many macguffins have specific requirements like alignments. I get that you didnt like it. No one is arguing that. RPGs mean very different things to different people. How you respond to things you dont like is important. JohnD alludes to your post quite likely colouring future GMs views on you and then you double down on it. Perhaps the GM could have outlined that the adventure can be a little railroady in the post, perhaps he should have insisted on you playing a pre-gen, perhaps you could have expressed that you felt it was a little railroady and that you preferred more sandbox - but then got on the train and enjoyed what was to follow, perhaps other things couldve been done differently.

As to selling the adventure on DMsGuild - so what. A huge percentage of adventures on DMsG are railroady and contain macguffins that only a specific character can use.

Your opinion on how the game should have been played as a player is your opinion and worth whatever the going rate for opinions is. Ive run good sessions before and Ive run crap sessions. Ive had 5 out of 6 players love an adventure or session and had one totally not enjoy it. Was I wrong? Was he wrong? Its not easy getting it right every time. Some player/gm combos dont work. Some player/player combos dont work. Some group/adventure combos dont work. If you cannot resolve one of those situations just move on and find one that works for you.

This is my opinion and worth whatever the going rate for opinions is.

[Binestar]

As a player in this campaign I would like to remind RaiRai that this adventure was clearly stated to be a 5e conversion of the Dragonlance modules. It isn't a sandbox. Beyond that, the DM was very clear on which classes and races were available and you pushed back during character creation so heavily that the DM finally relented to get the campaign moving. This is Dragonlance. There were hill and gully dwarves, minotaurs, elves, kender, human, half-elf, tinker gnome available and you chose a Triton Warlock. Triton was bad enough, but the lore of Krynn has a list of Gods, and there aren't any patrons to be had!

As for choosing the pre-made characters vs rolling your own: Keep in mind this is a conversion PLAYTEST for the conversion (again said so by the GM). Feedback will be provided afterwards and stuff like that will likely be addressed.

Also in defense of the GM, I would like to add into that that you were literally telling the GM the results of your actions (and cheating during that timeframe BTW). During our first combat you used your awakened mind to make an intimidation attempt on one of the creatures we were fighting. You didn't use an action for it, you just did it as conversation. Then, when the GM didn't respond fast enough for you for a ruling, you told him it causes fear. That's completely not true. An intimidation check doesn't cause fear. Fear is a level 3 concentration spell for wizards, or can be obtained in other ways, but to tell the GM your awakened mind allows an intimidation check that if they fail causes fear? That's just cheating.

I wish you well in your gaming endeavors, but you just weren't playing the same campaign as the rest of the group. Had you not been asked to leave, *I* would have left, because your style of play is incompatible with mine.

[Alsard]

RaiRai,

Have you ever read Dragonlance? There is a very good reason that staff requires L/G. not to mention a volcano wouldn't have destroyed it, it would have come back at dawn the next day. Dragonlance in itself is very narrow in the begging. Worlds of possibility open up after the staff is delivered. I won't say much more, because I don't want to ruin story depending on how close it follows the novels and for players in the game that have not read them. Maybe you should have taken the time to tell the DM your feelings and find out if he had reasons.

Not every game is for every player. But from the players post regarding your behavior, you aren't likely to find many games that suit you.

[damned]

Ok guys. Differences of play styles happens and happens a lot. I think enough has been said. Enjoy your gaming everyone and if something isnt working out for you polite discussion is always best.