{"product_id":"used-advanced-dungeons-and-dragons-1st-edition-wilderness-survival-guide","title":"USED Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition Dragonlance Adventures","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt last, the complete Krynn source book that contains all the information necessary for limitless campaigning in the world of the DragonLance saga! \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eProvides all-new information on the character classes, races, artifacts, and powers that are unique to the fascinating world of Krynn.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eProduct History\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, is the twelfth hardcover book for the first edition \u003ci\u003eAD\u0026amp;D\u003c\/i\u003e line. It was published in September 1987.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eContinuing the AD\u0026amp;D Hardcovers.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e After ten rules supplements, \u003ci\u003eManual of the Planes\u003c\/i\u003e (1987) was the first hardcover D\u0026amp;D book to move from crunch to fluff by detailing the setting of the Great Wheel. \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e sort of continues that trend by detailing the world of Krynn, but it's much more a mixture of rules and setting than its predecessor — with its rules even highlighted in easy-to-find gray boxes, something that the authors noted as an innovation for the D\u0026amp;D line.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBecause it contains so much crunch, \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e is much more than just a fluffy setting book. In fact, it deserves to be acknowledged as the fifth and final core book of the AD\u0026amp;D 1.5e update, which included \u003ci\u003eUnearthed Arcana\u003c\/i\u003e (1985), \u003ci\u003eOriental Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e (1985), \u003ci\u003eDungeoneer's Survival Guide\u003c\/i\u003e(1986), and \u003ci\u003eWilderness Survival Guide\u003c\/i\u003e (1986). Like all of the previous 1.5e books, \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003edramatically updates and reimagines rules systems — some of which would soon reappear in AD\u0026amp;D 2e (1989). Like \u003ci\u003eUnearthed Arcana\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eOriental Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e it's also practically an alternate \u003ci\u003ePlayer's Handbook\u003c\/i\u003e, describing how D\u0026amp;D could be played in a very different setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e doesn't get as much attention as the other 1.5e books in part because it was focused on the world of Krynn and in part because it appeared less than a year-and-a-half before the release of AD\u0026amp;D 2e. Nonetheless, it's as innovative as the earlier 1.5e books — and so a wonderful swan song for Tracy Hickman, who offered tremendous innovation to TSR during his short years there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eContinuing the Dragonlance Saga.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e Hickman's most innovative project for TSR was undoubtedly the 14-book Dragonlance campaign (1984-1986). However, this saga had ended in October 1986 with DL14: \"Dragons of Triumph\" (1986), and it wasn't obvious what would be next for the setting.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTSR answered that question with their 1987 release schedule. This included the semi-fiction \u003ci\u003eLeaves from the Inn of the Last Home\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), the fiction anthology \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Tales Volume 1; Magic of Krynn\u003c\/i\u003e(1987), the hardcover \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e (1987), and then a few months later the geographical \u003ci\u003eAtlas of the Dragonlance World\u003c\/i\u003e (1987). With these releases, TSR was clearly stated that they planed to develop both the fiction and the game of Dragonlance past the original story of its creators.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eFarewell to Hickman \u0026amp; Weis.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e Unfortunately, those original authors were now on their way out the door, departing TSR to build on their fictional triumph in the wider world of book publishing. \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e would be Weis and Hickman's last major work for the company for almost a decade — and in fact they were both gone by the time it was published. After leaving TSR, Weis and Hickman would publish many novels of their own, beginning with \u003ci\u003eThe Darksword Trilogy\u003c\/i\u003e (1988), \u003ci\u003eThe Rose of the Prophet Trilogy\u003c\/i\u003e (1988-1989), and \u003ci\u003eThe Death Gate Cycle\u003c\/i\u003e (1990-1994).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough Weis and Hickman's gaming work for TSR was largely done, they'd still return a few times to shore up the core Dragonlance fiction line. The first time would result in \u003ci\u003eDragons of Summer Flame\u003c\/i\u003e(1995), a troubled novel that appeared in TSR's troubled final days.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eExpanding D\u0026amp;D.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e is deserving of membership in the AD\u0026amp;D 1.5e club primarily for its extensive reimagination of D\u0026amp;D character classes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eClerics\u003c\/i\u003e are divided into good, neutral, and evil classes. More notably, each god grants its followers certain spheres of spells (and even certain specific abilities). This was the first of a few changes that would reappear in AD\u0026amp;D 2e.\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eKnights\u003c\/i\u003e appear as a variant of \u003ci\u003eUnearthed Arcana's\u003c\/i\u003e cavalier class. However two of the knight classes, the Knights of the Sword and the Rose, require characters to first advance in the default Knight of the Crown class and also to meet other requirements. Thirteen years early, this was the first instance of prestige-like classes in D\u0026amp;D!\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eTinkers\u003c\/i\u003e are a special class created for the new tinker gnomes of Krynn. This new variant of gnomes would soon become the default vision of D\u0026amp;D gnomes, spreading out into space with the publication of \u003ci\u003eSpelljammer\u003c\/i\u003e (1989).\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eWizards\u003c\/i\u003e are also divided into good (white), neutral (red), and evil (black) variants. Slightly different spheres of magic are available to these different classes, another preview of AD\u0026amp;D 2e. (These Krynn-ish wizards also have one of D\u0026amp;D's most unique magical rules: they're affected by the phases of the moons!)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e also features plenty of races including: three dwarf races, four elf races, half-elfs, minotaurs, irda (shapechanging good ogres), and of course tinker gnomes and kender. The minotaur and irda were appearing for use by D\u0026amp;D PCs for the first time! New non-weapon proficiencies also appear — something that was common in AD\u0026amp;D 1.5e books.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFinally, \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e slightly adjusts D\u0026amp;D's take on alignment. Rather than using alignment as a limit on players' behavior, \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e instead treats alignment as something that reflects players' behavior — and even includes a tracking chart so that the GM can note a player's changing character. The original \u003ci\u003eDungeon Master's Guide\u003c\/i\u003e (1979) had included the option of forcing a character to change alignment, but the new approach was more nuanced.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eExploring Krynn.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e During Dragonlance's first three years of publication, background material appeared haphazardly. For example DL3: \"Dragons of Hope\" (1984) and DL4: \"Dragons of Desolation\" (1984) were effectively the dwarf sourcebooks because they focused on Thorbardin. Articles also occasionally appeared in \u003ci\u003eDragon\u003c\/i\u003e, starting with \"My Honor Is My Life\" in \u003ci\u003eDragon #94\u003c\/i\u003e (February 1985) and \"The Dragons of Krynn\" in \u003ci\u003eDragon #98\u003c\/i\u003e (June 1985).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMore comprehensive information on Krynn was scarce. DL5: \"Dragons of Mystery\" (1984) was a sourcebook, but with just 32 pages it only got to detail gods and mythology before it changed its focus to the Companions. The wargame DL11: \"Dragons of Glory\" (1986) offered some information on major battles of the War of the Lance, then DL14: \"Dragons of Triumph\" (1986) did its best to give the setting a good send-off by including a 32-page sourcebook that detailed the history of the setting, revealed Ansalon after the Dragonlance Saga, and compiled lists of creatures and treasures. Overall, information on the Dragonlance setting was a hodge-podge prior to the publication of \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e. But in those days, adventures were the prime way to reveal setting information, so it was a very traditional hodge-podge.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e spends its entire 128 page length on detailing Krynn. Most of this detail is crunch, including classes, races, creatures, and NPCs. It's a very different emphasis from TSR's other setting at the time, \u003ci\u003eWorld of Greyhawk\u003c\/i\u003e (1980, 1983), but possibly a more playable one because of the emphasis on playable mechanics, not just fluff.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e also contains some background, revealing the gods of Krynn, reiterating the history of Krynn, and once more detailing Ansalon after the War. In fact, it even moves Krynn past \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Legends\u003c\/i\u003e (1986) into 358 AC through its inclusion of \u003ci\u003eLegends\u003c\/i\u003e NPCs.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe thing most obviously missing from \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Legends\u003c\/i\u003e is information on the geography of Krynn. TSR probably figured that the upcoming \u003ci\u003eAtlas of the Dragonlance World\u003c\/i\u003e would more than serve that need.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eExploring Krynn: Creating a Canon.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e Because \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e represents the last Dragonlance gaming work by Weis and Hickman for TSR, the book is a pivotal point in the definition of Dragonlance's canon. Beforehand, Hickman and Weis were the ultimate authorities on the world, but afterward \u003ci\u003edivers hands\u003c\/i\u003e took over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs a result, the next two adventures, DL15: \"Mists of Krynn\" (1988) and DL16: \"World of Krynn\" (1988), would both be on shaky grounds. Dragonlance's canon settled more in the AD\u0026amp;D 2e era (1989-2000), but a few different elements from \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e would drop out of canon over the years. Most notably, big changes to the timeline appeared with \u003ci\u003eTales of the Lance\u003c\/i\u003e (1992), because the timeline in \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e missed some major things. Other changes were more controversial. One was an adjustment to the racial origins of the smaller folk of Krynn. According to \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e, kender and gnomes evolved from cursed gnomes, but AD\u0026amp;D 2e sources changed that to gnomes and dwarves evolving from human smiths! An even bigger change occurred with the advent of the \u003ci\u003eDragonlance SAGA\u003c\/i\u003e system (1996), which tripled the size of Ansalon!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eYears later, Weis would come back into control of Dragonlance's canon when she licensed the setting through Sovereign Press. To date she's been the last word on the setting, and she's restored most of what's in this book, saying: \"DL Adventures expressed the DL team's vision of the world, a vision we want to try to recreate with our work at Sovereign Press. I will state here, without apology, that DL Adventures will be taken as the foundation for all things Dragonlance with certain exceptions where applicable (such as the flawed time line).\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMonsters of Note.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Adventures\u003c\/i\u003e reprints many of the classic monsters of Krynn. They'd previously debuted in adventures and were reprinted in \"Dragons of Triumph\". These reappearing critters include draconians, ice bears, bloodsea minotaurs, spectral minions, thanoi, and many more.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAbout the Creators.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e Hickman was the originator of the ideas that became the \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Saga\u003c\/i\u003e. He and Weis coauthored the six novels at the core of the saga, \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Chronicles\u003c\/i\u003e (1984-1985) and \u003ci\u003eDragonlance Legends\u003c\/i\u003e (1986). This was their last work on the setting until their return in the mid-90s to write \u003ci\u003eDragons of Summer Flame\u003c\/i\u003e (1995), a single book that had been intended as another trilogy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Product Historian\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eThe history of this product was researched and written by Shannon Appelcline, the editor-in-chief of RPGnet and the author of \u003ci\u003eDesigners \u0026amp; Dragons\u003c\/i\u003e - a history of the roleplaying industry told one company at a time. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to shannon.appelcline@gmail.com.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"TSR","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48144744513825,"sku":"","price":40.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0720\/6250\/1153\/files\/IMG-1603.jpg?v=1708730145","url":"https:\/\/dmdavepublishing.com\/products\/used-advanced-dungeons-and-dragons-1st-edition-wilderness-survival-guide","provider":"Shop DMDave","version":"1.0","type":"link"}