Thank you for watching todays Dragonlance Setting episode. What do you think about the Dragon Overlords? Do you have a favorite? Leave a comment below!
You should do one for the metallic "protectors" during the fifth age. Silver Dragon Mirror on Schallsea, Copper Dragon Cymbol in Wayreth Tower, Bronze Dragon Crucible in Sanction and lastly the Dragonlord Splendor in Plains of Dust(East)
Loved the idea of the Overlords ruling Ansalon. Very different from other ages and made for good adventure ideas. I liked Khellendros and Sable best. I think the lesser dragonlords were more interesting character wise. Dragonspawn, and other magical discoveries, the Knights of Neraka. Good times. Can't wait for the lesser Overlords!
I think the Dragon Overlords were a good idea, but had a bad implementation. The idea of powerful dragons ruling over vast territories and dragon totems enhancing their power is a good one. It provided a new enemy for the setting and new monsters in the dragonspawn. However it seems that the 5A designers would have rather designed for Dark Sun than Dragonlance. Dragonlance is a post-apocolyptic world , but it was a heroic epic in theme. With the massive destruction of large parts of the continent to uninhabitable wastes it turned it into more of a hopeless crapsack world where the weak must suffer what they must and just survive, not overcome the Overlords. There were several 5A adventures published, that featured the Dragon Overlords prominently, but they were not given statistics so you could defeat them. Instead you had to run and hide in the adventures, while the novel heroes were the only ones allowed to defeat the Overlords. It wasn't until 3e with a new design team licensed under Sovereign Press (later Margaret Weis Productions) was an adventure written where you could defeat the weakest Overlord in an epic showdown. I much prefer the lesser dragonlords as a good implementation of the same idea. They took over existing terrain suited to their Dragon type rather than destroying large parts of the continent. They needed mortals and to be involved in politics to maintain their power. This provided lots of opportunity for interaction other than forcing the PC's into cowering and running. Finally, the lesser dragonlords could conceivably be challenged by a group of powerful heroes without a literal deus ex machina.
thank you so much for the content! I love D.L. so much. I started reading it with the legend of Huma about 30 years ago. I still have all of those 1st series paperbacks. Such incredible stories over the years that never get old because they're so timeless.
I really liked the idea of the Dragon overlords and that they were actually alien dragon invaders from a dragon dominated planet. Nice twist that the overlords would be wimps on their own home world and that's why they came to Krynn. But man did the books waste their potential and killed most of them off lamely. I liked Sable, a black dragon mad scientist lol. But man did they do pretty much nothing with her and killed her off badly.
Love the video, thank you! Reminds me of the time we (my friends and I) played a game of Diplomacy, but each player was a dragon and the map was of the Forgotten Realms. Dragons never seem all that powerful or threatening to me unless you give them that sort of regional gravitas and presence, you know?
I know to whom to blame for the 5th age. It was Wizards after they bought tsr. They killed dragonlance with the 5th age. And you should do a study on how they did it, how they fixed it, and how they abandoned it for over a decade
Very cool video Adam, thanks. I was a fan of the dragon overlords idea. I thought the initial fun of the setting was the idea that dragons were so powerful that you needed these magical lance weapons to even stand a chance, but they really wasn't the case. In the early story, all you had to do to defeat Onyx was touch the blue crystal staff to it. And in the games, a couple of staffs of fireballs or a decent sword would do the trick. Finally, there were some formidable dragons, and I loved the highlander style idea that they grew stronger from devouring each other. My biggest complaint is that this era wasn't fleshed out enough and the dragons were killed off too soon in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen more material in this era (books and games). Imagine an Elder Scrolls style game where you have to avoid being discovered by the Dragons while you traveled the world until eventually you grew powerful enough to take them on? That would be cool
@@DLSaga No, I didn't play the SAGA role playing games. I'm a big fan of the dice rolling aspect of the D&D systems so the card drawing aspect didn't appeal to me as much. It's more fun when you roll a 20 and save the party with a critical shot and even more fun when you roll a 1 and your arrow gets lodged in your buddy's arm haha It sounds like I missed out on some good Fifth Age stories as a result though. But the Fifth Age didn't have nearly as much support with the books or video games and just seemed to me to go by too fast as it had some really fun ideas. Do any of your Fifth Age gaming stories stand out? Be cool to hear about those, thanks!
@@CANDROU1 Not really. At the time it was exciting to see the continuation of the world. And I enjoyed the card based Saga Rule system for what it was.
Post-Summer of Chaos is a weird time in Krynn, what with the Gigantic ALIEN dragons . . . Gotta say, though, making totems out of defeated dragons' skulls? That's pretty bad@$$.
Thank you for watching todays Dragonlance Setting episode. What do you think about the Dragon Overlords? Do you have a favorite? Leave a comment below!
You should do one for the metallic "protectors" during the fifth age. Silver Dragon Mirror on Schallsea, Copper Dragon Cymbol in Wayreth Tower, Bronze Dragon Crucible in Sanction and lastly the Dragonlord Splendor in Plains of Dust(East)
Loved the idea of the Overlords ruling Ansalon. Very different from other ages and made for good adventure ideas. I liked Khellendros and Sable best. I think the lesser dragonlords were more interesting character wise. Dragonspawn, and other magical discoveries, the Knights of Neraka. Good times.
Can't wait for the lesser Overlords!
I’m writing that episode tonight.
Man I'm so glad you're making this content. I'm absolutely loving it
Thank you for watching!
I think the Dragon Overlords were a good idea, but had a bad implementation. The idea of powerful dragons ruling over vast territories and dragon totems enhancing their power is a good one. It provided a new enemy for the setting and new monsters in the dragonspawn.
However it seems that the 5A designers would have rather designed for Dark Sun than Dragonlance. Dragonlance is a post-apocolyptic world , but it was a heroic epic in theme.
With the massive destruction of large parts of the continent to uninhabitable wastes it turned it into more of a hopeless crapsack world where the weak must suffer what they must and just survive, not overcome the Overlords.
There were several 5A adventures published, that featured the Dragon Overlords prominently, but they were not given statistics so you could defeat them. Instead you had to run and hide in the adventures, while the novel heroes were the only ones allowed to defeat the Overlords.
It wasn't until 3e with a new design team licensed under Sovereign Press (later Margaret Weis Productions) was an adventure written where you could defeat the weakest Overlord in an epic showdown.
I much prefer the lesser dragonlords as a good implementation of the same idea. They took over existing terrain suited to their Dragon type rather than destroying large parts of the continent. They needed mortals and to be involved in politics to maintain their power. This provided lots of opportunity for interaction other than forcing the PC's into cowering and running. Finally, the lesser dragonlords could conceivably be challenged by a group of powerful heroes without a literal deus ex machina.
Great perspective and points! Thank you for sharing them.
Why didn't I know about this channel until now??
I’m not sure but I’m glad you found it :)
thank you so much for the content! I love D.L. so much. I started reading it with the legend of Huma about 30 years ago. I still have all of those 1st series paperbacks. Such incredible stories over the years that never get old because they're so timeless.
That’s great! Welcome to the channel.
OK keep us wanting more😉. I will wait to see where you will put Crucible.
In a few days, there will be more.
The Kender and Elves got spanked hard by the Overlords so I'm okay with them
Haha
I really liked the idea of the Dragon overlords and that they were actually alien dragon invaders from a dragon dominated planet. Nice twist that the overlords would be wimps on their own home world and that's why they came to Krynn. But man did the books waste their potential and killed most of them off lamely.
I liked Sable, a black dragon mad scientist lol. But man did they do pretty much nothing with her and killed her off badly.
I agree with ya. Though I’m not sure how you would kill them off otherwise, with how powerful they were.
I tend to ignore most anything after dragons of Summer Flame but I do find the Dragon overlords compelling.
It wasn’t all bad. There were some interesting concepts.
There were, but that was the point where I enjoyed new material less and less.
Jean Rabe's trilogy was the first Dragon Lance I was exposed to as q kid. My son is actually named Damon after Dhamon Grimwulf.
Whoa, that’s cool. Have you read the chronicles and legends?
@@DLSaga I have not yet! Should I put it on the list?
@@ohiofalconer I would suggest it yes.
Turtle Dragons!? Sweeeet!
Oh yea :)
Love the video, thank you! Reminds me of the time we (my friends and I) played a game of Diplomacy, but each player was a dragon and the map was of the Forgotten Realms. Dragons never seem all that powerful or threatening to me unless you give them that sort of regional gravitas and presence, you know?
Dragons were nearly unstoppable in our games. I think the use of environment and their full abilities can bring the best of parties down.
@@DLSaga Oh yeah, absolutely. Glad to hear they're the terrors they're supposed to be in your games!
I know to whom to blame for the 5th age. It was Wizards after they bought tsr. They killed dragonlance with the 5th age. And you should do a study on how they did it, how they fixed it, and how they abandoned it for over a decade
I’ve read Slaying the Dragon. I look forward the the documentary next year as well.
Very cool video Adam, thanks. I was a fan of the dragon overlords idea. I thought the initial fun of the setting was the idea that dragons were so powerful that you needed these magical lance weapons to even stand a chance, but they really wasn't the case. In the early story, all you had to do to defeat Onyx was touch the blue crystal staff to it. And in the games, a couple of staffs of fireballs or a decent sword would do the trick. Finally, there were some formidable dragons, and I loved the highlander style idea that they grew stronger from devouring each other. My biggest complaint is that this era wasn't fleshed out enough and the dragons were killed off too soon in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen more material in this era (books and games). Imagine an Elder Scrolls style game where you have to avoid being discovered by the Dragons while you traveled the world until eventually you grew powerful enough to take them on? That would be cool
That would be cool. Did you ever see or play all of the Fifth Age SAGA role playing sources? There was a lot.
@@DLSaga No, I didn't play the SAGA role playing games. I'm a big fan of the dice rolling aspect of the D&D systems so the card drawing aspect didn't appeal to me as much. It's more fun when you roll a 20 and save the party with a critical shot and even more fun when you roll a 1 and your arrow gets lodged in your buddy's arm haha It sounds like I missed out on some good Fifth Age stories as a result though. But the Fifth Age didn't have nearly as much support with the books or video games and just seemed to me to go by too fast as it had some really fun ideas. Do any of your Fifth Age gaming stories stand out? Be cool to hear about those, thanks!
@@CANDROU1 Not really. At the time it was exciting to see the continuation of the world. And I enjoyed the card based Saga Rule system for what it was.
overlords are scary to take on and you will need alot of help from your allies to beat them
dragons are the alien invaders oh my god help us all
Yea, they were brutal!
Post-Summer of Chaos is a weird time in Krynn, what with the Gigantic ALIEN dragons . . .
Gotta say, though, making totems out of defeated dragons' skulls? That's pretty bad@$$.
lol yea, I imagine there's still flesh and tendon all over 'em too... probably smells terrible. Just cool.
“Unknown heroes”?
Yea, it’s referencing the outcome of modules. So the unknown heroes are the player characters.