Editing Dragonlance (section)

==The Adventures That Started It All==
[[Image:Dragons-of-Despair.jpg|thumb|right|350px|The Dragonlance protagonists fighting in the ruins of Xak Tsaroth.]]
The original series of adventures were published from 1984 to 1986, under the DL- prefix. This is the first true [[Adventure Path]], going from Basic-Set levels up to Epic. [[G1-2-3: Against the Giants]] can ''suck it''.

That said, the DL Series as we got it has not aged well, being infamous for railroading. This led to threadbare adventure hooks that artificially carry the protagonists from Point A to Point B, the criminal sin of splitting the party long-term for 2/3rds of the plot, and in the later adventures an over-reliance on the Dungeon Master having read the book series in order to make sense of events. With some exceptions the DL series closely follows the events in the books, and instead of making your own PCs you were expected to choose one of several pre-generated characters from Weis' and Hickman's micromanaging brains. The average party size was quite large, and only gets bigger as more NPCs end up joining throughout the adventures; even the party-split only partially alleviates this. If you're wondering how much the plot can be disrupted by unexpected PC deaths, not even a TPK can free you from the railroad tracks thanks to an "Obscure Death" variant rule where plot-important PCs suffer off-screen deaths and reappear later.

The Modules, in order:

''DL 1: Dragons of Despair:'' The PCs are chilling out in an idyllic frontier region when the party Cleric comes to them with news of the true gods and a magical healing staff, but needs to retrieve holy scriptures from a dungeon overrun by draconians.

''DL 2: Dragons of Flame:'' The Dragonarmies invade the aforementioned frontier region and start capturing people to use as slaves. The party gets captured via an unwinnable battle and are rescued by elves, who in turn get their princess kidnapped and the PCs have to rescue her and the slaves from a military fortress. The 'climax' of this adventure is watching big-ass two dragons fight, and the PCs have no means of participating in the outcome.

''DL 3: Dragons of Hope:'' The PCs escort the slaves south in Mormon Exodus: D&D Edition to the supposed safe haven of the dwarf kingdom of Thorbardin. Don't worry, this is about the end of Hickman's attempt to convert your gaming-table.

''DL 4: Dragons of Desolation:'' PCs get railroaded into a dwarf civil war between the Good Dwarfs and Bad Dwarfs who are in league with the Dragonarmies. They get railroaded into helping out the former or end up under arrest, and get the opportunity to visit a floating tomb-dungeon whose only inhabitant is a good-natured prankster dragon...whose traps can kill. The climax of the adventure is fighting the Red Dragonarmy leader near a giant pit of death, but the PCs never get a a THIS IS SPARTA moment cuz the bad guy throws himself in when the battle turns against him.

''DL 5: Dragons of Mystery:'' Not an adventure, but an outline of the world of Krynn.

''DL 6: Dragons of Ice:'' The party splits up in the cold southern city of Tarsis and visits a glacier-covered castle because an old man told them to. Said castle has the White Dragonarmy leader and a Dragon Orb, a cursed artifact which can control the minds of dragons and drive them insane.

''DL 7: Dragons of Light:'' The PCs get railroaded onto an island by having their ship sink at sea. Coincidentally said island also has the elf refugees from the mainland who are enslaving the indigenous wood elves but somehow still remain Chaotic Good. A silver dragon in disguise helps the party find an ancient forge for the Dragonlances, which get tested out in combat when some white dragons invade the sanctum.

''DL 8: Dragons of War:'' The PCs lead an army of knights in defending a sacred tower from the Blue Dragonarmies. Unlike the earlier modules, this battle can be resolved in a variety of ways and the adventure keeps going even if they lose. Said tower is an explorable dungeon containing various treasures and sidequests which can turn the tide of war, like helping a high priest ghost find his missing chess piece or using the Dragon Orb to get the blue dragons to fly into the dungeon's many traps.

''DL 9: Dragons of Deceit:'' Silvara and the PCs infiltrate the EVUUUULLLLL City of Sanction to rescue the good dragon eggs held hostage under a temple and which are being turned into draconians. The adventure's climax involves the PCs riding on the backs of metallic dragons besieging Sanction and fighting the chromatic dragons in aerial combat.

''DL 10: Dragons of Dreams:'' The PCs who split off back in Dragons of Ice accompany a different elven princess east to the ruined kingdom of Silvanesti. A green dragon with a Dragon Orb is responsible for the warped, nightmarish landscape and the curse can be lifted based on a coin-flip. No really, the key to Silvanesti's freedom depends on the result of casting coins into a river, whose sides tell the PCs how to end the nightmare.

''DL 11: Dragons of Glory:'' A sourcebook for TSR's [[BATTLESYSTEM]] rules, for all of your mass combat needs. Was oddly released '''after''' Dragons of War in which it would have been most useful.

''DL 12: Dragons of Faith:'' The PCs commandeer a ship in an evil port city and yet again get railroaded into it sinking (starting to see a pattern here). They end up in an undersea kingdom populated by elves (PATTERNS) fighting off the Dragonarmies' underwater allies. They also meet a mysterious man with a gemstone in his chest who may or may not be the key to defeating the Dragonarmies.

''DL 13: Dragons of Truth:'' The PCs visit a holy shrine to the gods in the middle of Takhisis' Empire of Evil, and must conduct a series of tests to beat the dungeon.

''DL 14: Dragons of Triumph:'' The PCs un-split and reunite for an epic battle in the Empire's capital city. The adventure has one of six different ending sequences for how to shut down the portal which would allow Takhisis into the world. A few of them are cool and epic involving fighting the Evil Emperor or distracting Takhisis on the other side of the portal while the rest of the party shuts it down. While others are lamer, such as sneaking into the basement and breaking the gemstone chest guy's chest.

That's it for the adventure as first envisioned. As for cutting room floor sweepings:

* ''DL 15: Mists of Krynn:'' Stats for notable NPCs, 12 mini-adventures, and descriptions of Ansalon's races and draconians.

* ''DL 16: World of Krynn:'' Four larger adventures for PCs here.

* ''Tales of the Lance'': The box set. If you think you're better than Hickman, here is the Gazetteer to sandbox all the lore so you can prove it.

*  ''[[DLA1-2-3: Taladas series]]:'' Happens on [[Taladas|that other continent]]. But it is Takhisis / Dragon based, irrelevant to that continent's own Big Bad; so it is best slotted as a DL adjunct.

[[Rick Swan]] and others attempted some sequels to the main story in Ansalon. Which didn't take off. Once you've rescued the princess in ''Super Mario'', do you really ''want'' to go back looking for more coins and goombah?