# Dragonlance *The world of Krynn and the DL modules* - Work: Campaign setting - Date: 1984 (DL1 Dragons of Despair) - Made by: Tracy Hickman (Creator; designer of DL1 and project lead); Margaret Weis (Co-author of the Chronicles novels; project coordinator); Larry Elmore (Original design team; cover artist) - Houses: TSR, Inc., Wizards of the Coast - Platforms: AD&D modules (DL1–DL16, 1984–88), Novels, Computer games - Canonical: https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragonlance/ > A world built to tell one epic story at once as game modules and novels: Krynn, its three moons of magic, its kender and draconians, and the War of the Lance that made TSR a fiction publisher. **Why it matters:** Dragonlance was TSR's first attempt to launch a world simultaneously as adventures, novels and merchandise, and its bestselling Chronicles proved that a game setting could produce mass-market fantasy fiction. ## Quick answers **When was Dragonlance first released?** Dragonlance was first released in 1984 (DL1 Dragons of Despair). **Who created Dragonlance?** Dragonlance was made by Tracy Hickman (creator; designer of DL1 and project lead), Margaret Weis (co-author of the Chronicles novels; project coordinator) and Larry Elmore (original design team; cover artist). **Who published or developed Dragonlance?** TSR, Inc. and Wizards of the Coast. **What kind of work is Dragonlance?** Dragonlance is a campaign setting in the Tabletop Roleplaying Games, High / Epic Fantasy and Shared-World & Tie-In Fiction tradition, released for AD&D modules (DL1–DL16, 1984–88), Novels and Computer games. **Why is Dragonlance important?** Dragonlance was TSR's first attempt to launch a world simultaneously as adventures, novels and merchandise, and its bestselling Chronicles proved that a game setting could produce mass-market fantasy fiction. ## Overview Dragonlance is the world of Krynn, a land where the gods have turned their backs on mortals, dragons have been legend for a thousand years, and then, suddenly, they return. It was launched by [TSR, Inc.](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/tsr/) in 1984 as a series of [Advanced Dungeons & Dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/advanced-dungeons-and-dragons/) adventures and, in parallel, as the [Dragonlance Chronicles](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dragonlance-chronicles/) novels by [Margaret Weis](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/margaret-weis/) and [Tracy Hickman](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/tracy-hickman/). Together they told the story of the War of the Lance: a band of old friends who meet at an inn, stumble into a war waged by dragon-riding Highlords, and find the long-lost weapons, the dragonlances, that can turn it. Where earlier D&D worlds were backdrops for any adventure, Dragonlance was built around one epic plot, and it became TSR's first great crossover between tabletop games and bestselling fiction. ## Origins In 1982 Tracy and Laura Hickman were driving to Wisconsin, where Tracy was to join TSR, when they began discussing a world built to support a single storyline and dominated by [dragons](https://www.lanternhall.org/bestiary/dragon/). At TSR, designer Harold Johnson encouraged him to build support among the staff. The resulting team included Jeff Grubb, [Larry Elmore](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/larry-elmore/), Roger E. Moore, Douglas Niles and Michael Williams, and the effort was code-named "Project Overlord." Weis, hired as an editor in TSR's book department in 1983, was brought in to help coordinate the project. TSR agreed, reluctantly, that the modules would be accompanied by novels and first hired an outside writer; when that did not work out, the book department's managing editor, Jean Black, picked Weis and Hickman to write the trilogy themselves. The first module, DL1 *Dragons of Despair*, designed by Hickman with Michael Williams as editor, cover art by Clyde Caldwell and interiors by Jeff Easley, appeared in March 1984. The first novel, *Dragons of Autumn Twilight*, followed in November. Elmore's paintings of the heroes, especially the red-robed Raistlin and the kender Tasslehoff, defined how a generation pictured the setting. ## How it plays Dragonlance is a *campaign setting*: a world with its own history, gods, peoples and maps, played using the ordinary AD&D rules. Players are the heroes; a [Dungeon Master](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/game-master/) narrates Krynn and runs its villains. The original DL modules, sixteen of them released between 1984 and 1988, did something unusual: instead of creating their own [characters](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/player-character/), players were handed pre-generated heroes, the same companions who appear in the novels. DL1 introduced Tanis Half-Elven, Sturm Brightblade, the twins Caramon and Raistlin Majere, Flint Fireforge, Tasslehoff Burrfoot and the cleric Goldmoon, with her companion Riverwind as a non-player character. The modules DL1 through DL14 form one continuous arc that shadows the novels: a quest for the true gods, a war across Ansalon and even, in DL11 *Dragons of Glory*, a board wargame of the whole conflict. Krynn added its own flavor to AD&D: the kender, small, fearless and compulsively "borrowing" halfling cousins; the draconians, reptilian soldiers created by corrupting the eggs of good dragons; tinker gnomes whose inventions rarely work; and wizards bound to three moons, whose phases change their power. A great disaster, the Cataclysm, which the gods sent to punish a proud priest-king, lies three centuries behind the story and explains why the gods have gone silent. ## Reception & impact White Dwarf gave *Dragons of Despair* 8 out of 10, calling it "well-detailed and original," and it later ranked 25th in Dungeon magazine's 2004 list of the greatest D&D adventures. Critics also noted the cost of the approach: designer Lawrence Schick judged the scenarios "heavy-handed in channelling the players to follow the plot," and Dragonlance became a standard example in later debates about [Railroading](https://www.lanternhall.org/lexicon/railroading/). The fiction was an unqualified success. The Chronicles became bestsellers, and by 1998 the original trilogy had sold well over three million copies worldwide; Weis and Hickman's combined novels have been reported to exceed 22 million sales. Dragonlance proved that a game company could be a major fiction publisher and paved the way for the [Forgotten Realms](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/forgotten-realms/) novel line and [R. A. Salvatore](https://www.lanternhall.org/makers/r-a-salvatore/)'s Drizzt books. The sourcebook *Dragonlance Adventures* (1987) turned the modules' world into a general setting, and [SSI](https://www.lanternhall.org/houses/strategic-simulations-inc/) adapted it for computers with *Heroes of the Lance* (1988) and the "Gold Box" [Pool of Radiance](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/pool-of-radiance/) engine in *Champions of Krynn* (1990). ## Legacy Dragonlance has outlived TSR. It moved to TSR's SAGA card-based rules for the "Fifth Age" in 1996, was licensed to Sovereign Press for [third edition](https://www.lanternhall.org/works/dnd-3rd-edition/) from 2001 to 2007, and returned in 2022 with the fifth-edition campaign *Shadow of the Dragon Queen* and a new Weis and Hickman novel trilogy beginning with *Dragons of Deceit*. A direct-to-video animated film, *Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight* (2008), gave voice to Raistlin through Kiefer Sutherland. Its larger inheritance is the idea of the setting as story. The fixed-party epic, the adventure written to match a novel, the "metaplot" that advances a world's history through official products: all were tested first on Krynn, and all shaped [Shared-World & Tie-In Fiction](https://www.lanternhall.org/atlas/shared-world-fiction/) and roleplaying through the decades that followed. ## Facts - Tracy Hickman conceived the idea of a world dominated by dragons while driving with his wife Laura to Wisconsin to join TSR in 1982. - Inside TSR the project went by the cover name Project Overlord. - The first module, DL1 Dragons of Despair, came out in March 1984, seven months before the first novel. - Each player in the DL series took the role of a fixed pre-generated hero, such as Tanis Half-Elven or the sickly mage Raistlin Majere. - Magic on Krynn waxes and wanes with three moons: white Solinari, red Lunitari and the black Nuitari, invisible to most eyes. - By 1998 the original Chronicles trilogy had sold well over three million copies worldwide. ## Sources and further reading - [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonlance) - [Wikipedia: DL1 Dragons of Despair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragons_of_Despair) - [The Saturday Evening Post: 40 Years Ago, Dragonlance Catches Fire](https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2024/11/40-years-ago-dragonlance-catches-fire/) --- From The Lantern Hall (https://www.lanternhall.org/), a museum of fantasy literature and roleplaying games.