Dragonlance was how I got into roleplaying. I'd come across the fantasy gamebooks that were popular in the 80s and 90s, Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf in particular, and I'd played the Fighting Fantasy tie-in RPG. But the Dragonlance novels were extremely important for my development as a fantasy fan. I still remember seeing the little advertisement in the back, about how there was a game based on this. We tracked down a game shop on a family holiday to England, and for my birthday and Christmas that year I was able to get the Dragonlance: Tales of the Lance boxed set, as well as a Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, and my first set of orange polyhedral dice. Then there was no looking back. Shortly thereafter, a new RPG based on Dragonlance was released but this one used cards instead of dice, and I fell in love immediately. Over the years I've managed to track down an entire set of Dragonlance: Fifth Age, and it's one of my most treasured RPGs.
Please don't take this as a recommendation! The novels are not that good by modern standards (I think the first trilogy is about as good as it could be all things considered, and the second trilogy holds up surprisingly well, but don't go any further!), and the world-building is extremely problematic in places. This game is flawed as well: the underlying maths doesn't work. It was extremely unpopular when it came out for using cards instead of dice, and for the way it massively changed the world in which the gods have departed, there's new types of magic, and giant dragons rule the world. A few years later, when Wizards of the Coast bought TSR, the game was cancelled and the original authors wrote a new novel trilogy to restore the status quo. (There's also a Marvel Superheroes game using the same system, I've heard people speak fondly about it but I've never tried it.)
Anyway, the game itself: Dragonlance Fifth Age uses the Saga system, which is powered with a custom deck of cards, each depicting a character from the novels. The cards are ranked 1-9 and divided into nine suits. In addition, each card has an alignment (white, red or black) and two personality traits appropriate to the character depicted. Players use cards to perform actions, adding the value of the card to their statistic. If the suit of the card matches the type of action being performed, the card is a trump and another card is added blindly. One suit is Dragons, and if a player fails an action by playing a Dragons card, a mishap ensues. Characters also lose cards from their hand as they take damage. My favourite part of the game was magic: players could create custom spell effects by consulting five simple tables to work out the spell's difficulty and cost in spell points. Coming from the prescribed spell lists in D&D, this felt very fresh and original. There was also a lot of good advice for using the cards as an oracle deck in-game to help the Game Master improvise. The game had had several excellent supplements. The Bestiary was written in-character and had beautiful art by Rebecca Guay, the Dragonlance Classics 15th Anniversary Edition rewrote the original adventures to remove some of the railroading, and the Saga Companion had new rule ideas, including advanced character creation guidelines which I think are absolutely wonderful.
Character Creation: So far I've avoided using supplements for any of my characters, but the character creation in Dragonlance Fifth Age is so greatly improved, to my mind, by using the Saga Companion that I've decided to break my own rule here.
Basic character creation consists of taking a hand of 12 cards. Two of these are assigned to your Demeanour (how you act) and Nature (what you're like inside). Generally your lowest value cards have the most positive traits, and I've used them to be Courageous and Insightful. You use another card for your Social Status, which determines your Wealth (I use another low card here for Wealth 2, meaning I'm a Peasant) and another for your Quests, which is like your character level and determines your starting hand of cards. I use a 5 here, so I'm an Adventurer and have a starting hand of 4 cards. Finally, you allocate your eight remaining cards amongst your eight ability scores. This also determines your ability codes, which is your level of training with that skill, based on how closely you match the suit to your ability score. I allocated my cards to maximise my skill ranks, which gives me a 9A Spirit score, giving me access to Mysticism magic with 81 spell points (9x9). I think I'm some sort of cleric-like character.
Once this is done, you can look at which species you qualify for. This character can only be a Human, and I decide to be a 'Civilised' Human (unfortunate name!) which lets me take one point from my physical stats and add it to my mental stats. I can also choose a Role, which is like a character class or archetype for which I qualify. I decide to be a True Believer, so I'm a religious loyalist who still believes in the departed gods. I'm imagining Ledon as being like the Mandalorian: growing up in an isolated community of extremists and now venturing out into the wider world to find my beliefs challenged.
The advanced character creation options from the Saga Companion give me more information about my origins. There's a number of steps in which I draw a card and use the number and the suit to answer questions. So I discover that Ledon has one parent alive, and I'm on good terms with them (4 of Helms); that I'm an only child (1 of Shields), that my family emigrated to where I currently live many years ago, and they're well regarded in the community (2 of Helms), that there's a small group of about five people who are my enemies and they use mysticism against me (5 of Hearts), that I have one friend who can provide money (1 of Arrows), and that I have a companions who's a lover or spouse, who's loyal and devoted (9 of Crowns). This reinforces that I've been thinking: I'm part of a religious cult that denies the departure of the gods, and my 'enemies' are people trying to change our mind.
There's also a 'significant events' system where I draw cards and find out important events about my past - one for every card in my starting hand (so, four). I discover that Ledon had a health scare that affected one of his senses, that one of his friends became undead and he had to defeat them, that when he left his upbringing he discovered that he's less exceptional than he thought, and that a friend returned from travels changed into an enemy. (I'm reinterpreting that last one slightly).
Putting them in order: I think my dead parent might have turned into a ghost. My mysticism manifested and I defeated them, but was put in a coma. When I recovered, I was treated as very special, since I was probably the only one in my community who had divine powers since the gods departed. I've set out into the world, along with a few friends, one of whom is my lover, to look for proof that the gods are still around. However, some of my friends returned having met other mystics and realising that I'm not some sort of new prophet, and whever we cross paths they try to demonstrate that my powers come from within, not from the Gods, but I'm not listening to them...
And that's Ledon! He's quite a developed character, with a rich backstory and motivations and quests and friends. I wish him well, and I wonder how he'd deal with the twin revelations that (1) the gods really are gone and he's not that special, and (2) in a few years they'll be back again anyway!
Final Thoughts: Dragonlance Fifth Age is not that good, but I really like it! I guess what I really want is for someone to do a retroclone of it. I think you'd lose something by making it generic (whose pictures do you put on the cards?) and maybe you'd have to theme it around some public domain property, maybe something mythological? Maybe this is a creative project for me for the distant future.
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