Falconer skrev:
> I'm taking a "second look" at TotL now. Right now, I'm thinking "great
> concept, horrible execution." The map of Ansalon in that set is really
> great. Aside from Taladas, the TotL map is the next, necessary step in
> the evolution of Krynn. Too bad it was ignored except in The Odyssey of
> Gilthanas.
Apart from some mistakes and contradictions there as well, the map had
one problem: With all its huldrefolk ruins and celestial stairs
scattered about, it missed including new sites based upon previously
established history such as Istar, Ergoth, ancient ogre and the magic
Orders. (And with the Odyssey of Gilthanas' revealing an ancient huldre
metropolis near Icewall, I wonder if some of the TotL things are better
left ignored.)
> The core problem with TotL--other than it being Johnson's vision and
> emphatically not Hickman's--is that it can't seem to decide whether it
> is a WotL gazetteer (in which case, the recent War of the Lance
> hardcover is far superior) or an expansion for future adventures in
> Ansalon (which it fails miserably at).
Consistency issues aside, TotL doesn't really work as a gazetteer. It
works better than DLA in this regard, of course, since DLA had just
about zero information on the various regions. But the info in TotL is
very sketchy, and far inferior to other boxed settings published around
the same time; such as Ravenloft and Dark Sun (which are the two I've
looked at. I remember being real jealous of a friend of mine who bought
and DMd Dark Sun for the good coverage of the setting he got, while I,
DMing Dragonlance, was stuck with DLA and TotL. No wonder I moved my
games to Taladas. It wasn't until the "War of the Lance" book (which I
really appreciate) was published that we did get a good coverage of 4A
Ansalon.
TotL also has a lot of issues when it comes to game balance
(particularly clerics) and lack of game information. So even if we
ignore the very major consistency issues, it is, in my opinion,
mediocre to low-par as a tool for a D&D setting. Of course, the same
can be said about DLA, but at least DLA, despite several contradictions
in its details, present Krynn as readers had come to know it, not some
badly flawed and majorly reworked clone.
Let me put it this way: In describing a setting, TotL is slightly less
bad than DLA. In describing Krynn, DLA is infinitely much better than
TotL.
Morten
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