I think a lot of it boils down to one's preference for linear campaigns (like Dragonlance). They provide for a lot of momentum, which can be a lot of fun, but are restrictive and can come apart in the hands of poor GMs.

Currently, there is a wave of sandbox love that is reflected in reviewers hating on anything that doesn't fit that mold, along with feedback from the Encounters program for which it is a poor fit. So it has had a lot of poor reviews. However, many actual play reports show that it plays better than those would suggest.

I dont think this is linear like a DL module. The PCs have a fair degree of freedom in how they go about each stage.

Example. In the session I ran, the whole enemy camp section went not at all as expected. The PCs snuck in, then started making friends around camp while Daern, the dwarf wizard, was quietly arranging for some trouble for the cultists later. They find the NPC they are after while Nox, the blue dragonborn sorcerer bluffs like crazy with the kobolds some more. The same ones he had bluffed and won over back in town. Here the PCs decide to sneak out while they have a window of opportunity. Leaving behind the captive villagers.

This would cascade into everything that happens after that as they have thus far kept up the guise of being part of the cult, making friends and then causing havoc that so far no one knows they caused. Later they pretty much bypassed most of the Lodge by getting to the point, wheeling and dealing and then moving on ASAP.

The module is linear mostly because the PCs are committing to stopping the cult. They have to follow the leads to the source. How they get there is at points up to them. They could have decided to try something other than following the gold. Of course they could just as easily have passed and done their own thing totally unrelated. In which case we wouldnt have played the module.

Id love to get on with the adventure but everything with that group is stalled due to health issues disrupting the the one day we have free for RPing. I am going to have to push soon to figure a solution before I start to lose track of where everything was headed.

Quote from: Omega;857261I dont think this is linear like a DL module. The PCs have a fair degree of freedom in how they go about each stage.

I agree with your comment on HotDQ. My reference to linear was that the episodes are linear as they are in DL, not how linear they are (or aren't) in each episode.

Quote from: Omega;857261Example. In the session I ran, the whole enemy camp section went not at all as expected. The PCs snuck in, then started making friends around camp while Daern, the dwarf wizard, was quietly arranging for some trouble for the cultists later. They find the NPC they are after while Nox, the blue dragonborn sorcerer bluffs like crazy with the kobolds some more. The same ones he had bluffed and won over back in town. Here the PCs decide to sneak out while they have a window of opportunity. Leaving behind the captive villagers.

This would cascade into everything that happens after that as they have thus far kept up the guise of being part of the cult, making friends and then causing havoc that so far no one knows they caused.

This is pretty much how it went with my group, too, including leaving the villagers behind. About the only difference was the party bard making bluff/performance rolls to impress and distract the cultists and kobolds while the rest of the party escaped with the prisoner (finished with an impressive rendition of The Ballad of Dickie the Kobold, ending with the bard's sweet voice echoing off the canyon walls, the final chorus of "I love Diiiiiiiiiick....").

Quote from: Skywalker;857264I agree with your comment on HotDQ. My reference to linear was that the episodes are linear as they are in DL, not how linear they are (or aren't) in each episode.

Its still not that linear as the PCs can bypass chapters by whatever means they can concoct.

The PCs could concievably bypass everything between the attack on the town and the keep in the swamp. They could probably bypass the keep too if they played their cards right. At a stretch incredibly lucky groups could skip all the way to the ice castle.

Quote from: Doom;857299This is pretty much how it went with my group, too, including leaving the villagers behind. About the only difference was the party bard making bluff/performance rolls to impress and distract the cultists and kobolds while the rest of the party escaped with the prisoner (finished with an impressive rendition of The Ballad of Dickie the Kobold, ending with the bard's sweet voice echoing off the canyon walls, the final chorus of "I love Diiiiiiiiiick....").

Due to Nox's bluffing, Langadorsa's blue kobolds ended up latching onto Nox and have been a running gag of them appearing out of nowhere in enemy camps the PCs are infiltrating with the dreaded "HEEEEEEY BOSS!"

As said, YMMV, but we really enjoyed ep 4 and did a lot of roleplaying and it lasted 2 sessions for us. But maybe our GM did something to it, or we are good riffing off character interaction.
We also enjoyed Ep6, the swamp castle and allying with the *****men against the @!*@!.

Quote from: Doom;856937Well, I'm somewhat p'wned there, I admit...but Dragonlance was more a campaign built around the books (which had dragons) than the dragons. Heck, even when I read the books I never really thought the books were about dragons (it seems like draconians and effin' Kender were center stage most times).

QuoteThere have been many, many, adventures, modules, and campaigns for D&D, but there's been a glaring omission: nothing has been really centered around dragons.

'Cept for, you know, the first Adventure Path ever, The War of the Lance.

QuoteWell, I'm somewhat p'wned there, I admit...but Dragonlance was more a campaign built around the books (which had dragons) than the dragons. Heck, even when I read the books I never really thought the books were about dragons (it seems like draconians and effin' Kender were center stage most times).

C'mon, man. The setting is designed around dragons. The word "Dragon" is in every module's title, and there is a dragon on every cover, IIRC. I'd guess there are dragons in every module, though I've never actually checked.

It not only has lots of dragons, it also has dragon high lords, dragonarmies, dragon NPCs, dragon gods at the head of the good and evil pantheons, a whole new series of draconian humanoids (basically the first dragonborn), dragon orbs, and dragon lances. It even has a Trojan Dragon.

One of the dungeons is inside a giant, Lady Liberty sized statue of a dragon.

I can see how someone might forget Dragonlance in the first place, or never have heard of it. But when you find yourself in a hole, first thing to do is stop digging. Just stick with the "pwned" part.

Quote from: Doom;856937Well, I'm somewhat p'wned there, I admit...but Dragonlance was more a campaign built around the books (which had dragons) than the dragons. Heck, even when I read the books I never really thought the books were about dragons (it seems like draconians and effin' Kender were center stage most times).

For the first 4 modules, the modules came first then the books.  That was only for DL1-4 though.