Ready for More????

Ok, we are going to make this the last one.....

But it's in a couple of different parts.

So, without further ado....

Her Most Awesome Fairy-ness's es es....

Heck.  How to get along on Ansalon Part 4 - Geography, Major Holidays, and a quick timeline up until now

General geography, especially for you folks who expect more islands and a huge Maelstrom......

Surprise, this is happening BEFORE something large and fiery came down on a certain city that starts with Is and ends with Tar.

Spoilers......

We are one big, relatively happy family here on Krynn, at least we have one big happy continent when it comes to Ansalon.

So, I'm just going to give you a few basics, cause the DM sometimes has some problems with East vs. West (and she's a former Geology Major!).

  

Solamnia is in the NorthWest and is where those tin cans, er Knights of Solamnia are housed.  It's mostly humans around here, but you can find some.... other folks too, just not too many.

Abanasinia is sort of in the Middle, South, West of Anasalon, ok, right on the other side of the mountains from Ergoth. Mostly humans here too, although the plains also support centaurs and the hilly regions near the mountains have some hill dwarf communities. Darken Wood is also here..... ooooooh, scary.

No one famous lives in this part of the country....

Or ever will......

Take that Kit!!!!!!!!!!!

Pbbbbbbbbbpt!!!!!!!!!

Ahem, ok, sorry about that.  I'm over it.

Where were we?

Oh, yeah.  Ergoth.  Ergoth is in the Southwest. They are a primarily human empire (not nation, EMPIRE).  Their biggest claim to fame was that they were soo eeeeeeeevil that that Vinas Solamunus person said "Thank you, but no thank you to that bridge to no where...."

Oh no, that's not right.  He said "These three Gods told me to take my toys, move north and leave your sand box."

The bestest thing here is this AWESOME monument/tomb/mountain thingy where Huma is buried that's shaped like a dragon...

AWESOME!

Ok, so you have the Qualinesti (Western Elves) that are jammed up next to Ergoth and the Silvenesti (Eastern Elves) that are kinda in the middle of the continent, near Thorbardin, the dwarven underground nation. 

Wow, that was three in one little sentence!

Istar is the jewel of the East (and still exists!).  It is also mostly a human nation.

Those are the major ones, sure, there's Kendermore, and Blode and Icereach and all those other fabulous places, but those are more cities in mostly unincorporated areas, not real nations, and since this supposed to be more of an overview...

There ya go.

Are we ready to party?

Really, are we ready to party? The one holiday that I'm going to focus on at this point is the following (cause everybody loves a party and everyone has a few of their own).

The Night of the Eye is kind of Krynn's version of Halloween, but with COOKIES!!!!  In times past, fledgling Wizard of High Sorcery (and can we PLEASE shorten that to WoHS? Thanks!) went from house to house performing magic tricks in exchange for cookies. The children of Krynn saw this and figured the WoHS were on to a good thing, so they started doing the same thing.

But where does this Eye thing come in?  Well, if you remember from the Gods section, each of the gods of magic is represented by a moon in the sky.  Every year (generally in late "October") the three moons form a conjunction.  These conjunctions aren't usually that spectacular because the moons are generally in different phases when this happens, but once every 117 years all three moons are full on the Night of the Eye.  This is what's known as the "Great Conjunction" and it's an awesome sight.

Yule is also big in Solamnia and Spring Dawning is pretty popular all over Ansalon.

Which brings us to my patented shortened timeline....

Way, way, back many centuries ago......

Wrong story AGAIN...

Let's try again.

A long, time ago in a .....

No, still not right.

Ok, so there is nothing new under the sun.

The history of Krynn is divided into Ages, the first Age is known as the Age of Starbirth.

All sorts of interesting things happened, The High God called Paladine, Gilean and Takhisis from "The Beyond". Those three called a bunch of others and created the pantheons.  Reorx created Krynn by forging (or taming if you will) a bit of Chaos.

Time is pretty fluid during this time before history, so all we really know is that there were three other major events, The All Dragons War, which resulted in the creation of the three outer planes where the gods reside.  The Dome of Creation was created for the good gods, the Hidden Vale for the neutral gods and The Abyss for the gods of evil.

This was also the time frame when the Gate of Souls was created. This was the way that the souls of the dearly departed could pass from Krynn to the realms of their gods.

The other two things were another war, the All-Saint's War.  This was fought between the gods over the souls.  During this time the first three races of Krynn (humans, ogres and elves) were created.

Then there was this little problem with the GreyGem.  This is a long story, but it boils down to the creation of all of the other races on Krynn.

The next Age is the Age of Dreams.  Really, not alot to say.  It's mostly everyone moving around, spreading out and trying to get along.  Except for the ogres, THEY decided to enslave the humans for a while, until an orge named Igraine decided to lead the slaves in a revolt because he didn't believe in slavery.  This caused the break between the "good" ogres and the "evil" orges that lead to the founding of the Irda.

Around 3,057 years ago or so, the first Council of the High Ones was called by the elf Silvanos.  “High Ones” would be the elves. This is the founding of the first elven nation.  They unite behind Silvanos to fight dragons invading the forest that will be come know as Silvanesti.

Between 2557 and 2407 years ago there was the First Dragon war.  This was mostly fought between the dragons and the elves for control of the forests of Krynn. At the end of this war the City of Silvanesti is founded.

Between 1747 and 1702 years ago was the Second Dragon War.  You guys ever get the feeling that the Dragon's are the cause of much trial and tribulation on Krynn?  Once again the Dragons are picking on the elves, but unlike the last time when the Gods of Magic helped out, the Gods of Magic aren't really able to help until the very end this time, it'll take almost 400 years for Wizards to get themselves in order.

Approximately 1,657 years ago the Empire of Ergoth is founded.  It takes them about a century, but they are in dominant on Krynn for over 300 years.

Around 1,207 years ago the Hylar clan begins develing the city that will become Thorbardin.  They only take 150 years to devel this chamber.

1249 to 1197 years ago was the Kinslayer Wars (one of the FEW wars that can't be blamed on the dragons).  The nation of Qualinesti is founded at the end of this war.

Around 1,057 years ago Pax Tharkas is founded to commemorate the Swordsheath Scroll agreement that brought and end to both the Kinslayer War and the War of the Mountains (between Ergoth and the dwarves).

Starting 856 years ago, and lasting EIGHT WHOLE years was the Rose Rebellion.  This was the breaking away of Vinas Solamnus and what would become the KoS from the Ergothian Empire.  The KoS are officially founded 832 years ago.

117 to 75 years ago was the Third Dragon War (what's WITH these Dragons!) also known as Huma's War.  The end of this war caused all of the evil dragons to be forced off of Krynn.  The Good Dragons withdraw to the Dragon Isles.

6 Weeks ago, the Night of Eye featured a Grand Conjunction.  This was one of the coldest in known history, at least in Southern Solamnia.

4 and half weeks ago.....

Here we go again.....

You guys sick of me yet?

Hopefully not, cause here's the fun-est (and unfortunately longest) part of the series.

Ok, so here we gooooooo.....

The XP's Fairy Definitely not so secret tips for living on Krynn Part III - THE GODS.....

Dum, dum, dum.....

Ok. So there are 23 Gods on Krynn...

What did you say?

The DM told you that there were only 21?

Well, funny how life is sometimes, we are BOTH right.

There ARE 23 Gods, but you mortals only have to worry about 21 of them. I just wanted to make sure that you were paying attention. Mortals really don't worship the High God or Ionthas (Chaos) so I'm not even going to bother.....

Except I just did, kinda, sorta, a little bit....

Ok, so the OTHER 21 are divided equally, 7 good gods, 7 neutral gods and 7 eeeeeeeevil gods. Krynn is a lot about balance ya see.

Now, before you all just close this, delete this, or just ignore this in favor of some cool YouTube video of something hitting someone somewhere that can't be spoken of in polite company, just hang with us for a little bit.

You see, Krynn isn't a theocracy (look it up, kiddos), but just about everyone knows at least the names of the Gods, cause there are representations of them hovering in the sky every night. People know these Gods, even if they aren't particularly religious, so hang in there.

Ok, so most books list the good gods (Gods of Light) in alphabetical order, then the neutral gods (Gods of Balance) then those evil folks (Gods of Darkness). I'm going to do something a bit different.....

Reverse Alphabetical Order.

I am nothing if not quirky!

Zivlyn: This God is the god of Wisdom, but he's also known as the Tree of Life. Great thinkers worship him, and anyone that wants to learn stuff would be wise to at least give him a passing "What's UP?". Zivlyn is the "patron God" of scholars and those types.

An important little tidbit, some say that if you look into Zivlyn's Avatar's eyes, you can totally see the future, all the way to how you are supposed to bite the big one. Creepy.

Zeboim: The Sea Witch, not to be confused with Ursula from the Little Mermaid, this one is much, much worse. She won't just steal your voice and then try to steal your boyfriend, oh no my friends. This EVIL Goddess of the sea will capsize your fleet and raise undead sea creatures to munch you if you aren't lucky to drown when your boat goes down.

However, she's super popular with pirate and evil sea elves. She's super NOT popular with followers of Habbakuk, since she's mostly his exact opposite. Most folks that are planning on traveling by sea at least make a little bit of a sacrifice to her to insure safe passage.

Takhisis: OOOOOOOh, now here's one not to tick off, cause if you do she's invade Krynn, or steal the entire world out from under the rest of the gods or all sorts of other naughty things. She is the head honcho chiefy-boss of the Gods of Darkness.

She's in charge of the evil dragon, and she is the one that created the Ogre race. She really can't stand her brother, Paladine, or her consort Sargonnas, or her daughter Zeboim, or.... You getting the picture? She is the ultimate embodiment of evil on Krynn.

Solinari: Well, if you are going to be one of Paladine and Mishakal's three sons, at least be the one that gets to cast FIREBALLS!!!!!!! Sol (as I like to call him) is the Good God of White Robes mages.

A nifty note on him and the other Gods of magic: they don't technically have clerics.

The Gods of Magic are worshipped every time a Wizard of High Sorcery casts a spell. But do the Wizards get divine spells? Nooooooooo. I'm sure that some out there might think that's unfair, but really? Would you rather have Cure Light Wounds or FireBall?

Sirrion: Gotta love a God with a lot of flash. Sirrion is the neutral god of Fire, alchemy and all things that go KABOOM!!!

Sirrion suffers from a bad PR Group, he really doesn't have that many followers, but if it's a rainy night out and your need to start a camp fire RIGHT now, him and his clerics are your bestest friends. Oh, and Sirrion's consort (what's with all the Gods shacking up? You'd think this was Greece!) is Shinare.

Which brings us to Shinare. She's the neutral Goddess of commerce, wealth and all that good stuff. She's one of the chief deities that the Dwarves of Krynn worship.

Mercs, merchants and the like worship her. As noted above, she's the companion of Sirrion and she HATES Hiddukel.

Which DOES not bring us to Hiddukel. This brings us to Sargonnas, and none too soon. Ya see, Sargonnas is not only the consort of Takhisis (even though they hate each others immortal guts) but he's also the god of VENGANCE, and other stuff. So it's probably a good thing that we got to him before some of the others.

Sargonnas is the high mucky mucky gods of the Minotaurs. Sargonnas hates all of the Gods of Good, except Kiri-Jolith (who some say can kick his backside into next week if he wanted to). Since he's also the god that evil monks revere, Majere and his hot-bloodedness do not get along at all.

Oh, and did I mention that him and Takhisis really can't stand each other, even though they had two godlings together?

Ok, so moving right along..... Does everyone that doesn't have Darkvision have their torches handy?? Good, good. Ok, any of you tall folks watch out for low hanging stalactites and everyone look out for stalagmites cause next up is Reorx!

You know Reorx, created Krynn from a bit o' good ol' Chaos, chief god of the dwarves, right? He's one of the more fun-loving gods, although every once in a while he can be a bit morose (don't ask him about the GreyGem). I guess that's just so he can stay in balance and all. Gotta do that if you are a neutral god after all, right?

Reorx is the go to guy for crafty folks, and works with Shinare to promote dwarven craftsmanship and all the jazz.

Ok, so we are to Paladine are we? What can I say about this god of good. He's shiny, really, really shiny. He's shiny cause he's so gooooood. He's shiny cause he's known as the Platinum Dragon. He's shiny cause he's one of the founders of the Knights of Solomnia. He's just a shiny, shiny god.

Unless he's Fizban.

That's all I got, except if you are a goody-goody, you'll LOVE worshiping him. Or if you are a dragon, or a Knight of Solamnia.

Ok, can we all agree from here one out the Knights are going to be abbreviated KoS? Thanks.

Ok, where are we? Just about halfway through the list (Whoo).

Nuitari. Wow, it looks like we are back in the dark again. Sigh. Anyone have a match?

Nuitari is the son of Takhisis and Sargonnas. He decided, along with the other gods of magic to go inhabit a moon of Krynn so he could be "closer to his followers".

Personally, I think he left home to get away from Mommy and Daddy.

He's the god of the Black Robes, and he loves a nice Chianti.... I mean, he's loves secrets (almost as bad as a Slaugh if you ask me. Opps, sorry, wrong gaming system).

Any way, he's sooooo into secrets that you never see his symbol in the sky, except for during the Night of the Eye when the three moons of Krynn line up in the sky. Besides then, you have to be a Black Robed Wizard to see that moon.

<Cough> <Cough> <Cough> Sorry, who are we up to next? Morgion? Gosh, no WONDER I feel like death warmed over. Oh what, no, that Chemosh. Ok, I feel like I've coming down with some REALLY REALLY bad.

Morgion is the eeeeeeeeevil God of Sickness and Contagion and all things that will lay you flat on your back for a week or more. His interests also lie in Madness and decay in general (Dwarves, everytime some nice things of your's rusts, you know who to blame!).

Like most of the Gods of Darkness, he doesn't like the good Gods, especially Mishakal, who is is direct opposite.

And who is also next.

This is the most worshipped, most revered, most loved God on Krynn, and why not? Mishakal is not only a snappy dresser (Blue is the DM's Favorite color, and Mishakal is know as the Blue Lady, K?), and the wife of Paladine and the mom of some heavy hitters in the pantheon of good BUT she heals people. That's so awesome!

Even though she is known for her motherly compassionate nature there is one person that she really can't stand, her sister-in-law, Tahkisis (am I sensing a trend here?). She's not to fond of Morgion (he always ruins all her best flowers) or Chemosh (he's always bring back her best flowers as slobbering zombie brain suckers) either for that matter.

Ok, so the next one up is a tough one. He's a god of good, but he's not part of the whole big brood o' godlings that Paladine and Mishakal had (between those to an their brood, they make up 5 of 7 gods of good), but he's still awfully important to the Gods of Light, especially Paladine.

He's the chief gods of the monks, not that there are many of those on Krynn, but still. He's into the whole mediation and yoga and stuff, but if you tick him off he'll go all Krav Maga on your backsides.

Don't mess with Shaft.... err.... Majere.

Are we there yet? Actually, we are about 2/3 of the way through.

Ok, back to the Wizards type. Lunitari. She's an interesting woman. See, her father, Gilean, doesn't HAVE a consort (too neutral? maybe), so she sprang from his head fully formed.

Wait a minute..... that's can be right.... Hold on......

<Papers shuffling>

Huh, ok, Gilean wants to be just like Zeus, or maybe it's Jupiter. I don't know, but it says right here that Lunitari sprang fully formed from his head.

Maybe that's why she's all about illusions (you know, Mind FREAKS!). Anywho, she's the Goddes what leads the Red Robe neutrally Wizards.

She gets on pretty good with her cousins, Sol and Nuit, but pretty much stays out of the other gods business.

Next.....

Kiri(I'm cool cause I've got a hyphenated name)-Jolith is next on the list. Him, his dad (Paladine) and his brother (Habbukuk) got together one day and said, "You know what we should do.... We should TOTALLY go and tell that Vinas Solamnus guy to break away from the Ergothian empire, start a new nation and then start this group of Knight, wouldn't that be AWESOME."

No, I swear that's what they did.

So they did that, and so now each of the gods is a patron of one of the orders (Kiri-Jolith is patron of the Knights of the Sword, Habbukak the Knights of the Crown and Paladine the Knights of the Rose). You know why the Knights have those horns on their helmets, Kiri-Jolith. Yah see, for some reason his symbol is a buffalo (Ta tan kah), so in honor of KJ they have horns on their helmets.

Ain't that sweet.

As you can imagine, he's also in charge of warriors the fight the "good fight" and go to battle to protect the innocents and all that good stuff.

Alright, let's move through this next one quickly, cause he's one bad dude that you don't want to attract the attention of.....

And since we have already dealt with Vengence and Pestilence that's saying something.

Hiddukel isn't nearly as in your face as Sargonnas and Morigion. Noooooo, instead of making you violently ill or just killing you, he will make your live a living nightmare, bad deals, dishonest merchants, thieves stealing you blind? Guess who you must have ticked off.

Don't mess with him or he'll steal you blind.

As far as who he doesn't like, that would be Branchala, who is all about truth and beauty and a great song. Not so much with Hiddukel.

Ok, all you good Druids, if I haven't lost you ALREADY listen up. It's your turn.

Habbukuk, Kiri-Jolith's twin brother is not only large and in charge of the one of the orders of Knights, but he's also the go to guys for Druids.

He's BFF with Branchala, and really can't stand Zeboim. Of course the feelings are mutual between these scions of nature.

Home stretch here....

Gilean, the head of the Neutral Gods. Gilean is in charge of lots of things, like the whole history of Krynn. And keeping Paladine and Tahkisis from killing each other.

Some say that Astinus of the Library of Palanthus is really Gilean in disguise. This Fairy ain't saying a word....

Not a sylablle.

Whoot! Three more to go!!!!!!

Chislev is the neutral Goddess of Nature. She's also a good one not to mess with cause while Habbakuk represents the nice, pretty, picnicky side of nature and Zeboim represents the evil, but can be bribe, so bad that you know not to touch that snake side, Chislev is dispassionate and neutral and is just as likely to rip your throat out as to save your backsides.

She doesn't have a lot of clerics, but truly neutral druids are drawn to worshiping her. Chis and Ziv have the hook up and are feircely loyal to each other.

Oooooh, another one that I'm going run through (and after all we are almost done with this). Chemosh, Lord of the Undead. That just doesn't sound like someone you want to invite over for tea and crumpets, does it?

No, I didn't think so.

Needless to say this one doesn't get on well with most of the Gods of Light, and most especially Mishakal.

Oh goodie, last one.

Ok, now I KNOW that some of you (ok, probably most of you) will laugh that this one is even included on the list. I mean afterall, aren't Bards the butt of all kinds of jokes?

Well Branchala is more than just the Bard King. He's the one that sang all of the mortal on Krynn in to life (that means you too). He's all sorts of goodness and light and laughter and looker to boot.

He's also one of the cheif gods of the Elves and I KNOW we have a lot of elves around here. So don't laugh. You can snicker a little bit, but no out right laughing.

It's not nice.

Oh and he's also the most important God for Kender.

Ok, now I can HEAR you laughing!

Alrighty. I think that about does it.

You got questions? You let me know.

More to come from me before I turn it over to the NPC's (but not much more)....

The XP Fairy strikes again....

I'm baaaaaaack.....

Everyone ready for more?

Cause here's Part II of the XP Fairy's not so secret tips for Krynn - Classes

Ok, now that you know what yo mama gave ya. Whatchya wanna do with that?

We got all kinds of choices here on our little bit of Prime Material Real Estate.

Shall we go back to this silly Player's Handbook thing?

Ok, so we are going to do this in alphabetical order, so as not to be bias for or against any class. I'm just going to tell you what differences there are between this book, and what you'll find on Krynn.  You also might want to know what God to worship, but I'll clue you in on to that in the next part where I talk about the Gods.

Oh, and for those of you who are kinda new to the whole "3rd Edition" thing, or maybe a little rusty;  There are two different kinds of classes.  Core Classes (Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, etc) and Prestige Classes.  We'll talk about all of the Core Classes, and some of the Prestige Classes here.

Barbarian:  Barbarians are barbarians are barbarians.  There is no change to this class at all. That's really for the better, don't cha think?

Bards:  Aaaah, the groovy mash-up of thieves, sorcerers and Jon Bon Jovi (Ok, maybe not Jon Bon Jovi, maybe more like .... I don't know, Loreena McKennitt).  There is almost no difference in this class EXCEPT you can't cast healing spells. Boo.

Cleric:  Ok, so you would THINK that there is not difference to this class, how could there be any difference? I mean, who would mess with Clerics? Well, there is one big difference.  Every other place you can be just a Good Cleric or a Bad Cleric or a Waffly-I-don't-really-care-either-way-as-long-as-I'm-not-in-the-line-of-fire-per-se Cleric (that would be Neutral).  Here on Krynn, not so much.  You HAVE TO PICK A GOD OR GODDESS to worship.  And it HAS to be a Krynnish God (sorry all those Grumsh worshipers, you got no MoJo on Krynn).  Besides that, the skies the limit.

Druids:  Ok, another spiffy mash-up.  Druids are the love children of clerics and rangers, with some cool stuff stuck in there for good measure (Wild shape ROCKS btw!).  Just remember, the gods are jealous of their followers, so if you want to cast all those nifty divine spells, you gotta worship a God/Goddess.

Fighters: Aaaaah, where would we be without fighters...

Probably dead in a ditch somewhere when something really nasty beat the begeezus out of us.

Much like Barbarians, Fighters are pretty much the same, although, if you are a Lawful Good Fighter, there are some interesting advancements opportunities out there, but we'll talk more about that later.

Monks:  Well, monks aren't much different here than anywhere else, although there are not at all common out there.

Ok, are you are sensing a pattern? Spell casters are the odd balls that I'm really needing to talk about here.

Paladin:  There are about as many Paladin's on Krynn as there are fine upstanding light skinned Drow in Menzoberranzan.  I have a theory on that..... I think it's cause this one God's name is Paladine, and he doesn't want to get thing confused (I mean, have your MET Fizban?). 

That being said, you can be a Paladin, but once again, you gotta worship the right God/Goddess.

Rangers: Ok, what's with the all the mash ups?  This is a mix of fighter and .... something, druid, cleric, Cuisinart, whatever.  DM's Favored class, hands down (and she's not too big to admit it).  Really the big thing is once again, you want spells, you gotta play nice with the nature gods.

Rogues: Here's what you need to know about Rogues.  Kender are not rogues, they are not theives, they are HANDLERS.  Please do not get this mixed up, they tend to take offense.

Sorcerers:  Ummmm, bad news folks.  You can't play a Sorcerer, even though they are in the Player's Handbook (See I TOLD you the book was wrong).  Even if you look at the DragonLance Campaign setting book, where it says that you can play one, that's wrong too.  See, we are playing before the Cataclysm (Ooooooh, fiery mountains..... coooooool), so there just isn't magic out there to just grab and use.  And really, you don't want to go against the Conclave, so study your spell books and be a good little wizard, ok?

Which brings us (FINALLY) to Wizards:  You can be a Wizard, but around the time that you hit FOURTH LEVEL (listen up folks) you are requested to come to a Tower of High Sorcery and take (Dum, dum, dum) THE TEST. 

If you pass, you get a royal pardon, and a host of splendid things, a chariot of gold, a cloak, a medal and some signet rings. Oops, wrong show.....

Actually, you get a robe, maybe a special magic item and if you are REALLY lucky gold skin, hour glass eyes and just the most sunny disposition....

NOT.

But seriously, you want those fireballs? You'll want to play this class, and play nice with the Conclave.

Which brings us to Prestige Classes.

Most Prestige classes kick in around 4th to 6th level.

There are PLENTY of books out there that discuss prestige classes, and if you want to play one, let the DM know and you can hash it out. The two I want to talk about are the Wizards of High Sorcery and the Knight of Solomnia.

Wizards first, reverse alphamabetical order.

<Begin Stern XP Fairy voice....hehehehe>

If you are a Wizard and you don't want Dockett and his buddy whose name escapes me (ask to see the binder O' NPCs and you'll understand) chasing you down and killing you eventually, you might want to consider making your character as a Wizard of High Sorcery right from the get go.  Ok, so everyone knows what alignment you are, but you won't have problems down the road, and you can get help from the Towers, which might come in handy.

The DM has informed me that she really, really, REALLY doesn't want to deal with having people take the Test, Really, really.  PLEASE make your wizard a head of time as if they had taken the Test, or know that we aren't going to go back to fix it later.  And there will be Renegade Hunters, really.

Can we tell we've had this problem before?

Ok, enough of them.

<End stern....giggle.... never mind, back to what we were doing>

Most of you who have read about DragonLance will know these next folks.  The Knights of Solmonia.

Here's the good news: We are playing BEFORE the Cataclysm and just a little bit after Huma's War so the Knights ROCK according to the common folks.

Here's the bad news: They are STILL the Knights.  No getting around that folks.  Sorry.  They tend to at this point still be for the round eared and XY chromasomed, but that doesn't mean that there can't be exceptions. Once again, if you have a GREAT story, things can be worked out.

Ok.  There you have it.  Except for one itty-bitty thing.

There are a couple of Prestige Classes that you ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY CAN'T DO.

And the ones that I can think of off the top of my head are:

Dragon Disciple - not a lot of half-dragons to begin with, and all draconic folks have been sent packing for the time being, sorry, unless you want to be banished the first time you sprout scales, you might want to reconsider.

Dread Pirate - Nope, as much as like Pirates (I’m a Will girl btw, not as much a Jack gal, but PoTC still rocks!). I just don't see where that will be a useful thing.

Knights of Tahkisis - not the right era, don't exist, you can't play something that's not there.

Legion of Steel - see above, re: Knights of Tahkisis.

Ok, I think that's really it.

Be on the look out for more educational things.

The XP Fairy presents.....

The first four posts will go up pretty quick, since they are emails that I have already sent to the gaming group to set up the Campaign

Please note that which ever character is "posting" will be featured at the top of the post, so this one is from our favorite Goth Fairy......

Living in and on Krynn, Part 1

Hi All,

I suppose I should start off by introducing myself to those of you who have not met me yet.

I am the XP Fairy. I am the one that from time to time will send winging your way all sorts of fun stuff such as more Strength, Constitution, Hit Points, Skills, Spells, etc. Please do not bother Ms. DM about XP, she's just the DragonLance DM, she really doesn't know anything.

I'm second cousin twice removed to the Anachronism Fairy (Copyright, Paul is Awesome Productions). Much like the Anchronism Fairy, ingore me at your peril, and don't ask me twice for how much XP you got. I can be a little bit easily....

BUTTERFLY!!!!!!

Oh, sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, I can be a bit easily distracted, so I don't always remember how much XP you guys get from session to session.

Anyway, I thought that just in case you intrepid adventurers really were going to begin adventuring on Krynn, I might want to throw some pointers your way.

Soooooo, here we go.....

The XP Fairy's not so very secret scoop on Krynn, Part I - Races

Ok, so I KNOW that all of you have a Player's Handbook (silly thing really if you ask me), and you are going through thinking what is my character going to be?

Well, not everything is available, and not everything is as it seems.

Whoot, exceptions! AWESOME! 

So, let's start off with the HUMANS shall we?

Ok, so not much difference here, except the DragonLance setting takes into account that Ansalon (that's the main continent for those of you who haven't read the books or gamed around here yet) is a HUGE place and very diverse. Soooo, not only do you get "Common" (which in the old days was called "Camp Talk"), but you ALSO get a regional dialect, free.

Yeah Bonuses!!!!!!

Beyond that, Humans are the same old BORING round-eared, short-lived race from the Players Handbook.

Shall we move on???

Dwarves!

Now, THERE's a race to get excited about!

Ok, so I was being a wee bit sarcastic, but hey, if you want to be a tank, go right ahead.

So, this so called "Player's Handbook" will lead you to believe that there is only ONE kind of Dwarf.

Don't believe the hype.

On Krynn, we have several kinds (or clans) of dwarves. Although there is only slight differences to them, but they ARE important, especially if you are another dwarf.

Mountain Dwarves are the "standard" dwarves that we all know and love to make fun.... er, love. Just know and love.

Hill Dwarves are more of less the same, EXCPET they don't get that whole "I know where we are underground to a 1/10 of a mile". And they don't get darkvision. Sooo, they are a bit short changed is you ask me.  Short... heee, short dwarves..... heehehehehehehehe.....

Ahem, I'm ok now, really I am.

Deep Dwarves are naughty, but basically the same as Mountain Dwarves. Oh, and you can't dodge giants worth a darn, sorry.

There are different "clans" or family groups for the each of the races of dwarves, but you and the DM can talk about that if you want to get THAT specific.

Hmm, have a forgot anything....

Seems, like I'm forgetting one kind.....

Oh, YEAH, that's RIGHT!

Gully Dwarves. Gully dwarves are fun a parties, don't believe the whole "short bus" jokes. I've even heard of one or two Gully heros here and there. Mostly there.... not so much here.... except that one druid fellow, but that's a different story.

Ok, where are we going next...

OOOOH, I know GNOMES!

Gnomes aren't much different from place to place, or plane to plane for that matter. The only thing is this "Favored Class" thing. What you start as your first class, is what your "Favored Class" is. Odd, I know, but that's what you get for playing with high explosives.

Let's wander over to the "Odd Races" section for a moment, shall we?

Bakali. Ok, really? Lizard folk? I mean, at least they are big hulking brutes of Lizard folks, but puleaz! It's no wonder they live in the swamps!

Centaurs. Ok, really? Horsey-people? Actually, Centaurs are pretty cool, it just might be a bit difficult to take one somewhere like Thorbardin, but still, pretty cool. And think, one less horse you'd have to get, actually, depending on how agreeable they are feeling, two less horses since one human-like person would be able to ride them.

Minotaurs. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Minotaurs make me laugh. I really LOVE the smart ones!The rest love glory and fighting and killing each other and all sorts of other stuff. They crack me up. But seriously, they are good at what they do and what they do is pummel the crap out of things.

Ok, so back to this "Player's Handbook" thing.

Next up we have elves.

Alrighty, looking at this "Player's Handbook" thingy, it LOOKS like there's only one kind of elf (see above for same issue with the Dwarves).

Say it Ain't So!

Oh right, IT AIN'T SO, at least not on Krynn.

Much like OTHER places (can we say Fareun, I knew we could). There are different "types" of Elves on Krynn. For the most part they differ on what what they want to do for a living, not so much anything horribly important, unless you want to be an super intelligent Kagonesti....

Ok, so we have Silvenesti. They are the snobby ones that are supposedly the first "Civilized" Elves.

Whoppie.

Then we have the Qualinesti. They are not quite as civilized. They broke off from the Silvanesti over some issues about ....

SNOOOOORE...... <Snort> Sorry, were was I?

Ok, so I hate politics, sue me. Qualinesti are the most social of the elven nations though, or at least they will be, a bit stand-offish right now.

Kagonesti are what other people would call "Wild Elves". They are not nearly as civilized as the other nations, but they are still elves dang it. Some of they are very good cooks too....

Oooooh, Cookies!!!!!!!

Sorry, inside joke.

I wouldn't say Kagonesti aren't as smart as the other elves (especially with Willow's animal companion looking at me like I'm lunch), but they don't really care so much about formal education.

Two other elven races you might or might not want to deal with. Dargonesti and Dimernesti: these are aquatic elves. Besides breathing water and air, there's not much to recommend them.

Ok, up next we have Half-Elves.

I just don't think that a half-elf could ever be a REAL hero, sure, maybe he gets goaded into it because of he's got some buddy that's a Knight or something.... I don't know.

Nothing really different to an Half-Elf though, still torn and moody and halfway between humans and elves.

Ok <thowing book over shoulder> That's it for the book.

But you might ask, what about Halfings.....

What about Half-Orcs.......

We don't got no such things.

Ok, so Half-OGRES we got in spades. That race you can play, and it's not that much different than an Orc.

You could also play an ugly, stupid full blood Ogre. Or you could play an Irda, and be blue.

And then there are Kender.

Kender are COOL (and not in the same way that Fezs or Stetsons are cool, to all my Whovian friends). They are just like Halflings, except they don't have hairy feet, or big noses (Paul) and aren't scared by anything. They can throw Minotaurs into a rage with the right words, heck they can throw any sentient creature into a rage, just as long as the creature understands the words that are coming out of the Kender's mouth.

So there we have it. Does that mean that this is EVERYTHING that's on Krynn? Heck No! We have portals to "The Beyond" (aka, the rest of the multiverse) and things come through portals all the time, they just aren't that common, and isn't it nice that the only "Dark Elves" that we have to worry about is evil rogue evils that have been kicked out of polite society.....

Cause really, our Dark Elves are snappier dressers!

You want some "real rules"? Well, you can start here for right now. But there are more "real" rules coming.

http://www.dlnexus.com/fan/rules/10979.aspx