The Blue Phoenix Inn: 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.....