Happy New Year! Back in our world we are still in December 1984, and we get this little puppy. DL5 is the fifth in the list of Dragonlance modules… but it isn’t really a module at all! As you can see in the heading of the cover it says it’s a Source Book for the Dragonlance saga, and that is indeed what it is. For the first time ever a numbered module has no adventure content whatsoever but only lore, history and useful information for running a setting. More like a campaign setting book than a module.

That being said, it’s full of useful info both about the world of Krynn itself, where Dragonlance is set, but you even get a little peek backstage with the introduction which explains how Dragonlance came to be, starting out in 1982 under the name Project: Overlord. The book also breaks down the story of Dragonlance up until now, giving a list of possible sessions to play the first four modules (which would take some 18 sessions according to this), and it also advises DMs on how to deal with death in a world where characters have long and involved histories and can’t just be dispatched summarily if you want the story to go on. The DM section also gives some info on the Greygem of Gargath (for mysterious reasons, but that is fun as that is a central artifact for the Dragonlance novel series ongoing in the 2020s), and some more info on how to play certain major NPCs. 

The rest of the “module” tells the story of the creation of Krynn, gives us a pantheon of gods, their symbols and affiliations, a short breakdown of how all the heroes met before the start of DL1 as well as more detail on how to play the characters, with full pages dedicated to each of the central companions of the Lance. Add to this a cool detachable map and a starmap of the constellations of Krynn and you have a really fun addition to your Dragonlance campaign… which you should actually read before you play DL1, if you haven’t started yet!