Joe Manganiello on Why Dragonlance is the Star Wars of D&D https://t.co/ajnc7kgFqT. you and i are both massive dragon lance
fans
why are we because i like something
about that
was so evocative right out of the gate i
remember the modules coming out i go to
the comic book store and i would see
dragon lance modules or like even sears
had them right
and then the books came out and
something about it
is immediately connected with this world
and you kind of feel like you you know
what you’re getting right like it’s kind
of like the star wars of d d in a lot of
ways
very much because very much dragons and
lances
like things are gonna pop off i i
definitely agree with you
and when i people ask me what is dragon
lance about or i’m in a position to
explain what dragon lance is about
it’s star wars and i think it totally
it’s
empire strikes back um it is
it is star wars it’s big it’s epic
fantasy
uh which isn’t every fantasy story but
this is big
epic you know epic fantasy and um yeah
and it is
it is constructed in a way that is
closest i think to
star wars there’s a lot of i guess in
the books there’s a lot of influence
from the hobbit
that’s for sure um but in structure
it’s star wars it’s about family
it’s about um
you know pretty much the the grand arc
of the first six books is
you know would you be willing to
sacrifice the thing
that matters to you most meaning a loved
one meaning
your twin would you be willing to
sacrifice your twin if it meant to save
the rest of the world and that’s
a really i mean who doesn’t identify
with
or see or you know who wouldn’t be moved
by that everyone gets that
and so i think at its core um in the way
that star wars was um
you know edible you know it was an
exploration of the oedipus myth
mixed with like some kind of
shakespearean ghost
type of qualities but it’s very ancient
greek and you know joseph campbell
studied all of that so there was a
there was something that was very true
about the original
star wars i’m talking about the original
three i’m not talking about it came
after that i’m just talking about up to
1983
they were you know and it would and i
think that there are there are real
you know truths and really great ideas
and and great relationships
in in dragon lands you know you don’t
you don’t
get the level of romance you know it’s
something like the avengers that you do
in in dragon lance and i think that
that’s very captivating and there’s love
triangles and
you know that i think those are very um
very intriguing
and offer like a soap opera quality in a
good way
yeah in a very good way yeah like the
relationships between like tennis and
kitiara
and who happens to be racing’s
sister well and then and then lorana and
the fact that you have a
biracial character who’s half elf half
human
and doesn’t know his never knew his
parents
and so he’s raised by this elf king
and uh raised with elven you know
adopted brothers and sisters but then
gets to a certain age and realizes he
doesn’t know what the human side is and
how could he ever give
himself fully to someone if he didn’t
know what both sides
were made of and so it goes off and then
you know lorana
the elf king’s daughter is brokenhearted
that he would leave
kuala lunesti and um he goes and lives
amongst
humans and falls in love with a human
woman who also didn’t know who her
father was and
you know so you get this very
interesting understanding of
those issues as they play out in this
fantasy setting and i think that there
is something that
people could um could really sympathize
with
and and that’s something very compelling
about that
it was also it turned things on its head
i remember because
as it starts out everyone’s getting back
together after a long time
they’re not meeting at and and they’re
getting back together in it
at an end and so you’re seeing the
damage that some
sometime has caused like you see race on
for the first time with those hourglass
eyes and golden skin
like things have occurred and that’s
when the war pops off
and it’s it’s such a such a
great beginning to a story because i i
remember the first time i read it and i
was in middle school
i was like okay here we go we’re going
to introduce all the characters and
everything’s fine
and then war just warm and it never
stops
it’s just just everyone running yeah i
love the idea that
you know everyone grew up in this town
or was connected to this small town
and then they all left to go on their
quest once they
arrived of age they went off and
you know five years later in the book
they all return
and have witnessed strange
things afoot in the world and so they’re
you know they get back together to
exchange notes about some of the things
that they’ve seen
and uh or heard and
um you know i love the idea of a world
where you know dragons disappeared
healing magic disappeared
the gods disappeared and then you
realize
they’re all back and now you have this
world that has to
now cope with that as both sides
jockey to harness its power
uh with this impending collision
happening with you know the world at
stake and i love the history of the
world
and and the principles that it talks
about the idea about
false deity worship who benefits from
that
you know these are interesting questions
that were posed to me as a teenager that
i was
very much ready to spend a lot of time
thinking about
it was uh and those first three books
are amazing in that sense then they
they went even further with uh legends
which i was blown away by and if you
like time travel i highly recommend it
and all
and all of the things that you have to
worry about when it comes to time travel
but that’s when that really came into
play was like you have on one hand that
brother who has to
determine am i willing to sacrifice my
brother to save the world
from him and then another brother who’s
like am i willing to sacrifice my
brother so i can
basically essentially become a god
because i am a character who has been
picked on my entire life i have felt
weak my entire life
i’m not going to let that happen again
it’s
just great stuff sure sure yeah
no it’s it’s uh it’s well in in in the
codependency between those brothers and
sense of obligation that the one brother
feels to take care of and protect the
other brother who had always been picked
on his whole life
and then the incredible resentment
that the young that the weaker brother
feels because he needs
somebody and he uh but then the idea
that
when tikka comes along caramen then
racelyn can tell that carmen is falling
in love with tikka yeah and that this is
going to happen
and whether he likes it or not and
now the clock gets gets you know the
clock starts ticking
because he needs to grow in power not
only to get away from his brother but
now the the path is clear he is now
going to he knows that he will never
truly be happy he knows that he will
never truly
find love and he
allows himself to give up on that in
order to
just put everything he has into power
and ambition
and where does that lead well it leads
with becoming
you know it ends up with becoming a god
and um
you know and and of course karim and
then tries to start a family with
tikka and the kids but he’s nothing he’s
just this broken man without his brother
right they can’t live without each other
so it’s just such a
you know it’s such a rich storyline
that really and truly whatever you think
dragon lance is about it’s it’s a story
about family
it’s a is in the bonds and tie us to
blood
um and then also to to friends and what
that means
um and uh and love and
loss and you know there’s there’s just
so many cool uh somebody
like i said so many great ideas and
great relationships in those books
and you’ve got to actually play like we
were talking about
this before the video you got to play
with margaret weiss playing tassoff
barefoot so
you have now you have a character who
has a direct relationship
to one of i would
insidious isn’t the word for tasselhoff
infamous definitely infamous certainly
yeah but more importantly i’m also
i personally have a relationship with
margaret
and tracy and and that you know i was
telling you i just spoke to both of them
yesterday
and i check in with them all the time
and um
you know i that’s actually how i
started or i started a relationship with
wizards of the coast a lot of people
think
oh he was such a fan and was vocal about
being a fan and it’s like
no i i actually i wrote a script for
warner brothers or you know co-wrote a
script for warner brothers
when they had the property and because
of that
i wound up being hired as a consultant
to help to help with dragonlance
so there was a uh you know i i actually
was
i was flown up to seattle to meet tracy
and margaret
and uh to understand their plans for the
the property’s future and uh and because
of that i wound up
shoot i wanna margaret invited me to
uh gary khan that year and then she
invited me to gen con
and you know tracy and i started hanging
out tracy ran me through a game of raven
loft which was
mind-blowing um to have to be inside of
his head in in the module that he wrote
which many people believe is the
greatest d and d module of all time and
i got to play with margaret which she
played at staffs off so i’ve gotten to
travel quite a bit
and get to know them really really well
Thank you @JoeManganiello for taking the time to nerd out about D&D as always. pic.twitter.com/3dABbtO7It
— Todd Kenreck (@ToddKenreck) February 9, 2021