[Note:] This document is actively revised with updates related to Pathfinder campaigns and rules clarifications.
This web page has notes on my interest in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting, and the War of the Lance setting companion, for D&D 3, and The Inner Sea World Guide for Pathfinder. I am currently planning a Dragonlance campaign under Pathfinder first edition. There is a potential for notes on D&D 3.5e related items.
In a Gamespy 2004 interview, Gary Gygax, speaking of D&D 3.5, said
that it was …too rules intensive… relegated the Dungeon Master to
being an entertainer…. It's done away with the archetypes, focus[es]
on…combat and character power, lost the group cooperative aspect,
bastardized the class-based system…a player can play any alignment
desired, not just lawful good.
However, he said, There's a number of things in
Advanced Dugeons & Dragons (AD&D)
that I never should have done. I shouldn't have put Psionics in there,
but somebody talked me into it. Some of the combat, weapons vs. armor,
and weapon speeds I just would have dropped.
Gygax originally referred to referees after Chainmail. Arneson was the one who coined the term Game Master, as used in Pathfinder books. The first use of Dungeon Master was Tunnels & Trolls in April 1975, which the Blackmoor supplement adopted. So Game Master is the only D&D originating term. I use Game Master generally, and due to trademark and other nonsense, don't often use Dungeon Master. I sometimes like referee.
D&D third edition changed TTRPG: it offered D&D under the Open Gaming License. Everything that came before, restricted under copyright, was now opened to derivatives for the sake of community campaign promotion.
Paizo is the publisher that Wizard's of the Coast (WotC) hired to maintain the Dragon and Dungeon magazines. They also published the classic Amazing Stories science fiction magazine. Before the announcement of D&D Fourth Edition (4e), WotC pulled Paizo's license. To replace Dungeon magazine, Paizo offered the Pathfinder Adventure Path. Already, improvements to the mechanics were being offered, so when 4e was released, Paizo decided to continue Pathfinder as a game system built on 3.5e.
Many complained that 4e was too different as a game. However, other than the short time frame of the changes (3.0 was introduced in 2000, 3.5 in 2003, and 4 in 2008), the main problem with 4e was the GSL, the more restrictive license for third parties to utilize for their campaigns, intending to replace the OGL 1.0a going forward.
This needs to be understood in context of D&D Insider, the official website for handling 4e character sheets and an intended virtual table top. The site was scrapped to bury 4e in favor of 5e (called the 2014 anniversary edition, and originally D&D Next). When Hasbro bought DnD Beyond in 2023 and introduced the OGL 1.1, the connection in GSL thinking should be stark.
Paizo's (among others, such as Weis and Hickman) being cut off by Hasbro is the real motivation behind the Pathfinder fork, which continued the development of the D&D 3.5 game past the release of D&D 5 into 2018, where it was ultimately replaced by Starfinder. (I've never played 4e.) Paizo represents the new era of TTRPG adventure focused open gaming. There's no reason to go back to the bad days of TSR law suits, Hasbro GSL and OGL 1.1 third party control, and their legal bullying of detractors and collaborators-seen-as-competitors.
For learning Pathfinder (the first edition), the Strategy Guide walks new gamers through their first character creation, and playing the game for their first time. This is the first book someone looking at Pathfinder for the first time should buy.
Return here for notes on playing and converting Dragonlance to Pathfinder. Also see the Dragonlance FAQ.
Dragonlance books contain no open content, or licensing of any kind for derivative development, so anything created is essentially fan fiction and campaign description. I never went beyond the first Dragonlance science fiction trilogy in my reading, so really never moved beyond the War of the Lance. I'd like to think that Dragons of Despair should have been my first D&D game experience, but I was exposed mostly to homebrew and OD&D until D&D 3. D&D 3e and Pathfinder provided open game content and so had greater appeal, but the origins of my interest still remain.
With the release of Shadow of the Dragon Queen, my interest has returned to Dragonlance. The Dragonlance Campaign Setting takes place in the Age of Mortals. The War of the Lance gives much more detail than the campaign setting on running a campaign in the Age of Despair. There are other Dragonlance books offered for 3e, but those are the two I own. I'll be starting with The War of the Lance to review the original timeline.