#Dragonlance Calendar

[oldschoolfrp]

The apparition glared at each, its coils twisting, its very appearance shifting and shimmering in the gusty winds of its creation. Both mages held it in check, watching the other intently, waiting for the eye blink, the lip twitch, the spasmodic jerk of a finger that would prove fatal.

"Mages' Battle" by Jeff Easley, from the 1988 AD&D Dragonlance Calendar, inspired by this passage in War of the Twins by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This also appeared in 1991 as a divider page in AD&D 2e Monstrous Compendium 8: Outer Planes Appendix, and in 1995 as collectible card #82 in Jeff Easley's "Heroes & Villains" series by FPG. It occasionally appears online as "The Battle of Raistlin and Fistandantilus."

[vintagerpg]

The two books of Magic Encyclopedia (1992 for Volume One and 1993 for Volume Two, not to be confused with the later, actually useful four-volume Encyclopedia Magica) are exactly the sort of books that made folks complain about things like bloat and TSR just wanting to shake down their players for their allowance money. I don’t disagree.

These are alphabetically arranged catalogs of all the magic items in D&D up to that point, collected by type. So, “necklace,” and “diadem,” and so on. Each item type is accompanied by a small illustration and a brief description, in case you weren’t sure what a tabard is. This is the lone useful thing the book does.

Following the item type description, all the specific magic items are listed out, followed by a code that allows you to cross reference the publication their description is in. None of the specific magic items or their effects are described here. This is not an encyclopedia. This is an index. And I know I have said in the past that I adore an index, but this? This is insulting.

What’s worse, the code isn’t easily parsable, like “Players Handbook Page 10.” They just used the product codes. That’s easy for some, perhaps. S1 is easy — that’s Tomb of Horrors. In a million years, I couldn’t tell you what product 8891 is (the index tells me it is the 1991 Dragonlance calendar — are you telling me they had magic items in the calendars?!). I have an above-average working knowledge of TSR’s product line and I can’t be fucked to try and use this as a reference. I mean damn. Under the credit box in Volume One is the line, “God, forgive us for what we have done to your world.” I can only take that to me that even the TSR team knew they were messing up with this one.

I like the Fred Fields cover for Volume One. The Caldwell on Volume Two isn’t a fave and it is recycled from a Dragon Magazine.

[wizardarchives]

Dragonlance: Lord Gunthar & Fisban by Larry Elmore from the 1985 Dragonlance calendar

[sci-fi-fantasy-art-collection]

Clyde Caldwell

Dragonlance 1985 Calendar Art

[crescentmp3]

hi. i desperately need help deciding on something for my fictional world

arguments provided.

in the case of two moons, i would like one moon to have a consistent silver glow while the other is perpetually bathed in blue, casting everything at night in a soft glow with eerie double shadows—inspired by the silver and red moons in dragonlance. this would be pretty cool with folklore and stuff too and make for cool but really high tides! maybe their shapes can be irregular? lots of eclipses, perhaps monthly, which can breed different traditions and holidays and myths. cool different calendars.

in the case of rings, there are many cool aspects to think of. from the equator it might look like a thin razor blade perpendicular to the horizon, from the arctic circle as a hump and from some other places like a large arc. it might have small shepherd moons that keep the rings from falling apart; and at differing times of day, seasons and latitudes, there would be shadows on the rings, creating what look like huge doors. equinoxes viewed from the equator mean the sun will be cut right through by the rings, and cast shadow to one side and light the other, which is really cool

[playypause]

Clyde Caldwell

TSR cover for the 1987 Dragonlance Calendar (1986)

[stardust-in-my-mind-blog]

Prologue

It is always the map of believing, the white landscape and the shrouded farms. It is always a land of remembrance, of sunlight fractured in old, immovable ice,

And always the heart, cloistered and southerly, misgives the ice, the drifting for something perplexed and eternal. It will end like this, the heart will tell you, it will end with mammoth and glacier, with ten thousand years of effacing night, and someday the scientists rifling lakes and moraines, will find us evidence, our relics outside of history, but your story, whole and hollowed will end at the vanishing edge of your hand. So says the heart in its intricate cell, charting with mirrors the unchartable land of remembrance and rivers and ice. This time it was different: the town had surrendered to the hooded snow, the houses and taverns were awash in the fragmented light, and the lake was marbled with unstable ice, as I walked through drifts through lulling spirits, content with the slate of the sky and the prospect of calendared spring. It will end like this, the winter proclaimed, sooner or later in dark inaccessible ice, and you are the next one to hear this story, winter and winter occluding the heart and there in Wisconsin, mired by the snow and by vanishing faith, it did not seem bad that the winter was taking all light away, that the darkness seemed welcome and the last, effacing snow. He stood in the midst of frozen automobiles, cars lined like cenotaphs. In the bundle of coats in wool hats and mufflers he rummaged the trunk for God knows what, and I knew his name by the misted spectacles the caved, ridiculous hat he was wearing. And whether the courage was spring in its memory, was sunlight in promise of whiskeyed shade, or somehow aligned beyond snow and searching, it was with me that moment as I spoke to him there; in my days I am thankful it took me that moment as I spoke to the bundled weaver of accidents the everyday wizard in search of impossible spring. Tracy, I told him, poetry lies in the seams on the story in old recollections and prospect of what might always and never be (And those were the words I did not say, but poetry lies in the prospect of what should have been: you must believe I said these words past denial, past history), and there in winter the first song began, the moons twined and beckoned on the boarders of Krynn, the country of snow resolved to the grasslands more brilliant and plausible. And the first song continued through prospects of summer where the promise returns from the vanished seed, where the staff returns from forgetful deserts, and even northern lands cry out to the spirit, this is the map of believing fulfilled; this is the map of belief.

-Dragonlance: The Second Generation by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

[oldschoolfrp]

This is an interesting composite image using Larry Elmore's fighter from the 1983 "red box" Basic D&D set versus the demonic apparition from Jeff Easley's "Mages' Battle" in the 1988 Dragonlance Calendar.

USA 1993

[env0]

D&D Players of Tumblr!

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So if you were looking for a Autumn themed Unicorn. Then do I have a treat for you! The Forest Master, a CR 8 Celestial creature.

I am excited for this D&DBeyond Advent Calendar and so should you

Not sponsored but that'd be dope

[tramblr]

Gnome Wizard Finger Guns

[oldschoolfrp]

Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit (Larry Elmore from AD&D module DL9 and the 1985 Dragonlance calendar)

[fruitoverdose]

Finished my moon phase tracker for a Dragonlance campaign. Rotation is manual. Notes include a calendar page, possible 5ed conversion bonuses (made up), to-buy list (a pearl for the Identification spell ;) and a little making fun of a team mate.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Dragonlance Calendar (1988) -The Dark Queen by Clyde Caldwell

[gameraboy2]

1987 Dragonlance Calendar by Clyde Caldwell

[manyworldspress]

Keith Parkinson, Flight of the Dragon Orb. Illustration (February) for the 1987 Dragonlance Legends Calendar (TSR, 1987).

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[enigmalea]

Word Count:   527 Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Leliana (Dragon Age), Cole (Dragon Age) Additional Tags: Redcliffe (Dragon Age), Nugs, Flower Crowns, Mentioned Sera (Dragon Age), Mentioned Blackwall (Dragon Age), Mentioned The Iron Bull (Dragon Age), Memories, Mentioned Hero of Fereldan Summary: Being in Redcliffe for Summerday reminds Leliana of the last time she was there in hopeless times in the company of unexpected friends.

Note: This fic was the Summerday fic written as part of the @dragonageannual 2022. It was a bonus fic included with the Dragonling and High Dragon versions. The artwork for this piece was by the lovely @thefoxinboots​ and has been posted here on tumblr or  on twitter.

Read on AO3

P.S. The full collection of works for the calendar are available here, but not all writers and translators have posted to it, as it’s optional!