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