Tinker gnomes in Krynn

Today’s post looks at Tinker Gnomes in first and second edition.  Another either really popular or really despised idea from D&D is that of the Tinker Gnomes.  In Krynn, gnomes are hapless inventors who make inventions that are large, impractical, and seldom work.  They feature prominently in the Chronicles Trilogy.  (Highly recommended reading).  In Taladas there are not one but two gnomish cultures set closely in the Tinker Gnome mold.  The hardcover Dragonlance Adventures provides rules for adventuring in Krynn and includes the Tinker Gnomes as a character class.  It includes about 5 pages of rules and charts for constructing inventions.  Most inventions are probably only going to work about 20% of the time and generally have destructive misfires about 80% of the time.  Tinkers have a rapid experience table very similar to the rogue table.  Tinkers get better at inventing as they get higher in levels.  High level tinkers are necessary to build devices that actually stand a reasonable chance of working.  They gain lots of non-weapon proficiencies but have a -5 penalty to them.

They are fun and more so if you have read the Chronicles Trilogy.  Having a Tinker Gnome with the party would probably be fairly amusing yet hazardous.

Taladas (which uses 2nd edition rules including the reduction of power from barbarians) keeps the Tinker gnomes from 1st edition (the rules are not reprinted in Taladas so you need Dragonlance Adventures to run Tinker gnomes).

However when the Tales of the Lance boxed set was produced (1992) Tinker gnomes lost their inventive rules.  5+ pages became less than a page explaining that Tinker gnome inventions do not work.  However, new equipment for Tinker gnomes included several different types of grenades and an arquebus-type firearm.  These inventions are in direct conflict with what was published in Dragonlance Adventures explaining that gnomes are not good chemists.  (It also conflicts with Tales of the Lance which includes a similar statement).  I think the Tales of the Lance decision was a bad one regarding Tinker gnomes.  In defense of Tales of the Lance, these changes make it easier to play tinkers as characters, they are going to be back row gunners.

Tinker gnomes (First edition or Taladas) are throwbacks to an era when role-playing had equal consideration with character class strengths.  A player choosing a tinker is choosing him for the fun story opportunities and role-playing challenge, not for the opportunity to be the most powerful character.  Since tinkers only start with 1 weapon proficiency (although they gain another one at 3rd) it probably makes the most sense for them to have a sling or a crossbow to start with.  Dragonlance Adventures is unclear what tinkers fight or save as.  Generally they are back row non-combatants.  Playing a tinker properly would be quite a challenge.

In conclusion, Tinker gnomes are a lot of fun and part of what make Dragonlance unique.  If you feel that your characters are getting dull and that you spend too much time min/maxing them, playing a tinker in a Dragonlance campaign might be the solution to get you thinking about role-playing again.

More discussion about kits in Dungeons and Dragons

What kit type is most common?  I think that the best answer is Scout.  There are at least 10 different scout kits.  (Thief, Dwarf, Humanoid, Ranger, Elf, Gnome (and Halfling), Ninja, Spelljammer, Taladas, Barbarian).  These kits are not all called scout per se but they have basically a stealth, learn about the enemy function coupled with being quick, light-fighters.  (As opposed to being heavy-infantry)

 

The next most common kit type is the hunter (8).  There are 3 bounty hunters (paid hunters) and 5 hunters that stalk monsters for other motivations.  Hunting/stalking kits are found in Thief, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Ranger, Humanoid, Paladin, and Ninja handbooks.

Surprisingly rangers are poorly represented in both of these kit types.  Most of the ranger kit types are in the wilderness defender category or the annoying animal companion category.  Where you might expect multiple scout or hunter kits, there are only 1 each for ranger. 

There are 8 “Savage” kits.  (Barbarian, Humanoid, Druid, Fighter, Priest, Ranger, Wizard, Taladas).  Savages being primitive and tribal rather than the medieval archetype for their respective class.

There are 3 bandit kits and 2 outlaw kits for a total of 5.

There are 4 pirate kits.  (Thief, Fighter, Spelljammer, and Al-Qadim)

There are 4 swashbuckler kits.  2 if the literal title swashbuckler is required (thief, fighter and plus two more if the swashbuckler is considered an acrobatic fighter with a hint of derring-do. (Elven, Bard)

It is interesting to see what kits are there multiples of across different classes.  Some of the kits seem to have more of a role-playing background thought to them.  Other seem to be considering what tactical role the character will play in the party.

There is a rough parity between the fighter-thief and priest-wizard kits.  (The paired handbooks roughly mirror each other but not exact copies).  After that the kits vary widely in terms of the kits that appear in a given supplement.

 

Kits vary widely in their "power-up" nature.  Kits published in 1989 have few power-ups.  Later kits are more prone to power-ups without much of a negative trade-off.  Although it is still possible to find balanced kits in later “Complete Handbooks”.  For example the peasant wizard who is poor and must remain poor.  The benefit is that he can get free shelter from his fellow peasants.  Not a huge “power-up”.  As literally written, the only magic item that peasant wizards can possess are magic weapons because weapons are the only thing exempted from the poverty requirement.  In contrast the Complete Ranger’s Handbook features Greenwood rangers who after 4th level (and other levels) get several special abilities by being part ranger/part plant including the ability and 10th level to grow an extra arm.  The arm is temporary but can be regrown.  Obviously as a fighter/front row character this is a significant ability.  The only meaningful hindrance for a Greenwood ranger is vulnerability to fire.  Both kits were designed by the same author (Rick Swan).

The Taladas boxed set does a good job of illustrating how kits were supposed to work.  Given that Taladas was written by “Zeb” Cook, principle author of the 2nd Edition rules, this is not surprising.  The main function of the Taladas kits is to provide color for the different cultural areas and explain that color in game terms.

The Taladas kits will be discussed in a future post.

A look at Minotaurs

Review:  Taladas: The Minotaurs.  (DLR2) By Colin McComb.  Published in 1991.

Taladas is one of my favorite settings.  It is another continent on the world of Krynn.  It has a one sentence description in the Dragonlance Adventures hardcover book.  In the future, I will review both Taladas, and Dragonlance Adventures at length.  The focus of this review is on a supplement about the minotaurs of Taladas.  Overall DLR2 provides more details about one of the significant inhabitants of Taladas- the minotaurs.  About 1/8 of Taladas is an empire (the League of Minotaurs) that resembles the later Roman Empire and many of the citizens of the League are minotaurs.  The ruling class of the League including the emperor are minotaurs.  DLR2 provides lots of good material to work with for a Taladas campaign for minotaurs including several interesting adventure ideas.  I would certainly recommend it to collectors and Dragonlance/Taladas fans.  With the cultural background that it provides, it could be used to bring minotaurs into another first or second edition D&D campaign.  A very solid product, in the good but not great category.  3 out of 5 stars.

The Golden Horde in Dungeons and Dragons

IDEA: Mongol Hordes- characters are on the Mongol side.

 

If you want to run a D&D campaign where the characters interact with people who are like Ghenghis or Kublai Khan, there are several options:

Mystara/Known D&D world: Gaz. 12- Golden Khan of Ethengar has a Mongol-like culture. (1989).  Also Gaz. 10 The Orcs of Thar has the Yellow Orcs who are also patterned off the Mongols.

 

In Dragonlance: Almost 1/4 of Taladas is an icy plain with a Mongol-like culture. (1989).  Noteworthy for having culturally similar elves and goblins nearby.

In the Forgotten Realms: A huge portion of the land between the European-like cultures and the Chinese/Japanese-like cultures is the land of a Mongol-like culture.  There is room within this space to have both Eastern and Western characters as well as Mongol characters.  This land is detailed in “The Horde” boxed set. (1990).  FR 12 "The Horde Campaign" (1991) offers Battlesystem statistics for playing the invasion of the Horde as chronicled in the Empires Trilogy.

Greyhawk:  The Tribes of the Paynims, are vaguely Mongol-like.  The Greyhawk boxed set does not give a lot of detail about any particular country.  The Tiger Nomads, and the Wolf Nomads are also vaguely Mongol-like.  (1983)

The Golden Khan was written by Jim Bambra.  The other two were both written by "Zeb" Cook, author of the 2nd Edition rules.   Greyhawk was written by Gary Gygax.

I will write more extended individual reviews of these Mongol-like settings later.