Dragonlance: Fifth Age

The Dragonlance Fifth Age Dramatic Adventure game using the SAGA game system made its debut in 1996. One of the most notable things about the system was that it used a special deck of cards called the “SAGA Fate Deck” that had artwork depicting various Dragonlance characters instead of dice. The other very notable feature was that the magic system was freeform compared to AD&Ds spell lists. So a spellcaster could create whatever effect they could think of as long it was within a School of Sorcery of Sphere of Mysticism they knew. The game was made to move Krynn into a new age, one in which the gods are gone, and the Dragon Overlords have taken over most of Ansalon, but there is still hope, as mortals have discovered a new kind of magic, the magic of Primal Sorcery and Mysticism. The game was also released around the same time as the Dragons of a New Age Trilogy by Jean Rabe was, the trilogy told the first tale of the Fifth Age.

The game system was very controversial, as it not only moved Dragonlance away from being based on Dungeons and Dragons, but it also drastically changed the setting. There was a lot of fan backlash against the game itself, as well as the author of the Dragons of a New Age Trilogy Jean Rabe. It was not too last. Game supplements were produced for the ruleset, and it did have its share of fans, but eventually it was decided that the line should be cancelled. Dragonlance was eventually revived as a game setting under the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ruleset, which contained rules for running games in either the Fifth Age or the classic War of the Lance era.

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Tropes that apply to the Dragonlance Fifth Age RPG include:

• An Ice Person: Cryomancers
• Background Magic Field
• Blow You Away: Aeromancy
• Combo-Platter Powers: Due to the way that the magic system works, a character who gets an "A" in both their Reason and Spirit codes could end up with access to three Schools of Sorcery and three Spheres of Mysticism, none of which have to be even slightly related to each other.
• Critical Failure: Playing a Dragon card and failing an action can result in one of these.
• Critical Hit: Playing a card that has the related suite to what you are trying to do is called drawing a trump card. So a character who draws the seven of swords card when trying to physically attack an enemy considers that card a trump card, so they get to pull another card from the Fate Deck and add that cards value to their action attempt.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Geomancy
• Elemental Powers: Primal Sorcery is heavily elemental themed.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning
• Friend to All Living Things: Mystics with the Animism sphere.
• Game Breaker: A player that knows how to manipulate the magic system can create some powerful spells.
• Green Lantern Ring: The way magic works, as a skilled spellcaster can come up with many different ways of using their known schools or spheres.
• Green Thumb: Mystics with the Animism sphere.
• Healing Hands: The Healing sphere, although using your hands is not even necessary.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Mysticism is called "The Power of the Heart".
• Magic Knight: There are no character classes, and unlike in Dungeons and Dragons, a character can cast spells with armor on and suffer no penalties for it. So a character could be an excellent warrior in addition to being able to cast spells from the Schools of Sorcery and Spheres of Mysticism.
• Making a Splash: Hydromancy
• Make Me Wanna Shout: A possible use of the Aeromancy school, depending on how generous your Narrator is feeling.
• Mana: Spellcasters have spell points that they cast their spells with.
• Master of Illusion: A character with the Spectramancy school and the Mentalism sphere can be one of these.
• Necromancer: Necromancy is a sphere of Mysticism. It should be noted that the Necromancy sphere only lets a character make Corporeal undead, to make Incorporeal undead requires that they know the sphere of Spiritualism.
• Playing with Fire: Pyromancy
• Razor Wind: Aeromancy
• Revive Kills Zombie: Averted, as it is mentioned that the Healing spere can not harm anything.
• Rules Conversions: The main boxed set comes with a little sheet of cardstock that tells how to convert AD&D 2nd Edition characters to the SAGA system.
• Schrodinger's Suggestion Box
• Shock and Awe: Electromancy
• Soul Power: The sphere of Spiritualism.
• Summon Magic: Summoning is a School of Sorcery.
• Teleporters and Transporters: The school of Summoning also allows for teleportation spells to be cast.
• The Undead: PCs can face them as enemies, and a Mystic with the Necromancy or Spiritualism (Necromancy creates corporeal undead, and Spiritualism incorporeal undead) spheres can make them.
• Whatevermancy: Aeromancy, Cryomancy, Geomancy, Hydromancy, Pyromancy, and Spectramancy are all Schools of Sorcery. Oh, and of course the Sphere of Necromancy for Mysticism.