Champions of Krynn (1990)
Champions of Krynn is a 1990 role-playing (rpg) video game made by SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.) and GOG.com.
The War of the Lance is over, but Ansalon has not healed. Pockets of the evil Dragonarmies still hold ground, and along the fringes of their strongholds the draconians regroup. Your fresh company of heroes walks straight into a scheme by the Aurak draconian Myrtani, a plot meant to bait the good armies into annihilation. This 1990 SSI Gold Box game opened the Dragonlance trilogy, trading the Forgotten Realms for Krynn's knights, kender, and clerics of the true gods. Turn-based tactical battles, overland travel, and a party you carry forward across the series anchor the design.
Quick answers
What is Champions of Krynn about?
The War of the Lance is over, but Ansalon has not healed. Pockets of the evil Dragonarmies still hold ground, and along the fringes of their strongholds the draconians regroup. Your fresh company of heroes walks straight into a scheme by the Aurak draconian Myrtani, a plot meant to bait the good armies into annihilation. This 1990 SSI Gold Box game opened the Dragonlance trilogy, trading the Forgotten Realms for Krynn's knights, kender, and clerics of the true gods. Turn-based tactical battles, overland travel, and a party you carry forward across the series anchor the design.
When was Champions of Krynn released?
Champions of Krynn was released on 31 December 1990.
Who made Champions of Krynn?
Champions of Krynn was made by SSI (Strategic Simulations, Inc.) and GOG.com.
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Champions of Krynn in our writing
- Companion guide: Dungeons & Dragons on the PC: From the Gold Box to Baldur's Gate 3
A few thoughts on Champions of Krynn
Readers who know Krynn from the Dragonlance Chronicles should chase this with Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the animated feature drawn from that saga. For the same clash of dragon-riding armies and camaraderie among misfits, The Legend of Vox Machina delivers the party-of-heroes chemistry these games run on.
D&D-licensed fantasy worlds brought to the screen
Champions of Krynn opens the Dragonlance trilogy, the world SSI adapted straight from the Weis and Hickman novels, and that same source material got its own animated film in Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The Legend of Vox Machina and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves carry the same tabletop-born fantasy to screen, and Stranger Things builds a subplot around kids running their own campaign at the table.
Turn-based D&D tactics on a grid
Champions of Krynn runs its knights, kender, and clerics through turn-based Advanced Dungeons & Dragons combat on a tactical grid, exactly the rhythm Temple of Elemental Evil and Solasta rebuilt for later generations. Baldur's Gate III, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and Pathfinder: Kingmaker all give you that same grid-and-initiative option whenever a fight turns serious enough to demand it.
A party you carry forward through a whole trilogy
Champions of Krynn is the first of three Dragonlance games meant to be played with one company of heroes carried straight through to the end. Pool of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder II built the same expectation into their own sequels, Baldur's Gate II imports your entire saved hero, and Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale both let a built-from-scratch party keep growing across a long campaign.
Old-school PC RPGs from before real-time 3D took over
Champions of Krynn belongs to an era of PC RPGs where turn-based grids and thick manuals did the work modern graphics do now. Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment kept that same design alive with deeper story, Ultima IV and Ultima VII built entire worlds around exploration and a virtue system, Betrayal at Krondor leaned into puzzle-heavy quests, and Fallout carried the formula into a post-apocalyptic wasteland.