The last of the Dragonlance box sets is a curious one, Dwarven Kingdoms of Krynn (1993). This is pure fluff, devoted to chronicling the entire history of Krynn’s dwarves, distilling and expanding on material originally presented in the series of novels. In practical terms, this is of dubious value – by the in-game time of the campaign setting, only about half of the kingdoms detailed in the box still exist. In terms of general interest, I don’t know. Do you have burning questions about Krynnish dwarves? I never did.

In general, I find the classic D&D demihumans dull. They’re a weird collection of Tolkien-inspired stereotypes: gruff blue collar folk who live underground, artsy hippie types who live in the woods and pastoral foodies who don’t wear shoes. Culturally, none of that is very far removed from human experience (I bet you know someone who fits each of those descriptions in real life, let alone in-game). Compare this to the elves and dwarves of Glorantha, say, who are actually alien and mysterious, much more in line with their folkloric origins.

This is amplified in Dwarven Kingdoms, which reads like Tolkien pastiche. They fight ogres instead of orcs. There’s a prominent dwarven kingdom named Thorin, for Pete’s sake. I would trade this for a box set dedicated to the Dragon Highlords in an instant. Or even the Knights of Solamnia. Or just a splatbook dedicated to the walrus men, because WALRUS MEN.

Dan Frazier’s art is solid, but even if this was published with lush, full color paintings every other page, it’d still be a snooze fest.