Looking for a Good Worldbook (Part 1 of 2)

I am an OSR neophyte who started playing RPGs during D&D 5e. In the past few years, my 5e books have been gathering dust. Now I'm trying to figure out which ones might be worth keeping, and which ones are going up for sale. Are there any D&D 5e books which can hold their own, even without the 5e rules to support them?

Hopefully, the answer is yes. Explorer's Guide to Wildemount stands out to me as a good gazetteer and worldbook. I'll come back to that in part 2. First, I want to ask what makes a worldbook good or bad. Then I'm going to look into Dragonlance Adventures from AD&D, to see whether it can be used for the sort of Old-School gaming that I want.

OSR Sandbox

I currently run my game as an OSR-style sandbox, with an open world. Because I'm thinking from a sandbox perspective, I want to evaluate books on a few areas. Firstly, I want to know if I can integrate them into my current campaign, or whether can I start a new campaign based in this world. If the answer to either of those is yes, then there are a few other things to evaluate.

1. Does this supplement give PCs a base of operations, or aid me to create one?
2. Does this supplement provide any good dungeons to explore?
3. Are there other interesting locations to visit?
4. Does the area provide interesting challenges for my players (encounters)?
5. Does the area provide questions (mysteries or hooks) for my players to investigate?

These questions can be used to just as easily create a sandbox from scratch, as to find a published one.

Worldbooks should provide at least some of these things, as well as adding some flavor to the world. The world is defined by its genre (Fantasy) as well as its tone (Grim or High Fantasy?). I'm going to compare the 5e Wildemount book with Dragonlance Adventures by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, a 1987 worldbook produced by TSR for AD&D. Both books are high fantasy, and intended for use with D&D books of their generation.

Dragonlance Adventures, 1987

Dragonlance Adventures

I picked up Dragonlance Adventures a few weeks ago at a used bookstore. It is 128 pages long, of which approximately half is given to player options. Most of the book assumes you are familiar with the world of Krynn already, and that you have read the Dragonlance novels. I have not. The book does include some of the basic worldbook ingredients: gods, history, major NPCs, and the various races and cultures inherent to this world. It also includes two maps from different periods of history: the World That Was and the War of the Lance. 

The major weakness of this book is the locations. The only location that is given a detailed local map is the Tower of High Sorcery at Palanthus, which details only two areas within the tower: Raistlin's Chambers and the Laboratory. The other locations on the maps are only given brief descriptions. If I were trying to fill in some of these locations, I would need to make most of it up on my own, or go and read the Dragonlance novels first. If my players decided to visit one of them, I would have very little material to work with.

Two major organizations of Krynn are detailed, but only insofar as the PCs might interact with them. In fact, most of the space is given to how to climb the social ladder and roleplay through those organizations, rather than how a GM might run them independently. I should also mention that both of them are intimately linked to alignment and to the gods of Krynn. The first is the Knights of Solamnia, and the other is the Wizards of High Sorcery. The only other factions given are the races (Kender, Elves, and Dwarves), who are treated as unified cultures within their racial groups.

Let's revisit my earlier questions:

1. Does it help give PCs a base of operations? Yes, but only if you're in the major factions or one of the few cities.
2. Does it provide dungeons? No, this book is oriented toward roleplaying and storytelling.
3. Are there interesting locations? Yes, since that is where the story is going to play out. However, those locations are only given in brief.
4. Does it provide encounters? Yes. There are a few specific (dragon-oriented) monsters listed. The other challenge would be getting into the good graces of the Wizards or Knights.
5. Are there any mysteries? Yes, but the central questions around this setting are all dragon-, knight-, or wizard-related. 

DL1 Dragons of Despair, the first Dragonlance adventure (1984)

Conclusion

Who is this for? The Dragonlance Adventures book is clearly intended to be used in concert with the Dragonlance novels in order to run TSR's Dragonlance modules, all of which were written by Hickman and/or Weis. That seems like a lot of work to run a series of modules which are reported to be a railroad through the novels. If you are doing anything else, or trying to make a sandbox out of the world of Krynn, this book will not help you to do that easily.

I recently watched an interview with Joe Manganiello, who said that Dragonlance is the "Star Wars" of D&D. Based on what I see here, I think he is totally right. If you are playing a game in the Star Wars universe, it should have something to do with Jedi, Death Stars, the Sith, or Bounty Hunters. Just look at all the Disney Star Wars spinoffs, which all relate back to the "main plot" somehow. Otherwise, why play a Star Wars game over any other Sci-Fi setting? Dragonlance is about swords, wizards, and dragons, and focuses on the events of the novels.

My original post got a bit long, so I split up parts 1 and 2. Next time, I will return to discuss the Wildemount setting.

Based on my recent experiences with 5e, I have not purchased the 5e update of the Dragonlance setting. Leave me a comment if you think it is or isn't worth my time and money.

Let me know if I missed anything about the Dragonlance setting you think is relevant. Unlike some of you, I didn't live through the 80s. Did I miss something?