Dragonlance More DRAGONLANCE Information: Kender, Battles, W&H's Novels, & More!

In addition to the official videos announcing Dragonlance releases for late 2022, I got to talk to talk to the D&D team and get a few more details not in the public D&D Direct event.

• Because Dragonlance is a setting about war, Ray Winninger, Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons, was asked if Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen would have large-scale combat rules. He said that they would in an broad abstract form. The board game or battle game Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is actually focused on large-scale combat and can be played independently or RPG players could switch to Warriors of Krynn for their big combat scenes, including porting in their characters and then switch back to the RPG after the battle. So the RPG adventure can be played alone, the board game can be played alone or they can be combined, depending upon the group's preference.
• Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is a cooperative game.
• When asked if Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn could be used for large-scale battles in other D&D settings Winninger said it was designed with that idea in mind. However, if Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is poplar they'll consider making more customized, large-scale combat board games for other settings.
• Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is a brand new story, independent of the upcoming novel, Dragonlance: Dragons of Deceit. Winninger said that Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are telling their own story set in Krynn while Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is a different story set in Krynn and is blazing a trail to help players create their own stories in Krynn. So Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Dragons of Deceit are both set in the same world but different stories.
• There will be some cameos from old Dragonlance characters, especially villains, in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen.
• Price points for Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn and Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen are not finalized yet.
• When asked about player races for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen – especially Kender – Winninger said that Kender have gotten a good reception from the Unearthed Arcana play test but they're making some tweaks. Yes, Kender will be an option. He said the play test material gives hints as to what playable races it will have but would not mention to confirm any specifically beyond Kender.

 

[Raunalyn]

Behaving like a bad child is not "a culture", and we've already had it argued that their thievery is innate, not cultural (Marak Kender still doing it supports this). So you're going to have to step it up to "racism" if you really want to go there lol. Are you going to call us "racist against Kender"? I am begging you to call me an anti-Kender racist.

Thanks for proving my point. If you read the racial description of Kender, part of their culture is the lack of understanding of personal property. And your extreme and, honestly unimaginative, hatred of them further proves that my statement earlier was accurate.

It is no longer of any benefit to have this discussion with you anymore since there is absolutely no way you are going to budge from your position, nor are you open to reasonable discussion on the matter. This will be my last comment to you on this subject.

I also don't baselessly accuse anyone of racism, particularly when it comes to a fantasy game.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I think that it's sad that so many people have had trouble with bad Kender players. They can bring a lot of heart when done well.

Perhaps the game would be served well to have an extra "play nice with others" when it comes to some of the potentially problematic classes/races/spells. Kender might be potential problems in the wrong hands, but then, so are Barbarians (who can get everyone killed by rushing forward), Rogues (who can also steal from the party), summoning spells (that can take over the game, so one player is monopolizing the battle), Gnomes (like mentioned above), Wild Magic, or anything else that people find fault with.

I'd certainly rather that the pitfalls were openly discussed, rather than banning or disincluding everything just because some players will forget the Golden Rule.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It is no longer of any benefit to have this discussion with you anymore since there is absolutely no way you are going to budge from your position, nor are you open to reasonable discussion on the matter. This will be my last comment to you on this subject.

I mean, you keep saying this but... lol. You do you! Fine to not respond.

I don't actually hate Kender (I am more extremely wary of them), but they are very specific taste, indeed I'm the only person I know who has played one (and I really kept a lid on the bad behaviour because jesus wept), and very likely to be disruptive. I dislike Tinker Gnomes much more - they're a much less plausible and more fundamentally annoying concept.

Also, as I said, the discussion is whether it's cultural or innate, and several people here who like Kender hold that the stealing is innate. That Marak Kender also do it tends to support things.

Perhaps the game would be served well to have an extra "play nice with others" when it comes to some of the potentially problematic classes/races/spells.

I definitely think D&D could use more health warnings on certain classes/races/spells, yeah.

 

[ART!]

I did, I’m sorry. I did give notes on the item feature.

Same!

I understand the motivations behind the design of them but its ended up as something unrecognisable as Kender. I hope the tweaks do something to address that. I’m glad at least that they don’t seem to be re-writing Dragonlance history with this

Some of this depends on if they want Kender to be very true to their depiction in Dragonlance, or something one could port into any D&D game. The racial traits in UA seemed too specific to me, but it would be easy to broaden them out some to make easier to interpreting how and why they work.

 

[Kalashtar]

Hey! Snazzy new avatar!

Were there clerics during War of the Lance? I was under the impression (maybe wrong) that there were no divine spellcasters of any kind, which is what made Goldmoon so exceptional?

Goldmoon was the only cleric of the Gods of Light at the time. The clerics of the Gods of Darkness, such as Verminaard, appeared earlier. Nothing was said about clerics of the Gods of Neutrality although a druid is available as a pregenerated character option in the modules.

 

[ECMO3]

So Kender weren't immune to fear? Funny, I seem to remember that. But, in any case, that's some pretty fine hairs your splitting. You claimed that the problem was with players, not the race. Moving the goalposts to claim that it wasn't mechanics that was the problem isn't really winning any points here.

Kender are immune to fear (both magical and non-magical) in the 1E mechanics. This is on Dragons of Despair page 3.

In 5E this would be equivalent to being immune to the frightened condition. In 5E things like dissonent whispers would still affect them because it does not require "frightened" much like "turning" undead does not require frightened.

 

[ECMO3]

Regarding stealing and lack of value perception - I actually both played and DMed 1E Dragonlance in the 80s when they were published and DMed them again in a 1E game in the 2010s.

I find the Kender Mechanics regarding stealing, inability to concentrate and lack of understanding of value to be diffcult to actually accomodate in play. In the first two games we hand waived those because it was too difficult and devicive. In the final game I made both Tasselhof and that Kender you end up with in the group that goes east (Kronn??) NPCs.

Tas actually died in the Sanction in the third time I played. That was great because in the rest of the modules all the Kender the PCs ran into (including the east group that was the same players but different characters) talked about Tas' accomplishments and how he was a hero and saved the world, while minimizing the role the actual PC's characters made. This is doubly funy because as an NPC Tass' roll was actually minor compared to the characters (up till when he died).

Also when it comes to "I'm just playing my character" .... a Lawful-Neutral watchmember or magistrate who grabs the thief's arms and cuts off his hands after being stolen from is "just playing his character" too.

 

[EthanSental]

I pulled out my DL 2 copy, surely bought for that classic Elmore cover…..flipping through it, man I’m glad most RPGs got out of this style with blocks and blocks of read aloud texts, just yuk to me now.

 

[Scribe]

Does Tass just use Faewild Powers to get Glasses of True Seeing which was needed to help the heroes at one point? If you change or remove Bupu the Gully Dwarf that seriously changes things for Raistlin.

I 100% am positive they will not touch Raistlin's character arc, I doubt they touch on the 2 'main' trilogies at all.

 

[Hussar]

And once again, easily managed if you set clear expectations to your players as a DM.

Isn't this pretty clearly Oberoni territory? It's not the problem with the game, but with DM's that don't fix the problem?

So all those people who absolutely detest kender - it's probably the number one banned character concept and always has been - to the point where all the hoopla about Dragon-bewbs looks like a tiny tempest in a teacup in comparison - were just wrong. They just weren't good enough DM's to have Kender in their games?

And xenophobia? Seriously? Not liking a game construct because I believe that that game construct is disruptive to the table and causes problems is very much not something you can call xenophobic.