WotC Dragonlance: Everything You Need For Shadow of the Dragon Queen

WotC has shared a video explaining the Dragonlance setting, and what to expect when it is released in December.

World at War: Introduces war as a genre of play to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragonlance: Introduces the Dragonlance setting with a focus on the War of the Lance and an overview of what players and DMs need to run adventures during this world spanning conflict.

Heroes of War: Provides character creation rules highlighting core elements of the Dragonlance setting, including the kender race and new backgrounds for the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery magic-users. Also introduces the Lunar Sorcery sorcerer subclass with new spells that bind your character to Krynn's three mystical moons and imbues you with lunar magic.

Villains: Pits heroes against the infamous death knight Lord Soth and his army of draconians.

Notes --

• 224 page hardcover adventure
• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia
• War is represented by context -- it's not goblins attacking the village, but evil forces; refugees, rumours
• You can play anything from D&D - clerics included, although many classic D&D elements have been forgotten
• Introductory scenarios bring you up to speed on the world so no prior research needed

 

[Jaeger]

I really like the mechanics of 5e but I generally hate how they handle world building and the fluff. Just feels like everything they do is broad and lacking any world building and detail. I expect that to be the case here too. So many books could have been so much better whether it be Fizbans or this. Just seems like they keep things too superficial.

This is a symptom of a larger issue...

This is a HUGE part of my issue with WotC in general. Everything is so superficial! Worldbuilding is the best part of D&D (and fiction in general) to me and they just don't seem to care.

Not seem.

They either truly do not care. Or, they are incapable of doing anything else..

But I don't make those decisions and WotC needs to bank on a name and nostalgia.

In my opinion: This is the ultimate truth here.

I believe that the current group of writers and freelances employed by WotC are straight-up not as talented as those that worked on D&D under the TSR banner. i.e. WotC 'worldbuilding' is so superficial precisely because they are literally incapable of doing anything better.

They completely lack the underlying confidence to do something unique and original on their own. Hence the constant mining of nostalgia berries to generate interest by 'reimagining' old product.

That being said; WotC has largely judged their audience correctly! People seem to be largely happy with buying watered down nostalgic retreads of older product.

What can I say? People love themselves their "official D&D", and are loathe to depart from it!

Win, win for WotC...

 

[DarkCrisis]

First, the disks are platinum, not gold. Second, the entire collection of disks is a single relic.

Lastly, and most important, Goldmoon's power didn't come from the Disks. In fact, the Disks don't have any magic in them at all. They're just evidence that the gods of Krynn are real. Goldmoon's power comes from her faith.

Well.... she has The Blue Crystal staff which is a divine magic item that can heal etc. Which Goldmoon uses until she discovers the goddess later on... The Staff being proof that divine magic exist(s)(ed) and then the Discs confirm it. Plus, doesn't the goddess actually talk to her?

 

[bedir than]

I believe that the current group of writers and freelances employed by WotC are straight-up not as talented as those that worked on D&D under the TSR banner. i.e. WotC 'worldbuilding' is so superficial precisely because they are literally incapable of doing anything better.

There was more original work done in just Radiant Citadels than in the entirety of TSR's care. Most of the TSR settings were Tolkien+this thing.

 

[GreyLord]

I believe that the current group of writers and freelances employed by WotC are straight-up not as talented as those that worked on D&D under the TSR banner. i.e. WotC 'worldbuilding' is so superficial precisely because they are literally incapable of doing anything better.

There is a HUGE market for homebrew in D&D. There is also a HUGE market of those who like the idea of campaign settings, but do NOT ENJOY the nitty gritty of everything being defined. They want something more akin to the original Grey Box of the Forgotten Realms or less, or like the original Greyhawk Gazetteer. They want the things vague and undefined.

They want a world setting, but one which they can craft to their OWN design, not someone else's. They don't want to play in someone else's sandbox, they want to play in THEIR sandbox. Sometimes they want some broad parameters such as it is a square 25x25 box with several plastic buckets and shovels...but they want to do the rest on their own.

THIS is what WotC excels at currently, and they are doing a very good job of it.

IMO.

 

[Maxperson]

Dude, I am an old-timer. Read Chronicles when I was in middle school, when the books were first released.

And there are youngsters who care about canon and trivia. I have a buddy my age, whose son (currently in college) has a group that argues D&D canon all the time, stuff that goes back to the white box . . . .

I'm not saying that you do or should care. I'm saying that it's not a minor change because it alters the feel of the setting which is not a minor thing. Remember the Time of Troubles in the Forgotten Realms? That was a huge change, but I didn't care. My not caring about the change didn't trivialize it. It was still major whether I cared or not.

 

[MNblockhead]

This is a symptom of a larger issue...




Not seem.

They either truly do not care. Or, they are incapable of doing anything else..




In my opinion: This is the ultimate truth here.

I believe that the current group of writers and freelances employed by WotC are straight-up not as talented as those that worked on D&D under the TSR banner. i.e. WotC 'worldbuilding' is so superficial precisely because they are literally incapable of doing anything better.

They completely lack the underlying confidence to do something unique and original on their own. Hence the constant mining of nostalgia berries to generate interest by 'reimagining' old product.

That being said; WotC has largely judged their audience correctly! People seem to be largely happy with buying watered down nostalgic retreads of older product.

What can I say? People love themselves their "official D&D", and are loathe to depart from it!

Win, win for WotC...

I think it has more to do with they are better at making what they know will sell. Part of the wonderful diversity of TSR settings was that they were awful with their finances and undisciplined in market research.

 

[Maxperson]

this very much this.

If the party finds (or has a member) that is a teifling or an orc, but they are just a race in the world how does that upset the dynamic of the war were the gods are returning?

and Rangers and Palidens and Druids were in the setting already.

After the war they were. Prior to and during the war they either did not exist or were not able to cast spells that weren't wizard spells.

 

[Maxperson]

Does Faerun have missing gods and dragons absent for so long people thinkg they're a myth? Factions opposed to eachother in a balance that mirrors the the cosmic balance the gods work to maintain?

If I want it to it does.

Are the Purple Dragon Knights the same as the Knights of Solamnia? What in Faerun is the same as the Towers of High Sorcery? Does Faerun has semi-important half-ogres and a history where ogres are descended from a race of beautiful? Tiamat's role in Faerun isn't even remotely the same as the role of Takhisis in DL.

I don't need knights of Solomnia or Towers of High Sorcery to do War of the Lance in Faerun. Those are just names no different than Purple Dragon Knights and Red Wizards of Thay.

The point is that there doesn't need to be another kitchen sink setting to do War of the Lance.

 

[Remathilis]

They completely lack the underlying confidence to do something unique and original on their own. Hence the constant mining of nostalgia berries to generate interest by 'reimagining' old product.

Yet when they DID do something new in the form of Radiant Citadel, people on this board bemoaned it was going to kill the chance of Planescape happening or how Netherdeep took a book slot away from something like Dark Sun or Greyhawk. Funny, it seems people are angry when WotC pulls out the greatest hits and calls it a nostalgic cash grab, but are equally angry when they make new stuff instead of supporting the classic settings...

 

[doctorbadwolf]

None of that Gods missing Knights of Solomnia etc etc stuff yo mentioned matters for "Dragon War!" They are all easily explained or changed. Nobel Knights exist in Faerun. The Gods have infact vanished for a small period of time in Faerun, but does that really matter for "Evil god uses dragons to wage a war?"

This only works if you ignore anything about the adventure other than it's name and a reductive tagline. You said that they "could have just made a "Dragon War!" campaign set in Faerun and had the exact same thing." That is patently false, because the circumstances are very different. It would be a different adventure. Just as it will be a different adventure from Tyranny of Dragons.

You are already prepared to change somethings to change Dragonlance why not go the whole 9 yards and just call it "Dragon War!" and set it in Faerun.

THis doesn't follow. Adding small communities of orcs in some mountains somewhere that fit a more modern take on orcs, or a semi-nocturnal culture of elves that split from their cousins so long ago they weren't even part of the ancient wars that define the enmity between groups of elves, and few even know if they're real, are vastly smaller changes than official canon novels made. They certainly don't mean that nothing matters and you might as well just set it in Faerun. It's an over-dramatic nonsense argument.

Would anyone really notice or care?

Yes. Obviously.

You get your Dragon War "Focus" and Dragonlance isn't changed and waterdown.

Hardly mine, but okay. Things change. Dragonlance is changing.

But I dont make those decisions and WotC needs to bank on a name and nostalgia.

Not really. Seriously, they don't need to make this book at all. They could put out a new setting, an expansion of Faerun, whatever they want at this point. Hell, right now would be a great time to put out a book where each chapter talks about a different world in a quite pamphlet length writeup, and then a section at the end about worldbuilding.

They're making this book because they want to make this book. That you dislike it is immaterial.

Just seems funny to me that again some people would be fine with changing if Orcs existed but apparently not if the Knights of Solomnia did. Very selective of whats added or subtracted to fit into whats being heralded simply as "The Dragon War adventure".

You're the only one heralding it simply as "the dragon war adventure". Everyone else is talking about an adventure set during the War of The Lance, on Krynn.

And if you refuse to see the difference between adding a race that literally doesn't need to matter at all to the history of the setting, and removing one of the core pillars of the setting's history in the form of one of it's primary potentially-allied faction in the game world...I don't know what to say. The difference is both stark and obvious.