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

 

[Kai Lord]

Since nothing is off the table now I think my next character will be a Live One bard, and I'll choose a Background that gives him a +2 to Charisma. Yeah, I'm leaning toward that happy little fellow in the lower right corner. Or maybe the guy in the middle shambling on his collar bone, he could be a great thief acrobat.

 

[Dragonhelm]

It wouldn't surprise me at all if, for TSR's first fantasy epic, they created Kender as a way to have halflings and not fall under the shadow of Tolkien.

Kender were created because Tracy Hickman, who is a Mormon, had moral issues with the thief class. He wanted to create a type of character with those abilities who weren't purposefully trying to steal.

Enter the kender.

 

[Kai Lord]

Kender were created because Tracy Hickman, who is a Mormon, had moral issues with the thief class. He wanted to create a type of character with those abilities who weren't purposefully trying to steal.

Enter the kender.

In The Art of Dragonlance (1987) p. 10 says that it was a group discussion about what to do with halflings with some saying yes and others saying no. The quotes they list are:

"Our players like them, I say we leave them in."
"I say they go. Too Tolkien."
"Let's come up with a new race then."
"Small, childlike--"
"No furry feet!" General consensus.
"Let's make them natural born thieves."
"Hey I object to a race of thieves!" (probably Hickman stating this last one)
"What if they steal just because they're curious? They don't really mean to take anything, and they don't steal for gain."

 

[Micah Sweet]

Also I imagine the new book will bring up stuff like Orcs not being native to Krynn, and will say the DM can ignore it.

I hope it does.

 

[Micah Sweet]

How? In what way are their setting books scant and insufficient? Eberron, Wildemount, Theros, and Ravnica have entire chapters dedicated to explaining how to build adventures in the setting and gazetteers explaining the setting. I'm not a fan of Theros or Ravnica, but the books are amazing at telling you how to play in the world. Eberron and Wildemount are even better at it. How in the world are the "worldbuilding" insufficient in those worlds?

Spelljammer and Strixhaven I'll readily admit are lacking in objective ways that make them worse setting books than the other 5e setting books. Most criticisms of Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft aren't based on the quality of the book and based on nostalgia for the previous version.

They're not bad, you just don't like them.

Even if you are just angry/upset that they stopped making products that you like (which they didn't, they just started making products geared at other people too, you've already admitted that you like some recent books), you're letting it infect the discussions of books that haven't come out yet and books that you've admitted to liking.

Bad to me is the same thing as I don't like it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Bad to me is the same thing as I don't like it.

But it conveys a different feeling. "X feels bad (to me)" carries a different feeling than "I don't like X".

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In The Art of Dragonlance (1987) p. 10 says that it was a group discussion about what to do with halflings with some saying yes and others saying no. The quotes they list are:

"Our players like them, I say we leave them in."
"I say they go. Too Tolkien."
"Let's come up with a new race then."
"Small, childlike--"
"No furry feet!" General consensus.
"Let's make them natural born thieves."
"Hey I object to a race of thieves!" (probably Hickman stating this last one)
"What if they steal just because they're curious? They don't really mean to take anything, and they don't steal for gain."

this does not make me feel better about kenders at all

 

[Kai Lord]

this does not make me feel better about kenders at all

Original kenders or 5E kenders?

 

[Dragonhelm]

How does that work? I saw someone published an Al Qadim 5e setting and that doesn't seem to be something WotC plans to revisit. I was tempted to buy it just to support them but don't know if I'd ever use the material.

People are using a loophole. As Al-Qadim is really a subsetting of the Forgotten Realms setting, they're using the Forgotten Realms to put it out.

I've seen a guy who put out conversions of the original DL series of modules because he set the War of the Lance in the Forgotten Realms.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Still think the conservatives here are assuming too much. There will be actual previews of the book before long.