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

 

[Morrus]

I have to admit I'm curious - is there a huge demand from people who actually want to play (for instance) half- or full orcs in Krynn?

There's a demand for people who want to play half orcs in D&D. For me, the lack of orcs in Krynn isn't consequential or setting defining enough for me to personally care (or even all that noticeable unless you're looking for it) and I'd be happy to let a player play one because, to be honest, it simply wouldn't matter. As I said above, dragonborn would be more of a sore thumb for me. Dragons and draconians are condequential setting-defining elements.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

There's a demand for people who want to play half orcs in D&D. For me, the lack of orcs in Krynn isn't consequential or setting defining enough for me to peronally care (or even all that noticeable unless you're looking for it) and I'd be happy to let a player play one because, to be honest, it simply wouldn't matter. As I said above, dragonborn would be more of a sore thumb for me. Dragons and draconians are condequential setting-defining elements.

this is a great example of what I was trying to get at... two statements
"There are no orcs in this world"
"There are no dragoborn perse in this world"
one has no back up when asked "why?" the other can very quickly and I will requote it

Dragons and draconians are condequential setting-defining elements.

this is why I personally (IMO) would say no orcs is a soft limit (makes sense but if a player really wants one no reason to push back) and no dragonborn (pre draconion being a race you would allow) is a hard limit (you can push back even if you have to say "There is a reason, and you will find out in game")

 

[DarkCrisis]

I think Hobgoblins were their version of orcs. The draconians were something more.

My guesses as to the setting are that to start as a cleric you will have to go through one of the mini-adventures and pull a "Goldmoon" to be accepted as a cleric. They mentioned in the video that the gods had been gone. I also think that the setting is going to be full of holes. It's small like Spelljammer which didn't have enough pages to give anywhere near the amount of setting info that they needed to.

In the newest novel a woman who was always kind of a medicine woman and loved nature says Chislev the goddess of nature appeared to her and now she was a priestess of hers. This was right when the gods returned during the war.

So new clerics/Druids/etc would be easy to introduce after Goldmoon does her thing.

 

[Kai Lord]

I guess I just don't understand why they aren't presenting Krynn as it has always been presented since in the Dragonlance Adventures hardcover from 1987 they specifically state that beings from other worlds sometimes visit Krynn. DL1 Dragons of Despair, the very first Dragonlance product, states no limitations whatsoever on PC choices other than to say that if someone wants to play a cleric they have to temporarily start out with no magic until a little later on in the adventure when clerical magic returns.

So the option to play whatever you want has always existed in the official rules, with the caveat that some races are native to Krynn and others would have to come from somewhere else.

Maybe they'll surprise us and do just that, in just 34 days those of us getting the early online preview will find out.

 

[RoughCoronet0]

Honestly the only thing I’m really interested in from this book is the Lunar Sorcerer and any interesting creature stat blocks that are within its pages.

 

[Kai Lord]

Honestly the only thing I’m really interested in from this book is the Lunar Sorcerer and any interesting creature stat blocks that are within its pages.

Ha ha, yes between 1E, 2E, and 3.5E I've got more Krynn reference material than I'll ever need. I'm most looking forward to perusing the artwork and seeing how good a job they did on creating 5E stat blocks.

 

[Maxperson]

. . . 5e book have lore and are definitely not "as bland and generic as possible". Spelljammer is the weirdest setting published in 5e, and it was the most recent official book. And drawing people into the hobby encourages them to dig deeper into the lore and worlds of the game. That's how you get new players and expand the game. And not wanting the lore to actively offend the players is a weird thing to complain about.

It's not as bland as possible, no. Take out the Sword Coast setting book sometime and compare it to the 3e Forgotten Realms Campaign setting and you'll see the difference he's talking about with regard to lore levels.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Its a self fulfilling prophecy. For years now WotC used the, sadly successful, strategy of relying on their brand name and windfalls like the Stranger Things tie-in to draw in people who have no idea about the RPG market and know of any competitors and to make D&D as bland and generic as possible so that the people drawn in that way do not find anything off putting or are overwhelmed with having to read lore.
It should be no surprise that this wave of players doesn't care at all about settings and lore. They want instant gratification and power fantasies while goofing around with their friends. Thats all.

In addition to that WotC ran a "say yes" platform which reflects the current Zeitgeist of Karennness and self-centricness so of course WotC won't restrict anything but instead continue to mash everything into a generic pulp so that everything is in every setting and there are no restrictions at all (Tasha says hello)

I totally get the "say yes" thing. You dont want someone to not get to play the Catgirl theyve been thinking about BUT it also breeds lack of crerativity IMO.

I have 2 players that 9 times out of 10 play Dragonborn. And one those will ALWAYS play a Beast Master Ranger. Another player always plays the Thief/Rogue. Another most of the time will play a Druid.

It's like the are afraid to break out of their comfort zone. And stuff like DMs limiting certain races or classes either due to their reasons or the campaign world (like Dragonlance limiting Orcs) allows for creativity to bloom.

As somone else mention above, just allowing everything via kitchen sink just breeds sameness. Oh hey your playing a Catgirl Bard again... in Ravenloft. Neato. It's not unique, it's tired IMO.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, I'm cool either way. I suppose I just object to the idea that Dragonlance is so easily ruined by adding them in. It's not so fragile a setting. Heck, it didn't implode when Darkness & Light broke canon and showed both a dragon and healing magic. Same goes for Weasel's Luck and clerical magic. But I did put those books down with a sigh.

That is great and I also like most of the direction taken by WotC on this module (from the video I saw)
But since you do not give a hoot whether they include or don't include orcs and tieflings in the DL setting - I'm going to take you up on that and say they can make us both happy by not including them.

Orcs can slot into the setting with little fanfare. Heck, same goes for a Warforged or plenty of the other races that have been created since Dragonlance's inception. A lot has changed since then in gaming, and I'm fine with Dragonlance changing, too.

There's a demand for people who want to play half orcs in D&D. For me, the lack of orcs in Krynn isn't consequential or setting defining enough for me to personally care (or even all that noticeable unless you're looking for it) and I'd be happy to let a player play one because, to be honest, it simply wouldn't matter. As I said above, dragonborn would be more of a sore thumb for me. Dragons and draconians are condequential setting-defining elements.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Heck, it didn't implode when Darkness & Light broke canon and showed both a dragon and healing magic.

I need to read that again as I do not recall. I remembered I enjoyed it though for the potential Sturmiara-ship which you later find out did happen.

Same goes for Weasel's Luck and clerical magic. But I did put those books down with a sigh.

I have not read this one yet, although I do own it.