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

 

[Micah Sweet]

Eventually people are going to realize that every present(setting) put out by WotC is identical, just wrapped(lore) differently and stop buying the settings. It was the uniqueness. The things not present on Krynn, Athas, etc. that made those settings interesting and worthwhile.

Sure, but you also don't have to buy the setting that they release without something or other in it. There are plenty of kitchen sink settings to pick from.

Ah, but WotC wants everyone to buy everything. That's why they insist on casting such a broad net that details and flavor are sometimes lost.

 

[Micah Sweet]

you mean the PHB races?!!?

Short of drow, dragonborn, tieflings, and half-orcs.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Short of drow, dragonborn, tieflings, and half-orcs.

sorry I meant the 2e PHB ones... I did forget half orcs were in 1st

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, what if the book gives the option to play either "classic" Dragonlance (and gives rules and restrictions to do so), as well the option to play as a normal 5e game? Does it become Schrodinger's Dragonlance then? Both good and bad until each campaign is observed?

Yes, that would be better. I don't expect it though. They'd be afraid people would get confused.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Even then, if someone really wants to play one of the races that have supposedly been eradicated from Athas, there are ways to make it without breaking the setting.

Perhaps one of the sorcerer-kings kept a small hidden enclave of orcs alive as test subjects, or a population survived undiscovered somewhere outside of the Tablelands, or long ago in the face of their extinction some great archmage opposing the genocide used powerful temporal magics to cast some of their number into the distant future like a time-travel version of Superman's origin story.

The problem with those methods is that, since it's a kludge rather than integrated into the setting, it would be difficult for the PC in question not to draw undue focus, as their origin is oh so special that the setting is literally bending to accommodate it.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I kind of want to play a draconian PC during a War of the Lance campaign now . . . a deserter fleeing from the slavery of the dragon armies. Or perhaps a "noble" draconian trying to balance the scales, heh.

See, that could work. There's room to fit a character like without changing the history of the world.

 

[AnotherGuy]

It feels like @AnotherGuy may be deliberately missing the point.

Deliberately? Seriously?
I actually XPed @Levistus's_Leviathan reply.

Orcs "don't exist" in Dragonlance, Theros, Ravinica, and perhaps other settings. And that's okay. WotC isn't adding orcs into Dragonlance, they still won't be a part of the setting when the new book comes out later this year.

It is not about addition, but rather will they mention how DL is different to the other kitchen-sink settings i.e. orcs are not part of the setting. Levistus preferred that we do not waste the book-space for something like that.

As a moderately skilled DM, I would find adding orcs to my Theros, Ravnica, or Dragonlance campaign trivially easy. I might steer a player towards a more thematic choice, but in the end . . . . play an orc, sure!

The issue was never about how easy or difficult it is to change-up something.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

The problem with those methods is that, since it's a kludge rather than integrated into the setting, it would be difficult for the PC in question not to draw undue focus, as their origin is oh so special that the setting is literally bending to accommodate it.

Sure, but honestly, no more so than a player choosing to play a noble, or a celebrity, or an obvious traveler from a distant land would.

 

[Alzrius]

Sure, but honestly, no more so than a player choosing to play a noble, or a celebrity, or an obvious traveler from a distant land would.

That's not quite the same. A noble or a celebrity ceases to be notable once they're outside of their area of influence, which happens easily in a setting where there's no stable form of mass communication. Even a traveler from a distant land can just change their clothing and use the local vernacular. None of that is comparable to an orc walking into a village that's never even heard of an orc before, all the more so if the entire world has never had any orcs.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

That's not quite the same. A noble or a celebrity ceases to be notable once they're outside of their area of influence, which happens easily in a setting where there's no stable form of mass communication. Even a traveler from a distant land can just change their clothing and use the local vernacular. None of that is comparable to an orc walking into a village that's never even heard of an orc before, all the more so if the entire world has never had any orcs.

Outside of the gods and especially learned scholars, how many among the general populace in any given region are going to make the distinction between "I've never seen someone that looks like that" and "no one on this world has ever seen someone that looks like that"?

I don't see much difference between a hypothetical orc population being inserted into some previously ill-defined corner of Krynn/Athas to justify playing an orc in Dragonlance or Dark Sun and someone playing in the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms choosing to make their PC a Shou traveler from Kara-Tur, or even a planewalker from Sigil that stumbled through a one-way portal to Toril and got stranded.