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]

If you want in your game you play the original modules but with a totally different group, for example an artificer gnome and an aasimar crusader, even the character themself know the original story of the heroes of the lance, and there is a logical reason. Really those character aren't in the true "war of lance", but in a dark-domain within the Shadowfell-Krynnspace. The torment of the dark lord is a time-loop.

Which would be fine if they said that's what they are doing, in the actual text.

 

[Maxperson]

Clearly, their is disagreement over the degree of impact. Some feel it is major. Others do not, and feel it is trivial.

I get that some feel it is not. That's what I'm saying. Their feelings are fine. The time of troubles was felt trivial to me. My feelings were not relevant to the degree of change, though. It was major regardless of how trivial it felt to me. If you alter the feel(some of the essence of the setting) of a setting, that is a major change regardless of how people feel about it. To some that major change will feel major, and to others the major change will feel trivial.

As covered upthread, this is not true at all. Some old-timers care about this narrow vision of setting, others to do not. And, some young bucks also care about canon as you do, others not so much. It's not an age thing.

You aren't understanding me. What I am saying about old timers has nothing it all to do with how you feel about it. The overwhelming majority of new players never experienced the original Krynn, so it's pretty much only the old timers(not all of them) who can feel that the changes are major, minor or whatever. New players are probably not going to notice any changes, since they have nothing to compare it to.

Will there be some exceptions with new players who do research into the old setting, sure. The vast majority won't.

 

[Remathilis]

Actually what I care about the most is the integrity of the lore. The settings of D&D, particularly as they existed in 1st and 2nd edition, are what drew me to the game.l.

I get the desire to keep settings in "original intent" mode; pure to its original vision and design. But those designs are 30-40 years old. By original intent, only humans and elves should be allowed to cast magic since there were no dwarves or kender mages in the original setting. They should also be of limited level too. But I don't wager you want to bring back race/class restrictions, no matter how "on brand" it is for the setting. The game has moved on from that design and world building principle, and it will continue to adapt.

 

[Stormonu]

Why does it smell of vinegar?

Embalming fluid (Formaldehyde) - such as that possibly used to preserve Soth's undead body - has a vinegary smell.

 

[Maxperson]

The Voice of The Flame is a long dead Paladin who sealed an overlord in the Flame and joined with the Silver Flame in the process. She can speak to people, though it’s rare and mostly she talks to Flame-Pope girl. (Can’t remember anyones names)

The Flame itself is the gestalt souls of basically all the coatls, and the most faithful mortal champions of the Flame.

Thanks. So not a god. That's kind of what I figured. I saw the coatl part, but didn't see the merging in the 5e book.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I get the desire to keep settings in "original intent" mode; pure to its original vision and design. But those designs are 30-40 years old. By original intent, only humans and elves should be allowed to cast magic since there were no dwarves or kender mages in the original setting. They should also be of limited level too. But I don't wager you want to bring back race/class restrictions, no matter how "on brand" it is for the setting. The game has moved on from that design and world building principle, and it will continue to adapt.

Again, make all the changes you want, and let buyers decide. But don't pretend you're not standing on the shoulders of others. Acknowledge in the text that you are making a change, and don't ignore the contributions of previous authors and the existence of earlier versions of the story because you think your ideas are better.

if I don't like your ideas I probably still won't buy your product. But others will, and you can do your creative work with a sense of artistic integrity and respect for those who came before.

 

[DarkCrisis]

I don't know why people are saying they are "fixing" it or "taking it back to its roots" all of that is wrong according to WotC.

WotC has flat out said its a "reimagining". As in alternate universe. Not the original.

Even the newest novel is called "Classic Dragonlance" not just "Dragonlance".

WotCs Dragonlance is not Dragonlance. It's New Coke Dragonlance.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I get the desire to keep settings in "original intent" mode; pure to its original vision and design. But those designs are 30-40 years old. By original intent, only humans and elves should be allowed to cast magic since there were no dwarves or kender mages in the original setting. They should also be of limited level too. But I don't wager you want to bring back race/class restrictions, no matter how "on brand" it is for the setting. The game has moved on from that design and world building principle, and it will continue to adapt.

Also, while I don't care much for level and class limits, you could play with them in 5e right now without much trouble, if you can get players. My real issue is with the lore, as stated above.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I don't know why people are saying they are "fixing" it or "taking it back to its roots" all of that is wrong according to WotC.

WotC has flat out said its a "reimagining". As in alternate universe. Not the original.

Even the newest novel is called "Classic Dragonlance" not just "Dragonlance".

WotCs Dragonlance is not Dragonlance. It's New Coke Dragonlance.

But they're not necessarily saying it in the book. They didn't with Ravenloft, or Spelljammer, and those were reimagings too.

 

[Stormonu]

I think as far as changes go is something akin to how Star Wars has evolved. When Dragonlance was originally released, it was built over the span of the modules, much like Star Wars evolved through its movies. Like Star Wars, the lore and media available for it is staggering and can be intimidating to someone coming into it for the first time. Most people will agree that the original trilogy (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, Dragons of Spring Dawning & the modules thereof for Dragonlance; A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi for Star Wars*) are the "core" of the franchise, and then opinions as for what to include/keep will diverge from there.

The question becomes, where do you draw the line for entry, and what do you keep? Disney dumped the Expanded Universe when it acquired Star Wars (and even Lucas disowns the Christmas Special), though it has both embraced some of the old content and included new. I think we'll see some of the same with Dragonlance. Likely, the original modules and novel trilogy will be the core from which they build. The vast array of novels, modules, supplements and the like will fall to the background and probably not addressed to their validity with the current re-imagining.

What does that mean? Expect a light, broad stroke version of Dragonlance in the player-facing content. A veneer, if you will. The adventure will have an Easter egg or two if for those with deep knowledge of the lore. Any old supplements you have will be compatible, but if it isn't directly relevant to the adventure, it won't be mentioned and can be used or dropped as desired. Expect anything controversial (such as Gully Dwarves) to be skirted or avoided. But again, if you want it for you and your group, you can add it yourself - just don't expect WotC to acknowledge it's existence. My basis? That's exactly what they did for both Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft and Spelljammer.

* Yes, yes - I know, Original or Enhanced version has its proponents, but these three movies, altered or not are core to Star Wars. Dragonlance's "Enhanced" version would be Dragons of the Dwarven Depths, Dragons of the Highlord Skies & Dragons of the Hourglass Mage.