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

 

[DragonBelow]

Actually, the lore of the setting was that the Theiwar used magic, as did the Scions. References in that regard go back at least as far as the 1992 Tales of the Lance (affiliate link) boxed set, though insofar as I'm aware neither were available as PC options.

The Original DLA also says the Theiwar are magic users, but all clans except the Neidar (hill dwarves) use the mountain dwarves stats which were not allowed to be wizards of high sorcery or renegades, so that's an inconsistency. Also mountain dwarf PCs had to be from the Hylar clan for some reason.

 

[Velderan]

Actually, the lore of the setting was that the Theiwar used magic, as did the Scions. References in that regard go back at least as far as the 1992 Tales of the Lance (affiliate link) boxed set, though insofar as I'm aware neither were available as PC options.

1987 DL Adventures references the theiwar as casters in the race section under dwarves. It does specify all PC mountain dwarves are hylar though, so yeah, not a PC option.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

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.

Absolutely. I wanna play a warforged or autognome someday whose form was possessed by a little spark of the Flame during creation, sent by the Voice to herald some terrible danger.

 

[Stormonu]

I miss the old logo with the lance through the words.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Some changes are necessary, not only because marketing reasons or for a better gameplay, but because WotC has to send a different message for the new generations about everybody is wellcome in the D&D tabletop game.

And players are "reimagining" the setting everytime, for example the Sigil we know is only a layer, but it is a toroid within other, and one toroid inside another, and this in turn inside a third even bigger one. The second layer would be the "industrial zone", and the third one the "rural zone" to farm.

But the troubles start when the players can't agree about what changes may be wellcome or not.

* The antagonist of the novel "Flint, king of the gullys" was an arcane spellcaster dwarf, and part of the story is he spent a "wish" spell to ressurect the female main character, and when the wish didn't work then he realises she was alive.

 

[R_J_K75]

I haven't read the 28 pages of this thread so sorry if this has been discussed but heres the Warriors of Krynn board game description off Amazon.

- Warriors of Krynn—3–5 player cooperative board game in which heroes battle the fearsome Dragon Army, explore in search of treasure, and earn rewards for use in their next adventure
-Immerse yourself in mass battlefield play experiences by running Shadow of the Dragon Queen encounters through 6 scenarios in the board game that alter the course of your adventure

Does anyone know what the replay ability is for the board game? Are there more scenarios than the 6 that pertain to the Shadows of the Dragon Queen hardcover adventure? I'd hope it can be used in other setting and include rules to create your own battles, but I expect that will be dealt with through expansions most likely.

 

[Kai Lord]

It looks like Half-Orcs may no longer be listed as a PHB race going forward so concerns over them being specifically called out as a playable option in the new Dragonlance may be moot. Full Orcs look like they will be listed in the PHB but really, what percentage of players would choose them for Dragonlance? Would it really have a measurable impact to their bottom line if they simply stated that Krynn has no native Orcs, and that if players want to play them they'll either have to come from somewhere else or pick a Hobgoblin instead?

 

[Micah Sweet]

It looks like Half-Orcs may no longer be listed as a PHB race going forward so concerns over them being specifically called out as a playable option in the new Dragonlance may be moot. Full Orcs look like they will be listed in the PHB but really, what percentage of players would choose them for Dragonlance? Would it really have a measurable impact to their bottom line if they simply stated that Krynn has no native Orcs, and that if players want to play them they'll either have to come from somewhere else or pick a Hobgoblin instead?

I can't imagine it would.

 

[Stormonu]

I haven't read the 28 pages of this thread so sorry if this has been discussed but heres the Warriors of Krynn board game description off Amazon.

- Warriors of Krynn—3–5 player cooperative board game in which heroes battle the fearsome Dragon Army, explore in search of treasure, and earn rewards for use in their next adventure
-Immerse yourself in mass battlefield play experiences by running Shadow of the Dragon Queen encounters through 6 scenarios in the board game that alter the course of your adventure

Does anyone know what the replay ability is for the board game? Are there more scenarios than the 6 that pertain to the Shadows of the Dragon Queen hardcover adventure? I'd hope it can be used in other setting and include rules to create your own battles, but I expect that will be dealt with through expansions most likely.

I haven't seen anything official, even boardgamegeek seems to be in the dark about it. What is odd is the number of minimum players - 3.

It should be moddable/expandable to be used elsewhere, we don't know if the game will contain suggestions for creating ad hoc scenarios, but it shouldn't be too difficult.

We should see more info by mid-November, hopefully with folks recieving promo copies and/or a basic walk-through.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

For me, it was Orcus. One of the first dungeons I ran when we switched from D&D to AD&D had Orcus at the bottom. I feel like I did him dirty by this. One day I want to run him as the big bad in a campaign to atone.

In junior high I did that! Every room with a monster in it and maybe a trap. No rhyme or reason to the dungeons. Ahh, to be young again.

That is a glorious story. I think we've all been there, reading the wrong box text in an adventure and having to rewind. Perhaps not so dramatically, however.

I did once (in my own adventure, no less) start off by describing a room as "filled with illusions of holes in the floor."

Oh man that totally reminds me of the time my buddy in early high school (I'm sure it was freshman year) ran "The Mines of Bloodstone" and early on in the adventure the party was traveling across the countryside in broad daylight until the DM declared that suddenly the ground shook, then opened, then ORCUS THE DEMON LORD clawed his way to the surface, stood before us and roared "I'M FREE!!!!" We were all "holy crap!" and then just as suddenly the DM looked back at the text and said, "oh hold on a second. Oh crap I totally read that wrong. Shoot um okay Orcus actually crawls back down into the ground and the hole seals up. Where are you heading again?"

Needless to say our mouths were on the floor and I don't think we composed a straight answer for quite some time. The most hilarious bit wasn't even that he randomly goofed and had Orcus just appear in front of the party for no reason (in like the first or second session) but that instead of just saying "never mind that didn't happen" no he just rode it out and had Orcus change his mind and go back down into the ground, lol.