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

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The OP quotes say it's a setting book.

"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."

And notes from the video...

• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia

Calling it a bit underbaked is like calling a pile of sand a hill. At the words per page in the setting portion, it needed 4x the number of pages it got at a minimum.

It’s still explicitly an Adventure book, not a setting book like Eberron or Wildemount. It will give setting details but it will be like Stormking or Princes of the Apocalypse in what it shares I bet.

Also yes just a bit underbaked it probably could have used another 32 pages, but the material we got was still decent and useable in my opinion.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It’s still explicitly an Adventure book, not a setting book like Eberron or Wildemount. It will give setting details but it will be like Stormking or Princes of the Apocalypse in what it shares I bet.

Also yes just a bit underbaked it probably could have used another 32 pages, but the material we got was still decent and useable in my opinion.

Decent and usable maybe, but certainly not worth what they wanted for it.

 

[R_J_K75]

....it was just a bit underbaked...

I hate when that happens, especially at today's prices

 

[mamba]

Yes, we have sales data: So why then did they pick one of the more naughty word selling settings (Spelljammer) to revive? By your own criteria it will appeal to too small a subset of players.

Dark Sun was less naughty word than Spelljammer, yet it is nowhere to be seen. (Probably a good thing though...)

If not being a naughty word seller is the criteria; Then why haven't we seen an Oriental Adventures revival yet?

One reason might be that it is just different from everything else they had so far or some people at WotC just like it a lot. Or it's simply that 95% or so of today's players know nothing about it, so popularity 30+ years ago is irrelevant.
I certainly would be curious about its sales and more broadly 5e sales per book in general.

Out of the big selling ones only DL is missing, and we are getting that now. OA to me was more additional classes and spells than a setting, so more Xanathar, and therefore does not count as a setting. Planescape is coming next year, which leaves Dark Sun. I'd like to see that one again, but I am not going to hold my breath

 

[Hussar]

All of that being said, I don't think orcs belong in Dragonlance, but I have no problem with anyone playing whatever they want at their own tables. I don't even object to their making a new version of the setting, although it's not to my taste. But erasing the original without allowing for that version in the text is a problem for me. A sidebar explaining that this is a different Dragonlance from what was originally published and a broad review of what is and isn't different would be enough.

But, here's the thing. They are not erasing the original. They are RESETTING to the original. You are the one insisting on changes to the lore by insisting that later stuff be included in the reset. All those things you are insisting on were NOT PART OF THE SETTING until years later.

Same goes for Ravenloft. They reset Ravenloft to the original. Barovia only, no Dark Powers, no Domains of Dread, none of that later stuff that changed the setting.

This is exactly the same as the originally published Dragonlance - or at least FAR closer to it than what you are advocating. So, why should they have a sidebar? All that stuff you're insisting on came later (and a lot of it MUCH later) than the original setting. It's pretty hypocritical to insist on sidebars explaining that this is different Dragonlance when it actually isn't.

 

[mamba]

I absolutely stand by my assertion that WotC Worldbuilding is superficial. They have yet to do anything good or popular that has not been taken and re-worked from the TSR back catalogue.

I agree with that, but I also believe that what they do is very much sufficient and the target audience does not care for it as much as you do, so WotC is right to not put more emphasis on it

To me the big lesson from 2e is to not have too many too specific settings but to keep everything sufficiently open to have a broad appeal, and 5e is showing this.

 

[mamba]

I find it interesting that they announce a compatible wargame, when AD&D1e had things set-up so that you just scaled the number of combatants in an encounter using a 1:10 or 1:20 scale to conduct mass combats.

We already had the Battlesystem in 1e and it was used in one of the DL modules too, so nothing new here...

 

[jasper]

They've said it includes every option for players. What's the difference between one kitchen sink and another?

This sink has a Lord Soth back splash and a cool dragon red sprayer. Which is totally different from the cotton candy sprayer WOTC sold with the Citadel sink.

 

[mamba]

The OP quotes say it's a setting book.

"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."

And notes from the video...

• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia

It is not a setting book, even when it uses words that contain the sequence 'set' in it...

'Introduces the DL setting ... overview ...' that can be as little as 5 pages, 'D&D setting' if this is your criteria, then every single adventure book is actually a setting book, because they are all located in a setting. 'Set in' now you are getting even more ridiculous than the second highlight already was

 

[jasper]

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."

You got to be beeping me. Kender were created by committee. No wonder I really hate them.