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

 

[Hussar]

Well, I never wanted that, for my part.

If you're right about what they're doing, it is essentially ignoring decades of progress. I never wanted that.

You call it progress. And, it is progress of a sort. But, it also creates massive barriers to play. Imagine trying to come into any TSR era setting cold. The absolute mountain of material for that setting is just so daunting that it's not worth it.

So, what do you do? Continue to cater to an diminishing body of fans or reset the line to attract new fans? Well, WotC tried catering to the existing fans. That's what we got in 3e. Massive setting books, few adventures and mountains of canon. And, it doesn't work. All it does is drill the setting into the ground and make it less and less accessible as time goes on.

So, we got 4e, where they tried doing an original setting and making that the default setting of D&D. Well, that didn't work very well.

Now, they can say that they listened to fans. You are getting the settings that you all wanted. You're getting your Planescape and Dragonlance and Ravenloft and whatnot. But, you're getting the reset versions of them. Not changed. Not altered. Set back to factory standard.

This is what people wanted.

 

[Micah Sweet]

You call it progress. And, it is progress of a sort. But, it also creates massive barriers to play. Imagine trying to come into any TSR era setting cold. The absolute mountain of material for that setting is just so daunting that it's not worth it.

So, what do you do? Continue to cater to an diminishing body of fans or reset the line to attract new fans? Well, WotC tried catering to the existing fans. That's what we got in 3e. Massive setting books, few adventures and mountains of canon. And, it doesn't work. All it does is drill the setting into the ground and make it less and less accessible as time goes on.

So, we got 4e, where they tried doing an original setting and making that the default setting of D&D. Well, that didn't work very well.

Now, they can say that they listened to fans. You are getting the settings that you all wanted. You're getting your Planescape and Dragonlance and Ravenloft and whatnot. But, you're getting the reset versions of them. Not changed. Not altered. Set back to factory standard.

This is what people wanted.

It does appear to be what people wanted. Its not what I wanted, but I'm part of that diminishing fan base WotC no longer cares about, so my opinion no longer matters.

I have what I need to play those setting in 5e if I want. I'm very sad they've officially ended all the settings I grew up on (except the Forgotten Realms and Eberron, which were never my favorites), but apparently very view people care about those stories anymore.

For the record, I quite liked Nentir Vale as an original setting. I just ultimately rejected the mechanics of 4e.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The debate, as I see it, is about representation. It has been done for a myriad other types of minority groups whether it be with NPCs or the artwork. This time it's about the setting. I'm not sure why there is so much pushback to have this included if most people on Enworld are all about being inclusive.

Wait, you're seriously comparing not wanting depictions of who you are (race, gender identity, neurodivergency, etc) to be portrayed in a bigoted way to not liking the possibility of Orcs existing in Dragonlance? Yeah, no. Let me know when to start playing the world's smallest violin.

 

[Stormonu]

Hussar, I don't agree. Back to the Star Wars analogy you're trying to roll things back to New Hope only. I can't imagine anyone wouldn't throw Empire and Jedi into that. Just about everything beyond those three can be argued for inclusion or exclusion.

I believe Dragonlance reached the "fully fleshed" portion when Dragonlance Adventures dropped. The module series had come to a close and Adventures wrapped up the whole affair in one product. Past that point things started to branch considerably.

As a side note on Ravenloft - Time seems to have passed to the "next generation" in the land, and I chalk up the domains breaking apart in Van Richten's due to the absence of Azalin. After all, he was the first to step beyond the bounds of Barovia - with the first tethered steps to Mordent, then realizing his own realm of Darkon. He broke Ravenloft once with the Grand Conjuction - seems fitting with his latest disappearance that things begin breaking apart, as if it were all held together with his will in the first place...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Hussar, I don't agree. Back to the Star Wars analogy you're trying to roll things back to New Hope only. I can't imagine anyone wouldn't throw Empire and Jedi into that. Just about everything beyond those three can be argued for inclusion or exclusion.

I believe Dragonlance reached the "fully fleshed" portion when Dragonlance Adventures dropped. The module series had come to a close and Adventures wrapped up the whole affair in one product. Past that point things started to branch considerably.

As a side note on Ravenloft - Time seems to have passed to the "next generation" in the land, and I chalk up the domains breaking apart in Van Richten's due to the absence of Azalin. After all, he was the first to step beyond the bounds of Barovia - with the first tethered steps to Mordent, then realizing his own realm of Darkon. He broke Ravenloft once with the Grand Conjuction - seems fitting with his latest disappearance that things begin breaking apart, as if it were all held together with his will in the first place...

That idea would work better if there was any memory of things ever having been different then they are finished in VRG, or if several of the domains weren't entirely different places with the same names.

It's like @Hussar said: they're doing their own thing, and it doesn't matter to them what came before, because only a financially insignificant percentage of fans care anymore.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

As an aside, but to support @Hussar's position; Way back in 1988/89 I went to the recently opened Virgin Megastore in Dublin with a vague notion of buying the D&D manuals. When I went to the gaming section I was presented with a wall of AD&D material, including a manual for every class.
My reaction was, "I can't afford all that" I bought a copy of Palladium RPG and Warhammer FRPG and never looked back. I never looked at D&D again until 3rd edition came out.

Too much material is off putting to people getting started in a system.

A second data point: During the Third Edition period I made an effort to read up on and buy the Forgotten Realms lore manuals. I never really got to use the material. It rarely interacted with the background of published adventures, and I run only published material due to my own limitations as a DM. It is kind of interesting on its own but too much work. It may be different for other types of DMs and groups that delve into the lore of the setting as a play activity. Though that is a player behaviour that I have never really witnessed.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

In my own version of 5Ed Ravenloft this is a sequel and not a reboot. Vecna wanted to take revenge against the Dark Powers, and if there is somebody in the D&D multiverse capable, that is Vecna (maybe Azalin was manipulated as pawn when this tried to escape). The original "core" hasn't disappeared but this is in a second layer within the demiplane of the dread. It was like before, but without the dark lords, because these were abducted and sent to the new dark domains.

* Other point is the events of "Chaos summer" in Krynn. Maybe this doesn't happen for the 5th Ed, or a new timeline is created, allowing to get the elements you like more.

The novel "Tanis the shadow years" showed a "demiplaned" created by the memory (I like the name "akasha realm"). Maybe the Krynnspace has got some "clone demiplane" working like a parallel universe, but allowing changes you wanted for your story.

 

[Hussar]

The thing is, this is a reset of the setting. This is supposed to be three years before the beginning of DL1 I think.

So there is no canon. They have reset before A New Hope, which means all bets are off.

Unless of course you figure that the players are just side characters who never actually get to confront Takhisis. Yay we get to play in a setting where we’re not allowed to do anything meaningful because it would alter canon.

No thanks. There’s a very good reason I never bothered with Star Wars as an rpg. If I wanted to be an unimportant, ineffectual schmuck, I’ll stick to real life.

 

[Azuresun]

Have the only new settings that have been released under the D&D banner since the 90's been Eberron and WIldemount/Exandria? Neither of which were conceived by WOTC's own staff?

And Theros, Ravnica and Strixhaven, but they don't count because [furious handwaving].

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And Theros, Ravnica and Strixhaven, but they don't count because [furious handwaving].

And Nentir Vale/Nerath