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]

Settings are defined by tone, theme and lore. Not by if they have orcs or not.

What is and isn't there is  part of the theme.

 

[Maxperson]

True. Eberron fans also seem pretty dead-set on their setting being separate from everything else. Do the same rules of "everything is part of the multiverse" apply there too?

D&D Krynn has never been set apart from the rest of the multiverse. Starting from 1e, other races and classes could enter Krynn from elsewhere.

 

[Velderan]

A simple sentence like 1e included is sufficient. "Orcs don't exist on Krynn, but they can travel there." That lets DMs and players alike know that 1) Orcs aren't on Krynn unless they travel there, and 2) they exist as a PC option if the DM okays the character having travelled to Krynn.

Agreed, I've seen the word banned a few times in this thread and 1E Dragonlance Adventures never literally says they're banned. From the book:

There are no halflings or half-orcs in Krynn. Halflings who enter this world are considered kender and gain the special abilities (and obnoxious personalities) of kender in this world. Half-orcs would be considered magical freaks or aberrations as there are no orcs in Krynn.

That doesn't mean they're banned, it simply means they presently don't exist and even provides an example of a half-orc being considered a magical freak if one were to be introduced. If a DM wants to bring one in, the book (to me at least) suggests the locals might not understand what they're looking at and the character might face adversity. I'd argue the way halflings are handled according to the book is a lot heavier handed than orcs; they literally become kender and have their personality changed according to the book.

 

[Maxperson]

Not sure why you're responding to me, I didn't say it was a good or bad idea. I just clarified what I thought was someone misunderstanding the post someone else made. Click the little up arrows in the quote to follow the conversation and let the OP know what you think. lol

I responded to you because it was your post that I saw it in. I wasn't making a judgment about you.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And there you have it. If you're doing it any other way it is BadWrongFun.
Is that clear enough for everyone?

Dude. That version is literally a compromise between two different types of world building. It reconciles two different playstyles that are normally incompatible and allows them to coexist. It's also a method of designing worlds, so "badwongfun" means nothing here. There are objectively bad ways to design a D&D setting. There are also objectively good ways, such as the way I mentioned that can make everyone at the table happy and let them play what they want.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Dude. That version is literally a compromise between two different types of world building. It reconciles two different playstyles that are normally incompatible and allows them to coexist. It's also a method of designing worlds, so "badwongfun" means nothing here. There are objectively bad ways to design a D&D setting. There are also objectively good ways, such as the way I mentioned that can make everyone at the table happy and let them play what they want.

Given your posts, I'm not sure you're qualified to know what makes everyone happy at the table.

The only real disagreement we should have is you think a sidebar is a waste of space, which I can respect. But the rest of your forceful cosmological and playable options at every table is a bit massively over the top.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So it's part of the multiverse in a way that's completely meaningless. Is that what you mean?

If you want it to be meaningless. But it also can provide plot hooks for a campaign if you think about it a bit. If the Ring was damaged, then people and monsters could attack/invade Eberron. There could be creatures (dragons, couatls) that live in the Rings of Siberys that have seen people try to enter the world but were blocked by the force field.

It's not "completely meaningless", but the DM can choose whether or not it affects the campaign and Keith Baker has written multiple articles on different approaches to this issue. This version is giving the DM different options for their version of Eberron and providing them with tools to customize the setting how their table likes it.

 

[Maxperson]

In those 500 years they also had other things to worry about… which incidentally also is why it took us forever to get out of the dark ages while progress is much faster now.

That also was not my only point, there is only so often dragons and gods can return and draconians can be new races.

The Realms didn't have other things to worry about, yet each new edition moved time, but not technology forward. Technology does not generally advance in D&D campaigns. That's what D&D modern is for.

 

[Maxperson]

That doesn't mean they're banned, it simply means they presently don't exist and even provides an example of a half-orc being considered a magical freak if one were to be introduced. If a DM wants to bring one in, the book (to me at least) suggests the locals might not understand what they're looking at and the character might face adversity. I'd argue the way halflings are handled according to the book is a lot heavier handed than orcs; they literally become kender and have their personality changed according to the book.

Yeah. They use the same language with the classes that don't exist on Krynn. Not banned, but are treated differently when they arrive. Heathen Clerics, etc.

 

[Velderan]

The Realms didn't have other things to worry about, yet each new edition moved time, but not technology forward. Technology does not generally advance in D&D campaigns. That's what D&D modern is for.

Given the various catastrophic events Krynn has faced after the War of the Lance including the Chaos War, the Dragon Overlords (reshaped the world almost as drastically as the Cataclysm did imo), and the War of Souls, it's not much of a stretch to suggest civilization and technology didn't advance much because in some cases people were just clinging to whatever they had to survive.