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

 

[Faolyn]

Doesn't Dark Sun fly in the face of that? Or is that why there hasn't been (and won't be) a 5E version of Dark Sun?

There hasn't been a 5e Dark Sun because nobody can agree on how the psionicist class should work, and yet also aren't thrilled with the psionic archetypes.

 

[Demetrios1453]

In D&D, settings are additive. They take the base vanilla game and add options and themes. Eberron adds magi-tek and dragonmarks. Ravenloft adds dark fantasy and horror options. Etc.

Subtractive design, where things are defined by what is removed from the base game, is a style that has gone out of fashion. And that makes sense; would you buy a video game that removes characters from the game? Would you buy a board game that explicitly forbids you to use other expansions with it? No. That's silly. And to prove it, ask anyone to describe what makes Dragonlance what it is, and I guarantee that "no orcs or drow" won't be in the top 10.

Settings support the core game, not vice versa.

Theros.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Seriously, what is the issue that I'm not seeing here? In Theros, if someone wants to play a Dwarf, they could be a Planeswalker from another M:tG world, or be the Nyxborn creation of a god, or the mechanical experiment of Purphoros. In Eberron, if someone wants to play a Plasmoid, they could be a magewarped ooze created by Mordain the Fleshweaver or a Daelkyr, or maybe they were a Cyran alchemist whose body was transformed into a sentient ooze due to an arcane fluctuation causes by the Mourning. The rare races don't need to be confirmed to exist or not exist on any world until the DM and players work together to figure out how their character concept fits into the world and campaign.

What is the downside to leaving it open ended? If it's already up to the DM, why not make that clear?

Ok, perhaps I'm not being clear. Let me try explain it by other means from a thread I know you're familiar with:

I'm suggesting the pizzeria state on their menu their speciality pizzas.
And a note at the bottom of the menu explaining that any additional toppings such as pineapple or the removal of toppings can be discussed with management to see if available.

You're suggesting the pizzeria not have any specialities or menu, instead the customer comes in and orders their tailor-made pizza which base is frozen and store-bought.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Ok, perhaps I'm not being clear. Let me try explain it by other means from a thread you're familiar with:

I'm suggesting the pizzeria state on their menu their speciality pizzas.
And a note at the bottom of the menu explaining that any additional toppings such as pineapple or the removal of toppings can be discussed with management to see if available.

You're suggesting the pizzeria not have any specialities or a real menu but instead offer its customer a pamphlet reflecting the cost of the various toppings for their custom pizza.

Bad analogy. I'm just saying that they should do it like how they did Theros. Give the list of races that live their, their racial mechanics, and basic cultural explanations, and then explain to the DM ways to include races not native to Taladas through Spelljammer, Sigil, the Graygem, and so on.

Would you be fine with that?

 

[AnotherGuy]

Bad analogy. I'm just saying that they should do it like how they did Theros. Give the list of races that live their, their racial mechanics, and basic cultural explanations, and then explain to the DM ways to include races not native to Taladas through Spelljammer, Sigil, the Graygem, and so on.

Would you be fine with that?

You are fast, I was still busy editing.
And yes, personally I'm more than fine with that - because all I asked for is for an acknowledgement of the native races of the setting. That is a hat-tip to the setting purists for the lack of a better phrase.

 

[Ixal]

Bad analogy. I'm just saying that they should do it like how they did Theros. Give the list of races that live their, their racial mechanics, and basic cultural explanations, and then explain to the DM ways to include races not native to Taladas through Spelljammer, Sigil, the Graygem, and so on.

Would you be fine with that?

Just a few posts ago you complained about page sizes and now you want to add suggestions for all races that do not appear in Dragonlance for no real reason.

 

[Twiggly the Gnome]

Good that you mention it.
Not all Street Fighter games had all characters from the previous ones.

Yep, Capcom are big meanies because they're not letting me play Ingrid or Eagle in Street Fighter 6.

 

[AnotherGuy]

Just a few posts ago you complained about page sizes and now you want to add suggestions for all races that do not appear in Dragonlance for no real reason.

Hey, we finally got @Levistus's_Leviathan comprising. I'm content at this point.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Seriously, what is the issue that I'm not seeing here? In Theros, if someone wants to play a Dwarf, they could be a Planeswalker from another M:tG world, or be the Nyxborn creation of a god, or the mechanical experiment of Purphoros. In Eberron, if someone wants to play a Plasmoid, they could be a magewarped ooze created by Mordain the Fleshweaver or a Daelkyr, or maybe they were a Cyran alchemist whose body was transformed into a sentient ooze due to an arcane fluctuation causes by the Mourning. The rare races don't need to be confirmed to exist or not exist on any world until the DM and players work together to figure out how their character concept fits into the world and campaign.

What is the downside to leaving it open ended? If it's already up to the DM, why not make that clear?

What if the DM doesn't want that character concept to exist in their campaign? It seems to me that you're saying they should do it anyway if the players (or even one player) wants it.

I'm fine with adding a weird one-off PC to an established setting (although it is NOT my preference), but that PC is going to have a hard row to hoe socially, and not every player wants to deal with that. I want the setting to stay as it was, but include a couple sentences explaining that the table can add whatever they want. I really don't see that as a big ask.

 

[Remathilis]

Good that you mention it.
Not all Street Fighter games had all characters from the previous ones. SF 3 for example.
Neither did Mortal Kombat or Smash Brothers.

Yes, but none of them remove characters already in the game just because you bought an expansion. It's not like you buy a 20 character base roster and the expansion removes characters you already own.

And if you're talking game to game (SF3 to SF4) that's closer to an edition change than an expansion. Not all things make it from edition to edition, and many of them change to match the new mechanics of each new game. SF2 Ryu isn't like SF6 Ryu, despite both having the iconic shoto moves. Editions change the game and nobody expects Ryu to be the same as he was in SF1.