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

 

[Maxperson]

Ignoring all the other points for a second time I see. I assume there is a reason for that

Yep. The reason is that tech doesn't advance in D&D fantasy games, because then they wouldn't be D&D fantasy. They'd be Shadowrun or Deadlands. No other point really matters, because tech doesn't advance.

The plate armor that is worn by the purple dragon knights is the same worn by fighters 2000 years prior.

 

[Hussar]

Just to swim back upstream a bit about my own personal line in the sand.

Yes, there already exists the DL modules where you could fight and defeat the Dragonarmies and win the War of the Lance. That's true. I was rather hoping that the new Dragonlance would be an update to that story line - maybe in the nature of Curse of Strahd where you had a number of fairly open world adventures that you could complete in (more or less) any order leading to a final showdown in Nerika with those that were responsible for trying to bring Takhisis into the world.

In other words, I want an adventure where the PC's are the Heroes of the Lance. It didn't have to be the same adventures as DL 1-14. They could be entirely new adventures. I'd be groovy with that. I'm certainly no setting purist.

But, apparently, we're off in the corner, painting in one little area of the setting and ultimately, don't matter one whit. Who cares if the PC's succeed or fail? It won't change a single thing about the War of the Lance. If that's what Shadows of the Dragon Queen is, I'll pass. Not because it's bad or anything like that. Just because it's not what I want. I don't want a prequel adventure where the PC's are doing stuff that doesn't matter. And it very much feels like it doesn't matter if it cannot actually have any impact on the War of the Lance.

So, I've gone from very optimistic to a probably not after reading what I've seen here. I'm just not interested in an AP set in Krynn where you aren't the Heroes of the Lance. (Again, that doesn't mean you have to be the characters from the story. Guess I should be absolutely pedantically clear about that because I'm sure someone's going to argue with me on that point. So, no, I'm not saying I want the players to play out Caramon or Sturm. I want the PC's to be the new Heroes of the Lance in a Dragonlance where Raistlin and Tanie never existed.)

 

[mamba]

I'm struggling to even find a core for Dragonlance at all. It's not dragons, because pretty much every setting has those. It's not a great war, because pretty much every setting has those, too. It's not a cataclysm, since again, every setting has had some major disaster in its past. It might have been the absence of the gods, but those came back a very short time after the war. Before, really, since clerics of Takhisis were around before Goldmoon brought back the others. So absence of gods isn't a core aspect. Draconians? These days most settings have Dragonborn.

What's the core of Dragonlance? What really makes it special?

If you go high enough in abstraction (which you clearly did), I am not sure there is much of a unique core for most settings.

I do not see much difference between Lord of the Ring, Song of Ice and Fire, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance or Dark Sun (and 100 other fictional worlds) when you boil it down to ‘they have wars and gods and giant catastrophes’

 

[mamba]

Yep. The reason is that tech doesn't advance in D&D fantasy games, because then they wouldn't be D&D fantasy. They'd be Shadowrun or Deadlands. No other point really matters, because tech doesn't advance.

The plate armor that is worn by the purple dragon knights is the same worn by fighters 2000 years prior.

Are you incapable of identifying the other points or are you ignoring them for a third time to prove that you do it on purpose

 

[Maxperson]

I do not see much difference between Lord of the Ring, Song of Ice and Fire, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance or Dark Sun

I do.

Unique to LotR: Unique elves that don't exist in that form in any of those other settings, maia with unique powers not found in other settings, valar which are unique from anything found in those other settings, one true god which isn't found in any of those other settings as Middle Earth is a true monotheism.

Unique to Song of Ice and Fire, greenseers, the children of the forest which are different from any other elf type, magic being dependent on dragons which isn't part of any of those other settings, and whatever the hell Bran was isn't in any of those other settings.

Unique to Dark Sun: already pointed those out.

The Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dragonlance have no unique or semi-unique core that I can see.

 

[Maxperson]

Are you incapable of identifying the other points or are you ignoring them for a third time to prove that you do it on purpose

Are you talking about the gods coming back and draconians thing? I thought you were joking. A second great war that includes dragons doesn't have to involve those things. 500 years later you could have the white robed order and black robed order gathering dragons to wipe out the other side, or any number of other reasons why a new dragon war is happening.

 

[mamba]

I do.

Unique to LotR: Unique elves that don't exist in that form in any of those other settings, maia with unique powers not found in other settings, valar which are unique from anything found in those other settings, one true god which isn't found in any of those other settings as Middle Earth is a true monotheism.

Unique to Song of Ice and Fire, greenseers, the children of the forest which are different from any other elf type, magic being dependent on dragons which isn't part of any of those other settings, and whatever the hell Bran was isn't in any of those other settings.

Unique to Dark Sun: already pointed those out.

The Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dragonlance have no unique or semi-unique core that I can see.

Looks like you draw some line where Valar are not just angels but the Cataclysm is just a generic catastrophe and Draconians are just Lizardmen with wings (but LotR elves are so unique they are not at all like those in FR or DL).
That line seems pretty arbitrary to me.

Oh, I do not believe that the magic in Westeros depends on dragons. So that is out entirely.

 

[mamba]

Are you talking about the gods coming back and draconians thing? I thought you were joking. A second great war that includes dragons doesn't have to involve those things. 500 years later you could have the white robed order and black robed order gathering dragons to wipe out the other side, or any number of other reasons why a new dragon war is happening.

but then it is just some generic dragon war that you could just as well place in FR, nothing that is specifically DL. No need to bring DL back for that

 

[Maxperson]

but then it is just some generic dragon war that you could just as well place in FR, nothing that is specifically DL. No need to bring DL back for that

Sure. A dragon war in the realms with dragonborn armies. Heck, you can write that there is another time of troubles event where the gods disappeared and are reappearing with the war, bring these awesome lances with them. You don't need Dragonlance for the original dragon war, either.

That leads me back to, there's nothing core in Dragonlance, the Realms and Greyhawk. All three are generic settings with different flavors, which isn't a bad thing, but there really isn't anything truly unique about them in the same way that Eberron, Dark Sun, Birthright, etc. have unique things.

 

[mamba]

That leads me back to, there's nothing core in Dragonlance, the Realms and Greyhawk. All three are generic settings with different flavors, which isn't a bad thing, but there really isn't anything truly unique about them in the same way that Eberron, Dark Sun, Birthright, etc. have unique things.

I agree with that, they are certainly closer to each other. To me it is no coincidence that they also were the first three