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]

Looks like you draw some line where Valar are not just angels

They'd be archangels and perhaps you could liken them to Solars in D&D, except Solars don't rule over aspects of the world like the Valar do. Valar are more and unique.

but the Cataclysm is just a generic catastrophe

It's a magical catastrophe, like the ones that created the Anauroch(Realms), The Dust Desert(Realms), the Sea of Silt(Dark Sun) and the Sea of Dust(Greyhawk). Phenomenal cosmic power wreaking destruction on the world!!!

and Draconians are just Lizardmen with wings

Don't sell them short! They're dragonborn, not measly lizard men.

(but LotR elves are so unique they are not at all like those in FR or DL).

It's impossible for them to be like those in FR and DL. Their gifts(powers) don't exist in either of those games and their ability bonuses would be so high that they would unbalance the game. Middle Earth elves scoff at the paltry +2, +1 that other races get.

That line seems pretty arbitrary to me.

It's not. My line is based in reason which is the opposite of arbitrary.

 

[Velderan]

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.

I get what you're saying and I agree it does sound like a DL1-14 style adventure converted to 5E with some changes to not make it so rail-roadish would be a fun adventure. I was 100% sure we weren't getting anything like that when the page count was revealed to be 224 pages with some player facing content. Curse of Strahd is 250ish pages if I'm not mistaken with almost no player facing content and a much smaller scope than the War of the Lance.

 

[Cruentus]

They aren't for 5e Dragonlance. That used to be unique, but is no longer.

As far as I know, Dark Sun doesn't have a 5e version yet either. Who knows what they'll change. You're referencing things that existed in Dark Sun in earlier editions, as I did. Changing the discussion to 5e doesn't give Dark Sun any legs to stand on in the comparison.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

yeah I agree

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.

I hate this... I know I use comic book analogy alot but I hate with a passion trying to feel it's important to stop shocker from robbing a bank, when thor is stopping the gods of evil from blowing up the earth...

If I win and thor loses we all lose. If I fail and thor wins the cops can go after shocker...

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.)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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’

fantasy setting with warriors you can rate and some magic... yup all the same lol

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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

The glass candles are burning again in Utra the nightwalker, and skin changers are more common... all of that COULD be because of the dragons being born... or (as I think) the magic coming back is what allowed the dragons to be born again.

Edit: I had to look it up

Quotes​

”It is said that the glass candles are burning in the house of Urrathon Night-Walker, that have not burned in a hundred years.”
—Xaro Xhoan Daxos, to Daenerys Targaryen

"The glass candles are burning . . . ” [4]
—Quaithe, to Daenerys Targaryen

 

[Faolyn]

They're horrible beings to be sure, but they're also the bad guys. How is mass murder and enslavement not as bad?

Because abuse of the general populace is different than abuse of a very specific group of people who have, and still are, regularly abused.
It is every bit as problematic as the Vistani were.

I can understand not wanting to tell that story though. How about...not using those domains? There are plenty that they didn't use, or they could have made their own.

Because I like those domains. The domains are more than just the darklord. The darklord should be just as "good" as the domains are.

As for Lamordia, I agree that the monster isn't actually evil. Switch the darklord to Dr. Mordenheim, and that issue is solved.

And that's entirely what they did. The fact that they made her a woman is irrelevant to her story.

Although they also got rid of a sexy lamp of a character (Eva), and turned Elise--who could've been replaced by a beloved pet for all of her use--into an actual character. Both of these changes make for a better story.

Finally, I have to note that Gothic horror is absolutely rife with these problematic stories and characters. Since Ravenloft is the setting for Gothic horror, maybe it was a poor choice to resurrect for 5e.

I found this definition of gothic horror, from the New York Public Library:

The battle between humanity and unnatural forces of evil (sometimes man-made, sometimes supernatural) within an oppressive, inescapable, and bleak landscape is considered to be the true trademark of a gothic horror novel. These are the core elements that separate gothic horror from its cousin, gothic romance.

I don't see a thing in there that says that you have to use problematic, bigoted, or outdated tropes.

The new and revised domains in VGR do a decent enough job capturing gothic horror, as well as allowing for other types of horror as well.

 

[mamba]

The glass candles are burning again in Utra the nightwalker, and skin changers are more common... all of that COULD be because of the dragons being born... or (as I think) the magic coming back is what allowed the dragons to be born again.

Yeah I googled a bit too, but the counterargument I saw was that during Fire & Blood they have 15 or so dragons, yet no magic, so the three dragons of Danerys cannot have been the cause for it returning. They also went the opposite route of the magic returning being what allowed the dragons to be born.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

D&D's wood and high elves were taken directly from LotR, so they're not unique. I looked up the maia and they seem to basically fulfill the same role as angels or (using the AD&D2e version) eladrin. So they're not unique. Valar seem to be low-powered gods, so they're not unique. Both Dragonlance and the Realms have High Gods that rule over the other gods; the only difference is that people worship the other gods.

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.

There's about twenty billion types of elves, so greenseers aren't unique. Also, in looking up the greenseers, they seem to be more like slightly more anthro treants, so they're definitely not unique. I barely finished the first book and never saw the show, I'm just going by wikis so I could be wrong, but wood elves aren't a unique thing either. Magic dependent on dragons is unique, but in the long run barely different than magic being dependent on the moons--they both make magic into a force that ebbs and flows depending on this far outside the character's ability to control. So they're not unique.

 

[Maxperson]

D&D's wood and high elves were taken directly from LotR, so they're not unique.

No they aren't. Tolkien may have been the inspiration, but D&D's elves are nothing like Tolkien's elves beyond having pointed ears and the same name.

I looked up the maia and they seem to basically fulfill the same role as angels or (using the AD&D2e version) eladrin.

They're more than that. Angels in D&D don't fulfil roles overseeing portions of the world the way maia often do.

Valar seem to be low-powered gods

They aren't gods at all. In Middle Earth Eru is the one and only god. They're angels that rule over portions of the world, which is different from any D&D angel.

There's about twenty billion types of elves, so greenseers aren't unique. Also, in looking up the greenseers, they seem to be more like slightly more anthro treants, so they're definitely not unique.

they are not treants at all. They inhabit nature, but are not trees or wood. Nor are they elves. No pointed ears, the size of halflings, etc. D&D doesn't have a race like that.

Magic dependent on dragons is unique, but in the long run barely different than magic being dependent on the moons--they both make magic into a force that ebbs and flows depending on this far outside the character's ability to control. So they're not unique.

It would be like magic dependent on the moons, except magic on Krynn is no longer dependent on the moons.