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]

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.

So? They're still not unique.

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

Depends on the angel and setting. They're still not unique.

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.

They perform the same functions as gods. Therefore, they're not unique.

A change of name isn't the same thing as being different.

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.

Forest gnomes. Not unique.

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

And how many tables, do you think, really bothered to keep track of the moons in game play? I'm going to guess very, very few.

 

[Maxperson]

So? They're still not unique.

Name one D&D setting that has elves with all of the many Tolkien mechanics? If you can't, then they are unique, like Dark Sun elves.

Depends on the angel and setting. They're still not unique.

Name a setting that has them in it? If you can't, then they are unique to that setting.

They perform the same functions as gods. Therefore, they're not unique.

They don't perform that function.

Forest gnomes. Not unique.

They aren't gnomes. They aren't elves. They aren't halflings. No D&D race matches what they are. They are unique to that setting.

And how many tables, do you think, really bothered to keep track of the moons in game play? I'm going to guess very, very few.

If there was a wizard in the group, it was important to track. If not, then probably not.

 

[bedir than]

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.

This is one of the thing that makes me hopeful about it being a war story rather than a story with war in the background. Part of the hopelessness in war is that no matter the way a single battle or even series of battles goes they probably mean nothing in the grand plan.

And yet, heroes are born. Friendships that are unbreakable are established. The horrors haunt participants forever. The uselessness does too.

 

[Demetrios1453]

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.)

I'm curious, did you ever play Dragonlance campaigns back in its heyday of the late '80s and early '90s?

I certainly did - one of my DMs when I was in college really liked the setting and ran multiple campaigns that I played in. And we never played the classic DL modules; we just played in the world as is, with the War of the Lance in the background. Sometimes our characters were attempting to do something in their part of the world that assisted, in some small way, to the defeat of the Dragonarmies. Sometimes we just played DL as any other campaign world with slightly wonky rules. The point is, the Heroes of the Lance weren't the only focus of the setting - you could do much more than just rehash their adventures. And, as an old-school DL veteran, I'm glad they are taking that route.

 

[Hussar]

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.

That’s fair.

Again zero comment on quality. Simply me moving on.

 

[Faolyn]

Name one D&D setting that has elves with all of the many Tolkien mechanics? If you can't, then they are unique, like Dark Sun elves.

Name a setting that has them in it? If you can't, then they are unique to that setting.

They don't perform that function.

They aren't gnomes. They aren't elves. They aren't halflings. No D&D race matches what they are. They are unique to that setting.

If there was a wizard in the group, it was important to track. If not, then probably not.

They're all close enough that they're not unique. The tiny details don't actually matter here, and more importantly, any tiny details can easily be made in D&D or any other system. It literally doesn't matter if a race has pointed ears or not or are 6 feet tall or 3 feet tall, or if they're worshiped or not, or what they're called. Same function, same purpose. Game of Thrones is different, but it's not unique. All of the tropes are ones that have been used by other media in one for or another. Same with LotR.

You also seem to be laboring under the misconception that something has to be completely unique to be good or worthwhile, or possibly that if something is unique it's automatically good or worthwhile, and neither of those are the case.

 

[Hussar]

I'm curious, did you ever play Dragonlance campaigns back in its heyday of the late '80s and early '90s?

I certainly did - one of my DMs when I was in college really liked the setting and ran multiple campaigns that I played in. And we never played the classic DL modules; we just played in the world as is, with the War of the Lance in the background. Sometimes our characters were attempting to do something in their part of the world that assisted, in some small way, to the defeat of the Dragonarmies. Sometimes we just played DL as any other campaign world with slightly wonky rules. The point is, the Heroes of the Lance weren't the only focus of the setting - you could do much more than just rehash their adventures. And, as an old-school DL veteran, I'm glad they are taking that route.

Again fair enough. I did play DL more than a few times but always as the heroes of the lance (whether as the pregens or our own characters).

I’m not interested in playing in Dragonlance as just a game world. Not what I want. Like I said, I have zero interest in a Star Wars game where you aren’t directly defeating the empire.

Totally understand that I’m out of step here. That’s fine. Maybe catch it the next time around.

 

[Maxperson]

They're all close enough that they're not unique. The tiny details don't actually matter here, and more importantly, any tiny details can easily be made in D&D or any other system.

They aren't tiny details. It's the difference between a tugboat and the Titanic. You want to call them boats and say, "Look boats aren't unique." while ignoring the fact that there are worlds of difference between the two types. A setting with tugboats is not the same as a setting with Titanics.

It literally doesn't matter if a race has pointed ears or not or are 6 feet tall or 3 feet tall, or if they're worshiped or not, or what they're called. Same function, same purpose.

No. The Tolkien elves are radically different from D&D elves. Further, they objectively do not have the same function or purpose. Tolkien's elves were the first born, granted all the best physical and mental gifts. Perfection. Except for the fact that they were terribly flawed. Their purpose was to serve as the flawed perfection that failed, while the outwardly flawed men saved the world and inherited it.

The purpose of D&D elves is to be another fairly weak race of mostly human non-humans with pointy ears.

You also seem to be laboring under the misconception that something has to be completely unique to be good or worthwhile, or possibly that if something is unique it's automatically good or worthwhile, and neither of those are the case.

And neither are things that I've claimed. I'm very straightforward. Discuss what I'm saying and try not to look for deeper meaning or ulterior motives. Those don't exist.

 

[Faolyn]

They aren't tiny details. It's the difference between a tugboat and the Titanic. You want to call them boats and say, "Look boats aren't unique." while ignoring the fact that there are worlds of difference between the two types. A setting with tugboats is not the same as a setting with Titanics.

No. The Tolkien elves are radically different from D&D elves. Further, they objectively do not have the same function or purpose. Tolkien's elves were the first born, granted all the best physical and mental gifts. Perfection. Except for the fact that they were terribly flawed. Their purpose was to serve as the flawed perfection that failed, while the outwardly flawed men saved the world and inherited it.

Heh. "Perfect except flaws." Either you or Tolkien doesn't know what perfect means.

It really is the same. Tolkien has elves. D&D has elves. The details literally don't matter, not to the vast majority of people who aren't obsessive over the details.

Even if Tolkien called 'em snorgles and said they were blue, they are functionally the same thing as elves in every way that actually matters.

Our Elves Are Different - TV Tropes

Elves originated in Germanic mythology as a common type of fairy folk, the term sometimes being simply synonymous with "fairy". In the British isles, Anglo-Saxon elf myths eventually mingled with those Celtic supernatural beings. Later on, elves …

tvtropes.org

The purpose of D&D elves is to be another fairly weak race of mostly human non-humans with pointy ears.

The purpose of D&D elves is to be whatever the DM wants them to be.

And neither are things that I've claimed. I'm very straightforward. Discuss what I'm saying and try not to look for deeper meaning or ulterior motives. Those don't exist.

I am discussing what you're saying. You are obsessing about miniscule details about various power levels while ignore the actual parts of what make up the story. The stories of LotR and SoFaI/GoT are unique. The settings are fairly typical with some interesting but not necessary bits to them.

 

[Maxperson]

Heh. "Perfect except flaws." Either you or Tolkien doesn't know what perfect means.

::sigh::

It really is the same. Tolkien has elves. D&D has elves. The details literally don't matter, not to the vast majority of people who aren't obsessive over the details.

A pebble is a rock and a mountain is a rock. The details don't matter!