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

 

[MonsterEnvy]

To be fair, the Lady of Pain is the personification in-universe of the absolute worst of a DM. No questions, no saves, just follow my rules or punishment; I am the coolest and most powerful at my singular little table and I will NEVER let you forget it.

The Lady of Pain is just a way to enforce certain rules in Planescape. It's why the Gods don't meddle with Sigil and why no group can just take it over with military force.

 

[mamba]

They have the right, but that doesn't make them right.

it also doesn’t make them wrong… that also is literally what I wrote “Neither one is at fault here, they are just not a good fit.”

 

[Remathilis]

I mean - I ran a Sigil-based game for a year, and my players never even saw the Lady of Pain. Again, I agree that what you’re describing is bad, it’s just a huge disconnect from any game I’ve been in.

I have found that LoP, the Dark Powers, Sorcerer Kings, and similar deity level powers are designed for the DM to preserve the status quo of the setting against players who would exploit metagame knowledge and rules loopholes to sabotage the game. In the LoP's case, it's to stop anyone who would subvert Sigil as Neutral Ground in the setting trying to claim it for themselves or for another deity level power. She's there to stop a coup by a bunch of hotshot PCs who would turn Sigil into their own personal fiefdom. This is why the Lady has no stats, she is the "rocks fall, everyone dies" button used when players want to power trip over the campaign setting.

Can she be abused by bad DMs? Sure. But a bad DM can do that with any deity, divine force, or even 1000 Balors ready to throw down. She is a reminder that the setting is bigger than them and they are just another big fish in an infinite pool of big fish.

 

[Velderan]

And others don't want to share a table with a DM who throws their toys out of the pram because a player doesn't want to just play characters from the novel the DM wrote in their head.

Since you seem to want to argue people are misunderstanding you, how can what is bolded not be read as "it's my campaign so you have to play as Raistlin" instead of "it's my campaign, you have to play as a human". A DM saying race X isn't in the setting I'm running isn't the same as saying you have to play a wise-cracking con artist on the run from the law.

They have the right, but that doesn't make them right.

It absolutely makes them right. A player is not under any obligation to play in a game that doesn't sound fun to them period. As the DM, you plan out the world and it's inhabitants according to the story you want to tell. You pitch the idea to the players you're interested in having in your game and they can either say sounds cool, ask if something else they wanted to play would work somehow, or pass because the game doesn't sound like a fit. The DM should absolutely consider trying to to make the player's wish work, but if the DM doesn't see a way of making it fit without breaking the immersion they're aiming for, the player not knowing the details the DM does should understand since everyone's fun at the table should be the goal.

Personal example, I'm getting set to run DL1-14 modified for 5E sometime after New Years so we're starting to plan out characters so I can prep some pre-Solace adventures to introduce the setting. I had 1 player ask to play an artificer and another ask to play a kenku. I'm allowing the artificer and working with the player on finding a fit even though that's not "traditional" Dragonlance. In a conversation with the player wanting to play a kenku, I told him I might be able to make it work and to give me some more details on what type of character he wanted to make. After discussing it, I explained that would be a tough fit because they're not known in the part of the world we're playing in and based on the background idea he had I could justify letting him play it by us saying he was a nomad sailor who came from a land far away that people aren't familiar with, but I felt immersion would suffer a bit when this strange bird man walked into places where no one had ever seen one. We could go the route of figuring out disguises, but we both agreed that sounded like a pain (him because it meant he'd have to keep that up constantly and me because I knew there were already going to be strange robed dragonmen walking around, so the party having their own mystery robed figure would constantly draw attention I felt would just slow play down for no real gain). He opted to modify the sailor concept to make something else that will fit in better.

 

[ersatzphil]

Can she be abused by bad DMs? Sure. But a bad DM can do that with any deity, divine force, or even 1000 Balors ready to throw down. She is a reminder that the setting is bigger than them and they are just another big fish in an infinite pool of big fish.

I completely agree with you. Really, if you're going to be that adversarial as a DM, why bother with the pretext? "You long rest in the dungeon? You all die. Carbon monoxide - the silent killer."

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I have found that LoP, the Dark Powers, Sorcerer Kings, and similar deity level powers are designed for the DM to preserve the status quo of the setting against players who would exploit metagame knowledge and rules loopholes to sabotage the game. In the LoP's case, it's to stop anyone who would subvert Sigil as Neutral Ground in the setting trying to claim it for themselves or for another deity level power. She's there to stop a coup by a bunch of hotshot PCs who would turn Sigil into their own personal fiefdom. This is why the Lady has no stats, she is the "rocks fall, everyone dies" button used when players want to power trip over the campaign setting.

Can she be abused by bad DMs? Sure. But a bad DM can do that with any deity, divine force, or even 1000 Balors ready to throw down. She is a reminder that the setting is bigger than them and they are just another big fish in an infinite pool of big fish.

Not just PCs, it's a way to explain some of the setting logic itself.

 

[mamba]

By wanting to be an entertainer? By wanting to provide a fun and enjoyable game for their friends? By not hanging their enjoyment on denying things to others?

what about the player denying the DM to play the setting the DM enjoys / wants it to be by being an Orc when there aren't any ?

People treat DMing as if it's this arduous task that they can only do if they're compensated via control, but I and I hope many others actually like DMing and doing collaborative storytelling and the exercise of working with others in the collaborative nature.

Emphasis on collaborative. I.e. the DM does not get to tell the players how they should play and the players do not get to tell the DM how he should rule.

Ideally the DM and players initially agree to a setting and theme / plot, and this includes what races, classes, etc. are available, and then have fun together. If some compromises have to be made for this, no problem, but neither side can force the other to accept something they do not want (I am saying sides for simplicity, it is really all individual opinions).

If however one player absolutely insists on wanting something the DM absolutely does not allow, then that player has to drop out. If I want to run Out of the Abyss and one player insists on playing Spelljammer only, he won't be in my party. He is welcome to play SJ with someone else.
The same is true for a player insisting on playing an Orc, if I felt strongly enough about not having them in the setting.

This also works the other way, if I want to run Out of the Abyss but the players want to run Strahd or what have you, then we probably end up running Strahd instead, unless I were really opposed to that (at which point we run something else entirely that everyone agrees on)

 

[DarkCrisis]

They have the right, but that doesn't make them right.

One individual player isn't the most important person at the table. Its collaborative. One player doesn't get to dictate what is and isn't in the game.

If 5 out of 6 players don't want Gnomes in the games then I guess player 6 isn't playing a Gnome no matter how much be wants to because it's not all about him.

Even as a DM. If I wanted to run Dragonlance, but my friends wants to play in Faerun. Majority wins. Most of them are just happy that I run the game(s) at all and go with whatever nonsense I come up with.

As someone has pointed out above, you seem to have had the absolute worst experiences with DMs/D&D and I hope things get better for you.

 

[Vaalingrade]

One individual player isn't the most important person at the table. Its collaborative. One player doesn't get to dictate what is and isn't in the game.

If 5 out of 6 players don't want Gnomes in the games then I guess player 6 isn't playing a Gnome no matter how much be wants to because it's not all about him.

Exactly,

Some people forget the DM is a player, not a god or daddy figure.

It is not collaborative for ANY one player to 'put their foot down' and demand their way of playing is the way everyone has to. If anyone else but the DM was demanding no one play elves because they don't like them or they don't think they 'fit' the setting, everyone would rightly say that's unreasonable. I'm just applying that to every player at the table equally and the response is to start talking about one person playing sci-fi or something.

And to be clear, I have a wonderful group that is mostly DMs that run their own games and don't get a big head about it. We quickly remove anyone who does. I'm pushing back against the philosophy of DM supremacy that has been poisoning D&D since its inception and I see constantly pushed.

 

[darjr]

This seems a good time to remind people that it is likely that more people buy the first printing of Shadow of the Dragon Queen than bought every single TSR Dragonlance game product.

It may have happened already in preorder.