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

 

[Micah Sweet]

again, yes and no... plenty of people were useing PHB from 1e through the 90's with the adventures, and as such half orcs were there

At a specific table. Not in the setting writ large.

 

[Stormonu]

See to me, all the canon of a setting counts. Its all part of the story. The additional material is like a sequel; it adds to the setting. What you're suggesting sounds to me like, "they're reverting Star Wars to the original, so why would they keep all that later stuff from Empire Strikes Back"? Discounting Dragonlance Adventures is no different than that to me.

Sure, they didn't explicitly say there weren't any orcs until a little past the modules, but there weren't any before, and later they made it clear. That's more than good enough for me. I'm not picking choosing anything.

Well, for me when it comes to DL, I'm ignoring everything from Dragons of Summer Flame and beyond. Especially if it relates to the SAGA version.

I do agree on the Star Wars analogy - it's what I've been advocating for some time. I'd be most comfortable if the reference point was Dragonlance Adventures, which was pretty much the wrap-up point for the original modules/novels. Sort of like stopping with Return of the Jedi.

 

[Velderan]

That is an argument for every D&D setting allowing everything ever made for the current edition into the game, because its all D&D. That's fine for any given table, but it defeats part of the purpose of having settings, and goes against the advice in the 5e PH anyway (which suggests that sort of thing is under the DM's purview).

I get that no one reads the DMG, but it pretty clearly in it says that Dragonlance does stray a bit from the default assumption.

This book, the Player’s Handbook, and the Monster Manual present the default assumptions for how the worlds of D&D work. Among the established settings of D&D, the Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and Mystara don’t stray very far from those assumptions. Settings such as Dark Sun, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, and Planescape venture further away from that baseline. As you create your own world, it’s up to you to decide where on the spectrum you want your world to fall.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, for me when it comes to DL, I'm ignoring everything from Dragons of Summer Flame and beyond. Especially if it relates to the SAGA version.

I do agree on the Star Wars analogy - it's what I've been advocating for some time. I'd be most comfortable if the reference point was Dragonlance Adventures, which was pretty much the wrap-up point for the original modules/novels. Sort of like stopping with Return of the Jedi.

And doing that is fine in your game, especially if you're making that clear with your players in session 0. I love counterfactuals!

Edit: I'm also in favor of playing an established setting from a certain point in its history, which would allow for different events to occur. I just don't want that history changed in the actual setting outside of someone's table.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That is an argument for every D&D setting allowing everything ever made for the current edition into the game, because its all D&D.

that is not my intent at all
the argument i am making is it has to have a reason... so i can see why time lords would not fit in ST or orcs in DS... but no reason why it matters if orcs are in DL

That's fine for any given table, but it defeats part of the purpose of having settings, and goes against the advice in the 5e PH anyway (which suggests that sort of thing is under the DM's purview).

again i have no problem with removing... 'just cause' isnt a good one IMO

 

[mamba]

the very fact that no one playing a half orc assassin would have noticed a difference from a human thief shows there is no reason to use this 'rule'

the argument is not about how important the rule is, but about its existence

 

[GMforPowergamers]

the argument is not about how important the rule is, but about its existence

no the argument is if the rule makes sense... the rule exisists after a few years... but WHY. does it help or add to the game? See getting rid of dumb rules that serve no purpose but to frustrate players is a thing for the last 20ish years. It's why we don't have level limits and class requireing stats... and it's why 'no orcs' doesn't pass the mustard to many of us.

 

[mamba]

okay so if I have a star trek adventures phb (yeah I know not a thing these books are more all in 1) and it has stats for klingons and I come to your table with a klingon you would be cool with it. However if you buy a DL book and and go to run a DL game you don't want me to use a D&D phb (aka half orc).

Now the counter argument is if I had a star trek adventures PHB that had stats for a wokkie or a time lord you would feel pretty secure in arguing "Those are NOT real star trek" to witch I would ask "why did star trek adventures put stats in for things in?"

because the PHB is the generic version, any setting overrides this, whether by adding, subtracting, or changing what is in the PHB. This is so obvious that I am not sure why this even has to be spelled out

 

[mamba]

again if in 198X you sat down to play D&D with a 1e PHB in hand you assumed unless stated otherwise half orc was an A OKAY character...

and you’d have been wrong, most definitely for X > 7, but even before. Before you could however argue that you could not know

 

[Vaalingrade]

Still waiting to hear what it adds to Dragonlance to not allow one orc running around.

I always thought the core of DL was the balance between good and evil, war, rebuilding from apocalypse, time travel and morally dissonant comedy relief, not the lack of orcs and sorcerers.