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

 

[DarkCrisis]

Do... we really want to hold Star-Midichlroians-Jedican'tlove-gassuddenlymatters-Wars up as a defense against something being called 'dumb worldbuidling'?

Also, not all padawans were from a species capable of producing hair, so the point remains, that there's members without the rattail I rocked in 4th grade.

How about the rest of his post and how even in real world cultures certain hair styles etc where considered a part of that culture or standing in that culture?

 

[DarkCrisis]

No everyone can grow facial hair, also it’s much easier to shave hair than it is to grow it. It makes more sense as a tradition than as a requirement.

Like Dwarves worth beards, Solomnic men value a good mustache. It’s not unheard of fantasy and real world cultures to set a value in something like a good beard.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

How about the rest of his post and how even in real world cultures cultures certain hair styles etc where considered a part of that culture or standing in that culture?

Hair styles are easier than facial hair. As mentioned it sounds fine as a tradition, but not as something required.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Like Dwarves with beards

Which is supposed to be funny.

 

[Kai Lord]

Here is a little tidbit for you

Margareth Weis: 'Dragonlance: Fifth Age' was very controversial at the time

D&D Sage Advice · Lorraine took over TSR, she declared there would be no “stars”. She wanted to take DL away from me and Tracy and bring it

www.sageadvice.eu

We would not have gotten Summer Flame and the drastic shift in DL if it weren't for Lorraine Williams. That in itself was already a reboot of DL. So me rejecting it is more consistent with DL than you accepting it

Whatever we get from WotC in a month, it cannot do more damage to DL than TSR did back then.

It seems that WOTC is now finishing what Lorraine Williams started. At least Weis and Hickman get to close out their run with a full trilogy this time instead of just Dragons of Summer Flame.

 

[Vaalingrade]

How about the rest of his post and how even in real world cultures certain hair styles etc where considered a part of that culture or standing in that culture?

This isn't a real world culture, it's one manufactured to be usable in multiple iterations are multiple tables.

Lots of times what works in a novel or the real world doesn't work for a piece of collaborative fiction.

And also, we are now officially drilling through the mantle beneath the bottom of the barrel, going from keeping the weird morality which was arguably a big part of how the setting worked (for better or for worse) to keeping out species not specifically calls out as being in the setting (and also plunger robots and jedi for some reason) and now facial hair. Next stop: the font on the cover.

 

[Vaalingrade]

And are all men in Dragonlance able to grow mustaches? Or is that a technique that the Knights of Solamnia are trained to have?

Pictured: Morning Prayer Ritual of an Average Solamnic Knight.

 

[humble minion]

Jeez, life is going to be awful awkward for female Solamnic Knights if mustaches are compulsory...

There's absolutely no way I'd consider mandating mustaches on Knights. I'm pretty bloody sure the Oath and the Measure doesn't mention facial hair anywhere. Have it be a tradition among the Knights, sure, have senior traditionalist NPC Knights look askance on clean-shaven PC Knights, sure. But mandatory? That's going far too far across the line of my PC being a character in the DMs novel. It's FASHION.

 

[Faolyn]

Let me ask you a question. If I feel that the VRG version of Ravenloft is inferior to earlier work for that setting, what reaction should I have? Agree with the majority or stay quiet about it seems wrong to me here.

Edit: I'm not trying to be rude. I seriously don't know what I'm supposed to do if I see a new D&D product that I don't like anymore.

"I don't like it." "It doesn't fit my playing style." "I preferred the way they did X in the 2e/3x books rather than the way they handled it in 5r."

As opposed to "WotC ruined the setting" or "WotC is only putting this out for money and doesn't care about us older gamers" or "WotC shouldn't have put out a different version because it goes against what I personally like."

Or better yet, "I preferred the way they did X in the 2e/3x books. Let me think about what I can use from the 5e books to make X even more interesting for me."

 

[DarkCrisis]

Shades of grey. Just shades of grey.

I recall in another thread someone said “Could you just replace the Solomnic Knights with Purple Dragon Knights.” Seems that’s getting easier and easier to do.

Once Krynn is fully de-uniqued we can just make it a landmass somewhere in Faerun.