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

 

[mamba]

I specified "some older Dragonlance fans". I've purposefully avoided lumping all Dragonlance fans in the same group.

Here is your quote

Seriously, what is with these Dragonlance fans getting up in arms when it comes to the slightest changes to the world? Didn't the setting already ruin itself decades ago through the metaplot? Why are you complaining about mustaches and the possibility of Orcs not being outright banned when you could be complaining about all of the terrible things that happened to the setting under TSR?

Maybe you meant 'some' with 'these', I took it differently

 

[mamba]

It's a valid observation that they aren't including mustaches in the artwork that we've seen so far.

that is what I was referring to.

 

[mamba]

But doesn’t that mean, by your facial hair example, that only human men ;and dwarves I suppose) can be Knights of Solamnia? If a knight must have a moustache, then that follows right?

Pretty sure almost all knights are humans anyway (I am aware of more knights without a mustache than I am of knights that aren't human). Also, being able to grow a beard is not a requirement, growing a mustache is just a tradition.

 

[Campbell]

Have there ever been any words or text actually addressing the Knights of Solamnia's facial hair grooming standards or are we just basing this on artwork from a time where mustaches were far more common than they are in our contemporary society?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Is this a joke?

no I didn't swear at you I expect the same respect. I realize that enworld is no longer the 'grandma friendly' site I joined years ago but I see no reason to use words like that especially with people I don't know.

It's kind of a weird one. It really feels like a bad faith attempt to put me down, except it's too out there lol.

I think useing vulgur words that are just passable enough to get past the censors is bad form...

It's a huge red flag and I think a number of DMs would agree, if they've had the bad luck to meet it.

we have to disagree here.

Players who want to play a very specific race and only that race (and presuming it's not "human") often possess the following characteristics:

• Want to play a specific character, and play that regardless of setting/tone/atmosphere/other players.

I am going to come back to this

• That specific character is an OC from free-form online RP and/or closely based on an anime/TV show/vampire movie

yeah I know plenty of new players that base there ideas off of anime tv shows and vampire movies... and I have known them since the 90's. What is wrong with wanting to play your OC from the free from online RP ideas? That is my fiancé calls role playing (neither likes doing the other but we respect that we are more or less doing the same)

• They want to play that character regardless of setting/tone so they RP in a solipsistic way, and try and make the game about their character

this is way more of the thing I said I would come back to... it's not that there character doesn't fit the setting/tone it's that they are SHOWING YOU whate setting tone and style they are looking for... and by the sounds of it you are annoyed at them doing so.

• They aren't a good team player at all (unless that OC/character they're based on is - but they usually maximum "I work alone!!!")

this is so against EVERY freeform role player I have ever met... they work together better then most. It almost feels like this one is the batman/wolverine sub set and has little or nothing to do with the rest of this.

• They get really excitable/frustrated when things don't go good for their character, to a very problematic degree

this is again the reverse of free from role players that LOVE to torture there characters for angst.

None of these are certainties, but this isn't a one-off. This a whole type of player, and usually the first sign of trouble is "I need to be race X!!!" when that race doesn't exist in the setting. This is the modern version note, there was an earlier version which was just as problematic but less online (and usually an elf not usually a vampire).

it almost seems to me you took every bad experience and tried to lump it in together here. I am hopeful that you never have to put up with role players that bring you characters you don't like.

Why? You still haven't explained any actual reasoning here, unlike @Faolyn who had more concrete reasons.

I have repeated my reasoning over and over and even quoted them back... I have no problem with restrictions I just think that the bare minimum is you need a reason and 'cause I or someone else said so' isn't a compleing one (IMO)

My suggestion harms no-one and empowers DMs who want to run a certain way, as well as those who don't. It's almost like you're against DMs having choice, and the reasoning seems to be "I want to run it this way, therefore all DMs should run like me!".

you can run however you like... but I think (and hope) wotc doesn't default to restrictions for no reason.

Like, I get liking to run things a specific way, but I don't get wishing all other DMs to be in the same situation. It seems weird too me.

yet again my version is... wotc should just not put art or npcs in of the races and let the group decide...

 

[mamba]

Have there ever been any words or text actually addressing the Knights of Solamnia's facial hair grooming standards or are we just basing this on artwork from a time where mustaches were far more common than they are in our contemporary society?

Plenty in the novels, not so sure about D&D setting books

EDIT: thank god for PDFs that are searchable, so here we go Searched for 'mustache' and ignored all that were not relevant. The quotes are from the setting books.

"As a greater god, Paladine can maintain many avatars at once. [...] He also appears as an elderly warrior with a dragon crest. In this form, he wears a Solamnic mustache and no beard."

"Aran Tallbow was born on the isle of Sancrist and comes from a long line of Knights of the Crown. [...] He is tall and lean with red hair and the distinctive, flowing mustaches of the Knights of Solamnia."

"Sturm is a man of noble bearing, of serious and solemn mien. He proudly wears the long mustaches that are a symbol of the knighthood."

"Almost everyone on Ansalon knows a Knight of Solamnia at first sight. The long mustaches and prominent symbols of the Knighthood that most Knights wear give them away immediately."

"Baltasar Rennold is an imposing figure, standing nearly 6’4” tall. His dark brown hair is thick and bushy. He wears his mustache in the style of the Knights of Solamnia, though it is accented with a graying beard."

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Not really. D20 modern uses the same rules as d20, so should the DM allow a navy seal with a fully automatic machine gun and a bunch of grenades into his D&D game?

is the D20 modern stuff next to the half orc in PHB? i missed that...

I own a Street Fighter roleplaying game that uses the World of Darkness system. I have the stats for Ryu. Should I be allowed to play him in a Vampire the Masquerade game?

i dont see why not mortals with cool perks are a normal thing in Owod... I don't have that book but I have friends that do... that seems easer then fitting a werewolf in.

Nothing in the world of darkness books gives any reason for the Street Fighter characters and abilities not to be present.

do YOU have a reason it shouldn't?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I would bet hard cash that someone has modeled a Brujah after him.

burning wraith meta discipline works well for this

 

[humble minion]

If I ever get a chance to play a wizard in a DL campaign, I’m going to make it my PCs life’s work to invent the Enhance Mustache Growth spell, so that ANYONE can join the knights of solamnia - even female elves, warforged, thri-keen, or plasmoids.

When it came to REALLY changing Krynn, Raistlin lacked ambition, I tell ya.

 

[Dire Bare]

But doesn’t that mean, by your facial hair example, that only human men ;and dwarves I suppose) can be Knights of Solamnia? If a knight must have a moustache, then that follows right?

Pretty sure almost all knights are humans anyway (I am aware of more knights without a mustache than I am of knights that aren't human). Also, being able to grow a beard is not a requirement, growing a mustache is just a tradition.

In the main novels, Solamnic knights were primarily human men. But not exclusively. And the game books that already exist expanded that to include nonhuman races and . . . gasp . . . WOMEN.

Having a player faction open to only human male characters sporting handlebar mustachios is . . . limiting. Unnecessarily so. And stupid.

Having it be a tradition . . . that's okay. PC's can buck tradition.