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

 

[Remathilis]

That's not what will happen though. You aren't going to have most DMs sit down and say to themselves, "It doesn't mention orcs. Does that mean that they are here or not here. Let me decide." Instead most DMs are going to sit down and say, "It doesn't mention orcs and that's probably an oversight, because orcs are everywhere and then they will use them." It's not going to be an informed decision.

The only way you are going to get informed decisions across the board is with language like the MM and Theros. "X is not here by default, but can be there if the DM wants them to be."

DMs familiar with the older lore will uphold the ban.

Newer DMs either not familiar with the older material or who don't care will allow orcs.

Nobody loses except those who want WotC telling DMs what is/isn't allowed.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nobody loses except those who want WotC telling DMs what is/isn't allowed.

This is nonsensical, no-one would "lose" anyway.

Why do you object to people even being given this information? That what seems like, almost creepy (not you, but because the 'hide the info!!!' thing is so odd) here, like you don't want people to even know.

The same exact logic could be applied to any setting which had any restrictions. Including Dark Sun, which I don't think anyone but you has even suggested should have no restrictions (and you only by implication).

 

[Maxperson]

DMs familiar with the older lore will uphold the ban.

So a small minority.

Newer DMs either not familiar with the older material or who don't care will allow orcs.

Which goes against the setting. Why do you have a problem with telling the newer DMs what the setting is like and letting them make an informed decision?

 

[Velderan]

Yeah, and in my opinion players ought not to assume they can do whatever they want in every game. A little language expressing what is intended would go a long way.

Yep and the counter-argument of bad DMs will point to the wording saying they're not there and interpreting that as we can't make them there either is generally a bad argument in my view because bad DMs and players will always read things wrong and if it's not that part of the book, it's another. Nothing WotC can put or not put in a book is going to change a bad DM or player.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yep and the counter-argument of bad DMs will point to the wording saying they're not there and interpreting that as we can't make them there either is generally a bad argument in my view because bad DMs and players will always read things wrong and if it's not that part of the book, it's another. Nothing WotC can put or not put in a book is going to change a bad DM or player.

Exactly. Whether this is included or not is going to have absolutely zero impact on whether bad DMs are bad DMs, but it will have an impact on whether DMs know about the setting and are making an informed choice, or whether they don't know, and are going to be surprised when one of their players says "Huh, I didn't think there were orcs in Dragonlance" or the like.

 

[Remathilis]

This is nonsensical, no-one would "lose" anyway.

Why do you object to people even being given this information? That what seems like, almost creepy (not you, but because the 'hide the info!!!' thing is so odd) here, like you don't want people to even know.

Think of it like this.

Some players are going to be angry if there aren't sufficient ban lists. For some, it's the three PHB races canonically not in DL (halfling, drow, orc). Others will want far more extended lists (no warlocks or artificers or tieflings or any race from MotM). Other players will be mad that there are ban lists at all. The very creation of such a list is going to anger players on both ends. So why bother? They can shadow-ban things like orcs by not featuring them in the module and let the DM decide if that means they are present but not appearing or if they are banned per the old lore. WotC loses nothing by engaging in silence, except to the people who want explicit lists of banned things to justify why they won't be allowed in that DMs campaign.

They have little to gain and more to lose by spelling it out rather than implying what isn't there. So why do it?

 

[Micah Sweet]

By recent, I was referring to the 3 most recent (Strixhaven, Ravenloft, Spelljammer).

I can't speak to Strixhaven on that point, but Ravenloft and Spelljammer are explicitly settings where PCs are expected to come from outside and/or everywhere. At least 5e Ravenloft is like that. From late 2e through 3e, Ravenloft was designed to provide support for native PCs. Before and after, not so much.

 

[mamba]

Think of it like this.

Some players are going to be angry if there aren't sufficient ban lists. For some, it's the three PHB races canonically not in DL (halfling, drow, orc). Others will want far more extended lists (no warlocks or artificers or tieflings or any race from MotM). Other players will be mad that there are ban lists at all. The very creation of such a list is going to anger players on both ends. So why bother?

Going by this thread, not having a list is not fixing this…

 

[Xamnam]

The very creation of such a list is going to anger players on both ends. So why bother?

Because, as you yourself said, absence will also bother people?

 

[Vaalingrade]

I love how this thread has almost expertly twisted an example into a core and singular hill to die on to the point of spinning off and invading other threads with the idea that people are trying to add orcs and specifically orcs to Dragonlance.