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

 

[Faolyn]

Surely this was said in jest? So funny if it is true.
Kinda like suggesting one should slay orc babies before they manifest evil through their actions.

I cannot believe someone would have not said something like that in jest.

Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II - Page 3 - Dragonsfoot

He went by Col_Pladoh but signed his posts with his name.

Some of the things he said on those posts:

Paladins are not stupid, and in general there is no rule of Lawful Good against killing enemies. The old addage about nits making lice applies. Also, as I have often noted, a paladin can freely dispatch prisoners of Evil alignment that have surrrendered and renounced that alignment in favor of Lawful Good. They are then sent on to their reward before thay can backslide

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is by no means anything but Lawful and Good. Prisoners guilty of murder or similar capital crimes can be executed without violating any precept of the alignment. Hanging is likely the usual method of such execution, although it might be beheading, strangulation, etc. A paladin is likely a figure that would be considered a fair judge of criminal conduct.

Mercy is to be displayed for the lawbreaker that does so by accident. Benevolence is for the harmless. Pacifism in the fantasy milieu is for those who would be slaves. They have no place in determining general alignment, albeit justice tempered by mercy is a NG manifestation, whilst well-considered benevolence is generally a mark of Good.

I offer the following:

The non-combatants in a humanoid group might be judged as worthy of death by a LG opponent force and executed or taken as prisoners to be converted to the correct way of thinking and behaving. A NG opponent would likely admonish them to change their ways before freeing them. A CG force might enslave them so as to correct their ways or else do as the NG party did. CN and LN opponents would likely slaughter the lot. Evil opponents would enlist, enslave, or execute them according to the nature of the Evil victors and that of the survivors. Enlistment would be for those of like alignment, slaughter for those opposite the victors' predisposition to order or disorder. Enslavement is an option for any sort of Evil desiring workers.

Gygax was serious.

Note that he felt that it was perfectly fine for Chaotic Good people to enslave non-combatant humanoids. While I haven't read every single post on that thread, I'm certain he was using humanoid in the older-edition way, to mean orcs, goblins, gnolls, kobolds, etc., as opposed to demi-humans (elves, dwarfs, halflings, and gnomes). So he was fine with Chaotic Good people engaging in what was basically race/species-based slavery. I have no idea what his answer would have been if someone would have asked him what if the opponents were humans or demi-humans.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think the point we're missing here is that Good and Evil are like positive and negative numbers respectively, and the acts of the gods are multiplication rather than addition. Paying Good unto Good only results in more Good, whereas paying Evil unto Evil conveniently also results in more Good.

It's a Win Win.

I mean that is A way of looking at it...

although I would still love to see where paying good unto good was too much and caused unbalance

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Show me where anything in Dragonlance claimed that the Cataclysm was a good act.

I mean, before later retcons, the authors stated that the Good-aligned gods approved of or perhaps even were primarily behind the Cataclysm. The authors also promoted the idea that the Kingpriest was Good, which I agree is obviously a nonsense, a contradiction in terms, but it's still a position they took.

Re: the "Good" gods being involved doesn't make it a "Good" act, but it does mean that basically either, they're not actually Good, or the authors thought the Cataclysm was "basically okay". Based on stuff they've said, I'm going with the latter, horrific as that is.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II - Page 3 - Dragonsfoot

He went by Col_Pladoh but signed his posts with his name.

Some of the things he said on those posts:

Paladins are not stupid, and in general there is no rule of Lawful Good against killing enemies. The old addage about nits making lice applies. Also, as I have often noted, a paladin can freely dispatch prisoners of Evil alignment that have surrrendered and renounced that alignment in favor of Lawful Good. They are then sent on to their reward before thay can backslide

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is by no means anything but Lawful and Good. Prisoners guilty of murder or similar capital crimes can be executed without violating any precept of the alignment. Hanging is likely the usual method of such execution, although it might be beheading, strangulation, etc. A paladin is likely a figure that would be considered a fair judge of criminal conduct.

Mercy is to be displayed for the lawbreaker that does so by accident. Benevolence is for the harmless. Pacifism in the fantasy milieu is for those who would be slaves. They have no place in determining general alignment, albeit justice tempered by mercy is a NG manifestation, whilst well-considered benevolence is generally a mark of Good.

I offer the following:

The non-combatants in a humanoid group might be judged as worthy of death by a LG opponent force and executed or taken as prisoners to be converted to the correct way of thinking and behaving. A NG opponent would likely admonish them to change their ways before freeing them. A CG force might enslave them so as to correct their ways or else do as the NG party did. CN and LN opponents would likely slaughter the lot. Evil opponents would enlist, enslave, or execute them according to the nature of the Evil victors and that of the survivors. Enlistment would be for those of like alignment, slaughter for those opposite the victors' predisposition to order or disorder. Enslavement is an option for any sort of Evil desiring workers.

Gygax was serious.

my god... that is horrifying and worthy of a forked thread, but I can't imagine it going well so I am not doing it...

 

[Velderan]

If the setting is so fragile that not looking at it through a moral framework that was antiquated even at the time the setting was initially created causes its internal logic to break down, then frankly I think it needs to be redesigned in order to simply be more resilient to scrutiny.

Or, and stop me where I lose you, people can just say "this isn't for me" and stop coming into DL threads talking about how stupid they find it.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Q&A with Gary Gygax, Part II - Page 3 - Dragonsfoot

He went by Col_Pladoh but signed his posts with his name.

Some of the things he said on those posts:





Gygax was serious.

Note that he felt that it was perfectly fine for Chaotic Good people to enslave non-combatant humanoids. While I haven't read every single post on that thread, I'm certain he was using humanoid in the older-edition way, to mean orcs, goblins, gnolls, kobolds, etc., as opposed to demi-humans (elves, dwarfs, halflings, and gnomes). So he was fine with Chaotic Good people engaging in what was basically race/species-based slavery. I have no idea what his answer would have been if someone would have asked him what if the opponents were humans or demi-humans.

That's not even the worst of it. He also expressed support for LG characters engaging in outright genocide, and quoted a 1800s genocidal, racist maniac in support of this. Note said genocidal racist maniac was so horrible he was considered "the shame of a nation" even in the 1800s, which takes some doing.

 

[mamba]

my god... that is horrifying and worthy of a forked thread, but I can't imagine it going well so I am not doing it...

lol, there are some gems in there.

I guess this is because the whole thing came from medieval tournament gaming, and there these views were probably much more popular than in the 1980s/90s (the medieval part I mean). That, or he was maybe just not a very nice person

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Or, and stop me where I lose you, people can just say "this isn't for me" and stop coming into DL threads talking about how stupid they find it.

is that what happened here? or (maybe we really are not on teh same page) did people come here talking about the things they hope get changed so they can enjoy the setting they are looking forward to?

 

[Faolyn]

I would think changing the actions and canon is better then lableing good as neutral or evil

Yeah. Saying "rocks fell, everyone died, nobody know where they came from, the gods were blocked despite their best efforts" would be heaps better.

that;s the thing a god of good can't be compared to a kid trying to do the right thing and finding bad ways to do it.

Exactly. If all you have is a hammer, I fully accept that everything looks like a nail. But if all you have are the powers of a Wizard 40/Cleric 40, then you have a few more options.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Or, and stop me where I lose you, people can just say "this isn't for me" and stop coming into DL threads talking about how stupid they find it.

As someone who has run Dragonlance for like 30 years on and off, I strongly disagree with you.

It is absolutely worth examining how messed-up the whole Kingpriest/Cataclysm deal was, and looking at the various retcons as Hickman/Weis realized it was totally unacceptable.

I would definitely suggest a further, more sound and considered retcon of the Kingpriest/Cataclysm scenario would be a good idea if we want to pretend there are any non-Evil gods in Krynn.