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]

As a side note, I don't think paladins can fall in 5e, any more than clerics or warlocks can lose their powers no matter what they do. It's far too important that the PCs get to keep their cool toys.

They can fall, technically, but they just become oathbreakers. Or in my mind, redemption paladins, depending on where they started. They just don't lose their powers.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

how has this not been more often revealed?

 

[Velderan]

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.

I'm not saying it's not worth discussing, it's the repeated attempts to come into threads and convince people who don't have an issue with how it has been presented that it's dumb when that's an incredibly subjective thing. Based on the promo material so far, it seems it will be the same way again and if it conflicts that much with real world morals, there are plenty of other places to play make-believe elf in.

Personally I always preferred the 2E Tales of the Lance presentation where the Cataclysm is discussed on page 25. It presents a few theories while saying ultimately none of us will ever know. To me, that sets it up where each table can grab the theory they like and run with it. Want to absolve the gods of any direct involvement? It has this theory as an option:

Perhaps the Kingpriest himself summoned the Cataclysm as the culmination of a bizarre ritual to gain all power. This theory would make some sense out of the fact that the Temple of Istar—the heart of Evil—was not destroyed, but gated to the Abyss.

The gods were unable to protect the people, who blamed them for not sparing them the catastrophe and everyone sulks for 350ish years.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

Those are closely related topics.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

Yeah, he was pretty darn horrible at times. I hope his horribleness was strictly in-game and he that he simply believed that orcs and other humanoids were truly Always Evil and thus would always go back to being evil, even if they converted, and not that he thought that John Chivington was Lawful Good and the people he murdered were Always Evil.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If you suspect that it could amplify and kill the town and you do it anyway, the act will be evil regardless of your intent. Or put another way, your intent was to risk the lives of the town in an act of utter indifference in order to kill a wight.

you miss understood.,.. I mean at some future point we could run into a wight, not know said ore was there, and by accident cause GRAVE HARM. we already caused MINNOR HARM when we didn't mean to or know.

I agree if we know it is there and that it could do that, it is at BEST reckless.

What you should do is send the buddy with that ore away before casting the spell.

we didn't keep the ore... it was in a wall when it happened last time and the next time we came across any we told local minors about it (with the warning of what little we knew) but we have been in no way able to research it any since then (although this last game ended with my artificer/wizard and our arcanetrickster/abjuror at a great library so we hope to be able to now)

No. It's like this. If there is an incurable, deadly cancer spreading up your leg, you are going to lose a lot of health, innocent when the doctors cut your leg off to save your life.

this seems a weird annalogy but lets see

The cancer was the Kingpriest and his villainous squads and the life of Krynn was at stake. Istar got amputated to remove the cancer and keep the rest of the body of Krynn safe, and it sucks that all those others died with them.

I don't think that fits what happened at all... they didn't surgically target the cancer or even the limb... the killed the patient with a rock

I didn't say "they turned out to be" a vampire or ghoul. I said if there is a vampire or wights and I attack them...

and if you KNOW what they are, how do you know before they attack? See this is why forum examples fail so much the entire set up is missing.

The implication being that I know what they are before I ambush them. I'm not hoping for the best and discovering it later.

If we didn't know that they were undead or evil, we wouldn't just attack them with lethal force.

so the undead you were targeting had been a threat or were about to be a threat?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It's a 224 adventure book with promotional material supporting the same lore the setting has been based on for 35+ years. Pretty safe to say it's not changing in the book coming out in 4ish weeks.

I disagree here are the changes I am hopeful for and expecting:

Kenders wont be written as jerks by defualt
The 3 orders that are color coded and tied to the towers will not have an enforced alignment but an 'often' or 'mostly' alignment at most
any mention of balance between good an evil will be sparing
we will get rad new death dragons.
we willing et stats for Soth
There will be no beliefe of the main 3 knight orders being sexuised

 

[GMforPowergamers]

No, that's plenty boring.

Or, rather, can you understand that while some people think saving every town is fun and you find it boring, likewise you may find it fun to play mercenaries and other people find it boring?

just like (and one day I will make a thead about it) I can't understand how gold is any way a motivation for any game that goes for more then 2 or 3 levels

 

[Velderan]

how has this not been more often revealed?

I'd say don't meet your heroes, but we'll probably find out whoever said that originally was an awful person.

Gygax is an incredibly complicated legacy worthy of a thread on it's own easily, which probably already exists here somewhere. Off to search I go..

 

[Micah Sweet]

They can fall, technically, but they just become oathbreakers. Or in my mind, redemption paladins, depending on where they started. They just don't lose their powers.

But there are no mechanical effects of the fall. They can keep right on doing what they're including acts against whoever they got their powers from. You as the DM are forced to make it matter, because the game assumes it doesn't.