Dragonlance Dragonlance Adventure & Prelude Details Revealed

Over on DND Beyond Amy Dallen and Eugenio Vargas discuss the beginning of Shadow of ther Dragon Queen and provide some advice on running it.

Running a Session Zero for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

When starting a new adventure, it's a good idea to get on the same page as your party. Here's how to run a session zero for the upcoming Dragonlance adv...

www.dndbeyond.com

This epic war story begins with an invitation to a friend's funeral and three optional prelude encounters that guide you into the world of Krynn. Amy Dallen is joined by Eugenio Vargas to share some details about how these opening preludes work and some advice on using them in your own D&D games.

There is also information on the three short 'prelude' adventures which introduce players to the world of Krynn:

• Eye in the Sky -- ideal for sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, or others seeking to become members of the Mages of High Sorcery.
• Broken Silence -- ideal for clerics, druids, paladins, and other characters with god-given powers.
• Scales of War -- ideal for any character and reveals the mysterious draconians.

The article discusses Session Zero for the campaign and outlines what to expect in a Dragonlance game -- war, death, refugees, and so on.

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[Maxperson]

I'll take that over color coded alignemnts

It wasn't exactly color coded alignments, since you couldn't tell which of the three alignments from each tower someone was. Hell, it doesn't really have anything to do with alignments at all. It was all about moral stance and alignments were just 1e's way of fitting PCs into those moral stances.

If you're a pretty good dude, you wore white. If you're a downright nasty bastard you wore black. If you were in-between you wore red. No need for alignment at all.

 

[Azzy]

I'll take that over color coded alignemnts

Maybe they'll do it like paladin oaths—define each order by behavior and ethos. The orders might not have an alignment restriction, but following the particular ethos will predispose characters of that order towards certain alignments.

Or, we do as others, and pretend the sky is falling.

 

[Remathilis]

At the cost of logical restriction and history?

I won't even buy the book if they allow it lol

To be perfectly honest, it's pretty stupid that wizards in Krynn literally wear their alignment on the robes. I mean, they literally walk around in public wearing a robe saying "I'm untrustworthy and malicious, avoid me at all costs".

Make the black robes ambitious and interested in self empowerment. Like Slytherin in Harry Potter. You attract a lot of evil people, but you will occasionally get neutrals more interested in advancement or even the rare good who is trying to gain power for some greater end "the road to hell and all"

I mean, the Red Wizards of Thay and the Zhentarium aren't even monolithic evil anyone. Time to let the High Sorcery stand for more than color coded alignments.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

It wasn't exactly color coded alignments, since you couldn't tell which of the three alignments from each tower someone was. Hell, it doesn't really have anything to do with alignments at all. It was all about moral stance and alignments were just 1e's way of fitting PCs into those moral stances.

If you're a pretty good dude, you wore white. If you're a downright nasty bastard you wore black. If you were in-between you wore red. No need for alignment at all.

Personally, I like the idea of shifting the Mages of High Sorcery from alignment to a "Selfless <=> Selfish" spectrum - white robes focused on doing what is best for as many people as possible, black robes focused on what is best for themselves, and red robes focused somewhere in between.

For the most part that corresponds to traditional ideas of Good, Evil, and Neutrality, but it also opens the door to white robes who are willing to do terrible things precisely because they believe it to be necessary for the "greater good", and black robes who are sincerely good people that nonetheless view "rational self interest" (for lack of a better term) to be the most effective methodology to bettering the world. Gives room for more nuance than all white robes being good people and all black robes being scumbags.

But again, not a Dragonlance expert by any means...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

At the cost of logical restriction and history?

I won't even buy the book if they allow it lol

Good don't. The Robes don't need to be outright attached to alignments, just the order's philosophy.

 

[Stormonu]

Maybe they'll do it like paladin oaths—define each order by behavior and ethos. The orders might not have an alignment restriction, but following the particular ethos will predispose characters of that order towards certain alignments.

Or, we do as others, and pretend the sky is falling.

Harry Potter it? Gryphindor --> Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff --> Slytherin ?

 

[Maxperson]

Or, we do as others, and pretend the sky is falling.

I proved in another thread that the sky IS falling. It always is.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Maybe you should judge when the book comes out.

I actually think WotC has been pretty clear about this.

 

[Scribe]

Good don't. The Robes don't need to be outright attached to alignments, just the order's philosophy.

'Non-Good' for Black, is not some difficult bar to reach. /shrug

 

[GMforPowergamers]

At the cost of logical restriction and history?

I won't even buy the book if they allow it lol

it isn't a break point for me but removing alignment from that (even if we go with often or mostly or on average evil) would be a major plus for me.