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...

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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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[Paul Farquhar]

I don't know what an also-rans is, but I assume the bullies didn't grow up with the ability to kill with a word and were not being taught to kill with a word

No, I expect most of them became politicians.

But that's the same as HP. You don't have to be evil to be in Slytherin, but it tends to attract unpleasant people. The ability to kill with a word is something everyone in Hogwarts possesses, it's not confined to a single house.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

No, I expect most of them became politicians.

But that's the same as HP. You don't have to be evil to be in Slytherin, but it tends to attract unpleasant people. The ability to kill with a word is something everyone in Hogwarts possesses, it's not confined to a single house.

but no one is activly recuriting evil...

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I don't know what an also-rans is, but I assume the bullies didn't grow up with the ability to kill with a word and were not being taught to kill with a word

It's a "catch-all" category.

In some hypothetical political election, you'll have the big name candidates (the ones with all the connections to the prominent political parties, all the money, all the press coverage, etc.) who dominate the race, and then you'll have the "also-rans", all of the other people who also ran for the office but who couldn't stand out from the crowd for one reason or another (third party affiliation, less name recognition, less funding, less coverage, etc.) and ended up as little more than names at the bottom of the ballot.

 

[Velderan]

agree whole heartly.

Why would good people let an entire group of evil people gain power?!?!

The entire setting is based on the concept of balance. Where there is good, there must be evil. I realize this has gotten quite a few threads closed by now so I'll leave out the other examples in the setting and focus on the one we're talking about here specifically.

The Order of High Sorcery is all about protecting magic first and foremost. The gods of magic recognized that the average person would not understand magic and would likely view it as a threat, so they had to have rules to make sure everyone using it did not set the cause of magic back. An evil mage randomly lobbing a fireball into a village could only harm the cause of magic because it would cause all mages to be viewed with suspicion or even violence. So for good aligned mages, they get to help rein in evil aligned mages from abusing magic. I get what a good mage would get out of allowing evil to be part of their order. What I kind of struggle with is what do evil aligned mages get out of it beyond "they get to exist". I think this concept is what makes modifying the orders a bit to more accurately reflect how the various orders actually played out makes sense to me. Dalamar was one of the most prominent black robe mages featured and I struggle to think of anything he did that had him live up to his Chaotic Evil alignment.

 

[Scribe]

Dalamar was one of the most prominent black robe mages featured and I struggle to think of anything he did that had him live up to his Chaotic Evil alignment.

This again will just come down to what "Chaotic" and "Evil" are intended to mean.

I am quite sure, that if people look at the novels as a source of information, Dalamar would have performed some extremely heinous acts, with or on behalf, of Raistlin.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This again will just come down to what "Chaotic" and "Evil" are intended to mean.

I am quite sure, that if people look at the novels as a source of information, Dalamar would have performed some extremely heinous acts, with or on behalf, of Raistlin.

And of course, by the end of Chronicles, Raistlin was essentially a renegade wizard.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yeah I don't think evil being a requirement of the order still makes any sense. It can lean that way cause of the order's goals which I say works the best.

 

[Demetrios1453]

While I'm not hugely excited with the comparison material myself, it doesn't negate the fact that the comparison is apt...

 

[Scribe]

Yeah I don't think evil being a requirement of the order still makes any sense. It can lean that way cause of the order's goals which I say works the best.

Its simply a chicken and egg scenario.

"If you wear Black Robes, you seek power at any cost, nothing is beyond you."

That is not a balanced (Red) or Good (White) world view.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

This again will just come down to what "Chaotic" and "Evil" are intended to mean.

I am quite sure, that if people look at the novels as a source of information, Dalamar would have performed some extremely heinous acts, with or on behalf, of Raistlin.

again this is why devorcing as much from alignment 9that is at best an argument waiting to happen) is best