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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[GMforPowergamers]

That's compulsory enrolment, not recruitment, and it's because they are magic users, and the unregulated use of magic is hazardous.

Thier moral and ethical beliefs are irrelevant.

I;m sorry what is the diffrence between compulsory enrolment and recruitment? this seems like a word game

 

[Velderan]

the mages of the tower hear about 2nd or 3rd level wizards and go recruit them... even if they are chaotic evil

That's an oversimplification that clearly misses the point.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That's an oversimplification that clearly misses the point.

okay, so if the good guys who are aligned with the cosmic force of good find someone with JOKER level morality BUT he says "Sure let me take the test"
or WORSE
someone that is kinda on the brink and the test drives them to CE joker levels...

those are now allies and part of the 'family'

BUT
someone who is altruistic and only wants to help people with magic and is NG BUT also says "I can't join an organization that lets evil like the joker in" THEY are branded renegade and hunted... by the good guys.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

BTW what I am asking is for it to be more complex... 'yeah some evil gets through but we don't try to get them' 'what about the black robes?' 'Black robes are more likely then red and red more likely then white to turn evil but overall we don't have a way of knowing if someone is good or evil... sometimes even white robes go evil, when they do we stop them like renagades'

 

[Velderan]

okay, so if the good guys who are aligned with the cosmic force of good find someone with JOKER level morality BUT he says "Sure let me take the test"
or WORSE
someone that is kinda on the brink and the test drives them to CE joker levels...

those are now allies and part of the 'family'

BUT
someone who is altruistic and only wants to help people with magic and is NG BUT also says "I can't join an organization that lets evil like the joker in" THEY are branded renegade and hunted... by the good guys.

It's pretty simple. If an evil aligned mage joins as a black robe, they've at a minimum agreed to some basic principles about how to practice magic (e.g. no lobbing fireballs into random villages for kicks) so they're not a threat to the general populace. A renegade has made no such agreements and could cause harm to the reputation of mages everywhere through irresponsible use of magic.

A renegade is not limited to being evil as you've noted, but they're also not immediately hunted and killed if they're deemed harmless. Could a PC mage live the renegade life and deal with being an outsider to the order? Sure, a good DM would make that part of an interesting campaign while a bad DM would send the mage death squad to put an end to the PC that won't test.

 

[Scribe]

someone who is altruistic and only wants to help people with magic and is NG BUT also says "I can't join an organization that lets evil like the joker in" THEY are branded renegade and hunted... by the good guys.

"Officer, I have done nothing but good, yes I arrested the man I caught red handed shop lifting, and yes it resulted in me needing to beat him up. No, I am not a Police officer. Wait...I'm under arrest?"

Now, imagine its instead of someone committing a petty crime, its someone who can raise the dead, or throw around fireballs.

I actually think the concept of the order makes way more sense than 'yeah let the walking bomb just go his way and get stronger'.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

"Officer, I have done nothing but good, yes I arrested the man I caught red handed shop lifting, and yes it resulted in me needing to beat him up. No, I am not a Police officer. Wait...I'm under arrest?"

Now, imagine its instead of someone committing a petty crime, its someone who can raise the dead, or throw around fireballs.

and what if the answer is "I didn't learn fireball, I'm an abjure and I studded counter spell and haste"

I actually think the concept of the order makes way more sense than 'yeah let the walking bomb just go his way and get stronger'.

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense (I have a whole thing about how fast people would be pro mutant/superhero reg in the real world) I said I want to remove the obvious 'the evil guys where black' from it.
D&D has moved on from know alignment and detect evil (even if that still is called it but doesn't show alignment) I just want no one to be able to say "The bad guys color coded for you"

 

[overgeeked]

It's pretty simple. If an evil aligned mage joins as a black robe, they've at a minimum agreed to some basic principles about how to practice magic (e.g. no lobbing fireballs into random villages for kicks) so they're not a threat to the general populace. A renegade has made no such agreements and could cause harm to the reputation of mages everywhere through irresponsible use of magic.

A renegade is not limited to being evil as you've noted, but they're also not immediately hunted and killed if they're deemed harmless. Could a PC mage live the renegade life and deal with being an outsider to the order? Sure, a good DM would make that part of an interesting campaign while a bad DM would send the mage death squad to put an end to the PC that won't test.

You know that evil doesn’t mean chaotic stupid, right?

 

[Scribe]

and what if the answer is "I didn't learn fireball, I'm an abjure and I studded counter spell and haste"

I'm not saying it doesn't make sense (I have a whole thing about how fast people would be pro mutant/superhero reg in the real world) I said I want to remove the obvious 'the evil guys where black' from it.
D&D has moved on from know alignment and detect evil (even if that still is called it but doesn't show alignment) I just want no one to be able to say "The bad guys color coded for you"

How can I know you just learned those things instead? "Oh, I broke the law, but it was for X justification." doesnt matter. The order's exist for logical reason.

White Robe - CN
Red - Whatever
Black - LN

There, no colour coding.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

How can I know you just learned those things instead? "Oh, I broke the law, but it was for X justification." doesnt matter. The order's exist for logical reason.

White Robe - CN
Red - Whatever
Black - LN

There, no colour coding.

that is all i am asking for to remove the color codeing...
white robe lawful evil and black robe chaotic good seem perfectly fine to me