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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.

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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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Me: have to completely re-write every single monster entry from the ground up so they actually can be run in good, neutral, and evil ways.

I apologize, I misread your post as this was a discussion on alignment.

If you want to discuss rewrites for every monster who's lore you find objectionable, then yes, you would have to do more work than me. :)
 

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I apologize, I misread your post as this was a discussion on alignment.

If you want to discuss rewrites for every monster who's lore you find objectionable, then yes, you would have to do more work than me. :)
One: you still didn't answer my questions.

Two: you also still don't get it. Again, look at any of the evil monsters in the MM. Look at their entries and tell me what about them can be construed as being non-evil. Any DM who wants to run one of these monsters as being, say, NG instead of CE has to rewrite the monster so as to support it being NG.
 

Sure, of course one can do that. At my table, it's by default assumed there are no Always Evil races, because we all find such things incredibly boring.

But the books have that as the default, and writes each creature's entry as if it were true. It is literally a ton of work to try to make an Evil creature not-evil because it basically involves rewriting the creature's entire entry.

Seriously. Go read the entries for chromatic dragons, for harpies, for goblins, for ogres. Now imagine you are a new or inexperienced DM. What, in those entries, suggests that those creatures can be used as anything other than evil monsters?
this is why my group has created our own flavor text for all the ones you just listed for the neutral and good ones... it drives me nuts that we had to and every player it needs to be explained to "No killing them is not the default, no i don't care what gary said"
That is literally what you want everyone else to do, though. You say so above. You want the rest of us go through the effort of having to completely rewrite monsters and subvert tropes just so you can say "you're attacked by goblins" and have that be enough.

So why is it fair for us to have to do the work but not fair for you to have to do the work?
I have never truely understood the 'always evil' crowd
 

"This is a game in Eberron. Leave your expectations at the door. You may encounter a friendly Mind Flayer, a bloodthirsty Halfling, and a noble benefactor who happens to be a Black Dragon! Come in with no assumptions!"

Contrast that, with me adding back alignment to every piece of work Wizard's releases, across every stat block.
seems like "In my game I have always evil creatures" is easier to get players around then "In my game I don't have evil alignment races and here is my list of changes"
 


One: you still didn't answer my questions.

Two: you also still don't get it. Again, look at any of the evil monsters in the MM. Look at their entries and tell me what about them can be construed as being non-evil. Any DM who wants to run one of these monsters as being, say, NG instead of CE has to rewrite the monster so as to support it being NG.
One: I have answered you specifically many times, over many threads, over many months, but sure we can go over your list again.

Two: As noted, the fluff/lore, certainly points to an expectation in the MM irrespective to the existence of a Chaotic Evil, or Typically Chaotic Evil, classification. Again however, the topic is Alignment, not supportive writing regarding setting lore. That certainly would be a lot of work to rewrite. :)

So now, lets retread the topics you and I personally, directly, have discussed multiple times. If I miss a question, its not intentional, I was finishing cooking lunch and didnt want it to burn. ;)

Why should "goblins are evil" be the norm and "goblins aren't always evil" be an unexpected subversion?

Its a setting specific question, and the MM and Volos (books people commonly take exception with, but certainly not an exhaustive list of the problematic material Wizard's has published) have set things that way. Please also note, the MM objectively, specifically, and clearly, states there is no 'ALWAYS' and its up to the DM's discretion to follow a suggested Alignment. Ultimately though, much of the game is based on combat, the rules are certainly slanted towards combat, and as the game has been for decades (Tasha's being the point of direction change in my view) been that way, they (WotC) decided to give players and DM's creatures to fight without burdening the DM's with justification. As you say its a lot of work to write up the lore!

How does this make anyone's game better? The only explanation I can see is, it's easier for people to write "you're attacked by goblins" rather than "you're attacked by murderous bandits, who happen to be goblins."

As you say, its better to pay someone to provide the lore. You dont want to have to write up all the lore either, as you have noted.

What, in those entries, suggests that those creatures can be used as anything other than evil monsters?

I believe I covered this, but I dont want to be accused of skipping a question. Yes, the lore would indicate monsters are evil. It seems (to actually be on topic) that the lore around Black Robes ALSO points to them being either overwhelmingly evil, or completely evil as an organization. This would seem to make sense since you know, EVIL God, of EVIL Magic, being the patron of this NOT EVIL group...but....

So why is it fair for us to have to do the work but not fair for you to have to do the work?

Covered above and in my initial response. It absolutely would be a lot of work to rewrite all the lore. Thankfully that is not the topic at hand, which is ALIGNMENT, but you are indeed correct it would be a lot of work to rewrite all the settings and all the lore, to change all the books to be more palatable to your personal view on the game. :)

Seriously, why is monster alignment so important to you?

Because, even a 'typically' rider, informs on the setting in question. Even Eberron, comes with assumptions around the specific cultures, the specific creatures, and monsters no? That's all it is. I bought Fizbans, because they added alignment back to stat blocks. Its petty, its childish, but its quite literally that simple. I want it there, as it was in 5e on release, and as it was in prior editions of the game, because I see no value in removal. That said, you know this, because we have discussed it many many times to the point of the 2 of us getting multiple threads locked, and neither of us have or seemingly will, shift on our view. 🤷‍♂️

seems like "In my game I have always evil creatures" is easier to get players around then "In my game I don't have evil alignment races and here is my list of changes"

As a default assumption, it seems even in other DM's games, that is how players respond when faced with specific monsters.

I still believe its far easier to say 'drop any assumptions you have around the NPC's or Monsters you encounter, this is a different setting', because well, I never said "all creatures are always evil" did I? :)
 

seems like "In my game I have always evil creatures" is easier to get players around then "In my game I don't have evil alignment races and here is my list of changes"
I'd argue it's a lot easier to say "in this world, every creature is complex and could be friend or foe so leave the murder hoboing at the door" than it is to list out every creature that in your world is typically evil and isn't likely to be friendly. I say this as a DM that frequently rewards players when they find ways to get through an encounter with a group of creatures that are typically evil without combat. I want my players to see multiple ways to get through every encounter, with combat simply being one of them.
 

I'd argue it's a lot easier to say "in this world, every creature is complex and could be friend or foe so leave the murder hoboing at the door" than it is to list out every creature that in your world is typically evil and isn't likely to be friendly.
and I literally just argued the reverse, so we will not agree on this.
I say this as a DM that frequently rewards players when they find ways to get through an encounter with a group of creatures that are typically evil without combat. I want my players to see multiple ways to get through every encounter, with combat simply being one of them.
this is fine, but the system has been deemphasizing alignment and has been called out for being pretty racists a few times, so I thinks we need LESS always evil... but i understand you and Scribe disagree
 

IME, new players who aren't edgelords don't tend to go murderhobo if they aren't told what creatures are 'on sight'. Meanwhile, older players who came up with 'traditional' on sight monster tend to have to work harder fighting down the impulse.

It's not because they want to go hog wild necessarily, but because they think it's important to get the first hit because obviously the monster is going to attack. I've been in games and heard of others where the DM purposefully had monsters single out people trying to parley in order to sell how eeevil the monster's were and 'training' the players not to waste time with communication.
 


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