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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[pemerton]

In an extreme form? Yes, they do. For the average party member? No, definitely not.

Again, we're not talking about minor types of law and chaos. We're talking about the cosmic extremes of what Law and Chaos entail.

This notion of "cosmic extremes" that are better in balance is something you are bringing to the discussion. It's not inherent in D&D as such (eg it's not there in Gygax's PHB/DMG, nor in 4e).

Of course that's your prerogative. But upthread you've made claims about what Good and Evil entail and how DL fits into that as if they were self-evidently true. They're not, any more than your claims about Law and Chaos are.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

This notion of "cosmic extremes" that are better in balance is something you are bringing to the discussion. It's not inherent in D&D as such (eg it's not there in Gygax's PHB/DMG, nor in 4e).

It's inherent in Dragonlance. That's where this whole tangent came from. That Dragonlance says "good and evil must be balanced", and I think that plot element works better for law and chaos.

 

[pemerton]

It's inherent in Dragonlance. That's where this whole tangent came from. That Dragonlance says "good and evil must be balanced", and I think that plot element works better for law and chaos.

And suppose you were a certain sort of Stoic or a Daoist, you might think that balancing good and evil makes more sense. None of this is self-evident.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And suppose you were a certain sort of Stoic or a Daoist, you might think that balancing good and evil makes more sense.

Is there anything in Stoicism or Daoism that is relevant to Dragonlance's stance that "too much good is bad"? From my admittedly limited understanding of Daoism and Stoicism, their approach to "balancing good and evil" is very different and not very applicable to Dragonlance.

None of this is self-evident.

If you assume that "good" actually means "good", then it is evident that evil is never good and good is never bad.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

If you assume that "good" actually means "good"

What is "good"? Is where everything fails, since we cannot agree upon that.

However, if you assume "good" means "what Krynn's religions teach is good" then you can make the setting work.

 

[Steel_Wind]

The newest novel has a Cleric or Druid mention that Chizlev appeared to her and now shes a priestess. This is set during the war.

So after Goldmoon does her thing the other gods probably start activating new divine characters. As long as they keep with "Goldmoon did it first", it should be fine.

That's one spin. The other is that Chislev, one of the Gods of Neutrality, re-entered the world BEFORE Goldmoon's encounter with Mishakal.

Canonically, Goldmoon's recover of the Disks of Mishakal was the re-entry of the Gods of Good into Krynn. We already know that the Gods of Evil had re-entered long before that.

We do not know the circumstances as to how and when The Gods of Neutrality re-entered the fray. My Point: there is wiggle room here.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

In Runequest, there are no alignments, who is evil depends on who you talk to and everyone games in Glorantha just fine. It wouldn't be a bad thing if D&D got rid of alignments.

I am kinda with you... I think you can keep the alignments as outliers.

60-80% of the population is unalgined, they aren't really good or evil or lawful or chaotic... however SOME people are super evil or super good and get an alignment.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

It's inherent in Dragonlance. That's where this whole tangent came from. That Dragonlance says "good and evil must be balanced", and I think that plot element works better for law and chaos.

It CAN work better then it does though.

here is a minor rewrite... good was overwealming winning and law was really high, as a LG king was trying to elivate everyone... so the EVIL GODs directly started messing around cause they thought they were losing... the GOOD gods then tried to protect there people and directly started to mess around, and both sides quickly realized M.A.D. so the Neutral Gods stepped in caused the cataclysm and brokered a deal of balance... nobody will interfere. then tiamant/takissis breaks the rule, so paladine skirts the rule... but neither is ready to take DIRECT stomp out the other side interference... and Paladin has to warn "I am only free to help this little because they broke the rules, if I break more they get to retaliate with more and sooner or later to maintain the 'balance' the neutral gods will throw a mountain. I can't, nor can my gods under me, stand up to both the evil and the neutral together, but we can keep the neutrals out of it as long as we only do small retaliations and as such our hands are tied... I can point you in the right direction but I can't fight the war for you... unfortunately good can't win the balance must be maintained"

now the good gods are doing what they can, but the evil and neutral out power them. the balance is the best they can hope for not because too much good somehow hurts, but because when good gets the upper hand evil goes scorched earth nuclear and the neutrals fall more in the 'rocks fall everyone dies' category.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

What is "good"? Is where everything fails, since we cannot agree upon that.

However, if you assume "good" means "what Krynn's religions teach is good" then you can make the setting work.

here is what good is in D&D

Lawful Good. (LG) creatures can be counted on to do the right thing as expected by society. Gold dragons and paladins are typically lawful good.

Neutral Good. (NG) folk do the best they can to help others according to their needs. Many celestials are neutral good.

Chaotic Good. (CG) creatures act as their conscience directs, with little regard for what others expect. Copper dragons and unicorns are typically chaotic good.

 

[Pentallion]

That's one spin. The other is that Chislev, one of the Gods of Neutrality, re-entered the world BEFORE Goldmoon's encounter with Mishakal.

Canonically, Goldmoon's recover of the Disks of Mishakal was the re-entry of the Gods of Good into Krynn. We already know that the Gods of Evil had re-entered long before that.

We do not know the circumstances as to how and when The Gods of Neutrality re-entered the fray. My Point: there is wiggle room here.

What we DO know is that magical healing was not known outside of possibly the evil clerics. And sinde the evil clerics weren't generally known that's pretty much all of Krynn. So, unless the Gods of Neutrality don't give healing, it's more logical to assume they stayed out of the conflict, remaining neutral.
But your DL may vary.