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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[Remathilis]

But how much do they “reimagine” before it’s just something different using the name for sales purposes?

Thesus asked that same question about his ship.

 

[Velderan]

No, because I already have Volo's And Mordy's Tome of Foes, so I didn't really feel the need to spend more money on the same thing.

Edit: Are orcs in MotM as a monster or as a player race?

That's basically why I haven't picked up Nord Games book Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde. I enjoyed their book on undead The Dreaded Accursed to expand on undead a bit. The Monster Manual has it's problems, but largely I think that's from wanting it to be something it was never intended to be. Luckily there's some good books out there to give those extra details.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

So you're speaking on behalf of all gamers everywhere?

What? No. Where did I ever say that?

I seems like you must be, because no change in the books is going to change the gut reactions of existing players who already have established defaults. Your personal example proves that.

I'm not talking about changing the gut reactions of players that already have biases. I'm talking about changing how the books are designed to avoid this from happening in the future to other new players.

 

[Micah Sweet]

What? No. Where did I ever say that?

I'm not talking about changing the gut reactions of players that already have biases. I'm talking about changing how the books are designed to avoid this from happening in the future to other new players.

You just said you weren't speaking on behalf of other gamers (all is obviously hyperbole). If your players already have biases (which the majority of existing players do I warrant), how does getting rid of alignment  now help you?

 

[Demetrios1453]

Thesus asked that same question about his ship.

Plutarch asked that about Theseus' ship. Theseus, if he ever existed, would have dead over a thousand years before the question was asked. That was the point - after more than a thousand years of replacements, was it the same ship?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

You just said you weren't speaking on behalf of other gamers (all is obviously hyperbole). If your players already have biases (which the majority of existing players do I warrant), how does getting rid of alignment  now help you?

1) Who says I'm just interested in helping myself? I'm not that selfish. I'm more worried about other people getting into the hobby and preventing them from having a similar bad experience to the one I've had.

2) I introduce new people to the game all the time. Changing the books to get rid of those alignment listings and explaining other ways to differentiate between monster types would help prevent similar things from happening at my table if the players choose to read the books on their own.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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

Never bad. Good cannot be bad. The nitty-gritty philosophy/theology isn't a discussion I'm interested in getting into. But good cannot be bad. And in Dragonlance, it is bad, because apparently the Kingpriest was a good guy even though he did terrible atrocities. If Dragonlance says that the Kingpriest was good, then it has misused Good and Evil.

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

If what the setting's definition of "good" is actually "just as bad as evil", then the setting's definition doesn't work.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Never bad. Good cannot be bad. The nitty-gritty philosophy/theology isn't a discussion I'm interested in getting into. But good cannot be bad. And in Dragonlance, it is bad, because apparently the Kingpriest was a good guy even though he did terrible atrocities. If Dragonlance says that the Kingpriest was good, then it has misused Good and Evil.

If what the setting's definition of "good" is actually "just as bad as evil", then the setting's definition doesn't work.

Team Good. Team Neutral. Team Evil.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Never bad. Good cannot be bad.

What is bad? We can't all agree on that, either.

If what the setting's definition of "good" is actually "just as bad as evil", then the setting's definition doesn't work.

That's what the people who live in the setting generally believe, because that's what their religion teaches. Player characters are free to disagree as much as they like. It works fine.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Team Good. Team Neutral. Team Evil.

If good isn't good, the setting shouldn't label "good" NPCs with the good alignments. Alignment is (supposedly) objective in D&D. If Dragonlance doesn't play by those rules, then it should have made the "Good" gods have neutral or evil alignments.