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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[Velderan]

Definitely the Kingpriest. But Dragonlance's Top Good God says that he was a good man.

Are you talking about the quote where he said he WAS a good man? Because that was past tense. He was, then he became intolerant and overzealous to make a perfect moral world. At that point, he stopped being good and lost his ability to cast divine magic.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Are you talking about the quote where he said he WAS a good man? Because that was past tense. He was, then he became intolerant and overzealous to make a perfect moral world. At that point, he stopped being good and lost his ability to cast divine magic.

The Kingpriest was also dead when that quote was made, so past tense would also have been used if Fizban intended to mean that the Kingpriest was a good person while he was alive. So both readings are equally valid. Because the English language allows for miscommunications like that.

 

[Velderan]

The Kingpriest was also dead when that quote was made. An equally valid reading is that Fizban did intend to say that the Kingpriest was and always was a good person.

Not really. They took away his divine magic. How would it make any sense to do that and proclaim him still good? I get it's not convenient for your argument, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Not really. They took away his divine magic. How would it make any sense to do that and proclaim him still good?

He was trying to become a god. He was challenging their authority. You can be in conflict with someone else and still think they're a good person.

I get it's not convenient for your argument, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense.

It's not that this is a "convenient argument". It's that this was a part of Dragonlance's take on morality that influenced me to dislike it so much.

Also, I can't find the full quote of "The Kingpriest was a good person". If you or someone else could post it, maybe that could help clear up any misunderstandings of it.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Nevermind, I just found it, @Velderan:

"Fizban scolded, shaking a bony finger at her. 'There was a time when good held sway. Do you know when that was? Right before the cataclysm!'

'Yes" he continued seeing their astonishment, 'the king priest of Istar was a good man. Does that surprise you?'"

Yeah, nothing in this quote suggests that Fizban means "The Kingpriest was a good person, but became bad." To me, it more reads as "The Kingpriest, while alive, was a good person!", which is especially supported by the claim that "Good held sway before the Cataclysm". If Fizban/Paladine didn't intend to mean "the Kingpriest used to be good, before he turned evil", I think he would have said that, and not "good had more sway before the Cataclysm, the guy that kind of caused it was a good guy, too!"

 

[Faolyn]

Not really. They took away his divine magic. How would it make any sense to do that and proclaim him still good? I get it's not convenient for your argument, but it makes a heck of a lot more sense.

So when, exactly, did he lose his magic? Because I can't find anything on that in his Dragonlance wiki entry or in the entry for the Cataclysm as a whole. All I can find is that the gods sent him extremely vague messages and signs which he very easily misinterpreted as signs of approval, and then he spent 40 years or so trying to stop all evil. Did he lose his clerical powers before that (and spent decades pretending he had powers), right before the actual Cataclysm (when too little, too late), or at some other time?

 

[Micah Sweet]

The Kingpriest was also dead when that quote was made, so past tense would also have been used if Fizban intended to mean that the Kingpriest was a good person while he was alive. So both readings are equally valid. Because the English language allows for miscommunications like that.

And you decided to use the reading that most supports your point. Fair enough, I suppose, but there are other schools of thought.

 

[Scribe]

Are we talking the 6 novels here? Its been awhile, but the Kingpriest was...not in a great place before the Cataclysm from what I can remember.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

And you decided to use the reading that most supports your point. Fair enough, I suppose, but there are other schools of thought.

No. The exact opposite, actually. The quote was brought up in a previous Dragonlance thread, and my opinion of Dragonlance's morality was pretty heavily shaped by that quote and other similar parts of the setting.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

I have VERY set in there ways old school gamers... WotC could change every bit of flavor and it would not effect them/us.
HOWEVER I also teach newbies, and I don't want themto ingrain the 'all black dragons are evil' that we have grown out of... and in general I see a BIG push to have this changed.