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]

Team Good. Team Neutral. Team Evil.

but if all of them are the same (shades of grey) why are they good/neutral/evil?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

You see that is YOUR OPINION.

That's because the very real authors who created the setting disagree with you over what "good" and "bad" is. You are free to consider them wrong, they feel the same about you.

Me? I do not believe good and evil exist at all. They are fantasy, like dragons and magic spells.

You can believe what you want... Wiess and Hickman can believe what they want. I will argue against (until I can't argue anymore) the lableing of an evil tyrant as good.

 

[Micah Sweet]

but if all of them are the same (shades of grey) why are they good/neutral/evil?

Well, they're not all the same, but as I told @Levistus's_Leviathan , the book's out and the setting will soon be available on DMsguild, so it doesn't matter anymore.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

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.

this was given as an example given of 'too much good' and is given time and again by fans as 'why you need balance' even though we have evil on top of evil actions by him

 

[Velderan]

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?

The cleanest timeline I could find was in the 2e Tales of the Lance boxed set:

118 PC Proclamation of Manifest Virtue. The Kingpriest declared that-Evil in the world was an affront to both gods and mortals. A rigid list of evil acts was created and those guilty of offenses faced execution or duty in the gladiatorial arena. Priests of lstar began to lose access to high-level spells. These priests became the Kingpriest’s enforcement squad.

80-20 PC Dominance of lstar Clergy. lstar claimed itself the center of religion, and all aspects of lstarian life required the approval of the priesthood. While the status of lstarian clergy rose, wizards were hunted as ungodly and uncontrolled. The priesthood lost all of its miraculous abilities.

19 PC Siege on Sorcery. Urged on by the Kingpriest, the people of Krynn laid siege to the Towers of High Sorcery in the Lost Battles. Two of the towers nearly fell into the hands of the uninitiated. Unwilling that novices should unleash the fury of magic, mages destroyed the two towers. Fearful of rampant, unordered magic wielders that might arise if all five towers were destroyed, the Kingpriest granted the mages safe passage to exile if they left the remaining towers intact. The Kingpriest took the Tower of lstar for his abode.

6 PC Edict of Thought Control. The Kingpriest asserted that evil thoughts equated to evil deeds. The priesthood used renegade mages to cast ESP spells at random on all lstarian subjects. A reign of terror and degeneration ensued.

The timeline gives plenty of time for a human to come to power with divine power and lose it during the 80-20 PC time period. It's been awhile since I've read the Legends trilogy, but I recall a scene where the final Kingpriest was using an illusion to project the image of a strong and calm person when he was really weak and nervous. Pretty sure this was in the days leading up to the Cataclysm.

 

[Scribe]

I've read the Legends trilogy, but I recall a scene where the final Kingpriest was using an illusion to project the image of a strong and calm person when he was really weak and nervous. Pretty sure this was in the days leading up to the Cataclysm.

Yep.

 

[Faolyn]

The cleanest timeline I could find was in the 2e Tales of the Lance boxed set:



The timeline gives plenty of time for a human to come to power with divine power and lose it during the 80-20 PC time period. It's been awhile since I've read the Legends trilogy, but I recall a scene where the final Kingpriest was using an illusion to project the image of a strong and calm person when he was really weak and nervous. Pretty sure this was in the days leading up to the Cataclysm.

Thanks for the timeline.

So that either means one of two things I can think of:

1. The Kingpriest lost his spells 20-80 years ago with the rest of the priesthood, but continued to be the high priest, and the gods were OK with him lying to and perverting the faithful and their worship for literally decades (and he used a magic item to create the illusion), and it was only when he demanded that the gods make him powerful that they became angry enough to actually stop him for good. Instead of, I dunno, inspiring a team of adventurers to get together and go after him at any point in those 20-80 years.

or

2. Only the lesser priests all lost their powers and the Kingpriest still had divine magic until the very end, which means the gods didn't disapprove of his actions enough to yank them.

Still not painting the gods in a good light. "Murder and abuse of power I can forgive, but daring to ask us to directly intervene? How dare he!"

 

[Micah Sweet]

Thanks for the timeline.

So that either means one of two things I can think of:

1. The Kingpriest lost his spells 20-80 years ago with the rest of the priesthood, but continued to be the high priest, and the gods were OK with him lying to and perverting the faithful and their worship for literally decades (and he used a magic item to create the illusion), and it was only when he demanded that the gods make him powerful that they became angry enough to actually stop him for good. Instead of, I dunno, inspiring a team of adventurers to get together and go after him at any point in those 20-80 years.

or

2. Only the lesser priests all lost their powers and the Kingpriest still had divine magic until the very end, which means the gods didn't disapprove of his actions enough to yank them.

Still not painting the gods in a good light. "Murder and abuse of power I can forgive, but daring to ask us to directly intervene? How dare he!"

Maybe they did send adventurers to stop the Kingpriest, but they failed? Not something that would necessarily show up in the history books, especially if the heroes were lower profile than Lord Soth.

 

[Scribe]

Maybe they did send adventurers to stop the Kingpriest, but they failed? Not something that would necessarily show up in the history books, especially if the heroes were lower profile than Lord Soth.

Is this not literally Lord Soth?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Is this not literally Lord Soth?

Yeah, but apparently some people need more.