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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[Levistus's_Leviathan]

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.

Under that logic, none of these discussions about Dragonlance for the last 6-8 months have mattered, because the book was already completely written and sent to the printers.

There is always the future. There is always errata. If the new book (which I haven't read yet, so I can't verify) label the Kingpriest as good, then that's a problem that I would like fixed, either through errata or future Dragonlance books.

 

[Remathilis]

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!"

You're getting so close to the truth.

sincerely,

The Athar.

 

[Scribe]

So hold on.

'Good' representation was via the Istar Priesthood.
'Good' started to take over, and began to push for an eradication of 'Evil'.

'Team Good' Gods, did not support this, and began withdrawing their approval/support, starting with the low level clerics, and eventually the Kingpriest himself.

The Priesthood continue the sham, via the employment of RENEGADE Wizards

Gods DO reach out to the world to try and turn the tide, but the canonical example we have is Soth (and if my memory is right, the Knighthood was corrupt as well) and since nobody stops the Kingpriest.

The Kingpriest makes his ultimatum to the Gods of Good, and as is befitting the setting, we get an Old Testament style 'welcome to Arizona bay' event.

And we are still saying 'the Good gods did nothing'? Am I missing something?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

You're getting so close to the truth.

sincerely,

The Athar.

Unironically, the Athar are probably the Planescape faction I agree with the most. Most of the gods in D&D don't deserve worship. Especially in 5e, where WotC have gone out of their way to make all of the traditionally "good" gods actually be jerks or incompetent (5e's explanation for why Orcs are raiders, the Duergar and Elf lore from Tome of Foes, Bahamut's lore in Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, etc).

 

[Scribe]

(5e's explanation for why Orcs are raiders, the Duergar and Elf lore from Tome of Foes, etc).

99% chance this is why those two books (Volo's and Tome of Foes) have been removed from the product line with MotM.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Under that logic, none of these discussions about Dragonlance for the last 6-8 months have mattered, because the book was already completely written and sent to the printers.

There is always the future. There is always errata. If the new book (which I haven't read yet, so I can't verify) label the Kingpriest as good, then that's a problem that I would like fixed, either through errata or future Dragonlance books.

That was speculation before we knew what was happening. A bit of fun discussion and wonder. Unnecessary now that we know the status of Schrodinger's RPG book.

One thing I do hate more than anything else in gaming though, is when they decide to change the books in print, especially if its lore. This book actually looks pretty good, so I'll have to buy it before they mess with it.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

Yeah, but apparently some people need more.

Well, yeah.

They sent one guy,... at the very last minute, who had enormous emotional problems and was incredibly unreliable and was only doing this quest so he could be redeemed for having murdered his family because he couldn't bear the thought that he, Soth, was evil enough to have an ugly child (it's a stupid backstory). Not because he actually wanted to stop the Kingpriests' evil, but so that he could feel better about himself, or possibly so he could get in good with the gods.

I hardly think that "over the course of fifty years, the gods sent multiple bands of adventurers in the hopes of deposing the evil tyrant who was perverting their good name" would be something that was left out of the history books--especially considering "the history books" are actually things written for the DMs and players to read, not things that are read in-universe.

Instead, we get... nothing.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

it's a stupid backstory

That's a running theme in Dragonlance, IMO. All of the "cool stuff" (Draconians, Lord Soth, and the base concept of the Cataclysm) seem to have some of the dumbest backstories imaginable.

 

[Scribe]

That's a running theme in Dragonlance, IMO. All of the "cool stuff" (Draconians, Lord Soth, and the base concept of the Cataclysm) seem to have some of the dumbest backstories imaginable.

Wait, whats wrong with Draconians now?

 

[Micah Sweet]

Well, yeah.

They sent one guy,... at the very last minute, who had enormous emotional problems and was incredibly unreliable and was only doing this quest so he could be redeemed for having murdered his family because he couldn't bear the thought that he, Soth, was evil enough to have an ugly child (it's a stupid backstory). Not because he actually wanted to stop the Kingpriests' evil, but so that he could feel better about himself, or possibly so he could get in good with the gods.

I hardly think that "over the course of fifty years, the gods sent multiple bands of adventurers in the hopes of deposing the evil tyrant who was perverting their good name" would be something that was left out of the history books--especially considering "the history books" are actually things written for the DMs and players to read, not things that are read in-universe.

Instead, we get... nothing.

Are you familiar with the term, "expansion pack past"? As long as it doesn't change what already happened, I'm cool with adding more in to get more nuance.