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]

There are always exceptions (Spelljammer certainly qualifies), but most of the time, if the lore is an issue, fix it in a new book.

So you're not against lore being changed through errata. You're fine with it being changed some of the time. Which I think I actually agree with (I know, the world is ending, @Micah Sweet and I have come to an agreement on a topic!)

 

[overgeeked]

Well, I mean yeah, but its your unborn children under the gun. Yeah you cannot trust them, but...it didnt seem like there was much of an option there.

A known Evil person has your child under the knife, and you know you cannot get there in time, you do what?

I get it, but yeah.

If good does nothing, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it fails, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it succeeds, good is smart.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So you're not against lore being changed through errata. You're fine with it being changed some of the time. Which I think I actually agree with (I know, the world is ending, @Micah Sweet and I have come to an agreement on a topic!)

The Hadozee thing (particularly the art choices) are one of the very few exceptions, but yeah, the door is technically open.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Well, I mean yeah, but its your unborn children under the gun. Yeah you cannot trust them, but...it didnt seem like there was much of an option there.

A known Evil person has your child under the knife, and you know you cannot get there in time, you do what?

I get it, but yeah.

Yeah, I understand all of that, and to an extent I agree, but they were still really dumb for not trying anything. At least, the books don't say they try anything, and it's presented as if they are just taking the word of the guys from "Team Evil", as @Micah Sweet puts it, without doing anything to try and get the eggs back. It just made me not feel immersed in the book that was a part of (I think it was the second one) and I almost laughed at their stupidity.

Metallic Dragons can shapeshift. If the Chromatic Dragons could find their eggs so easily without the power to shapeshift, surely the Metallic Dragons would have an even easier time finding them in some shapeshifted form or by pretending to be a Chromatic Dragon and infiltrating Team Evil.

It's just a part of the story that I thought was dumb and undermines the coolness of the Draconians, IMO. Like I said, in my reading experience of Dragonlance, most of the cool things had a dumb backstory. It's one of the parts of the setting that makes me not enjoy it as much as I might have otherwise.

 

[Scribe]

If good does nothing, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it fails, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it succeeds, good is smart.

I mean I dont know the whole scenario, of course, but I'm trying to imagine a scenario where Evil dragons have smuggled all (most/many) of the Metallic eggs out, into their own fortress/lairs, and somehow could be caught unawares, and not just have someone you know, smash the eggs out of spite when attacked.

Its a pretty big no win, to me.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If good does nothing, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it fails, good is dumb. If good tries a commando raid and it succeeds, good is smart.

That's not what I'm saying at all.

 

[Faolyn]

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.

That... doesn't really have much to do with what I said.

Because anything that would make the Krynnish gods non-jerks would change what has happened. Unless the gods are so incompetent that they spent up to 80 years trying and failing to stop the Kingpriest, in which case who cares if they get brought back?

 

[Faolyn]

Their backstory plays into the "Good is Dumb" trope that I'm not a fan of. The Metallic Dragons didn't join the war because the Chromatic Dragons stole their eggs and held them hostage. The Good Dragons were dumb enough to believe that the Evil Dragons would keep their word and not destroy the eggs if the Good Dragons chose to stay out of the fight, so instead of trying to do absolutely anything to get their eggs back, the Good Dragons took their word for it and stayed out of the war.

<facepalm>

Sure, let's forget that metallic dragons are generally better organized, more willing to work with others, typically care about their young, are literally more powerful than chromatic dragons, and some of them are shapechangers. And unless there's some "no dragon will hurt another's egg" law in Dragonlance I don't know know about, there's no reason for the metallics to trust the chromatics to keep their word.

The more I hear about the setting's backstory, the more it seems like the writers did not care one whit about plausibility, logic, coherence, or honest characterization if it got in the way of the plot.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That... doesn't really have much to do with what I said.

Because anything that would make the Krynnish gods non-jerks would change what has happened. Unless the gods are so incompetent that they spent up to 80 years trying and failing to stop the Kingpriest, in which case who cares if they get brought back?

The gods don't take a direct hand in mortal affairs. What more could they do?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The gods don't take a direct hand in mortal affairs.

Except with Avatars.

What more could they do?

Appear in front of the Kingpriest in their avatars while he's in public (which is allowed) and rebuke him, take away his powers, and demand that everyone change their ways, instead of sending vague hints and visions to people and only sending one dude to stop the Cataclysm. And/Or have Paladine appear as Fizban and cast Fireball on him until he dies. Because apparently Fizban's allowed cast spells in ways that directly influence the future of the world.