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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[Scribe]

Except with Avatars.

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.

I...dont think this is right. I would have to go back and look over the story, but there is a reason it wasnt done directly.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I...dont think this is right. I would have to go back and look over the story, but there is a reason it wasnt done directly.

If you can find anything, let me know. I read the Dragonlance books for the first and about time 2-3 years ago, but from my knowledge, there's nothing in the books that says Fizban couldn't have appeared in public in front of the Kingpriest, reveal that he's Paladine, and tell him off. The gods of Dragonlance can take physical avatars and interact with/influence people that can alter the fate of the world. He did it with the Heroes of the Lance.

 

[Scribe]

If you can find anything, let me know. I read the Dragonlance books for the first and about time 2-3 years ago, but from my knowledge, there's nothing in the books that says Fizban couldn't have appeared in public in front of the Kingpriest, reveal that he's Paladine, and tell him off. The gods of Dragonlance can take physical avatars and interact with/influence people that can alter the fate of the world. He did it with the Heroes of the Lance.

Yeah, but I believe this was because Takhisis had already cheated, and broken the rule which stood at the time of Istar.

I want to say that it had to do with the end of the story of Huma, and his banishment of Takhisis and the Dragons, but I dont know if I'm mixing up stories at this point.

 

[Faolyn]

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

They do take a direct hand in mortal affairs. They grant (or remove) spellcasting ability. They also send omens and visions. Mishakal sent Isolde a vision saying that Soth should go stop the Kingpriest.

The gods decided to "warn" the Kingpriest to stop what he was doing by sending thirteen omens... which were completely apropos to nothing and were all over the world and failed to convey the intended message. Because when trees weep blood, deadly storms appear, fires rage, people get hunted by monsters, and animals go insane in completely different parts of the world, who would conclude that this was a sign from a good god? They didn't even have the benefit of having a guy come up to the Kingpriest and say "Stop what you're doing or I'll send a disaster every day until you obey!" like in the Biblical story of Moses this was clearly inspired by. It was just random disasters that could have been caused by anything, up to and including regular PC hijinks.

But as incompetent as this act was, it shows that the gods were more than willing to directly intervene.

Plus then, you know, they committed genocide, which is a very direct hand in mortal affairs.

They could have literally written Surrender, Beldinas in the clouds. That would have been a useful sign. Not an exploding volcano potentially hundreds of miles away.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Yeah, but I believe this was because Takhisis had already cheated, and broken the rule which stood at the time of Istar.

Nope. IIRC, there was also another avatar that the Heroes interacted with that had been around long before Takhisis started breaking the rules.

I want to say that it had to do with the end of the story of Huma, and his banishment of Takhisis and the Dragons, but I dont know if I'm mixing up stories at this point.

I barely remember Huma. Wasn't he a Knight of Solamnia?

 

[Scribe]

Nope. IIRC, there was also another avatar that the Heroes interacted with that had been around long before Takhisis started breaking the rules.

I barely remember Huma. Wasn't he a Knight of Solamnia?

Yes, he was the one who defeated Takhisis, banishing her and forcing her to take her Dragons with her.

The balance, ensuring the good ones went into hibernation as well.

I took a look and think my copy is in storage, but I'll double check tomorrow.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can believe what you want... Wiess and Hickman can believe what they want.

Indeed they can. Because once you accept that good and evil are subjective and personal, you can accept that other people can hold different beliefs without being evil.

I will argue against (until I can't argue anymore) the lableing of an evil tyrant as good.

You could also argue against a blancmange tyrant being custard if that's what floats your boat. It has just as much meaning.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Maybe a retcon about certain details should be necessary, and part of the fun when you try to fix it with your own ideas.

For example the most of lives didn't die for the Cataclysm but they were "raptured". An alien civilitation has created a massive teleportation device to evacuate population for an emergency, for example natural disasters, but the bad guys invented a twisted use, the teletransporated people would be "harvested" like in the sci-fi movie "Jupiter ascending". Then other group of heroes or chosen champions would be who rescued all those innocent souls.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They do take a direct hand in mortal affairs. They grant (or remove) spellcasting ability. They also send omens and visions. Mishakal sent Isolde a vision saying that Soth should go stop the Kingpriest.

The gods decided to "warn" the Kingpriest to stop what he was doing by sending thirteen omens... which were completely apropos to nothing and were all over the world and failed to convey the intended message. Because when trees weep blood, deadly storms appear, fires rage, people get hunted by monsters, and animals go insane in completely different parts of the world, who would conclude that this was a sign from a good god? They didn't even have the benefit of having a guy come up to the Kingpriest and say "Stop what you're doing or I'll send a disaster every day until you obey!" like in the Biblical story of Moses this was clearly inspired by. It was just random disasters that could have been caused by anything, up to and including regular PC hijinks.

But as incompetent as this act was, it shows that the gods were more than willing to directly intervene.

Plus then, you know, they committed genocide, which is a very direct hand in mortal affairs.

They could have literally written Surrender, Beldinas in the clouds. That would have been a useful sign. Not an exploding volcano potentially hundreds of miles away.

Now that would hardly be a good story, now would it?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Now that would hardly be a good story, now would it?

They weren't forced to make the backstory be poorly thought out. You can have consistent, intelligent worldbuilding as part of the story. It would have enhanced the books. They didn't have to do it badly.