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]

maybe but maybe not

There just is such a thing as over processing, of making things too smooth, too over worked, too combed over to make sure nobody could possibly take offense or find fault. Too much 'its this, but could be this, or even that', over generalized, generic, and grey.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

There just is such a thing as over processing, of making things too smooth, too over worked, too combed over to make sure nobody could possibly take offense or find fault. Too much 'its this, but could be this, or even that', over generalized, generic, and grey.

and having a relook 30 years later isn't 'over processed'

 

[Scribe]

and having a relook 30 years later isn't 'over processed'

If I find the original work to not need that relook? It is.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

If I find the original work to not need that relook? It is.

like I said there is no such thing as a perfect story, so I can't believe that any story can have no improvement

 

[Scribe]

like I said there is no such thing as a perfect story, so I can't believe that any story can have no improvement

Thats fine. I dont need my stories reimagined and twisted. There is literally nothing preventing new stories from being made, simply dont appropriate an existing one, for cheap nostalgia, and change it.

 

[Faolyn]

maybe but maybe not

I do think that was a bad change

More importantly, that was a change made for bad reasons: to make Han into a "good guy" who didn't start the fight, which is unnecessary because he was supposed to be a "bad guy" (or at least a scoundrel) who turned good at the end (when he came back to fight), and having him be a good guy from the start ruins his character arc.

But, of course, that's not the same type of changes that Dragonlance needed.

 

[gban007]

if you know then why are you argueing to use the same word for thing that are not that?

But the rest of his post outlines why the fluff doesn't really give an actual definition of what good is. Doing the right thing as expected by society - even in todays' world, there are many countries with very different laws around certain things, so a Lawful Good paladin in one country will behave very differently / do very different things, sometimes even the opposite thing, in other countries - as soon as that occurs, it means the right thing and thus good are subjective.
In the Forgotten Realms - society in Thay expects people to use necromancy heavily - thus a Lawful Good paladin would support that by the PHB - but in other countries they would likely try and prevent any necromancy - so two opposite sets of behavior both being good.
If in Dragonlance the society expects the that the right thing to do if someone is behaving wrong in a community, is for the entire community to be punished - then the Cataclysm is a Lawful Good thing to do by the PHB wording.

 

[Faolyn]

In the Forgotten Realms - society in Thay expects people to use necromancy heavily - thus a Lawful Good paladin would support that by the PHB - but in other countries they would likely try and prevent any necromancy - so two opposite sets of behavior both being good.

Except that Thay is listed as an evil place. The FR Wiki puts its alignments down as Neutral, Neutral Evil, and Lawful Evil, which shows that D&D is not using a subjective alignment for them. A Lawful Good paladin wouldn't support their necromancy, if their necromancy was why Thay is an evil place.

(In Ravenloft, Hazlan is ruled by a Red Wizard but there was relatively little necromancy there--the evil came from the Apartheid-like set-up with the Mulan minority cruely ruling over the practically-enslaved Rashaman majority)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Thats fine. I dont need my stories reimagined and twisted. There is literally nothing preventing new stories from being made, simply dont appropriate an existing one, for cheap nostalgia, and change it.

no one is 'approtiating' a reimagined restarted story can take new twists and be updated.

More importantly, that was a change made for bad reasons: to make Han into a "good guy" who didn't start the fight, which is unnecessary because he was supposed to be a "bad guy" (or at least a scoundrel) who turned good at the end (when he came back to fight), and having him be a good guy from the start ruins his character arc.

But, of course, that's not the same type of changes that Dragonlance needed.

yes and I don't think it helped at all... everyone knew greedo had a gun, shooting first on a fast... you know what I am not goin to go into how dumb that change was on the textural and metatextual levels.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

But the rest of his post outlines why the fluff doesn't really give an actual definition of what good is.

except I showed that weather we can agree (or anyone can) on the corner cases of good/evil in the real world, in D&D it is defined and understood (although I would argue it changed and became less important)

Doing the right thing as expected by society - even in todays' world, there are many countries with very different laws around certain things, so a Lawful Good paladin in one country will behave very differently / do very different things, sometimes even the opposite thing, in other countries - as soon as that occurs, it means the right thing and thus good are subjective.

and this is a big reason why alignment is so subjective... but that is again for corner cases... I can't imagine ANYONE argueing genocide was good just because you happen to be in the country that did the genocide.

In the Forgotten Realms - society in Thay expects people to use necromancy heavily - thus a Lawful Good paladin would support that by the PHB - but in other countries they would likely try and prevent any necromancy - so two opposite sets of behavior both being good.
If in Dragonlance the society expects the that the right thing to do if someone is behaving wrong in a community, is for the entire community to be punished - then the Cataclysm is a Lawful Good thing to do by the PHB wording.