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.

​

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Were you raised Mormon? Because I was, in the 80s.

bringing real world religion into enworld discussions breaks the rules

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The creators of the content were Mormon, and in a generation even before myself.

real world religion is against the rules of this website please do not bring it up especially over and over again.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think this is the thing. I was never a Mormon, but I did used to be a Baptist. For those who have never seen it from the inside, they just can't accept that there are decent rational people (including our parents) for whom the Flood is as real as gravity, and simply cannot be separated out of anything they create.

that's great, but has nothing to do with a published setting for D&D in 5e.

Really, it's the idea that you can have two boxes, one labelled "religion" and the other labelled "reality" which can be separated, that requires a degree of agnostic double-think. For the person of faith, religion is their reality, just as for the atheist reality is their religion.

again that's great, but has nothing to do with a published setting for D&D in 5e.

Sorry moderators if this is getting too close to discussion religion. Happy to delete this if you think it for the best.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Can we talk about the preludes?

Chapter 2 contains three short prelude I-won't-call-them-adventures. These are meant to be played either one-on-one or with only part of the party in each prelude. There are three preludes: one for cleric characters or others who will be drawing their power from Krynn's newly re-emergent old gods; one for aspirant Mages of High Sorcery; and one for Everybody Else.

I wish we would

I LOVE this prelude idea on paper and love the idea of running short one-on-one or small group sessions with each player before bringing the party together.

Unfortunately - and here is where I start to worry about the quality of this adventure - the first two preludes are very lame and uninspired, and the third is just okay. With such high-stakes to work with: the arrival of divine magic, an elite order of mages testing a possible new member, and the appearance of new unknown monsters, the writers here deliver some really banal and uninteresting stuff, which also offers very little for character to actually DO.

this is disappointing, It also is why I wonder if it would have been better to just drop flavor text about such things and let the players right them into there background (I will most likley do that when/if I run it)

Each of these is less than an hour long and worth advancing from level 1 to 2 (in the case of the cleric character, you're basically going to level up after watching a 20 minute cut-scene).

ugh... I hate cut scenes in video games in D&D it's like the worst.

If I was the editor, I would have sent at least two of these preludes back to the writers with the note "No cool enough."

Hopefully, the adventure proper starts off strong in Chapter 3. As a DM, I can already say I would keep the IDEA of doing these three preludes, but would heavily re-work at least 2 of them.

would you share how you would redo them?

 

[Burnside]

I wish we would

this is disappointing, It also is why I wonder if it would have been better to just drop flavor text about such things and let the players right them into there background (I will most likley do that when/if I run it)

ugh... I hate cut scenes in video games in D&D it's like the worst.

would you share how you would redo them?

Well, I wouldn't design them until I knew who the characters were - which, granted, is an advantage I have over the writers who, to a degree, need to be generic.

But even looking at what you could do WITHOUT knowing exactly who the characters are, in the case of the cleric, I would include elements that showcase the darkness and light of the gods, including the idea that there is something dangerous and unknowable about even the "good" gods, and that there is inherent risk in trying to follow a god. I would also include actual challenges for the character to overcome that involve the use of their new abilities.

In the case of the wizard, I would include an encounter that demonstrates the potential corruptive power of magic by using a creature like the nothic to demonstrate what can happen when, in Soviet Ansalon, magic casts YOU.

 

[Velderan]

Can we talk about the preludes?

Chapter 2 contains three short prelude I-won't-call-them-adventures. These are meant to be played either one-on-one or with only part of the party in each prelude. There are three preludes: one for cleric characters or others who will be drawing their power from Krynn's newly re-emergent old gods; one for aspirant Mages of High Sorcery; and one for Everybody Else.

I LOVE this prelude idea on paper and love the idea of running short one-on-one or small group sessions with each player before bringing the party together.

Unfortunately - and here is where I start to worry about the quality of this adventure - the first two preludes are very lame and uninspired, and the third is just okay. With such high-stakes to work with: the arrival of divine magic, an elite order of mages testing a possible new member, and the appearance of new unknown monsters, the writers here deliver some really banal and uninteresting stuff, which also offers very little for character to actually DO. Each of these is less than an hour long and worth advancing from level 1 to 2 (in the case of the cleric character, you're basically going to level up after watching a 20 minute cut-scene). If I was the editor, I would have sent at least two of these preludes back to the writers with the note "Not cool enough."

Hopefully, the adventure proper starts off strong in Chapter 3. As a DM, I can already say I would keep the IDEA of doing these three preludes, but would heavily re-work at least 2 of them.

I'm hoping to carve out some time to read them this weekend. I didn't imagine they were going to be anything in-depth given the book's length and focus on the war campaign, but I figured if they at least provide a jumping off point to inspire something else I'd be fine with them. Would you say they at least do that? I understand you would rework at least 2 of them, but are we talking complete reconstruction or some tweaks to flesh them out?

 

[overgeeked]

I was. That doesn't alter the fact that I think the gods of Dragonlance committed an extremely morally reprehensible act and none of them deserve worship or the label "Good".

I completely agree. No gods who engage in even attempted genocide are worthy of worship nor the epithet "good". It's a clearly evil act and anyone who claims that's actually "good" and/or continues to worship that/those god(s) is clearly evil themselves.

 

[Scribe]

I think this is the thing. I was never a Mormon, but I did used to be a Baptist. For those who have never seen it from the inside, they just can't accept that there are decent rational people (including our parents) for whom the Flood is as real as gravity, and simply cannot be separated out of anything they create.

Exactly, and so it is what it is.

 

[Burnside]

I'm hoping to carve out some time to read them this weekend. I didn't imagine they were going to be anything in-depth given the book's length and focus on the war campaign, but I figured if they at least provide a jumping off point to inspire something else I'd be fine with them. Would you say they at least do that? I understand you would rework at least 2 of them, but are we talking complete reconstruction or some tweaks to flesh them out?

Not sure how spoiler-y to get here.

Spoiler: Spoilers for preludes

The cleric one is really thin; like, there's basically a dream with an atmosphere of war, then you go to a nearby ruined temple and find a holy symbol. There's almost nothing to it. I would say that apart from using the basic idea of "follower of a god has a vision quest", there's just not much there to even "re-work". It's literally like, "You see an ancient statue of your god. They ask you to be their follower. You're level 2 now." Re-work I guess in this case would mean "make SOMETHING of it." It seems like an obvious opportunity to foreshadow something - Takhisis, Soth, draconians, flying citadel, dragonlance, etc. - or even the other PCs that this player hasn't met yet ("these people will aid you in your quest.") Also I think the character should overcome a challenge symbolic of their faith's ethos.

The premise of the Mages of High Sorcery one is fine - it's kinda like a non-lethal pre-test for those who might eventually take the actual Test of High Sorcery. It's just that the test is mechanically bad (invisible maze). DM should just make a more interesting test - ideally, a more personal one (everything to do with the Test of High Sorcery ought to be personal imo). Again, I would confront the aspirant mage with an aberration that demonstrates the fate of those conquered by their own art - there is already precedence for this with the Live Ones.

 

[Velderan]

Not sure how spoiler-y to get here.

The cleric one is really thin; like, there's basically a dream with an atmosphere of war, then you go to a nearby ruined temple and find a holy symbol. There's almost nothing to it. I would say that apart from using the basic idea of "follower of a god has a vision quest", there's just not much there to even "re-work". It's literally like, "You see an ancient statue of your god. They ask you to be their follower. You're level 2 now." Re-work I guess in this case would mean "make SOMETHING of it." It seems like an obvious opportunity to foreshadow something - Takhisis, Soth, draconians, flying citadel, dragonlance, etc. - or even the other PCs that this player hasn't met yet ("these people will aid you in your quest.") Also I think the character should overcome a challenge symbolic of their faith's ethos.

The premise of the Mages of High Sorcery one is fine - it's kinda like a non-lethal pre-test for those who might eventually take the actual Test of High Sorcery. It's just that the test is mechanically bad (invisible maze). DM should just make a more interesting test - ideally, a more personal one (everything to do with the Test of High Sorcery ought to be personal imo). Again, I would confront the aspirant mage with an aberration that demonstrates the fate of those conquered by their own art - there is already precedence for this with the Live Ones.

I'd prolly spoiler tag both paragraphs in case someone reading this thread may be playing it as a player. I'm considering whether I want to run SotDQ or just pillage the parts I like for a DL1-14 campaign I'm planning with my table.

Agree completely that the character could face a challenge themed around their deity's domain. They don't really need to put much in the book, just reference the section on gods and let DMs figure out the rest. Same with the mage Test really, give 3 challenges with 3 general expected outcomes and build a quick formula to determine which robe you get based on how you handle each challenge. That's how I used to handle it in 2e. I wish I had my old hand-written notes on that stuff.