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]

I think you are missing the larger point here.

It isn't that "The Cataclysm is the Flood in the Old Testament; therefore, it's bad".

Instead, it's "The Cataclysm was a planet altering event which killed millions of people -- most of them innocent; therefore, that act was Evil".

The fact that is has a real-world religious parallel in the Old Testament may inform the player about the choices the author made - and perhaps why he made them.

But whether you get into the weeds concerning that or not, it doesn't really impact on the immorality of the Cataclysm itself as depicted in the novels and setting.

This is probably the disconnect. People even in ancient history had issue with the morality of the Flood story. A cookie for the first to find the reference.

There are also many reasons I left the faith in question here.

So when someone of different Religious beliefs is in charge of the setting does that change? (Do we know the affiliation of all writers?)

I'm not sure I follow.

Considering the ties between religion and culture, I would be shocked if a new setting had no cultural or religious influence.

Then again, following several dozen reviews by Wizards, in the present climate and desire to appeal as broadly as possible I'm sure nothing too different would be pushed in a new setting.

 

[HammerMan]

This is probably the disconnect. People even in ancient history had issue with the morality of the Flood story. A cookie for the first to find the reference.

So then when modern readers take something that people claim is based on it and say “In a game with defined hood and evil this can’t be the hood side” why argue?

There are also many reasons I left the faith in question here.

I actually would prefer not to talk about anyone’s religion on here, but it seems the only way to discus this event.

I'm not sure I follow.

Before DL 5e was announced I did not know the creative teams religion. In the last few months I have become bombarded with it every time I talk about updating the setting. I walked a way until the book started to drop hopeing we could ignore real world religion but came back to this.

Considering the ties between religion and culture, I would be shocked if a new setting had no cultural or religious influence.

But why do we need to discuss that aspect? Why can no defense be raised without it being about real world religion?

Then again, following several dozen reviews by Wizards, in the present climate and desire to appeal as broadly as possible I'm sure nothing too different would be pushed in a new setting.

If I worked at WoTC and saw these (and fb Twitter and tictok) discussions I would never want to push anything new out

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

I don't mind the Cataclysm being a thematic parallel to the Biblical Flood. I mind that the standard religious perspective applied to the Biblical Flood is the only perspective that Dragonlance is seemingly designed to support when examining the Cataclysm.

There are elves alive at the time of the War of the Lance who lived through the Cataclysm and the subsequent silence of the gods. It is frankly absurd to me that the only way mortals in the setting are expected to react to the return of the gods is "Oh thank you for answering our calls again, Lord Paladine! It's been so hard without you, but naturally we don't blame you for leaving us in our darkest hour. We know we had it coming to us for the crime of living in the same world as the Kingpriest of Istar."

At the very least, there should be a non-trivial number of people in Krynn that view the return of the gods in a distinctly negative light - as in full-on Athar "the 'gods' aren't worthy of our worship".

That's my biggest issue with Dragonlance. Have your Biblical Flood Cataclysm and your return of the gods after centuries of silence and your single, monopolistic mage guild, but at least give me multiple ways to explore and interact with them above and beyond "pick your god" and "pick your robe color".

 

[Faolyn]

And again. I agree it was an evil act and gods that are on the hood alignment should at least be ashamed and regreatful for it

This exactly.

If the story had said that the gods left because they were so ashamed of their actions, then that would be OK. It wouldn't excuse their actions, but it would at least show that they know what they did was wrong and that they cared, both of which are important for maintaining that Good alignment. Sure, it would have been better if they had tried to make restitution, but at least it could be argued that due to their nature as literal deities who can affect the world, leaving temporarily was the best sort of restitution. I know I'd accept that.

But they didn't. The Krynn gods then just declared that everyone had turned their back on them--even though there were still plenty of truly faithful--and then vamoosed.

This isn't even biblical here. In the Flood story, Noah and his family were spared to repopulate the world and were given a rainbow promise that there would never be a be another flood. It was a do-over. In the Cataclysm, the priests were whisked away and, as far as I can tell, not returned, leaving the survivors to suffer from famine, plague, climate change, and zombies for centuries on their own. People have been saying "back then," to try to give context to "divine justice," but back then, priests would have been the backbone of the community--spiritual leaders, healers, counselors, record-keepers--and the gods yanked them away. No do-over. Just 400 years of post-apocalyptic anarchy and suffering.

This isn't biblical, it's abusive spouse. "Look what you made me do. Now I'm going to ignore you until you apologize."

 

[Scribe]

So then when modern readers take something that people claim is based on it and say “In a game with defined hood and evil this can’t be the hood side” why argue?

Because there is another side to the argument, based on 1000's of years of history that says "Yes it can be the Good side." ?

Before DL 5e was announced I did not know the creative teams religion. In the last few months I have become bombarded with it every time I talk about updating the setting. I walked a way until the book started to drop hopeing we could ignore real world religion but came back to this.

Then ignore it at your table? "An event happened, and the people turned away from their Gods."

But why do we need to discuss that aspect? Why can no defense be raised without it being about real world religion?

It absolutely can be. I'm simply stating that there is a context that provides another perspective. Then again it sure seems "One True Way" seems to be getting quite a heavy grip on the community.

If I worked at WoTC and saw these (and fb Twitter and tictok) discussions I would never want to push anything new out

Why? Seems the wrong lesson being learned here. The issue is not that DL is new. Its that it is different, with a different world view, and people dont seem to want to consider it from any perspective but there own '2022' one.

A new setting wouldnt have this issue, unless people hated Radiant Citadel or whatever its called.

 

[Faolyn]

Reactionary and vicious in the sentiments you express, by pretending that a feudal order can be a just one.

Where did I say that I was pretending that a feudal order can be just, or that I would include one in my game?

Do you extend this view to the nature of legitimate punishment?

I'm not sure what you mean here?

If there's magic available, then it's used--or not used, if there's a good, in-setting reason for that. But on the other hand, I'm not claiming that your average law-person is a Lawful Good god.

 

[HammerMan]

Because there is another side to the argument, based on 1000's of years of history that says "Yes it can be the Good side." ?



Then ignore it at your table? "An event happened, and the people turned away from their Gods."



It absolutely can be. I'm simply stating that there is a context that provides another perspective. Then again it sure seems "One True Way" seems to be getting quite a heavy grip on the community.


Why? Seems the wrong lesson being learned here. The issue is not that DL is new. Its that it is different, with a different world view, and people dont seem to want to consider it from any perspective but there own '2022' one.

A new setting wouldnt have this issue, unless people hated Radiant Citadel or whatever its called.

Okay I give up I guess I am walking away from this site before I get in trouble. I will come back when the next playtest is out

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Then I don't want to imagine the ecoterrorsim by the Garou from "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" and the social darwinism of the most of the rest of titles from "World of Darkness".

I say it again, when a title becomes famous in the main media then somedoby who discover the work, and not only this creates the parody version, but after reading the books, this will search all possible "weak points" in the way "how had to be ended..".

* In some stories no-evil people have to allow some horrible fact to be happening to avoid something worse. There is a famous old sci-fi tv-show where the main character accidentally travel to the past, and then one of them saved a girl, a defender of the peace, but this altered the timeline, because then USA wasn't ready to fight against the third reich. Then to fix this almost the team had to allow the innocent girl died in a car accident.

 

[Steel_Wind]

To move by this, I think the cause of the Cataclysm can be retconned and reworked so it is somewhat more palatable without too much work.

Posit instead that the King-Priest, who the novels explicitly depict as a racist, actively sought to destroy the Minotaurs -- the tribe closest to Sargonnas. And of course, the Minotaurs were decidedly not human. The King-Priest sought to destroy them by altering the path of a nearby meteor -- so as to drop this fiery mountain upon their heads.

The idea came to him in a dream. The source of that dream? The Queen of Evil, of course.

As he sets his plan in motion, the King-Priest is repeatedly warned to desist by those close to him and the Gods of Good. As he persists, the King-Priest's miraculous powers are revoked by the Gods of Good. Yet his miraculous power remained. After his power was revoked by Paladine, it was Takhisis herself who continued to provide him his magical powers, pouring poison in his ear throughout via his dreams.

The meteor that was headed for Krynn was much larger than the one that ultimately impacted. To split it up and prevent it from being a planet killer took all the power of the Good Gods to deflect -- but they were unable to wholly divert it and save everyone. Part of the meteor got through (cue the scene from Deep Impact).

Striving with Takhisis and the other Evil Gods in the heavens above, the Good Gods were unable to do much on the Earth below -- but they did direct Loren Soth with the task of stopping the King-Priest, which should have diverted that part of the meteor they could not deflect. But using Lord Soth was foreseen and countered by Takhisis as well - and so Soth broke faith and fell. So did the part of the mountain the Gods of Good could not deflect. The Good Gods tried to save as many as they could and the many races and much of Ansalon was saved -- but they were unable to wholly prevent the destruction. The meteor was mostly deflected -- the part that was not struck Istar itself (it's a little to the West of the land of the Minotaurs).

In the wake of this disaster, clearly feeling abandoned, the common people blamed the Old Gods for the devastation; again, Takhisis' whispering and blaming Paladine and Mishakal went a long way here -- though not much was required to cause the Old Gods to be blamed given the devastation wrought by the Cataclysm. And so it was that the people turned away from the gods they blamed for such wanton destruction. Who could blame them?

Is this a blatant retcon of established canon in the novels? 1000%. It surely is.

But is it more palatable for many (most?) adult players? That's up to you and your table. But that's how I have re-imagined the Cataclysm on my Krynn. Your mileage may vary.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Then I don't want to imagine the ecoterrorsim by the Garou from "Werewolf: the Apocalypse" and the social darwinism of the most of the rest of titles from "World of Darkness".

I say it again, when a title becomes famous in the main media then somedoby who discover the work, and not only this creates the parody version, but after reading the books, this will search all possible "weak points" in the way "how had to be ended..".

* In some stories no-evil people have to allow some horrible fact to be happening to avoid something worse. There is a famous old sci-fi tv-show where the main character accidentally travel to the past, and then one of them saved a girl, a defender of the peace, but this altered the timeline, because then USA wasn't ready to fight against the third reich. Then to fix this almost the team had to allow the innocent girl died in a car accident.

"City of the Edge of Forever" from the original Star Trek series.