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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[Maxperson]

it is nonsenese why wouldcosmic team gooed not do good instead of evil

Because the cosmic teams are only concerned with the end balance of good and evil, not the methods to get there. Team evil would do a good act if it meant setting in motion something that would result in more evil in the universe.

 

[Velderan]

I don't think 'too much good = obvious evil' is 'working perfectly'.

How so?

 

[Remathilis]

It's very different from killing a cult of demon worshippers. That cult has the intent to destroy the kingdom. Her worshippers do not. She doesn't even try to talk to the person and persuade him not to worship. She just murders him. Thus earning the evil entity the name The Lady of Pain.

It is a well known fact in Sigil that she kills worshippers. There should be no surprise Pikachu face. And the Lady has been known to send her heralds (the dabus) to warn people who are trying to start cults to knock it off and face the consequences. If they don't, they get a visit from their "deity" who isn't about to mince words at that point.

yeah... how did any one mistake her for good?

I didn't say she was good, she is neutral. She is protecting her city. She has very few laws she enforces directly, and they all are about upsetting the power balance. If you're dumb enough to start a cult to the Lady of try to stage a coup, you are asking for the Lady's swift justice. All the other stuff like crime are left to the factions to police.

That's neutrality. Cold, efficient neutraliy.

 

[Vaalingrade]

How so?

Because good... should be good?

I everyone is loving and values the dignity of others and all that good stuff, they are NOT going to become authoritarian monsters.

It's only the 'good is not nice, I am actually not good at all, but like to feel better about myself' types that are going to slide that way because they're already there. But actual good won't.

All the 'balance' does it rip the sheet off to reveal that D&D's idea of Good... isn't.

 

[Velderan]

Because good... should be good?

I everyone is loving and values the dignity of others and all that good stuff, they are NOT going to become authoritarian monsters.

It's only the 'good is not nice, I am actually not good at all, but like to feel better about myself' types that are going to slide that way because they're already there. But actual good won't.

All the 'balance' does it rip the sheet off to reveal that D&D's idea of Good... isn't.

You're operating under the assumption we can all agree on what "good" is. That's a much larger conversation with a lot of real world examples that probably aren't good subjects for this forum, so we'll just have to agree to disagree I think. I appreciate you at least responding with your base objection.

 

[Vaalingrade]

You're operating under the assumption we can all agree on what "good" is.

Even based on the rules laid out in the books as to what good is, 'too much good leads to an authoritarian regime' isn't a thing that can happen.

Too much, Law, yes. But good, right there in the books, 'respects the dignity of living beings', which is incompatible with what we see in DL as the result of 'too much good'.

Of course, one paragraph later, it describes a Paladin in the same tones as Vlad the Impaler, so maybe D&D doesn't get to use the G word anymore.

 

[Velderan]

Even based on the rules laid out in the books as to what good is, 'too much good leads to an authoritarian regime' isn't a thing that can happen.

Too much, Law, yes. But good, right there in the books, 'respects the dignity of living beings', which is incompatible with what we see in DL as the result of 'too much good'.

Of course, one paragraph later, it describes a Paladin in the same tones as Vlad the Impaler, so maybe D&D doesn't get to use the G word anymore.

Basically. D&D doesn't really maintain a consistent approach to morals in general which probably serves a lot of the game better than trying to make everything make complete sense by modern society. It's typically enough to give you a framework to use as much or as little as you need to. I think at my table the only time alignment tends to come up is when the LG paladin finds a shiny new sword that only evil characters can wield without consequence.

 

[Maxperson]

It is a well known fact in Sigil that she kills worshippers.

In horribly painful ways, because she's evil. Also, just because it's well known that someone is killing people that worship her(with no explanation from her about why), doesn't make it a good thing or act. It just means that she's an evil cuss and people are stupid for worshipping her.

There should be no surprise Pikachu face.

Sure, but just because it's no surprise that a serial killer is killing you, doesn't make the serial killer not evil.

I didn't say she was good, she is neutral.

She is not neutral. She is evil. Probably lawful evil as there is rhyme and reason to her evil.

She is protecting her city. She has very few laws she enforces directly, and they all are about upsetting the power balance.

Not balance. This is not about balance between good and evil. It's about not letting gods in and making sure that it doesn't happen in pretty darn evil ways.

If you're dumb enough to start a cult to the Lady of try to stage a coup, you are asking for the Lady's swift justice. All the other stuff like crime are left to the factions to police.

Yep. You're asking for the evil Lady of Pain to come kill you. That doesn't make it good or even neutral on her part. Having a reason to murder someone doesn't change the murder from anything other than evil.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

She is evil. Probably lawful evil as there is rhyme and reason to her evil.

I don't like alignment as a system because it is too easy for 5 people to read the same character as 5 different alignments (go look at the 9 alignments of batman) but I have to say LE feels and sounds right to me, but IF SOMEONE MADE A GOOD ARGUMENT I could see LN with evil leaning...

 

[Faolyn]

Cool motive. Still murder. And murder is evil, in case I had to make that clear.

Well, with the Lady of Pain, it's sort of a "greater good" thing. But on the other hand, I don't think many people think the LoP is good-aligned.