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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[Faolyn]

Paladine didn’t create “good”. “Goodness” doesn’t flow from him.

OK. What does he do that's good?

 

[Micah Sweet]

"Good" is not a "team" that you root for like sports. It's a label that you achieve through good acts. If the captain of Team Good does evil, then he's not actually good and the team that's rooting for him isn't good either. He's evil and so are his enablers and patrons.

In this case, it's a team, expressing those terms through a pre-modern lens. You clearly don't like it, but that doesn't make it not so.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Norse, Greek, and other mythologies didn't tend to split their pantheons into "Good" and "Evil" labels. Sure, there were the different categories like the Aesir, Vanir, Titans, Giants, and Olympians, but none of those groupings were about "who is morally superior to the others".

Dragonlance does divide its pantheons into absolute groupings of morality. It has the three pantheons: "Good, Neutral, and Evil". It's fundamentally different from mythology because it comes with those terms attached to the fundamental identities of their gods. If it wants to label 1 out of 3 of the gods as good, then it needs to have them actually be good. "Goodness" is fundamental in the identity of Paladine. He is a Lawful Good god that is the Head God of the Good Pantheon. He has to do good. It's a part of who he is.

No, he had to “try” to do good. There is a difference.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In this case, it's a team, expressing those terms through a pre-modern lens. You clearly don't like it, but that doesn't make it not so.

And that's wrong and is a bad part of the setting. At best, it's outdated. At worst, it is indicative of the morality of the authors.

 

[Azzy]

There is no extreme that I can think of, good included, that is good. All things in moderation is a saying for a reason.

What? Might care too much about human rights or do the right thing too many times? The horror!

 

[Micah Sweet]

And that's wrong and is a bad part of the setting. At best, it's outdated. At worst, it is indicative of the morality of the authors.

Judgment noted. We all have our opinions.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

No body is 100% perfect. Not even the gods.

Stop thinking of them as cosmic forces. Good/evil etc exist without them.

They're gods. They literally are cosmic forces.

In Faerun when a god dies, another god (or mortal) takes over their spheres of influence. Because those things are cosmic forces, not the god themselves.

Think of them as powerful people trying to fill a couple of boxes. Law and Good. Neutral and Evil. Etc

Maybe Greyhawk did it better where all the gods where just ascended mortals. (I think they were, could be wrong). Or maybe that was Mystara?

Again, Faerun doesn't divide its pantheon into "Good and Evil" gods. It is actually a lot more like the mythology it draws from. Dragonlance labels its pantheons with morality. If the gods don't act like their morality says they should, either the setting has done morality incorrectly, or it has mislabeled the gods.

Also, I believe it was Mystara that had the "Immortals" as its version of gods, which were just ascended mortals. IIRC, one of them was a T-Rex.

 

[Maxperson]

What? Might care too much about human rights or do the right thing too many times? The horror!

Way to ignore my examples in order to take my post out of context and engage in a Strawman. Classy!

 

[Azzy]

Also, I believe it was Mystara that had the "Immortals" as its version of gods, which were just ascended mortals. IIRC, one of them was a T-Rex.

You are correct.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Judgment noted. We all have our opinions.

As I said earlier, if the setting wanted to have two extreme cosmic concepts that are equally bad, then Law and Chaos would have worked perfectly. If it didn't want to be judged by its use of morality, then it shouldn't have made "Both sides are equally bad" for literal Good verses literal Evil.