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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[Reynard]

Well, it serves the purpose of saying "TSR gave players a sandbox to play in where there are no clerics."
Going ahead and playing clerics in that sandbox seems silly and pointless

To suggest that the original Dragonlance adventures were somehow a sandbox is to completely misunderstand both the term sandbox and to misunderstand the purpose of the original modules. They are the anti-sandbox, and in fact often held up as the definitive end of the Old School because of that fact.

 

[Weiley31]

Why are they called Disks when, as I was told before a few weeks ago, they are technically more scriptures?

 

[overgeeked]

My opinion is the coherence with the lore should ca be sacrificed in the name of a more flexible and confortable gameplay.

Mine is the opposite. People prefer the lore to not be changed. There was a poll. Lore won with 70+% of the vote.

 

[Velderan]

Why are they called Disks when, as I was told before a few weeks ago, they are technically more scriptures?

The scripture is on the metal disks. Description from DL1:

The Disks of Mishakal
These are platinum disks 18 inches in diameter. Each disk is 1/16 inch thick. There are 160 of these plates in all. A bolt passes through one side of the plates, allowing each to swivel out and be viewed while keeping the stack together. Each of the plates is engraved on both sides.

 

[Maxperson]

The party could all die to the black dragon (or to other foes). Or the PC who is granted the Disks could reject them (they, or another party member, could be so bitter at the gods leaving and not happy that "Oh, now they want to return" that they could, say, toss the Disks into the Newsea which is conveniently right there).

They could, but since I'm running that setting from that moment in time(DL1 onward), if the PC rejects the disks or the party TPKs, the gods don't return. Or at least not then, which could cause the loss of the war. I have no problem with very bad things happening to settings.

Those are possibilities as well. DL1 does not guarantee that Goldmoon, or anyone else in that adventure for that matter, gains and keeps the Disks. Which means that someone else gets to be first. The very first DL product allows this, so why worry over the possibility of the same thing happening in this adventure (which it may not anyway - we won't know until someone reads it and tells us the details on the timeline).

Or no one does. Here's the thing. If the players don't play that module, then the facts of the books happen with no chance of failure and nobody else can possibly be first. Those facts are only in doubt if those modules are played.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well, it serves the purpose of saying "TSR gave players a sandbox to play in where there are no clerics."
Going ahead and playing clerics in that sandbox seems silly and pointless

this is why I think 4e Dragonlance would have worked better then 5e Dragonlance... warlords covering combat healing and apothecary's for after care would have been perfect for a 'gods don't answer' setting.

 

[darjr]

this is why I think 4e Dragonlance would have worked better then 5e Dragonlance... warlords covering combat healing and apothecary's for after care would have been perfect for a 'gods don't answer' setting.

Oh my. The outrage would have been off the scale!

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Oh my. The outrage would have been off the scale!

4e Dragonlance
The real outrage:
''Do draconians have boobs?''

 

[Reynard]

this is why I think 4e Dragonlance would have worked better then 5e Dragonlance... warlords covering combat healing and apothecary's for after care would have been perfect for a 'gods don't answer' setting.

Does anyone ever play in Krynn prior to the War? I have never seen it in practice. Most games I have played or run were either during the war in a different location, or in the aftermath. I have seen games set before the cataclysm, as well, but no one I ever knew personally played during the Dark Ages (or whatever it was called) and I have never met anyone who even owned any Taladas materials.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Does anyone ever play in Krynn prior to the War? I have never seen it in practice. Most games I have played or run were either during the war in a different location, or in the aftermath. I have seen games set before the cataclysm, as well, but no one I ever knew personally played during the Dark Ages (or whatever it was called) and I have never met anyone who even owned any Taladas materials.

IIRC, @Ruin Explorer is a big fan of Dragonlance stuff not related to Ansalon or the War of the Lance.