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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[Eubani]

A cataclysm that had Paladine opposing it would be a lot more palatable for many because if the God of Good is opposing it then it must be evil. If walking away from mortals gives them a chance at life without evil gods interfering, that is more tolerable than just heaping more punishment on after the cataclysm. It can be spun in a way that Paladine had faith in mortals that they can continue on and grow without the gods guidance.

 

[Micah Sweet]

A cataclysm that had Paladine opposing it would be a lot more palatable for many because if the God of Good is opposing it then it must be evil. If walking away from mortals gives them a chance at life without evil gods interfering, that is more tolerable than just heaping more punishment on after the cataclysm. It can be spun in a way that Paladine had faith in mortals that they can continue on and grow without the gods guidance.

That...is a different story.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

A cataclysm that had Paladine opposing it would be a lot more palatable for many because if the God of Good is opposing it then it must be evil. If walking away from mortals gives them a chance at life without evil gods interfering, that is more tolerable than just heaping more punishment on after the cataclysm. It can be spun in a way that Paladine had faith in mortals that they can continue on and grow without the gods guidance.

In my head canon, the whole Balance thing for the gods is not about morality, its about general non-interference in mortal affairs. That's why they went with vague signs to warn the Priest-King instead of just showing as an avatar.

The Cataclysm itself wasnt sent by the gods, its when the Priest-King, deprived from his divine power turned to arcane magic, trying to find a loophole to use arcane to gain its divine powers back by....bringing in a fourth moon, Majora's Mask style and becoming the new god of magic. In his hubris, he received his moon right in the face

 

[Scribe]

A cataclysm that had Paladine opposing it would be a lot more palatable for many because if the God of Good is opposing it then it must be evil. If walking away from mortals gives them a chance at life without evil gods interfering, that is more tolerable than just heaping more punishment on after the cataclysm. It can be spun in a way that Paladine had faith in mortals that they can continue on and grow without the gods guidance.

Thats not Dragonlance.

If Paladine opposed the cataclysm, he would be allowing for the essential "1984"-ing of the population. Removal of Free Will, is the domain of Takhisis, head of the Gods of Evil.

 

[Eubani]

That...is a different story.

Same events, with Takhisis sneaking back later and Paladine returning to oppose her. The mortals still could react as they did. Same events and outcomes. In my mind that makes the Cataclysm both more palatable and to a certain degree more tragic.

 

[Eubani]

Thats not Dragonlance.

If Paladine opposed the cataclysm, he would be allowing for the essential "1984"-ing of the population. Removal of Free Will, is the domain of Takhisis, head of the Gods of Evil.

I am assuming that Paladine attempted to convince god and mortal alike to change course but failed. No removal of free will required just a more sensible approach like omens and messages that make sense and to the right people. Keep in mind the Cataclysm was largely a consensus of the gods where the gods of evil, neutrality and few edge case good gods outvoted Paladine who could not convince the other gods to take another course.

 

[Scribe]

No removal of free will required just a more sensible approach like omens and messages that make sense and to the right people.

This happened. And the true faithful were raptured.

The messages went unheeded, and divine judgment rained down.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Getting what you want at all is, IMO, more important than getting it from WotC, who are in any case no better than any other publisher. Once I saw Ravenloft 5e, as disappointed as I was by it, I never expected WotC to make a version I liked better at some point in the future. I hoped DMsGuild would, and they certainly delivered.

You do you, I suppose. I don't understand it, but I don't have to.

The official version sets the baseline - from that I can incorporate whatever I want to include as I see fit.

But if the baseline doesn't work for me, I have to change it to make it usable, and then also change anything extra I want to incorporate that was designed with the official version in mind so as to be compatible with my customized version. The more work needed to fix the baseline, the more work needed to fix everything else. If the custom "remix" I ultimately end up with dramatically changes the Mages of High Sorcery, then a big, fancy, third-party sourcebook on the Mages of High Sorcery doesn't do me much good, does it?

At a certain point, the effort necessary to salvage Dragonlance becomes more than the setting is worth to me, and it will simply be rendered down into scrap to be repurposed elsewhere. Which is a shame, because again, there's a lot I actually like about it.

All I want is for the baseline Dragonlance setting to be usable for me. I can take it from there. But if I have to rebuild the setting from scratch, then it's not worth the effort.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Thats not Dragonlance.

If Paladine opposed the cataclysm, he would be allowing for the essential "1984"-ing of the population. Removal of Free Will, is the domain of Takhisis, head of the Gods of Evil.

You can oppose 1984-style destruction of free will and also think that dropping an asteroid on Oceania may not be the solution.

 

[Scribe]

You can oppose 1984-style destruction of free will and also think that dropping an asteroid on Oceania may not be the solution.

Sure, but last 10 pages of discussion.