WotC Dragonlance: Everything You Need For Shadow of the Dragon Queen

WotC has shared a video explaining the Dragonlance setting, and what to expect when it is released in December.

World at War: Introduces war as a genre of play to fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragonlance: Introduces the Dragonlance setting with a focus on the War of the Lance and an overview of what players and DMs need to run adventures during this world spanning conflict.

Heroes of War: Provides character creation rules highlighting core elements of the Dragonlance setting, including the kender race and new backgrounds for the Knight of Solamnia and Mage of High Sorcery magic-users. Also introduces the Lunar Sorcery sorcerer subclass with new spells that bind your character to Krynn's three mystical moons and imbues you with lunar magic.

Villains: Pits heroes against the infamous death knight Lord Soth and his army of draconians.

Notes --

• 224 page hardcover adventure
• D&D's setting for war
• Set in eastern Solamnia
• War is represented by context -- it's not goblins attacking the village, but evil forces; refugees, rumours
• You can play anything from D&D - clerics included, although many classic D&D elements have been forgotten
• Introductory scenarios bring you up to speed on the world so no prior research needed

 

[Maxperson]

but half-orcs are, and without orcs, no half-orcs.

Not mentioned since orcs are a monster race and during a picknick 6700 years ago, Gruumsh was insulted by Takhisis and took his orcs and went home. Now there are no half-orcs any longer.

Also, half-orcs would not be listed as a created playable race by the gods, since the gods would not have created half-orcs even if orcs had been listed. Half-orcs would have come later.

Also, ogres are not a playable race, yet we have them in it, guess you did not know that either...

Yes they are, which you should know if you are the Krynn "expert" you claim to be. Irda are ogres which are in fact a playable race.

why would you want to be embarrassed further?

Yes, please. It's fun watching you embarrass yourself while trying to embarrass me.

 

[mamba]

Yes they are, which you should know if you are the Krynn "expert" you claim to be. Irda are ogres which are in fact a playable race.

True they are, forgot about that. Still, the same also would apply to orcs if they were needed to have a half-orc playable race (which clearly does not exist, because orcs already do not)

 

[Velderan]

If WotC wants to add orcs, they will do so and rewrite history. They won’t bother trying to squeeze them into the (basically nonexistent) gaps and pretend they were there all along and we somehow just missed them. And they absolutely should take this approach if they decided to add orcs, anything else is adding insult to injury.

I don't look at it that way, at least not so far. Considering they're setting this adventure in a part of the War of the Lance that previously there wasn't a lot written about, I think they might consider how can they add stuff without messing too much with what's already there.

 

[Maxperson]

True they are, forgot about that. Still, the same also would apply to orcs if they were needed to have a half-orc playable race (which clearly does not exist, because orcs already do not)

It talked about the playable races the gods created, not ones created by crossing an unplayable race with a playable one. Neither orcs, nor half-orcs would not be in that section.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

There aren't orcs because the blood of orc is necessary for a magic ritual to summon a Lovecraftian horror, then without orcs no summoning.

Shouldn't we be talking about what type of adventures for our heroes?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm not saying Dragonlance is bad because it removes orcs. When I make a setting, I also curate my monster and race lists heavily. I'm saying that if its main claim to fame is that it doesn't have certain things, and adding those things back makes it like every other setting, then that's pretty boring.

What you do when you make a setting is based on 40 years of experience of making D&D settings. Which all started with Dragonlance. It did it first. It was a prototype for what came later. If you where making it with the 40 years of experience there are lots of things you might do differently.

But people don't care about Dragonlance because it's a brilliantly designed setting. They love it for the stories, and the lore, and the characters, and the history.

And that's my other point. If enhancing the things it does have makes it into "nothing like" its original form, then that also doesn't say much good about the setting.

Your suggestions are not "enhancing the things it does have" You clearly don't know the original setting at all. It was never a setting where everyone rode about on dragons hitting each other with lances. It's a setting where a band of heroes in a world that looks suspiciously like frontier America fight against villains in black hats.

Then what could be done to make Dragonlance better?

Respect the lore, because that is what the people who care about the setting want.

Only if you're (general you're here) too lazy to make them more than that.

So, whilst you are busy trying to think of something interesting to do with your rubber mask people, you are not spending time developing the things that are distinctive, interesting and relevant to the setting.

 

[mamba]

It talked about the playable races the gods created, not ones created by crossing an unplayable race with a playable one. Neither orcs, nor half-orcs would not be in that section.

except that you cannot have half-orcs without orcs. And I would agree with you that maybe they just forgot to mention their creation, if they would not clearly say that there are no orcs

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Draconians don't fill the same niche as orcs. Orcs are a numerous low level monster to face. Draconians are significantly more powerful monsters. Orcs in Dragonlance filled the same niche as the hobgoblins and goblins in the dragon armies filled.

DL1 started with characters around level 4 or 5. Draconians where balanced against that starting level, which makes them effectively low level. It's all relative.

The mechanical reason for not having orcs is they would have been seriously out-levelled by the heroes, and not been a significant challenge. Orcs had around 5 hp in 1st edition.

 

[mamba]

I don't look at it that way, at least not so far. Considering they're setting this adventure in a part of the War of the Lance that previously there wasn't a lot written about, I think they might consider how can they add stuff without messing too much with what's already there.

It doesn't matter where they set the adventure, the settings books are very unambiguous about there being no orcs. They do not say there aren't any in Abanasinia or even Ansalon. They say there are not any on Krynn.

"Half-orcs would be considered magical freaks or aberrations as there are no orcs in
Krynn."

The above is for PCs arriving from another world via Spelljammer or spells, as those could have half-orcs. For Krynn itself:

"Almost all the creatures in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Monster Manual are appropriate for a DRAGONLANCE campaign, with a few notable exceptions (primarily
driders, drow elves, halflings, lycanthropes, mind flayers, orcs and half-orcs, and titans)."

Not sure how much clearer they need to make this for people to get it.

 

[Stormonu]

Eh, this is silly. I think if I or someone else wanted to play a half-orc/orc in Krynn, I'd just go with it being some sort of half-ogre/half-goblin or half-ogre/half-human mix. If not a one-off, they've likely got some community in a hidden area or scions of Neraka, maybe bred as a labor or raiding force by Takahisis. May not be 100% lore accurate, but should work if someone was adamant about playing one (or having them as enemies).

Does this need to be in the DL book? No, this a DM/player compromise to work out at the table.