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

 

[Kai Lord]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman weigh in on why there are no orcs or half-orcs native to Krynn:

Why are there no Orcs in Krynn? Weis and Hickman give us the answer! - Dragonlance Nexus

Dragonhelm gets the scoop from Weis and Hickman on why there are no orcs in Krynn. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

"Dragonlance has few limitations on what races can be played in the setting, but two limitations stand out above all – the orc and half-orc. Many theories exist as to why this limitation is in place, so I decided to go straight to the source – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Generally, it has been assumed that orcs don’t exist because their most well-known role, that of troops of a Dark Lord, has been replaced by draconians. That’s part of it, but there’s more.

Tracy: “There are many reasons why there are no orcs in Krynn … the most basic is that the mythology didn’t support it.”
Margaret: “Orcs were also viewed as very Middle Earth. We wanted something different.”
Tracy: “We studied Tolkien extensively, including attending a conference on his works at Marquette University. We were interested in learning how he created his world as well as how to avoid repeating his work.”

This raised a question. Why not simply reskin the orc to fill another role?

Tracy: “Orcs were simply set aside as antagonists that were unique to Middle-earth (despite their generic application in D&D). We needed our own enemy. Draconians not only made our world unique but quickly became an important and deep diegetic pillar of Krynn.”
Margaret: “We had goblins for the soldiers”
Tracy: “Filling out the rank and file.”
Tracy: “World creation isn’t like a blender. You can’t just toss in tropes, hit pulse a few times, pour out something and claim ‘it’s unique’. Worlds have to be organic, as my wife likes to say. All the parts make up a living, breathing whole.”
Tracy: “What people sometimes forget is that Orcs in Middle earth have a deep and specific history and origin as do their cousins the Uruk-Hai. That foundation simply didn’t exist in Krynn … ergo no orcs.”

Margaret added one other point that I had not considered.

Margaret: “Plus the Rankin and Bass cartoon had done a lot to ruin orcs. We didn’t want people humming ‘Where There’s a Whip, There’s a Way.‘”
Tracy: “Now that song is stuck in my head and I’m singing it in my office!“
Tracy: “We don’t wanna go to war today, but the Lord of the Lash says: “‘nay, nay, nay!'”

With Tracy singing in his office, the conversation came to a close. I wanted to say thank you to Margaret and Tracy for taking the time to speak with me and to set the record straight."

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Do they still like that kind of thing? Or was that just hugely popular back in the 80s when gaming was very young and players didn't know there were non-railroady options?

They still like it. Or so it seems.

In fact, all available evidence, which is to say, which TTRPG campaigns and the like sell well and are well regarded, which RPG videogames are popular and so on, strongly supports the idea that serious railroads are, if anything, more popular now than they were back then, when sandboxes and the like were more popular.

Bear in mind I'm in the "railroads are dull" camp, so I am not pleased to report this.

But there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever to suggest the contrary, at least that I'm aware of. All the supposed "open-world" CRPGs out there actually have a totally railroad-y narrative, for example (by TTRPG standards).

I would actually argue that in the '80s more people were aware of non-railroad options, too. The sandbox TTRPG was drastically more popular then than it is now.

 

[Maxperson]

That's not really unique, or all that interesting, especially without mass battle rules.


Do they still like that kind of thing? Or was that just hugely popular back in the 80s when gaming was very young and players didn't know there were non-railroady options?

Even back in the 80's I ran my Dragonlance post war. It was far more intersting post war than a campaign about a bunch of battles and trying to win a war against the darkness. That's cool for a few sessions, but not very fun as an entire campaign.

 

[Maxperson]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman weigh in on why there are no orcs or half-orcs native to Krynn:

Why are there no Orcs in Krynn? Weis and Hickman give us the answer! - Dragonlance Nexus

Dragonhelm gets the scoop from Weis and Hickman on why there are no orcs in Krynn. Read More

dragonlancenexus.com

"Dragonlance has few limitations on what races can be played in the setting, but two limitations stand out above all – the orc and half-orc. Many theories exist as to why this limitation is in place, so I decided to go straight to the source – Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Generally, it has been assumed that orcs don’t exist because their most well-known role, that of troops of a Dark Lord, has been replaced by draconians. That’s part of it, but there’s more.


This raised a question. Why not simply reskin the orc to fill another role?


Margaret added one other point that I had not considered.


With Tracy singing in his office, the conversation came to a close. I wanted to say thank you to Margaret and Tracy for taking the time to speak with me and to set the record straight."

Thank you! At least we can stop arguing about that one.

 

[Faolyn]

Sure. You think that something the happens once in a blue moon(LilSimsie using expansions) means that every option needs to be in every setting. You're wrong. There's nothing wrong with LilSimsie Climbs a Mountain to be unusable by someone in setting B32. They have the choice to use a different setting, not use that Sim(adventure) or make an exception for their game which any DM can do.

The setting shouldn't have to have every option just to keep the DM from having to make a decision.

And you again completely failed to understand what I was talking about. Since I have explained it twice--everyone else understood what I was talking about the first time--I have to assume you are deliberately choosing to misunderstand.

 

[Maxperson]

And you again completely failed to understand what I was talking about. Since I have explained it twice--everyone else understood what I was talking about the first time--I have to assume you are deliberately choosing to misunderstand.

You know what they say about assuming.

 

[Faolyn]

If people prefer non-railroady games, how does WotC keep selling those 5e adventures?

I've honestly had a hard time staying on the plot in any of the 5e adventures I've played in, and I've certainly never stuck to CoS's plot while running it.

 

[Faolyn]

I mean, I'm not trying to cast aspersions here, but it feels to me like no-one who is keen on Dragonlance at all is complaining about the lack of orcs.

Thus the venn diagram between "people who are complaining about a theoretical lack of orcs on behalf of theoretical players who may or may not theoretically want to play these orcs" and "people who think Knights of Solamnia and/or Wizards of High Sorcery are cool" is just about non-existent.

If this isn't true, please correct me, people.

Also I think Dragonlance is getting treated here with less friendliness than a more respected setting, like say Dark Sun.

To be fair, what Dark Sun adds to the game is a lot more than what it removes.

 

[Cruentus]

To be fair, what Dark Sun adds to the game is a lot more than what it removes.

My game group said "No way" to Dark Sun based on non-metal weapons alone . So, ultimately, it didn't matter what else it "added", but they played DL right out of the box without batting an eye or changing a thing.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

This is not an orc, but a tarek. If it moves like a duck and sounds like a duck..

* Now I am wondering how would be a manhua/wuxia version of Dragonlance. Oh, yeah, I know it is a really stupid idea, and whence, a great oportunity to sell a limited edition of action figures.

* What if the minotaur empire in Taladas finds a planar portal (really created by the ancestors of the yaggols..) and this goes toward other world, but this is also visited and explored by people from Jakandor and from Athas/Dark Sun (it was discovered accidentally by the tari or ratfolk because they were really deseperate)?

* What if time-traveling really creates demiplanes to avoid time-paradoxes? And these demiplanes are like dreams.. or distopian nightmares, and last these catched and recycled by the dark powers to create dark domains.