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

 

[Vaalingrade]

But is that position in line with Chaotic and Neutral god's ethical positions?

It was in line with the writers' desire for them to do it.

 

[mamba]

I'm totally fine with allowing the wisdom/decisions of the gods to have a rationale and perspective beyond what the mortal PC's are capable of fully understanding or gaming tables having to fully explain.

agreed, you should not expect to understand the rationale of a god of Krynn any better than of a god on Earth. For both you can only trust that they know what they are doing.

There is a reason why it is called ‘faith’ and not ‘evidence’

 

[Faolyn]

This seems to be an "in fiction" statement. I'm talking about the at-the-table relationships: who at the table authors the "hook", and what are other participants in the game expected to do with it?

It... wasn't an in-fiction statement. If the DM is saying (through words or actions) "here's your plot, do it because there's nothing else to do beside it," that's a railroad.

I wasn't saying "The king commands you to go on a quest," and saying that such a thing is or isn't railroad-y. Because the players can:

1. accept the quest.
2. refuse the quest.
3. accept the quest and but never bother to complete it.
4. accept the quest and go about it in a way completely different than what's expected and that has different outcomes side-effects, thus changing the plot.
5. accept the quest and go to the king's enemies and let them know what the king wanted.
6. kill the king.

And as long as the DM didn't try to thwart the players for doing anything other than #1 on that list, it's not a railroad. And no, having the king getting angry and order his guards to attack isn't thwarting the players as long as it's a fair fight and the players are given the opportunity to escape. Consequences aren't railroads. And, of course, the king doesn't have to get angry and call his guards.

 

[Faolyn]

The day a whimsical little slime boy doesn't fit into fantasy is the day fantasy is well and truly dead.

Hah! Well, in this case, my little slime (which I would watch, if it were a cartoon) was actually a chemist/sales rep (alchemist artificer) for an inter-galactic alchemical supply company called Miibas and Spawn, and part of their plot was looking around space for exotic components to stabilize the little sibling I accidentally created while mixing reagents for a new concoction. Wouldn't quite work in a purely groundling campaign that wasn't otherwise connected to space.

I even made them a business card.

 

[pemerton]

If you think the source material isn't that good, maybe working in that universe isn't for you (the general you).

WotC is a commercial publisher, not a lone artist starving in a garret for the sake of their art!

The quote doesn't imply you can't make changes, they're simply saying you need to understand what was important about the source material before you go tinkering or you risk losing the reason a built-in audience might view your work.

I think the built-in audience for WotC's new DL publication is the large number of contemporary D&D players. I don't think many will be put off by the absence of an admonition that there are no Orcs in Krynn. Or an absence of moustaches on the pictures of knights.

Now maybe WotC thinks differently. I'm not privy to their market research and their intuitions. But if they do include a "no Orcs" warning, it will be because of their best guess about what the market wants. It won't be out of a view about what is necessary to be "correct" about the setting, or to avoid "deceiving" the audience as some in this thread have suggested.

I have boxes of old comics if I ever feel the need to revisit the original stories.

And those who enjoyed it still have all the old DL/Krynn material. What WotC publishes tomorrow doesn't change that.

I've never run a DL setting, but if I did, and it was around the War of the Lance era, like the current adventure by WotC, the native races of that setting would be the only ones offered for play.

And nothing about what WotC publishes will change that either.

 

[Velderan]

I think the built-in audience for WotC's new DL publication is the large number of contemporary D&D players. I don't think many will be put off by the absence of an admonition that there are no Orcs in Krynn. Or an absence of moustaches on the pictures of knights.

Now maybe WotC thinks differently. I'm not privy to their market research and their intuitions. But if they do include a "no Orcs" warning, it will be because of their best guess about what the market wants. It won't be out of a view about what is necessary to be "correct" about the setting, or to avoid "deceiving" the audience as some in this thread have suggested.

I wasn't so much talking about WotC or DL if you follow the quote string. My post was about a quote from a producer about respecting source material before you go tinkering with it so you don't end up missing the mark of what your built-in audience is likely going to expect. However if you want me to apply that to WotC and DL, I personally think WotC does try to understand the source material before they go tinkering. Chris Perkins wrote a pretty insightful article about 5E canon that helps understand how they handle lore where possible, I just don't always agree they got it right and that's fine. The blanket "it's your world, we're just suggesting what it might look like" gives me all the liberty I need to make changes I want to a campaign setting. But who is the built-in audience? That's pretty easy to figure out really imo.

Periodically WotC has surveys they've conducted to help them figure out what people want to buy. I know personally I've filled out at least 6 over the lifespan of 5E saying I'd like to see Dragonlance material that is faithful to the spirit of the original material, but not a simple update to 5E of what I've already bought before (in some cases 3 times now). I know the Dragonlance Nexus Twitter account has made it a point of noting when WotC is seeking feedback and encouraging DL fans to make their voice heard so there have been efforts to get WotC to make something for awhile now. @Dragonhelm may know more about their efforts to get WotC to listen to us, but it's not like there weren't attempts to organize DL fans into submitting their wishlist.

If you (a general you, not you specifically) never fill out a survey telling WotC what you want, don't be too upset when what they release isn't ever to your liking. They actually do listen, it's just they can't listen to everyone so the minority opinion gets pushed to the side.

And those who enjoyed it still have all the old DL/Krynn material. What WotC publishes tomorrow doesn't change that.

Which as noted above, is why I asked for something different because I can reference all those old books to fill in gaps or things I don't like where I see fit. As @Hussar noted, DMs Guild is a thing and there's plenty of old material there to help with inspiration.

 

[AnotherGuy]

And nothing about what WotC publishes will change that either.

Customers vote with their....?

 

[RuinousPowers]

who says they are? They are not called
good, neutral or evil for nothing

They are maybe equally powerful, definitely responsible for different things and definitely competing with each other in some form, but that does not make them all correct.


how did the god of the bible decide this? You do not really know that either, yet presumably he did.
Also, they did not condemn that one man only, same as the god of the bible.

Why would you expect to understand Paladine’s reasoning any better?

For the God of the Bible it was easy- the whole world was wicked, except those saved. It's never been the case for the Cataclysm that everyone who died was sharing in whatever sin the Kingpriest was guilty of. In fact, Paladine thought he was a good man. Do paladins strike down good men? Do paladins destroy cities to kill good men?

The gods are all correct. Whichever god one chooses to worship grants an afterlife reward. There is no uniting ethos, even among the good gods.

Of course DL's gods often run contrary to their alignments and ignore them to further plots, but that is why the Cataclysm, in D&D ethics, is pretty silly.

 

[pemerton]

@AnotherGuy

Presumably WotC is aiming for sales of their new DL book in the 10s of 1000s. (I don't have any precise sense of sales figures, but that's my very ballpark guestimate.)

DL fans who fill in surveys in the sort of detail you describe don't seem to me like the make up that sort of audience. That's not any sort of criticism of those fans - just a fact about what I would guess their preponderance is in the contemporary world of D&D customers.

The last person I personally knew to buy a copy of The Wild Beyond Witchlight was my teenage niece. She knows nothing about the Feywild, or controversies over the planes associated with 4e D&D. She knows almost nothing about the history of D&D as a system. When I ran a session of In A Wicked Age that she participated in, her portrayal of her character was full of anachronism and exaggeration (she was playing a tyrannical warlord who armed himself from his "wall of axes" and who was accompanied by his cat, Mr Fluffington).

The last person I spoke to about building a D&D character was my teenage daughter. She wanted to play her tabaxi bard but a friend in the group had already occupied that niche and so she was building some sort of barbarian instead. The last time I heard her talk about her actual play there were hijinks involving a PC goblin.

Perhaps I'm way out of touch, but it seems to me that these are the sorts of people that WotC has to persuade to purchase a new DL book. Not the only sorts, but nevertheless a significant part of the contemporary market for D&D products. And what I think will sell them on DL is knights and dragons and lances and romance and epic heroism. Not the presence or absence of Orcs.

 

[AnotherGuy]

@pemerton let me clarify my position because I think we have gone quite astray here.
Many from this side would be content with but a sidebar in the book reflecting on the native races of Krynn. This IMO would be respectful to the settings creators as well as its hardcore fans. There could even be a section in the book as to how one would bring in the weird and wonderful playable options of 5e. None of this would be contra to many of their previous setting APs.
There is no down side to this. They're educating the young, making it easier for canon DMs to run their games and allowing DM's to break the setting limitations.

My original post merely reflected what I would do at my table if I were running that period piece of DL. And yes, I would do that whether or not WotC includes that sidebar. The only issue is, my reason to purchase the book will depend on
(a) The reviews; and
(b) How much WotC decides to deviate from canon. The abovementioned sidebar would help limit such concern.