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

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

you can also houserule this, if you have a plan on how this should work for you. No one said you can only opt orcs in or out

I am not going to condone the morality of a book by buying it unless I agree with it.

 

[mamba]

I am not going to condone the morality of a book by buying it unless I agree with it.

well, if that is your stance for an adventure book in a fictional world, knock yourself out. I hope you are as upstanding for larger issues as well.

 

[Veltharis ap Rylix]

Pretty sure Takhisis can change your mind to at least giving it a try

For some, certainly.

For others, especially those that carry a particularly strong sense of grievance over the gods' "betrayal" (real or perceived) during the Cataclysm, I could see it being viewed as a setup. If you're already predisposed to not trust the words of the gods (or their priests), who's to say that Takhisis isn't just being used by the other gods to drive the faithless right back into their arms.

I don't think it's inherently unnatural for at least some subset of the population to feel like they're being manipulated by entities that may not have their best interests at heart.

 

[mamba]

I don't think it's inherently unnatural for at least some subset of the population to feel like they're being manipulated by entities that may not have their best interests at heart.

not if the real world is anything to go by

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

read some religious texts every once in a while for perspective

Mod Note:

While I understand your point, you must realize that it’s inflammatory and runs afoul of ENWorld’s ToS. Please don’t repeat/go further with this.

 

[pemerton]

Does Kick Ass have an alignment system? Is the jet pack rider supposed to be a being of true goodness? Does the jet pack rider have magical powers that would allow them to solve their problems without violence, or only target those people who are actively bad guys? Can the jet pack rider cast wish multiple times a day?

D&D historically has tried to label gods with objective moralities. That's a major aspect of Dragonlance. If a game gives supposedly objective labels of gods and NPCs, then their actions better adhere to the real world meanings of those words or they were built wrong.

I don't understand these posts.

If "objective morality"/"true goodness" is a fiction, then it seems to have little relevance to actual moral judgement. If it's not, than it is as applicable to Kick Ass as to Dragonlance, and we can ask whether Kick Ass invites the audience to embrace and cheer at action which does not conform to genuine moral demands. (Which it very obviously does.)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

If "objective morality"/"true goodness" is a fiction, then it seems to have little relevance to actual moral judgement.

It doesn't matter whether or not objective morality actually exists, the problem is that the setting pretends that it does and then says that the good gods had a part in a genocidal event.

That's a problem whether or not objective morality or the scenario is fictional. The setting doesn't have to list the "good" gods as being objectively good and it doesn't have to have the objectively good gods involved in the Cataclysm.

 

[Faolyn]

I don't understand these posts.

If "objective morality"/"true goodness" is a fiction, then it seems to have little relevance to actual moral judgement. If it's not, than it is as applicable to Kick Ass as to Dragonlance, and we can ask whether Kick Ass invites the audience to embrace and cheer at action which does not conform to genuine moral demands. (Which it very obviously does.)

Sigh.

D&D uses alignments. Back when Dragonlance was first published, in 1e, alignment was pretty important. A paladin could fall if he spent too much time hanging around the thief. Changing alignment was a bad thing that docked XP.

If the gods of Dragonlance claim to be Good (upper-case Good) but perform Evil acts (upper-case Evil), such as genocide, then either the setting has a screwed-up morality or the writers are trying to claim that genocide is a good act. If they were actually Good, and had performed such an Evil act--and yes, even if every single person who was killed was clamoring for blood, genocide is still an evil act--then those Good gods (and Neutral gods) should have had their alignments changed.

If the writers had instead said that the Good gods were not, in fact, Good, and they performed an act of Evil but tried to convinced everyone that it was actually Good instead, or that the Good deities had performed an act of great evil, had turned Evil as a result, and now must try to redeem themselves so they can retake their place as the Gods of Good again, those would be a basis of a potentially very interesting setting.

Kick Ass is an action movie. While I have not seen that particular movie, I have seen enough action films and TV shows to know that they rarely try to pretend that the violence perpetuated in them is an act of Good. At most, it's a evil act (lower-case evil) performed by people who are trying to do good (lower-case good) but for whatever reason, do so through violent means. Probably more often, it's people of dubious morality performing acts of violence against other people of dubious morality for the entertainment of the viewers, with no actual attempt to to claim anyone is of any sort of morality.

Understand now?

 

[Hussar]

It doesn't matter whether or not objective morality actually exists, the problem is that the setting pretends that it does and then says that the good gods had a part in a genocidal event.

That's a problem whether or not objective morality or the scenario is fictional. The setting doesn't have to list the "good" gods as being objectively good and it doesn't have to have the objectively good gods involved in the Cataclysm.

Let's back up a second and try to refocus.

The people supported the Kingpriest. It's not like he was some fascist dictator that held the people under his thumb. The people loved him. Loved him for generations - nearly a century. Loved him so much that they committed numerous atrocities and genocides (attempting to kill all non-humans, all wizards) over the decades and no one so much as batted an eye. They loved him so much that they actually literally worshipped him to the point where he was a step away from becoming a god.

These are the people that you're saying are innocent.

At any point in that century, they could have walked away. They could have stopped. Someone could have stepped up and said, "Hey, y'know what? We're the baddies." But no one did. Everyone deliberately, intentionally and with free will followed the Kingpriest. And not just a few people in a single city. No... the entire population of Ansalon supported the Kingpriest. At least the human population anyway.

Now, @Faolyn apparently thinks that Krynn gods can just Thanos Snap the problem away. Wish all the bad people gone and everything is right in the world again. Except that's not what the text actually says. For one, the gods in Krynn cannot manifest in the setting - they can send avatars, but, not the gods themselves, so, they are limited as to what they can do. As well, the gods in the setting do not directly interfere. There are no god-kings in this setting. The gods are fairly hands off, most of the time.

It wasn't that the Kingpriest turned against the gods that caused the Cataclysm, it's that EVERYONE turned against the gods to worship the Kingpriest that caused the Cataclysm. Had the gods simply Thanos Snapped the problem away, nearly the same number of people would die, and then the exact same number of people would die because all the people who take care of those that remained would be gone and all those children starve to death because their parents, aunts, uncles and older siblings all just vanished overnight.

Simply killing the Kingpriest wouldn't have changed anything. If anything it would make him a martyr and probably elevated him to godhood even faster.

I know it's a hard thing to accept, but, even good gods do horrible things. Good does not equal nice.

 

[Hussar]

If the gods of Dragonlance claim to be Good (upper-case Good) but perform Evil acts (upper-case Evil), such as genocide, then either the setting has a screwed-up morality or the writers are trying to claim that genocide is a good act. If they were actually Good, and had performed such an Evil act--and yes, even if every single person who was killed was clamoring for blood, genocide is still an evil act--then those Good gods (and Neutral gods) should have had their alignments changed.

See, this right here? This is just wrong. Alignment does not say this. Nor does the text of the game or the setting support this interpretation. A single act does not force alignment change. Even a paladin who commits an evil act, while losing his paladin status, does not change his alignment.