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]

Edit: Deleted. Didn't see mod post

 

[Remathilis]

Sure. I'm just saying there has to be a reason for having three orders, and until a few weeks from now it was alignment. What is it now? Seems like an important question.

Strictly speaking, the Hogwarts houses don't have alignments in the D&D sense, but each encourages a virtue that encourages like-minded people to work together. Gryffindor is about bravery and courage and standing up for what's right (akin to a goodish alignment). Slytherin is ambitious and cunning, with just a little hint of ruthless (evilish in D&D). Ravencraw is about intellect and wisdom and fits a neutralish alignment fine, while old Hufflepuff is hard working and humble (and very good aligned). Despite very different goals, they all live and work together fine enough, and while they may bend towards a certain alignment, you can have characters that fit the virtue of the house but aren't necessarily the common alignment (a power-hungry Ravencraw, a cunning but noble Slytherin).

I imagine the three orders will work the same way: white is noble and brave, red is scholarly and philosophical, black is ambitious and aggressive, but not every member of each order is necessarily good/neutral/evil as their robe implies. A white robe can be brave, but value individual freedom over common good (CN), a black can be assertive and self-righteous, but haveax strong sense of justice (LN). You get the idea.

I still wager the bulk of the orders will match the old alignment restrictions, but by making them more based around a common belief other than just alignment would allow for more variety without sacrifice of the core values.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

So he saved the world through personal intervention. I really don't see a big difference between that and smiting evil.

Cause if directly interfered with the guys serving Takhisis then she would be able to do the same thing, he was just doing the same thing as her, casting some spells to aid his side and granting them power.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Edit: Deleted. Didn't see mod post

 

[MonsterEnvy]

If they intervened, they intervened. If Fizban saved the Heroes of the Lance and they saved the day, then Fizban saved the day. The butterfly effect.

That’s fine, just stating he could only help out in a limited fashion or he gives Takhisis permission to raise the stakes and help her side in greater ways.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Edit: Deleted. Didn't see mod post

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Cataclysm

It is widely believed that the Cataclysm occurred as a result of the Kingpriest’s overweening ambition. The Kingpriest sought godhood to not only purge the lands of evil, but of anything that did not agree with his viewpoints. However, such an act would ultimately destroy the Doctrine of...

dragonlance.fandom.com

It is widely believed that the Cataclysm occurred as a result of the Kingpriest’s overweening ambition. The Kingpriest sought godhood to not only purge the lands of evil, but of anything that did not agree with his viewpoints. However, such an act would ultimately destroy the Doctrine of Balance, so Thirteen Warnings were sent to the Kingpriest and the nation of Istar. A storm battered the city for thirteen days, trees wept blood, and other ill omens were seen. The warnings were misinterpreted as signs from gods of Darkness that wanted to stop the Kingpriest, and went unheeded. On the third day of the year 963 IA by the Istar calendar, the Kingpriest demanded that the gods answer his call. Instead, the Cataclysm occurred. Though it was widely believed that the gods abandoned Krynn, this was not so. Instead, most of Krynn's populace could not understand why the gods refused their cries for aid, and turned away from the gods for over three hundred years.

---

In my own version of the story the good deities tried surgical attack but the evil deities manipulated the divine punishment to go beyond. The fact is the burning mountain falling from the sky was almost accidental. That "meteor" really was a "flying citadel" or a spelljammer of a faction who wanted to invade the Krynnspace. But there was an internal fight between two factions, maybe chronomancers who wanted to stop the invaders. Do you remember the scifi stories where the heroes destroy the control knobs of the alien mothership and this fall on the earth? Well, this time it was with a lot of collateral damages.

Could any innocent life to be saved? Yes, there was a little trick. Thanks to premonitory dreams, many made a pilgrimage to certain caves looking for healing waters. They were in a safe place during the cataclysm. And other fact is most of innocent people they left the capital years before because they felt too unconfortable with a faith what had forgotten the mercy and the respect for the human dignity.

Other point is a totally unknown secret. When the kingpriest Beldinas Pilofiro called the deities, really he was answered, but not by the deities of Krynn but a outsider power. This was going to promise kingpriest to become the supreme god to rule the Krynnspace and to punish the Krynnian pantheon. This couldn't be allowed. The silence of the deities for the age of despair was also fruit by the fight against this outsider power, something like a softer and temporary version of the fate of the gods in the setting "Birthright". They were too busy and weaked by this fight. This could happen in at least one of the alternate timelines, but it also affected the rest of parallel worlds.

 

[Libertad]

You forgot to URL embed the word "kingpriest" two more times in the last paragraph.

 

[Pentallion]

And they're wrong. If a god has a hand in a genocidal act happening, they are bad. They cannot be objectively labeled within the setting any of the good alignments. The "Good" gods cannot commit evil acts without being evil. If a god kills thousands of babies, they cannot be good.

If someone believes that a god can kill (or have a hand in killing) thousands of innocents, including children and infants and still be objectively listed as "Good", then they're wrong. They're wrong and their morals are bad.

You can appreciate/enjoy the fiction without subscribing to the ideas that it promotes. If someone thinks that the "good" gods of Dragonlance are good in spite of their hand in genocide, then they are wrong. A circumstance being fictional doesn't mean that you can't judge it or the people that agree with the morals it promotes.

But D&D is a TTRPG. Dragonlance is supposed to be a war between Good and Evil. But you can't have that sort of conflict if "good" is actually bad. Then it just becomes a reskinned version of the Blood War (evil versus evil).

You're not wrong but consider at least one, if not both of the authors were devout Christians and then replace Cataclysm with Great Flood
I know you can see how your arguments would get a lecture from any Christian priest if you applied that logic to the story of Noah's Ark.
I personally 100% agree with you. God is evil. But I'm Aztecan and my people believed that hundreds of years ago.
So whaddya gonna do?

Mods, if I stepped too far I'll happily delete this. I hope I handled it properly.

 

[Pentallion]

A different perspective on the morality of the Cataclysm can be found in God, Emperor of Dune. He understands that there are levels of morality. What he did was extremely immoral. Murdered trillions. But if he didn't, the entire human race dies. So he marched to the drum of a higher level morality.