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]

We will have to agree to disagree.

I just think that there is a major difference between "harassing the DM to get what you want" and "none of the players wants should be accommodated because some players will harass the DM". This isn't black and white. The key to function in any social environment is to find common ground, not "my way or the highway".

 

[Maxperson]

"Gatekeeping"? That's rich coming from the side saying "It's not actually Dragonlance if you include Orcs in it!"

Who said that?

 

[Maxperson]

Kitchen Sinks don't breed sameness. Lack of creativity/imagination breeds sameness. Some people are just less imaginative/creative than others.

Kitchen sinks don't breed sameness. You just don't need more than one kitchen sink setting to come up with almost all of that creativity. I could do Ravenloft in a corner of the Realms out in the ocean. Create a large island/small continent and call it Ansalon and have the War of the Lance. What do I need to buy more kitchen sink settings for?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Who said that?

Most of the people that are upset at the possibility of orcs being playable/present in Dragonlance have said things along that line.

Kitchen sinks don't breed sameness. You just don't need more than one kitchen sink setting to come up with almost all of that creativity. I could do Ravenloft in a corner of the Realms out in the ocean. Create a large island/small continent and call it Ansalon and have the War of the Lance. What do I need to buy more kitchen sink settings for?

There is a huge difference between a "Kitchen Sink" setting in D&D and the theoretical setting that includes literally every possible fantasy/D&D concept ever.

Could you take Ansalon and drop it into the Sea of Swords and have a Dragonlance campaign there? Maybe. Dragonlance's pantheon and history are quite different from Toril's, but it's technically possible if you change both settings enough. However, there is a major difference between a setting that can incorporate all player options (Eberron, for example) and a setting that contains all possible stories in D&D.

Eberron is another "Kitchen Sink" setting. As Keith Baker has said several times, "If it exists in D&D, it can exist in Eberron". However, Eberron is still quite different from Dragonlance. It would be practically impossible to run the War of the Lance in Eberron because the Gods aren't proven to exist, chromatic dragons aren't more likely to be evil than metallic dragons, the setting's technology level is overall higher, morality isn't based on religion or race, and dozens of other factors that would make it basically impossible to run War of the Lance in Eberron. Both the Forgotten Realms and Eberron are Kitchen Sink settings, but they're still very different and incompatible.

Even if opening up the character options that you can play in Dragonlance somehow turns it into a "Kitchen Sink" setting (which I don't think it does), multiple Kitchen Sink settings can coexist without invalidating each other or requiring combination.

 

[Hussar]

I'm still trying to figure out how Dragonlance isn't a kitchen sink setting. Good grief, have you actually LOOKED at the races in Dragonlance?

 

[Maxperson]

Most of the people that are upset at the possibility of orcs being playable/present in Dragonlance have said things along that line.

I don't remember seeing that. I know that I've said that it will alter the feel and that it's not a minor change, but I haven't said that it wouldn't be Dragonlance.

There is a huge difference between a "Kitchen Sink" setting in D&D and the theoretical setting that includes literally every possible fantasy/D&D concept ever.

Could you take Ansalon and drop it into the Sea of Swords and have a Dragonlance campaign there? Maybe. Dragonlance's pantheon and history are quite different from Toril's, but it's technically possible if you change both settings enough. However, there is a major difference between a setting that can incorporate all player options (Eberron, for example) and a setting that contains all possible stories in D&D.

Eberron is another "Kitchen Sink" setting. As Keith Baker has said several times, "If it exists in D&D, it can exist in Eberron". However, Eberron is still quite different from Dragonlance. It would be practically impossible to run the War of the Lance in Eberron because the Gods aren't proven to exist, chromatic dragons aren't more likely to be evil than metallic dragons, the setting's technology level is overall higher, morality isn't based on religion or race, and dozens of other factors that would make it basically impossible to run War of the Lance in Eberron. Both the Forgotten Realms and Eberron are Kitchen Sink settings, but they're still very different and incompatible.

Even if opening up the character options that you can play in Dragonlance somehow turns it into a "Kitchen Sink" setting (which I don't think it does), multiple Kitchen Sink settings can coexist without invalidating each other or requiring combination.

Eberron would be impossible I think to put into the Realms, but I would also argue that despite its creator's desire, it is not a kitchen sink setting. There are off limits things(leaving the cosmology, knowing if gods are real or not, etc.) that are unique to that setting, as well as races like warforged that while I can use them elsewhere, are not included in any other setting and could be considered to be unique to that setting(even though it is not said outright). Dragonmarks are also a unique mechanic.

 

[Demetrios1453]

The best path for WotC is a sidebar listing player options that traditionally haven't been a part of Dragonlance, with perhaps some context as to why. THEN explicitly state, "But, if your table wants to include orc PCs . . . GO FOR IT! Here's some ideas on how to incorporate new player options to Dragonlance".

It's been my belief since the product was announced that this (or something similar) is what they are going do. "Here is the traditional Dragonlance ruleset. Play it that way if you want, but you're under no obligation to do so if you want to play it differently"

 

[DragonBelow]

There are ways to include any kind of character in Dragonlance if you want. With the inclusion of Spelljammer, and soon Planescape anything is possible. That is one of the benefits of such glue settings. However there needs a reason: How did your planewalker or wildspace character came to be here at this time? What are they doing? How are folks in this world going to react when they see this foreign character? You want to play artificer in Krynn? ok, you are a gnome, or you lived among them for many years, and so on.

 

[mamba]

People are using a loophole. As Al-Qadim is really a subsetting of the Forgotten Realms setting, they're using the Forgotten Realms to put it out.

I've seen a guy who put out conversions of the original DL series of modules because he set the War of the Lance in the Forgotten Realms.

There is also a straight up 5e conversion, since conversions of old modules are allowed on DMsG

 

[mamba]

So new clerics/Druids/etc would be easy to introduce after Goldmoon does her thing.

Emphasis on after, this is set maybe 9 to 12 months before that