Dragonlance Has anyone incorporated Heroes of Krynn boardgame into their Shadow of the Dragon Queen campaign

[Nightbeat84]

Good day fellow DM's a player of mine purchase the boardgame and module and gifted it to me as a thank you for well being the DM. I was very touched by his gift since he knows I am a huge Dragonlance fan.

As the title suggested I was wondering if anyone has attempted to incorporate the board game with their campaign the idea has intrigued me since 5e rules do not support mass combat and for the most part I think most people just used it as decoration or background noise.

Some have pointed out doing a campaign then busting out the board game could be immersion breaking but I wouldn't mind at least trying it out and was wondering if anyone else has attempted it I would like to hear about their experience good or bad I can definitely suspect if not properly executed it could be bad.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

I have not used the game as of yet, though the wife, I, and a few of the other players in our group have tried the game out and plan to implement it as possible for our dragonlance campaign. We're not running SotDQ though. I'm doing an Age of Mortals game. My current plan is to use the game as applicable and just reskin the "dragon armies" to be whatever enemy they need be.

From base observations I'd strongly suggest that you have each player sit down and "make" their character, using example class abilities from the various class cards. The one thing the board game gets well is that it's quick once people learn the rules. If you're making your own scenarios for the game, I suggest that you keep them as simple as possible and you're going to have to prep as the DM what each event cards and key moments the battle has (as well as win/lose conditions, etc.). Overall it's a pretty well designed system.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Yes I have.

 

[dave2008]

Yes I have.

How did it go?

I had plans to play the board game over the holidays but it never worked out. Hopefully I will get another chance soon.

 

[Nightbeat84]

I have not used the game as of yet, though the wife, I, and a few of the other players in our group have tried the game out and plan to implement it as possible for our dragonlance campaign. We're not running SotDQ though. I'm doing an Age of Mortals game. My current plan is to use the game as applicable and just reskin the "dragon armies" to be whatever enemy they need be.

From base observations I'd strongly suggest that you have each player sit down and "make" their character, using example class abilities from the various class cards. The one thing the board game gets well is that it's quick once people learn the rules. If you're making your own scenarios for the game, I suggest that you keep them as simple as possible and you're going to have to prep as the DM what each event cards and key moments the battle has (as well as win/lose conditions, etc.). Overall it's a pretty well designed system.

Sorry for the late reply little while ago I sat down with my players on an off dy and cracked open the game it went really well and we agree that it would work good with the campaign.
After some thought I think I am also not running the module since it is a side event to the main story. I plan to run my own heroes of the Lance and have them mostly follow the companions I won't be railroading them want to see where my players go. My reason is I'm not really interested in the villain they presented in the module and want to use Verminard as my BBEG and perhaps have Soth as a side villain that the players may or may not interact or Perhaps make a deal with the death knight.
I will have to make up my own scenarios I think as well but won't be to different then the cards that are already there.
Thank you for your input

 

[Nightbeat84]

How did it go?

I had plans to play the board game over the holidays but it never worked out. Hopefully I will get another chance soon.

I did play the board game and it went really well. My players and I agree that it will be a nice addition to the campaign

 

[orangefruitbat]

I've run two scenarios from Warriors of Krynn, with mixed results. The first session (the defence of Volger) went pretty well - three of the four players liked it (the one who did not was playing a druid and was annoyed that he couldn't use his special wilderness tile power). I did my best to make things cinematic through narration and feel like a regular gaming session (albeit with a different rules set).

The second scenario was a bit of a dud. For this session, we had our full complement of five players. The player who was absent for the first session really disliked the rule set (this player is an avid board-gamer, and reacted negatively to how scripted events play out). The druid player (not an avid board-gamer) still wasn't really engaged (despite now having a wilderness tile to interact with). The other three players enjoyed the scenario to various degrees. Everyone agreed that there was too much downtime between their turns (this was less a problem with just four players).

Realistically, both scenarios were far too easy and I don't think there was any sense of peril. Event cards which brought on enemy reinforcements were met with annoyance rather than dread. Admittedly, the early chapters of SotDQ are also far too easy - I basically have to double or triple the encounter budget to make them a challenge at all for my group, but it's much easier to do this in DnD than adjust WoK scenarios.

While I wasn't planning on using every scenario from the board game (it would make the campaign too long), I had hoped to run key events using it. Next week, we'll be at the Battle of Silver Springs so I asked the group if they wanted to run it with WoK (I highly recommend setting the board up in advance of a gaming session) or just regular DnD rules. Two strong votes for regular DnD, and only one in favour of board-gaming. I might try to run the climactic battle at the end using WoK, but I'll need to convince people.

 

[Nightbeat84]

I've run two scenarios from Warriors of Krynn, with mixed results. The first session (the defence of Volger) went pretty well - three of the four players liked it (the one who did not was playing a druid and was annoyed that he couldn't use his special wilderness tile power). I did my best to make things cinematic through narration and feel like a regular gaming session (albeit with a different rules set).

The second scenario was a bit of a dud. For this session, we had our full complement of five players. The player who was absent for the first session really disliked the rule set (this player is an avid board-gamer, and reacted negatively to how scripted events play out). The druid player (not an avid board-gamer) still wasn't really engaged (despite now having a wilderness tile to interact with). The other three players enjoyed the scenario to various degrees. Everyone agreed that there was too much downtime between their turns (this was less a problem with just four players).

Realistically, both scenarios were far too easy and I don't think there was any sense of peril. Event cards which brought on enemy reinforcements were met with annoyance rather than dread. Admittedly, the early chapters of SotDQ are also far too easy - I basically have to double or triple the encounter budget to make them a challenge at all for my group, but it's much easier to do this in DnD than adjust WoK scenarios.

While I wasn't planning on using every scenario from the board game (it would make the campaign too long), I had hoped to run key events using it. Next week, we'll be at the Battle of Silver Springs so I asked the group if they wanted to run it with WoK (I highly recommend setting the board up in advance of a gaming session) or just regular DnD rules. Two strong votes for regular DnD, and only one in favour of board-gaming. I might try to run the climactic battle at the end using WoK, but I'll need to convince people.

That is unfortunate to hear I can definitely see some people not liking the board game aspect.
For me was the opposite reaction, I'm also an avid board-gamer and I like the game as a stand alone game. I had one player who was not into board games like the game. We played the first 2 scenarios I haven't started the campaign I just wanted to try the board game just to get use to the rules and figure things out and test it. I have to admit in both scenarios we did make mistakes which in my experiance it happens when playing a new board game but now I know how to play properly. I was also running as a player in it.

I do know that when I decide to use it I will be running the dragon army and having to add in some narration as well as having the scenario ready in advance I also plan to upgrade the game with some 3d printed materials such as the tokens with miniatures to spruce it up since I have 3d printers and I'm silly that way.

I can definitely see some people not liking the board game and feel immersion breaking. I think its not for everyone and the druid ability could be a problem I can see.

Another note however I forgot about this but MCDM launched on kickstarted which is in there store Kingdoms and Warfare book which has rules for mass combat and also found that in TSR had a book called Battlesystem which could be an alternative to the board game just a thought.
Thank you for your input

 

[Stormonu]

If you REALLY want to bore your players, pull out Battlesystem.

I have the old DL11 - Dragons of Glory, which has subscenarios for different battles of the War of the Lance, done as a wargame. One of the scenarios is the war against Kalaman. Unfortunately, I haven't actually played it, though I very much want to.

I was hoping to be able to get Warriors of Krynn for when I run Dragonlance, but other than getting it in the big collection, it doesn't appear to be out seperately. How long does it take to do the scenarios, and how easy is it to build new ones for different battles beyond the scenarios in the box?

 

[Nightbeat84]

If you REALLY want to bore your players, pull out Battlesystem.

I have the old DL11 - Dragons of Glory, which has subscenarios for different battles of the War of the Lance, done as a wargame. One of the scenarios is the war against Kalaman. Unfortunately, I haven't actually played it, though I very much want to.

I was hoping to be able to get Warriors of Krynn for when I run Dragonlance, but other than getting it in the big collection, it doesn't appear to be out seperately. How long does it take to do the scenarios, and how easy is it to build new ones for different battles beyond the scenarios in the box?

Battlesystem that great, eh?? I've not read or used it I just know it existed.

As for the Scenarios I would say not very long as long as people are quick on their decision and understand the rules enough. There is a timer built into it so that once you do X amount of turns if you do not complete the objective you will lose in the appropriate time.

There is a training scenario I would run to get familiar with the game mechanics of the game, also like others suggested is to have it ready to go before the game session.

As for creating new scenarios I'm not sure. If they do not different too much id imagine changing the names of the places and writing new objectives would be simple enough. The tokens and the cards are generic enough would fit in the DL modules. The only thing is the commander cards with their portraits would be problem. Their names can be easily change and just use there features as is in my opinion, but you could just print new portraits to cover them if you wanted to