Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen has a lot of female NPCs

[DarkCrisis]

I want to start off by saying this isn't some kind of issue, I just find it interesting and wanted some thoughts as this was presented in a Dragonlance adventure and not say a Faerun one.

I remember when this adventure first dropped and a lot of people had issue with the old lore retcons. Me included. I'd rather they build on old lore instead of whole cloth change things as if they always were but hey I don't own the brand.

Anyways.

A big issue back when it dropped was the inclusion of female knights. In the books, women becoming knights was something that happened later. During the War of the Lance (and before) it was almost unheard of. A recent DL novel that has time travel in it touched on this and sets a seed for female knights. Which you could say later bears fruit. I've never had a real issue with it. If I set a game in the WotL and a someone wanted to play a Lady Knight, awesome go for it.

In the old AD&D box game books. You could have female knights. So even official product has this even if the novel lore kind of didn't. Again, so what.

Well, I've started reading SotDQ and noticed that as of the beginning of the book and a couple adventure chapters that almost every major NPC is female.

The dudettes:

The Knight who summons you
The Mage you meet in the road
The leader of the Mercs
The mayor of the town
The Inn owner
The Kender market stall owner
Mysterious Elf
The Red Dragon Army leader
The RDA leader's main 2nd in command


On the flipside,
the dudes:

Scared guy on the road into town
Evil noble in town
Evil noble's son
The Knights squire
The dockmaster



Seems a tab lopsided. Perhaps in answer to the apparent sexism of the old lore?

Than again, perhaps this is how female gamers notices things when its all men men men 99% of the time.

 

[Moonmover]

The lads will just have to wait for the sequel, Shade of the Wyrm King, surely to be announced any day now.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

There is also the main priest of the Dragon Army he’s a guy.

 

[Azzy]

I want to start off by saying this isn't some kind of issue, I just find it interesting and wanted some thoughts as this was presented in a Dragonlance adventure and not say a Faerun one.

I don't think the setting really mattered. I think its because women now make up about 50% of the D&D-playing populace.

Than again, perhaps this is how female gamers notices things when its all men men men 99% of the time.

Probably.

 

[Weiley31]

So, what your saying is, if I wanted to do a Dragonlance Dating Sim, Shadow of The Dragon Queen has me covered !

Ah yissss!

I mean, heck, Soth has a whole Banshee harem in all technicality so it tracks.

 

[Bae'zel]

I only have issue with gender swapping when it affects older established characters, some derived from literature, where their gender was kind of the point.

Vlad Drakov in the 5e Ravenloft book, for example. I personally think he's a more detestable villain if he's a guy as it just "feels" better to explain the character's toxic macho militarism.

Vladeska is okay, I guess, but the book softens her deeds a little and makes her into more of a "I've gotta do my grim duty, no matter the cost" instead of the former "I'm a sadistic monster obsessed with military conquest and I'll impale my towntrodden peasants for even the most minor of crimes". If they'd kept her equally as horrible as before, I'd feel better about the gender switch, but... I guess that it was beyond the PG rating of the book. Shift the focus of Falkovnia mroe on zombie invasions than the horrors of tyrants.

I guess that war crimes committed by humans are far worse than the spooky deeds of ghosts and ghouls.

Anyway, for my own campaign, I've chosen Vlad over Vladeska because it is somehow easier for me to describe and portray an irredeemably bloodthirsty tyrant if he's a man. My players, all ladies, agree, but hey, to each their own.

 

[Shardstone]

I'll be honest, the least interesting lore in any old setting is "Women are treated like IRL women of the time period." It's boring and it makes people feel uncomfortable at the table, especially since now 50% of D&D players are women. Like, we have have a freaking halfling with a greatsword tanking dragon breath, but a female knight or warlord is suddenly a problem? It's just mid, and I don't think anyone, ever, has made this an interesting part of their table. Maybe if you have a game interrogating that concept, sure. But yeah, that lore sucks, and I'm glad Shadow of the Dragonqueen is a woman-heavy adventure.

 

[Chaltab]

It's been observed that in many old D&D ventures (like Keep on the Borderlands Era) that the NPCs are sometimes overwhelmingly male and the few ladies that do exist are often relations, sometimes nameless, of male NPCs.

This may be an attempt at balance that veers towards over-correction (if such a thing exists). I don't know anything about Dragonlance lore regarding gender other than what you've mentioned in this thread, but statistically it makes sense that about half of all humanoid NPCs should be women.

 

[Alzrius]

now 50% of D&D players are women.

Forgive the minor nitpick, but the last I heard, the number was just below 40%:

According to Wizards’ internal studies of the player population, 60% of D&D players are male, 39% are female, and 1% identify otherwise; 60% are “hybrid” players, who switch between playing the game physically or online; and 58% play D&D on a weekly basis.

Now, that article is from May of 2023; has WotC put out an updated metric since then?