Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

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The Mad Hatter

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So I got my weekly newsletter, from my flgs and this Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen was in it.

I've looked it up on the internet, and it seems to mostly be an adventure. There's also some new character options for 5e.

As I've always liked the Dragonlance setting, so I was thinking of picking it up. Probably not until next year though, money is very tight at the moment. Even though I'm not that big into 5e, I could just convert the adventure.

So does anyone here know anything about this book?
 
Yup I just got it in the mail. Seems to be lots of basic nitpicky stuff to convert Dragonlance to 5e, along with a smattering of new enemies, items, and ideas set in a small big-battle centric campaign. Can't say if it's too good or not yet cause I haven't read through all of it, but it is the only official 5e Dragonlance stuff we have. I can say am a little disappointed that they don't give more character options, or individual classes, but I'm sure wizards is stretching it out to pad other books down the line.


Sidenote, there's some great 3rd party stuff out on Dm's guild right now for Dragonlance coming back to 5e.
 
So I got my weekly newsletter, from my flgs and this Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen was in it.

I've looked it up on the internet, and it seems to mostly be an adventure. There's also some new character options for 5e.

As I've always liked the Dragonlance setting, so I was thinking of picking it up. Probably not until next year though, money is very tight at the moment. Even though I'm not that big into 5e, I could just convert the adventure.

So does anyone here know anything about this book?

I received it yesterday.

Personally, I didn't get a Dragonlance feel from any of the art in the book. Nothing looks like it comes from the world of Krynn that I'm familiar with. This was also a problem with the d20/3.5 version some years back, but it's far more pronounced here. It just strikes me as some generic unrelated fantasy art with Lord Soth thrown in on a couple of pages. I mean, I wasn't expecing Elmore and Caldwell to do art or Keith Parkinson to come back from the dead, but none of the art says Dragonlance to me. The only piece of art which seems to hearken back to anything is a piece that seems to be trying to evoke the old dragon hunter's piece by Elmore in the AD&D2e PHB, only more XTREEEM because they killed a huge Elmore style red dragon. (And I'm pretty sure it's meant to be symbolically interpreted that way)

The book mentions some of the classic characters, but I haven't seen any mention of the companions. The canonical Dragon Highlords are mentioned: Ariakas, Verminard, Kitiara, Feal-Thas. Dalamar is name dropped on a pronunciation chart.

The book starts with a Dragonlance primer, much the same as the old DL modules used to. A brief summary of the Cataclysm is provided. A timeline of the War of the Lance thus far is outlined. Basic details such as languages, calendar, and rumors are touched on. The Deities are summarized. It's somewhere shy of how the old DL-5 module did the same task.

Character Creation provides some flavor text on how the existing races and classes work on Krynn. Some stuff for the Knights of Solamnia and the Sorcerous Orders are provided. A new subclass for Sorcerer is provided. It's all very basic stuff. But for Dragonborn and Tieflings? They're addressed in a small textbox which is effectively the authors throwing up their hands and abdicating any responsibility to address them.

The adventure seems to be set prior to the meeting of the Companions at the Inn of the Last Home (Verminard is still busy in Abinasinia). Yet, on my skim I couldn't find any mention of clerics being restricted. There is a mention in the Krynn primer section that knowledge of the gods has faded from the world, but no mention that clerics spells are affected. Maybe I missed it.

The adventure starts on page 37.

I'm struck how the description of the adventure at least superficially seems a bit similar to the DLE Dragonlance modules series which kicked off AD&D2e. Or at least the start is similar, how it starts with a festival.

Lord Soth is the only classic major character who seems to get screen time, a stat block, and is positioned as the big bad.

I haven't looked at the boardgame thing yet at all.

---

Edit:

The adventure seems to be about explaining why some of the old maps of Ansalon released around the beginning times of 2e had that City of Lost Names ruin feature stuck in the desert area north of Kalaman. I was getting a bit of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Last Crusade vibes from those chapters.
 
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Didn't realize this was already out. I'm going to check out the alt cover at my FLGS and will give it a look. Artwork I've seen online looks fine, it lacks the 80s hippie look that I love about the original but I'm not surprised they didn't lean into that aspect, too cult and kitschy.

evynfong2-1660838071036_ucge.1080.jpg7ndgdwh2pii91.jpgyf4skbhooii91.jpg
 
Someone did a read over on big purple. I was a bit underwhelmed. But then, nothing I've read or played of 5e has made me excited for any of it. Anyway, link
 
I've heard it isn't very good and that Soth, canonically, shouldn't be as involved as he is but they needed a baddie so bye bye lore... However I didn't ask the mate that said all that to explain further as I have no interest in 5e even though I used to like DL.
 
My wife bought it for me for Christmas, so I have been unable to peek at it yet. It's the "deluxe" version with hardback, GM screen, and board game in one large box. I guess you play part of the module as an RPG, then switch to the board game to fight a battle, then go back to role playing. The concept is intriguing to me, but I'm not sure my current group is "into" wargaming as much as my original OD&D group from high school was. We used to do something like this with OD&D and Chainmail. For my, then, this might be 35 years too late. I'll find out in a couple of weeks.

Also, I've heard that the board game is hard to learn but that it contains elements not in the hardback but part of the overall Dragonlance campaign. (The review I read said that you couldn't just turn the board game over to a player to learn it for you because the game contains spoilers for the campaign.) I'm not sure exactly what that means, except that maybe they want to sell more of the "deluxe" stuff and not just the hardback.

Weis and Hickman have also launched a new trilogy (book #1 is out already) which is set during the War of the Lance but from the perspective of a new set of characters. I've read the first one and it has a bit of a "war focus" so perhaps the board game is designed to go with those characters and not the ones from the original books.
 
Weis and Hickman have also launched a new trilogy (book #1 is out already) which is set during the War of the Lance but from the perspective of a new set of characters. I've read the first one and it has a bit of a "war focus" so perhaps the board game is designed to go with those characters and not the ones from the original books.

Weis has been quite clear that WotC's DL project has nothing to do with her and her new trilogy, which seems to be setting up:

to allow her and Tracy to place their own spin on the Third Dragon War--the one era of the setting they haven't defined themselves--and undo Dragons of Summer Flame and all things following.
 
I received it yesterday.


But for Dragonborn and Tieflings? They're addressed in a small textbox which is effectively the authors throwing up their hands and abdicating any responsibility to address them.
For Krynn? I'd rule "Dragonborn" only exist as NPC soldiers in Tiamat's army. :clown:

I don't know the origins of Krynnish minotaurs, but maybe? Since there are no demons on Krynn, I don't see how - short of an extra-universal traveler - Tyflings would exist.
 
For Krynn? I'd rule "Dragonborn" only exist as NPC soldiers in Tiamat's army. :clown:

I don't know the origins of Krynnish minotaurs, but maybe? Since there are no demons on Krynn, I don't see how - short of an extra-universal traveler - Tyflings would exist.

There are demons on Krynn--Demogorgon himself shows up in the second story ever published for the setting, "A Stone's Throw Away" by Roger Moore--but they tend to be few and far between, and not nearly involved enough with the setting's history for tieflings to be present as anything more than unique individuals.

Krynnish minotaurs are ogres mutated by the Greygem, the setting's all-purpose "a wizard did it" McGuffin. :smile:
 
The fact that they finally release a 5e version of the SINGLE D&D setting where Dragonborn fit in, yet they refused to dedicate a proper write up for them tells you all you need to know about the respect for the lore and degree of attention WotC is willing to give to any of the game's classic source material.
 
I have now read that entire thread at RPGNet and G Gabriel excellent post here. Very long time since I've read that much on there. I've decided to give this a pass.

The setting changes don't really bother me. I would probably just ignore them anyway, and use the War of the Lance book for 3E.
The rules I can't really comment on. Not that versed in 5E to comment really, and I wouldn't use them anyway.

It was really the adventure, that sounded the most intriguing. But from the Purple thread, it sounds very hit and miss. Some parts are a bit openended, but a lot of the adventure sounds very railroady to me. It also uses Lord Soth as one of the villains, in a way which doesn't sit right with me. Dalamar also makes an appearance in it.
But it was really the boardgame requirement, that broke the camel's back for me. Several parts of the adventure, require the boardgame to play through them. I'm not buying a boardgame, just as an accessory to play a rpg-campaign. Because that's probably the only use, I would get from that.

I already have a Dragonlance boardgame. Anyone remember this one:

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I think, I could just run the actual Dragonlance campaign the novels were based on. Have never actually run the entire campaign. Started it two times, but it never got to the finish line.
I have the original modules, the 15th Anniversary Edition with dual-stats for AD&D and SAGA and the 3rd edition three book campaign. I could mix them all up. Would probably be a lot of fun.
 
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