D&D: WotC’s Guide to ‘Dragonlance – Shadow of the Dragon Queen’
Want to know what the whole deal is with Dragonlance? Here’s what WotC has in store in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen draws closer. A massive adventure that not only marks D&D’s return to one of D&D’s oldest campaign settings, Krynn, but also an adventure that ties into a companion war/board game.
Not only that, this adventure ties into the seminal event of the Dragonlance setting: the War of the Lance. This is the big showdown. And according to a new video from WotC that introduces the adventure (and marks the D&D Beyond pre-order), it includes the biggest conflict ever featured in D&D.
But how does one capture war in D&D? What do you do to handle the tides of conflict? Take a look at Shadow of the Dragon Queen.
WotC’s Guide to Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
In the video we get an idea of the story as it unfolds. In the lands of Solamnia, a storm is coming. And that storm is the army of Takhisis the Dragon Queen. All of it is contextualized in the world of Dragonlance:
Takhisis the Dragon Queen has returned to the world of Krynn. Across the land, her armies of fanatical draconians wage a brutal war of conquest. As the Dragon Armies march on the unprepared nation of Solamnia, only the defenders of the city of Kalaman stand in their way. But the Dragon Armies want more than just to crush their foes. An ancient evil in the Dragon Queen’s service seeks a magical weapon that could dominate Krynn for all time.
What’s interesting is Krynn’s own particular idiomatic expressions of typical D&D classes. In Dragonlance, the gods are distant, removed, or forgotten from the world. Mages are rare, isolated, and withdrawn into the Towers of High Sorcery. And SotDQ will have to integrate all the typical 5E things.
Which it looks to do with “introductory scenarios” which are pre-adventure sessions you can do to learn about the setting in play. I’m excited to see how those play out, in particular, because there’s a lot to know about Krynn.
For now, here are a few other things you can expect from the adventure/setting:
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.
Shadow of the Dragon Queen releases on December 6th
