D&D: Dragonlance Review: An epic and ambitious tale of global conflict
In case you didn't know, Dungeons and Dragons (commonly referred to as D&D or DnD) is a Fantasy Tabletop Roleplaying Game which was first published in 1974.
Dragonlance takes place in the world of Krynn and was first conceived in 1984. It's a complex setting that has been on hiatus since 2011, coming to us in the form of D&D gaming modules, novels, board games, and even miniature figures.
The latest entry in the world of both D&D and Dragonlance is a 224-page campaign - Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. It's a high-stakes adventure centred around the dragon incursion of the planet Krynn, which threatens to destroy not just the planet, but everything in it.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is a tale of conflict and defiance set during the legendary War of the Lance. (Wizards of the Coast)It comes with an optional board game, Warriors of Krynn. The premise is relatively simple, you play the campaign as normal, but when you reach some large-scale combat scenarios, you can switch over to the board game and play it out there. If you choose not to do this, the book still plays out like any D&D adventure would, so it's a completely optional but novel addition.
The timeline of the story is relatively vague, so it doesn't need to clash with any other Dragonlance stories. That being said, it definitely happens a decent chunk of time after "the cataclysm", an event which happened sometime in Krynn's history in which "mountains of fire fell from the sky".
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The book starts with an introduction to the world of Dragonlance, including languages, currencies, and some surviving factions at the time the story is set. It's a lot of information at once, and the way it's laid out can sometimes be counterintuitive. Despite this, it's relatively easy to get on top of after a few read-throughs.
The story begins with three scenarios, and it recommends you run these for your players, either one of them for the whole party or separately for each member where applicable. These scenarios add a bit of flavour to the story, hook the players in, and also resolve some issues with the story - for example the historic absence of any gods on the Planet Krynn.
The artwork in the book is epic, including double-page spreads of fantastic scenes at the start of each new chapter. (Wizards of the Coast)In one scenario, the players catch a glimpse of some foreboding creatures, and in another, they are visited by a God and given a special task. The introductory scenarios are fun and quirky, but most seasoned DMs will likely toss them aside in favour of their own introduction.
However the story starts, players then find themselves in the town of Vogler - a quiet fishing village on the eve of an annual festival. This is really where the story amps up, and the DM gets a lot of opportunities to have fun with the players.
The players' time in Vogler is concentrated entirely in one Chapter - a lot happens, but more importantly, it sets the tone of the adventure pretty early on, with the DM encouraged to make players fall in love with the village before it burns to the ground before their very eyes.
This is one of the main points of Dragonlance and something that separates it from previous adventures. To put it in a nutshell, the threat in this story is a massive dragon incursion, it consists of five huge armies and is spearheaded by a God. This is something of epic proportions, and it's unreasonable to expect a party of around 5 members to be able to repel this themselves.
The players will have a lot of "world first" encounters as the war escalates, and meet new friends and foes. (Wizards of the Coast)When Vogler is attacked, the players are powerless to stop it. The dragon armies are too large, and the village burns. What they can do however is help orchestrate an evacuation, help the friends they have made make an escape, and repel some of the smaller fringes of the force - such as taking the fight to a commander.
That's the key tenet on which Dragonlance hangs. The players are the main characters, and they are Krynn's best hope, but their actions have small consequences that ripple gently throughout the story. They don't have much hope of ending the overall conflict, at least not initially, but they are able to turn the tide in isolated battles that are part of a larger conflict.
This is different to previous campaigns, where players tend to decide to chase after the Big Bad Evil Guy pretty early on - even if they know they need to get stronger first.
The campaign is formatted in a way that makes the battles occur as smaller skirmishes within a larger battle. In the first chapter, for example, combat occurs between a handful of enemies and the characters in a field, but the combat area is surrounded by an area of larger fighting that the book calls "The Fray".
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The board game comes with a plethora of bits and pieces including cards, tokens, and dice but is entirely optional when it comes to running the campaign (Wizards of the Coast)Some of the larger battles can also be played out on the board game, Warriors of Krynn, although it's not essential. In fact, the book has whole pages dedicated to running these fights without it, and they work just as well as they always have done. This makes the board game a novel option, with DMs able to choose whether it works for them and their players or not.
The campaign includes some additional backstories, a new subclass for Sorcerer, and new enemies and characters. The additions are well thought out, and a good thematic fit for the setting. Also included is a huge map of Krynn, perfect to hand out to your players at the beginning of the story.
The artwork of the book is also amazing - including the double-page spread images of dragons, people, and buildings embroiled in conflict.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen verdict: 4/5
Shadow of the Dragon Queen is an awesome campaign worthy of the resurrection of the Dragonlance setting.
It's set on a huge scale, but it does feel a little condensed at times and can be quite confusing for DMs unfamiliar with the world of Krynn. Certain factions or characters are mentioned in passing by name and then reintroduced later with little explanation of who they are.
This leads to a lot of flicking forwards and backwards and requires a stack of notes bigger than other campaigns. This will work for some DMs, but others who are looking for an easy pick-up-and-go campaign may need to look elsewhere.
That being said, there's a tonne of potential for changing the story, simply because the campaign is so vague at times. The entire introduction can be rewritten, perhaps with the help of a Spelljammer spin to bring characters from another realm to Krynn.
The feel of the campaign is spot on, and the way the large-scale battles are designed for the players to be a part of them is also very well thought out. Wizards of the Coast have set out to create an epic tale of conflict on a global scale and they've done just that, creating an adventure that the players get to feel a part of, whilst still at times feeling the helplessness and loss that a war like this would bring.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is available now in physical, digital, and deluxe editions.
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