Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen - Dungeons and Dragons Story Explained
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- Опубликовано: 1 июн 2024
- Hey D&D peeps!
I reuploaded this video because the audio on the previous one was a bit difficult to hear over the music. If you're seeing this show up again, my apologies!
Additionally, I made a mistake in the video where I mentioned one of the characters as a half-orc when they're actually a half ogre! My apologies for the mistake.
The new Dungeons & Dragons adventure that revisits the Dragonlance setting is finally out! In my excitement for this book, I wanted to get this video out as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, I had to forgo quite a bit of video editing in the process. Ever since the adventure came out, I was working on this video 'round the clock.
Anyways, I really enjoyed reading this adventure as it was quite a fun story! To me, it felt like I was re-reading Hoard of the Dragon Queen! The ending kind of felt like a set-up for a sequel. Perhaps we will get a sequel to this adventure in the future? Who know!
Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:51 Chapter One - Introduction to Krynn
1:50 Chapter Two - Prelude to War
3:28 Chapter Three - When Home Burns
14:45 Chapter Four - Shadow of War
32:12 Chapter Five - The Northern Wastes
36:56 Chapter Six- City of Lost Names
43:41 Chapter Seven - Siege of Kalaman
56:10 Adventure Ending
57:21 Closing Statements
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All art used is not created by me and owned by their respective artists
Music: Nomadic Sunset, Dungeons and Dragons, Traveler, Tam Lin, Autumn Walk, Cold Journey, Until the End, Adventure Beyond by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License
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For Dragonlance fans who watch this and are confused about the mention of one of the antagonists being a Half-Orc, I have seen someone else clarify that for someone in another video. The character is actually a Half-Ogre, so no need to worry about that being a possible change to the setting, I believe it was just a minor misreading.
For those who are new to the setting, I am just clarifying this here because orcs are decidedly not a race that exist on Krynn (the authors wanted to avoid too many parallels to Lord Of The Rings, so the Draconians were created to fill the roles of foot soldiers in the dark army).
Otherwise, great video as always! Thank you for your summaries! it's always super helpful when preparing to run a campaign!
Thank you for pointing this out! Yes, I misread that and it clearly states that it is a half ogre.
There is a half orc in the novel tales of uncle trapspringer
@@gemfyre3444 having not read that particular novel, I cannot refute that. Also, everyone is more than welcome to play races not native to Krynn or alter Krynn as they see fit in their personal games and should not feel bad about that.
Interviews and statements from the original authors stated their intention to purposely not include orcs in the setting. It's also important to note that side stories like that, written by other authors have contradicted the main canon set by Weis and Hickman countless times over the years and Weis & Hickman's stance on them have always been that they are considered "Kender tales" (which actually fits even better as a description in this case! lol).
I will still have to check that story out at some point, though, cause it seems like it may be fun.
As a mutt, I understand. 👣
✨☄️🌐🌀👣
We have seen maybe half the world and much of that not in great detail in 30 years. It’s not a reach to have orcs and whatnot in other places.
Good introduction for new players, I've been fighting Soth for 35 years.
I agree. I see people complaining against this campaign and they’re high as hell. It is a good and fresh intro to something bigger.
Read every Dragonlance books. Even know about Taladas. The Irda and Dargonesti source book in the 90s was awesome.
Thank you for this! I plan to have my players be from Vogler since they were kids.
I love the idea of Kitiara a former party member joining the Dragon Armies.
I’m going to do something similar and have the Half-Ogre Gragonis be one of their childhood friends who was picked on by the other townsfolk because his father is an Ogre and was never around. As he grew up he began to hate his home in Vogler and the people who live there.
This will give the betrayal that much more weight, especially since the players are from the town.
This was a great aid to me running the campaign. Thanks a lot.
Oh wow, lovely! Thank you for the reupload
Thank you for letting me know about the music/voiceover issue!
Definitely, thank you. This helps my prep immensely!
I'm glad this is able to help you prepare! Excited to see people run this adventure and see how it works for them!
Thanks for this review, its a shame WotC did Dragonlance dirty like this.
Thansk so much for your walk through. They helped me greatly with running Spell Jammer and Dragonlance.
Dude! This really was super helpful when I ran the adventure. Thanks again.
This man really has Haste cast on him irl
Playback speed 1.25 is my default for most vids.
Hello, I really enjoy your walkthrough videos, they are very entertaining and useful to get a summary of the adventure. Have you thought of doing one for Critical Role: Call of the Netherdeep or House of Lament from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft?
Thanks for the video, it's exactly what I was looking for. I would like to know what you think about the adventure as well; for instance how linear it is, how much freedom does it allow to the characters?
Glad it was what you were looking for! Perhaps, in the future, I'll do a review of it. On a general note, I enjoy most of the D&D adventures because I read them for the stories they hold and don't really analyze them.
As far as the linearity of it, the main story itself is pretty linear. It more-or-less follows the structure of: Main Plot 1 -> Side Plots -> Main Plot 2 -> Side Plots.... etc.
Hope that helps!
Very impressive! It doesn't interfere with the Chronicles' novels, which was my main concern. The War of the Lace is epic to play! A chance for the characters we have used years ago to come again to fight the good fight! one of them i the Ranger that appeared in the 80s game book "prisioner of pax tharkas", (his stats where in 3ed too). Great video, it's like an audio book or movie.
It doesn't interfere, because it attempts to rewrite them! Insofar as the WotC writers bothered to read them at all.
@@fleetcenturion That's the way I see it. I would never use the characters for this module to go to Xak Tsaroth, Tarsis, the High Clerist Tower, etc. to interfere with the Heroes of Legend. It was epxlained by Astinus (but I don't remember where) that the adventures we know are just part of he efforts of many others.
@@oscarsiri2763 - And that's part of the problem. The original modluls were intended for player-charactes to play the Heroes of the Lance, fight alongside them, or replace them entirely. The role of the Dungeon Master was to make the adventure their own. Otherwise, you're just running cover for the _real_ heroes, whom you'll never actually meet, for an outcome that will happen with or without you.
That's worse than any railroad.
The writers don't know anything about the original novels, which is obvious from the adventure summary.
OMG! I STILL have my copy of that book!
My friends and I played in a game where we were the kids of the heroes of the lance. I choose to play as a half-elf ranger whose father is Bern Vanshield and his mother the elf caster Bern meets in Par Tharkas
@@fleetcenturion To fix this problem, I plan to continue to run the game beyond the module, where the players get to play a part in the fall of the Dragon Armies, while still letting Tains and company to do as seen in the books.
Eventually I’ll move into the Legends novels and have the players assist against the Blue Lady (Kitiara).
There are ways to still give the player’s the opportunity to be the heroes along side the ones in the novels.
It’s no different then running a game set in Star Wars between episodes 4-6 and giving the players a chance to still play an important role in the end of the Empire (imagine your on Hoth when Vader brings his fleet there or being at the Battle of Endor).
I get your point, but there are ways to make this work.
Great video! Thank you 🙏
Great video! What do you (or others in the comments) intend to do with the Blue Dragon agent thing at the end of the adventure? My initial thought is continuing into high-tier play with a full defeat of Takhisis and the Dragon Army.
I think it would be cool to continue all the way to the Legends Books against the Blue Lady (Kitiara) and involve the players in the events of the Time Journeying Kender and his friends.
It may interest you there is a fan-made epilogue to this adventure, Shadow of the Black Rose, on dms' guild. The story read was gripping and I'd love to see you read the sequel as well.
I don’t suppose you have a pdf or link to the story transcript you read for the video? I’d love to print it to have a summary for when I run my campaign soon. Great work on the videos!
This was a good video 🥳💯👍
A force of Solamnic Knights fighting AGAINST the Empire of Istar? A major factor in their decline and why there is a lot of distrust towards the order in Krynn is that they once sided with the Kingpriests of Istar as they were supposed to be on the side of "Good".
A renegade group who chose to put following The Oath ahead of following The Measure perhaps?
No, WotC is rewriting the entire campaign. Part of their new re-write for _modern audiences_ naturally includes: "knights good, religious empire baaaad!"
Why do you think Kalaman's colors are blue and gold all of a sudden?
@@fleetcenturion what are they supposed to be?
@@prenoctis4749 - Dude... blue and yellow? Figure it out, man. I'm not gonna hold your hand here.
Doing some reading up it turns out that there was a period, pre-cataclysm when Solamnia and Istar WERE at war. It was a long time ago from the POV of War of the Lance era characters (back about 800 PC) though, by the time of the Cataclysm the Knights and Kingpriests were hand-in-glove. So a Solamnia vs Istar battle could have taken place at some point but it was a long, long time ago, before the rise of the Kingpriests.
@@fleetcenturion you can just say you don't know either
is the book already out?
Sortof! I was able to get an early digital copy due to preordering the physical+digital bundle.
If you preordered the same thing, I'd check your dndbeyond account!
The ending leaves a lot to build on.
Kitiara uth Matar? Hmmmm...
This would take place during 352 AC so a lot could happen. Tanis and Co could turn up passing through from the Sea of Istar as could Laurana and the main forces of good from Solamnia. Not to mention Kitiara in command of the main Blue Dragon Army.
PC`s could also become involved in the Neraka infiltration mission.
@@AbelMcTalisker absolutely. I'm planning on writing the 2nd half of this campaign for my players. I want them to meet all the players. Especially Tas
You mean like the fact that Lord Soth wasn't even part of the war, until he met Kitiara?
@@fleetcenturion Soth`s appearance in this seems to take place shortly after his meeting with Kitiara. He seems to be following his own agenda here rather than working with the Dragonarmies directly, the red Dragonarmy encountered here seems to be a secondary wing with the main force invading Abanasinia under Verminaard.
Presumably, after things go south at the end of this story he returns to Dargaard Keep for a short time. Joining forces with Kitiara and the Blue Dragonarmy when they pass through a couple of months later as part of the main invasion of Solamnia.
Kalaman probably surrenders without much of a fight as the blue army is a lot bigger and they can count on exactly zero support from the Solamnic Knights and Palanthas.
@@AbelMcTalisker - Dude, you're reading a LOT into this. Wizards is trying to rewrite the lore. None of this crap is canon, and the writers have no idea what they're doing. Stop trying to justify it.
There are no orcs, in DRAGONLANCE.
Ah, yes! Thank you for reminding me! It was a little mishap on my end but I added the change in the description. Hopefully people catch onto it!
Let’s goo!!! Again lol
Lmao releasing videos too quickly at this point!
the dragon queen is it not Tiamath the Dragon Queen ? or is she goes by outer nemes in diffrent Sfears ?
Takhisis is the Dragon Queen in Dragonlance. I'm not too familiar with my Dragonlance lore but I believe most people agree she's practically Tiamat. I think there's a source in older editions that state they're actually the same person as well!
The lore of DragonLance refers to the realm of Takhisis as "The Abyss," even though she is very clearly a Lawful-Evil goddess. In truth, the cosmology of Krynn (or the way its peoples interpret it) is slightly different. Compared to most other campaign settings, Krynn is emerging from a dark age, following the Cataclysm, and the departure of the Gods. The dragons went into exile about 400 years before the Cataclysm, and arcane magic was suppressed by the empire of Istar, so for about 700 years, DragonLance has been a very low-magic setting. Magic is rare and distrusted, and planar travel isn't much of a factor in DragonLance. Raistlin's opening of a portal to the realm of Takhisis is regarded as a feat of magic that only one other mage in Krynn's history ever attempted.
Per the novels, her realm resembles neither the Nine Hells, nor the Abyss in the D&D multiverse, though there have been attempts to retcon this in later novels to both the first layer of the Nine Hells, where Tiamat resides, and to one of the layers of the Abyss (which again, would make zero sense).
Then there are those who insist that Tiamat and Takhisis are completely different goddesses (AJ Pickett), but the similarities are too close to ignore. I just interpret Takhisis as the Tiamat of other settings, and move on.
Depends.
Are Zeus and Jupiter the same God? Worshippers of the Ancient Greek or Ancient Roman pantheons would passionately tell you "no".
But we all agree in the modern day that they're analogues.
Tiamat is a primordial god that existed in multiple realities (including our Earth) being the mother of monsters and dragons. Ultimately she was defeated by various hero-king /demigods in most of these worlds and banished to Avernus where she still exists. She has various `echos` of herself existing in various realities, one of these is the goddess Takhisis in the world of Krynn. Worth noting that other D&D worlds also have banished dragon deities in their mythologies.
I want to play a Monk The Way of the Ascending Dragon 🐉, Paladin/ Bahumut is the God. This character will fit the Dragonlance Shadow of the Dragon Queen 👑, Can't wait to play this campaign.
I hate to break it to you, but "gesture" is said with the "J" sound (as in "Jessica"), not the G sound (as in "Guess). You've been saying "Guesstures" this entire time ...
Since when do Silvanesti have blue skin lol
Let's see...
- No female Knights of Solamnia (and _very_ rare exceptions, when it came to non-humans)
- Solamnia and Istar were allies during the Age of Might. At no time were they ever at war (hence, no battle between the two).
- Lord Soth was allied with the _Blue_ Dragon Army, not the Red. He only joined in the Dragon Queen's cause, because he found Kitiara worthy of his allegiance.
- Dalamar was a Black Robe Wizard, and thus was cast out of Silvanesti, at least a century before these events supposedly take place.
- No flying islands at the time of Istar. The Kinpriest suppressed all arcane magic as much as possible, and shut down at least 3 of the Towers of High Sorcery.
- Absolutely no dragons during the time of the Kingpriest. All dragons had departed Ansalon about 400 years before.
- The colors of Kalaman are blue and gold now, huh? Really? Seriously?? May the first nuke drop on WotC headquarters.
Thank you. Just bought the adventure and it will be my last buy from WotC. Can't believe how they think it´s okay to shit on almost 40 years of lore like that. I will probably run it at some point, but with the original lore points, like the ones you just stated.
@@filip3620 - That might take a _lot_ of DM tweaking. Of course, the same can be said for the classic modules as well, especially if players wanted to play original characters. The term "railroad" didn't begin to describe it!
@@filip3620 - On another note, _stop buying!_ I'm proud to say that every WotC product I possess was stolen. The stuff they produce today is literally not even worth stealing anymore.
The only way I would bother to steal the new DragonLance adventure, is out of morbid curiosity. After I read it, I'd delete it, so that it didn't taint the rest of my collection!
I’m a new D&D player so I don’t know a lot of the old lore. What are the colors of the knights supposed to mean? I’ve been searching for information everywhere.
@@elenaciolkosz8284 - Blue and yellow... ? Seriously, you didn't get that? Evidently not, so meditate on the subject a bit, and brush up on your current events.
Yeah no I’m making soth the real main bad not fire eye I’m making her his right hand and switch the locations of them so soth is the main bad
The adventure design team: WotC, how many women would you like to be in charge?
WotC: Yes!
This is why I stopped buying WotC D&D books, I mean seriously, I don't have a problem with a woman being in charge . . . but ALL OF THEM? Between WotC being in bed with the WOKE movement and the Feminist movement I mean ugh . . . so glad I returned to Classic D&D.
So, in other words, the WotC game designers never bothered reading _any_ of the DragonLance lore. This adventure is officially the TTRPG equivalent of Rings of Power.
I plan to run it anyways. Every time D&D focuses on the War of the Lance it’s always the same adventure as in the novels (which I love), but it’s refreshing to have another adventure during this time period. Sure it’s not pervert, but as a DM I don’t mind making a few changes needed to make it work. I even intend to run this game up through the Legends books after the module ends.
Is there any male characters in this book? Or is it another strong independent woman's book? Thank God for AD&D!!
Quite a huge departure from Canon...
I’m like 13 minutes in and every leader is a woman. Is this an Amazon village? I’ll definitely gender swap at least 2 of these ladies. I don’t mind a few woman leaders but this is overkill
And every man will be stupid, weak, or an otherwise poor character that is a footnote..
It is a bit, the original versions handled things better. Having the knights as `the good guys` rather than the bunch of hide-bound misogynistic idiots they tended to be originally kind of undermines the point a little.
While some have said that there were no female Solamnic knights, that is actually not true as there HAD been a number back in the order`s history but the War of the Lance era administration had been placing roadblocks in "the measure" to prevent women from qualifying.
The fact that there HAD been female knights in the past is how Laurana managed to become the "Golden General".
Thinking the exact same thing. Puny skinny men and overkill on powerful knight, mayor and whatever women characters. Who writes this s***? 😂
So I’m running this for my friends and I, and it’s definitely something I notice as I’m prepping/playing. Probably not for the reasons you think though. The characters themselves (Becklin, Cudgel, Vendri, and the like) are actually very well written and I haven’t noticed the number of female leads impacting my game. What DOES suck is having to play 3 MAJOR female NPC’s for the first few sessions. I have like 1 “female voice” as a DM, and it was definitely a struggle to differentiate between them while roleplaying. Even when adding accents and different dialects.
Yeah I thought that as well when I started it. I didn't swap any of them (at least none that I can think of off the top of my head) but I did introduce a few OC characters (3 men and 1 woman to be exact) into the mix and since my players like interacting with them more, I've been bringing them up more than the books characters. Really the only book NPCs I bring up are Darrett and the Marshal. I prefer it this way because it's more fun for me to make a character from scratch and workout their role and story rather than work with a preset character that doesn't offer much story wise.
I think is to many women in this Dragonlance adventure 😂😂😂
Thanks for telling the story. I will probably do some gender swap in my campaign to avoid it being 'War of the karens' as it is now, thanks to woke WotC. And there are some weird choices I will have to figure out. Like why goblins and not kobolds? Are they extinct in Krynn? And as well, I read the campaign goes until level 10 max. How level 10 characters are supposed to defeat several dragons in a battle? Are they weak young ones?
toO mAny wOmEn iN mY gAme aBouT mAgiC anD DRagOnS
I recall reading that a lot of the stats for the dragons are swapped for lesser or young dragons, even though they are to have the size and grandeur of adult dragons
Are you unfamiliar with the setting? You should read up on Kitiara or Laurana the Golden General or Tika or Goldmoon. Or one of the two authors of the setting.
telling on yourself for being brainwashed by the fabricated culture war, hell yeah
The characters get two free feats one at fourth level and one at fifth meaning a level 10 fighter can have up to 6 feats (assuming vh or cL)
Also it says 10+ and Amazon says 11 idk what happened there
I'm also gonna be doing some gender swapping lol
dnd has no alpha males im starting to notice
This was... exactly what I expected.
Kinda like how it made sure to tick every box.