So you want to play your first Dragonlance game, but you don’t know anything about the campaign setting or the War of the Lance? Check out this Dragonlance Pre-Game Primer for a crash-course in Dragonlance. Buy DL1 Dragons of Despair: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/16880/DL1-Dragons-of-Despair-1e?affiliate_id=50797
Transcript
Cold Open
Let’s get you primed and ready for your first Dragonlance War of the Lance game.
Intro
Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today we are going to talk about what you need to know to play Dragonlance in a War of the Lance game, for the first time. I would like to take a moment and thank the members of this channel, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the DL modules, and Dragonlance Adventures Sourcebook for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!
Discussion
The Dragonlance campaign setting was created with an immense scope. It features a deep rich history, divine strive, deep friendships, romance, high adventure and horrific danger. But how can a player be expected to know how to act as a hero in the Age of Despair when the War of the Lance is beginning? How could they possibly understand what life was like, so as to flesh out their characters and inform their decisions based on cultural and social norms? There are three different aspects of Dragonlance that I want to talk about that will give the most uninformed player the basics of Dragonlance. First, what the players would know, second, the game mechanics, and third, what the Dungeon Master would know.
No one should be excluded from any portion of this information, as your players should be able to play their characters absent what they themselves know, so feel free to watch the entire video. I’ll keep it tight. Let’s start with what the players would know, and this includes the backdrop of the setting in the current Age of Despair, in the Time of Dragons. Over three hundred years ago, was the end of the Age of Might. It’s a time in memory when civilization was at it’s peak, the holy nation of Istar was a beacon of education, industry and artistry. However, the Kingpriest of Istar stood against the Gods, believing himself to be their equal, and when the faith turned from celebrating good, to hunting and creating evil to destroy, the gods finally had enough. After Thirteen warning signs from the Gods went unheeded, and Lord Soth, a Solamnic Knight failed in his act of redemption to stop the Kingpriest, the Gods cast a mountain down on the Nation of Istar, destroying it, and sundering the continent of Ansalon, and creating the Blood Sea of Istar in its place.
For the next three hundred plus years, disease and famine spread across the land. This was known as the Time of Darkness in the Age of Despair. The citizens of the world began blaming the Knights of Solamnia for not just failing to prevent the Cataclysm, but perhaps for even being the cause of it. Knights and their families were hunted and murdered, cast out of their own lands, forced to go into hiding. After a couple generations have passed, the Gods themselves become myths and forgotten. If they are spoken of, it is in terms of destroyers and monsters, not loving supporters. Frustration, anger and hatred spreads across the continent as life becomes increasingly difficult for everyone. The Wizards of High Sorcery were also mistrusted, as the lasting bigotry against them from Istar remained. People mistrust magic, and divine healing is wholly absent.
Ancient tales once believed as fact are also myths and childrens stories. Dragons are only in stories to scare children, as they haven’t been seen in over a millenia if ever, according to common knowledge. Myths about a Solamnic Knight named Huma Dragonbane defeating the evil Goddess Takhisis, the Queen of Darkness and banishing her to the Abyss with the Dragonlance is a tale only known by scholars or historians, and is told as a fable. In the desperation of this age, a group known as the Seekers has sprouted up, claiming to have discovered new gods that will take care of the world, though they are only truly interested in seeking economic and political power with no actual gods behind them.
Mountain Dwarves locked their gates, even to their hill dwarf cousins fomenting war and generational discord. Silvanesti Elves stayed hidden and isolated in their borders becoming increasingly xenophobic. Even the more tolerant Qualinesti Elves maintain strict border control and do not willingly interact with others. Humans span the gamut from peasants to civilized aristocrats, but the bottom line is always us vs them. You can’t survive in this harsh time without tightnit tribes. Be it a family, town, region or nation. Distrust and bigotry runs rampant. Kender in their wanderlust, travel the continent finding adventure and trouble, not to mention that item you have been missing. Gnomes are isolated in their hollowed out Volcano trying to create technological gadgets that usually end up in explosions. As a player, you should allow yourself to be informed by the cultural and social norms in all their sexist and racist overtones, and most importantly be willing to allow personal experience to break down the walls of hatred your society and culture has built up around you. Dragonlance is about making an impact for the better of the world, despite where you started.
Now let’s cover the second part, the Game Mechanics, because they are also different. At the Start of the War of the Lance, there is no Divine Magic, no healing period. There are clerics, but they cannot cast any spells. The Gods have yet to return, but by the end of DL1 Dragons of Despair, the heroes will have been made aware that the True Gods and Divine casters can once again use their spells. This will need to be adjusted depending on your campaign. The Gods revealed themselves to different individuals in different times around Ansalon, so in your campaign perhaps there is another divine reveal that restores the player’s missing power. This experience is germain and important to Dragonlance. It reinforces the history of the world, and the very real danger the heroes are in. Next, Gold has no value. Each nation has its own currency, so trade can be a challenge. There are seven trade metals: steel, gold, silver, copper, iron, platinum, and bronze. The intrinsic value of the metal (usually steel) measures the value of a realm’s coinage. Appendix 1 of DL1 Dragons of Despair provides details for the Dungeon Master.
Allowable races for players should be severely limited. First there are no Halflings on Krynn, and no playable monster races. This grounds the setting in mortal terms. If you want to play all a carte, that’s fine, but Dragonlance is definitely not the setting for you. If you want to play elves, Qualinesti is the choice. Dwarves will be Hill Dwarves. Why is this so strict? Because the Mountain Dwarves and Silvanesti elves are isolationists and xenophobic. They want nothing to do with the outside world. So Humans, Barbaric or Civilized, Tinker Gnomes, Kender, Hill Dwarves, Qualinesti Elves, and Half-Elves are your standard playable races. You can of course do whatever you want in your home game, but this is the setting basics for the War of the Lance era. The world of Krynn also does not allow super powerful characters, so eighteenth level is the cap in AD&D terms where the gods will remove the player from Krynn as they are themselves godlike to the mortals around them at that point.
Magic is governed by the phases of the moons, so tracking the moons of Krynn is essential. It will give you bonuses and hindrances to your casting depending on the phase. Magic should cost you to use it. It is like a drug that infuses you and lifts you up, but drains you when it leaves your body. This is all roleplaying of course. If you are not tested and accepted into the Orders of High Sorcery by Third Level, you are considered a renegade and hunted down and killed. There is no actual sorcery in this era, so magic only comes from the three moons. Alignment is incredibly important and should be tracked by the dungeon Master. Straying too far may mean you lose divine favor or change the schools of magic you have access to as a Wizard. You may even be cast out of the Knighthood if you go against the Knights of Solamnia’s Oath and Measure. There are four laws of Consequence that the DM must adhere to in Dragonlance: Good Redeems its own, Evil feeds upon itself, Both good and evil must exist in contrast, and you are rewarded for following law and rules in game, and punished for stepping outside them. This final law is a guide for the DM in reaction to players actions.
The last bit we need to discuss is what the Dungeon Master knows. The Gods never actually left Krynn, it was the mortals who left the Gods. Dragons never left, they just went into sleep until the evil dragons were awoken by the evil goddess Takhissis, and the good dragons were blackmailed with their dragon eggs to stay out of the coming war. The gods and players actively shape the world of Krynn, so instill the importance of the choices the players make because they will affect the outcome of the coming war for better or worse. Once the players have revealed the return of the gods, it will be as a light in the three hundred plus long nights the people of Krynn have been suffering through. Generations of sorrow will finally be given hope, so the NPC’s will react with skepticism and anger as much as distrust and acceptance to their return. Revealing dragons to players and Draconians which are unknown in earlier times of Krynn should be like us seeing a dinosaur in person. Shock, awe and fear. The war should be played like the darkest World War two story, where sacrifice and suffering does not always lead to victory or justice. But allow those players who want to be heroic to truly feel the gravity of their actions and if a player falls, make it heroic and impactful. There are a lot of factions that work against each other, and in the final moments of the war, when good finally starts working together, it is tentative and only for the duration of the war. After, the deep seeded bigotries return and they stop working together.
This is Dragonlance according to the game designers. And this is why the setting is not for everyone. It is brutal, tough, unforgiving, but also thrilling, exciting and enriching. There are ancient ruins, mystical forests, magical towers, and dragon riding! You uncover ancient artifacts like the Dragonlance and Dragon Orbs, ancient magic from long dead wizards, and honorable Knightly orders that have fallen from grace. You develop relationships that break the boundaries of racism and bigotry you were taught for survival. And learn that by standing together, you can not only face off against the darkness, but actually win against the evil that threatens to subjugate the people of Krynn.
Outro
But that is all I have to say as a Pre-Game Primer for Dragonlance. Do you feel like Dragonlance is much different from other settings? Are its restrictions in this Age too difficult or do they encourage roleplaying and creativity? Leave a comment below.
I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:
Dragonlance is a story of love and friendship set against a backdrop of war.
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