With a primary chapter that guarantees “Dunkirk style evacuations” the brand new Dragonlance journey guarantees an epic story.
WotC supplied up a have a look at the brand new Shadow of the Dragon Queen in a latest press occasion. This new journey marks a daring experiment for WotC. Not solely is it the primary journey to deliver digital/bodily bundles to 5E, it’s additionally launching with a companion board recreation.
Both journey and board video games will be performed independently of each other. But the brand new recreation, Warriors of Krynn is supposed to assist deliver the large battles between Dragonarmy and Alliance forces into the foreground of your campaigns.
Player characters will all have a task to play. But one of many large factors Wizards of the Coast hopes to hit with this companion piece is the concept warfare is large. That the world is large. And the participant characters are only one a part of it.
These guidelines are mirrored within the new board recreation, Warriors of Krynn, co-designed by Rob Daviau, who pioneered Legacy mechanics with Risk Legacy and later Pandemic Legacy alongside their respective co-designers. While Warriors of Krynn isn’t a full-on legacy-style recreation, it does draw on parts of that. Inside the board recreation you’ll discover sealed units of playing cards that unlock as gamers degree up.
“There are 12 scenarios. Some of them tie very closely into key moments of the role-playing game, and some of them are a little less defined so the DM can shape them, or remove them, or put them in as they like.”
This ties in neatly to the journey. When a battle would possibly happen, there are guidelines for both switching to Warriors of Krynn, or you need to use a subsystem designed for this journey.
Speaking of, let’s check out the primary chapter. Spoilers ahoy!
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen – 1st Chapter Preview
In Shadow of the Dragon Queen, you don’t soar into warfare, eight o’clock day one. Instead, you ease into it. Because because the designers of the journey said, they need this story to really feel as private and character-focused as any good warfare story. The rising battle of the War of the Lance is a backdrop, however on the coronary heart of it, the characters.
It all begins within the fishing village of Vogler. There, as senior designer F. We Shcneider places it, the gamers can get entangled within the quiet life.
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“The players have the opportunity to meet up and celebrate the life of a mutual friend, and get to know this quaint little town.”
And through the center of an enormous celebration, the Kingfisher competition no much less. It’s each bit as pastoral because it sounds. Players can problem Vogler’s mayor, Raven Uth, to a fishing contest.
There are carnival video games to play. Fun and whimsy sufficient to attract characters in, particularly with extra light-hearted parts just like the introduction of Tinker Gnomes, who’ve invented a “rapid transit” catapult system.
It’s a quiet, shire-like pastiche.
Until rumors begin flying.
As Schneider said:
“There are stories of dragon-like people sneaking around the hinterlands of the community. Soon it becomes obvious that Vogler is the first stop for an incursion of new, largely unknown enemy forces from farther east that are sweeping towards the town.”
In Schneider’s phrases, the group is taking inspiration from real-world historical past like Dunkirk. As enemy forces loom and the first chapter strikes in the direction of its climactic showdown, it turns into obvious that this city is unprepared for warfare.
And it’s as much as the participant characters to resolve what to do. Gather forces, evacuate the town, maintain off a military? There are loads of choices and paths your celebration would possibly take. Schneider has mentioned:
“The story of your Krynn and of this Dragonlance setting is very much up to DMs and players to define.”
Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Warriors of Krynn launch December sixth!
