Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is an epic fantasy campaign for Dungeons & Dragons, written by Justice Arman, Brian Cortijo, Kelly Diggers, Dan Dillon, Ari Levitch, Renee Knipe, Ben Petrisor, Mario Ortegon, Erin Roberts, and James L. Sutter and published by Wizards of the Coast.
By Dave Pierson
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The Homebrew DM’s Perception
Disclaimer: The Dragon Armies cannot ensure that owners of this book will not have their lives repurposed in the service of the Dragon Queen’s glorious will. Promises to the contrary should be considered best-case scenarios, not statements of certainty. Thank you for supporting the Dragon Armies and a cataclysmically bright future for all of Krynn.
Wizards of the Coast, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, 2022
Piers Anthony, Terry Brooks, Tracy Hickman, and Margaret Weis. Growing up, it was these authors and their imaginary tales that grew my love for fantasy. When Wizards of the Coast announced they were finally returning to the world of Tannis Half-Elven and the twins, Caramon and Raistlin Majere, I was excited and looking forward to exploring my childhood once again. But I was also cautiously optimistic. Would the return be fruitful? I had read and played around with the Unearthed Arcanas – would it be more of the same?
It’s been a few months since DragonLance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen was released, but I really wanted to put this one through it’s paces. Just as all typical releases have been recently, Wizards follows the same pattern: couple chapters spent on lore and some character options and then the adventure itself. Round it out with an appendix of monsters and magic items and you are all set. Although the adventure fits well within the world of Krynn, and expands on the world as not seen before, it isn’t the same cast of characters that we are all used to. Instead, this adventure, at its heart, is a story of war. Invasion. So, what makes this different from past war stories? For starters, it’s the lore behind the scenes. True homage to the novels and world of Krynn, even if you didn’t know much before, the first chapter sets you up with enough knowledge to feel comfortable. And this truly is a fully fledged adventure that can take you from level 1 to 11, and really allows you to develop your character with many options along the way. You may lose some friends along the way, but you will find glory in defending the innocents. This campaign is truly a knockout for all.
There’s plenty that a homebrew DM can take from this adventure and incorporate into their world. For starters, if you truly are trying to incorporate an invasion storyline into your campaign, you can’t go wrong here. You could easily plant seeds of something coming their way and even if your PCs don’t grab the hook and investigate, let the invasion happen and run it’s course. Your players may find that things in their world have changed if all of a sudden the invasion is successful. Also, continuing the theme of Lunar powers, there is the sorcerer subclass centered around those powers and depending on the stage of the moon, your character can have a different set of spells available to them. I also really enjoyed the death dragons and the different variety of draconian that I could set against my PCs. New threats they have not faced before.
By far this was one of Wizards better releases and did well to expand the world of Krynn. What I truly hope is that they don’t abandon the setting like many of the other works. Continue to push and expand the setting, bringing more adventures and more arcs that we can build upon. However, I fear that with One DnD on the horizon, we might not want to hold our breath.
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