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
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Transcript
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...