My Campaign...

I had wanted to storytell something in the Dragonlance universe for a long time.

For what is worth, personal reasons, plus COVID, re-reading D&D5 rules, and the discovery of an virtual tabletop software called FoundryVTT did the trick.

The idea behind this campaign had been there for years, and now, I get the chance to share it with my players.

But I need to explain a few things first. Because it will still be my vision of Dragonlance.

Core Ideas

This is Dragonlance, of course. So it has to have heroics, sacrifice, romance, and good vs. evil. Also, faith, albeit probably not what you expect.

Indeed, there is a massive cultural difference between the original authors of the Dragonlance stories and adventures (mainly Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis), and myself and my players.

What's canon (in my campaign)?

Only the two initial trilogies:

• Chronicles
  
• Dragons of Autumn Twilight
• Dragons of Winter Night
• Dragons of Spring Dawning
  
• Legends
• Time of the Twins
• War of the Twins
• Test of the Twins
  

Another thing is that everything that happens up to 358 AC is (mostly) canon. After, the future is undetermined. Also, no Taladas.

There are many reasons for this setups, reasons I will elaborate later.

So, what is all this fuss about?

The following items are core inspirations or focus of my campaign:

• Death Knight of Krynn (video game): The idea of the undead raising against the living is an awesome campaign. Of course, Lord Soth will be there. As well as Kitiara, Chemosh, Sylvyana, and a touch of Ravenloft's Domain of Dread's concept.
• DragonStrike (video game): I love air combat video games (e.g. Ace Combat) and DragonStrike really impressed me. I would really love for my players to feel something like that. I may need to build up air combat rules.
  
• Gods of Good vs. Gods of Evil vs. Gods of Balance: The official Dragonlance setting is heavily biased toward the gods of Good, for, in my humble opinion, the wrong reasons. I would to show my players all three pantheons' motivations (and mistakes?) are justifiable, even if one absolutely disagree with them. If my players perceive the gods of Evil is "Muahahah Evil", or the gods of Balance as "fantasy Switzerland", then I will have failed.
• The Kingpriest and the Cataclysm: So many questions for what happened, how it happened, etc.. In particular, the gods of Good won't get a free pass for letting their kingpriest servant conquer inquisition-style all Ansalon and genocide the other races, and then pounding the planet with a meteor to punish the mortals for having followed said servant, and then coming back like "Hey, the mortals are the ones who turned away from us". Everything has a logical explanation, and logical consequences. And the consequences of the Cataclysm are still incomming.
• The Fall of the Ogre Race: Once the most beautiful, they were corrupted. The difference here is that they were not corrupted by their own "evil". They have been cursed, but not because they were evil. There is a very good reason for what happened to the ogre race, a reason to be discovered by the players.
  
• Ansalon is the focus: and the tragic reasons will be apparent as the players will advance in the campaign. It doesn't mean the PCs won't get to explore a bit beyond Ansalon, though.
• Age of Mortals: How fitting for a setting where gods fight each others over Krynn, to end the campaign into an age of mortals? The D&D3.5 mystics will be central to that, and of course, this will enable a lot of D&D5 classes (e.g. the sorcerer)
  

In a way, the campaign might end in something as world-changing as the Cataclysm, but it will be very different, and thus will not mean yet another calendar change.

... also, lots of background information

I need to show my players a world of Krynn that is unlike any other fantasy world.

On way is the "living history" of Krynn, where "scientific" discoveries meant some spells, or some technologies, were not available until some point of history. This means also giving famous past mortals of many races, along with their contribution, beyond the default heroics.

And beyond the new cool playable races (centaurs! minotaurs!), I want to show how each race/civilization comes with their own culture, clothing, and weaponry.

Conclusion

The full campaign is divided in the following parts:

• Prelude of Heroes (level 1-4)
  
• Low level adventures to install the PCs as heroes
  
• Test of Heroes (level 4-5)
• Of course any mage must then pass the Test of High Sorcery... But why not extend it to everyone? The result is solo adventures, focusing on one PC at a time, enabling them meet NPCs like Dalamar, or Silvara, and to change and evolve in power and motivations (similar to the 5 years passed by the innfellows in their search for gods)
  
• War of the Blue Lady (5-6)
• In 358 AC, Kitiara will attack Palanthas. The PCs will be part of the war, alongside Tanis, Dalamar, etc.. The PCs will be inserted in the events described inside the Test of The Twins, and will possibly be able to change some of them. This will actually introduce the next campaign.
  
• Requiem of Heroes (6 - 11)
• Lord Soth and his minions finally emerges from Nightlund to conquer Solamnia in a quest for vengeance... but even this war is hiding something more dreadful, including a new order of renegade nécromancers, dubbed the "purple robes", and the return of Sylvyana and her takeover attempt of the Silvanesti forest before the elves can clean the Nightmare of Lorac away.
  
• Apostasy of Heroes (11+)
• In the previous campaign, the heroes realized something so big, so dreadful and so fundamental about the cosmology of Krynn, they get the opportunity to change that universe for the better, or for worse, with the Gods of Balance moving stealthily to give back mortals their most prized gift: Freedom of Will.
  

We'll see how it goes...