Are you a Dragonlance player or Dungeon Master clamoring for new material based on Krynn? Yes? Good, because that’s all of us who are playing Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition right now. I won’t complain about the lack of direct 5E Dragonlance content. We know!
But what if I told you that with tender love and care, these modules can be converted over for epic adventures in Ansalon or even Taladas? Yes, some of the books have brief conversion documents, but we can do better. Through a series of articles over the coming months, the Dragonlance Nexus is planning on writing up guidelines for some of the best adventures Wizards of the Coast has put out over the past six years. We already have a robust 5E rules section, but there is so much more to do. We’re behind and it’s time to catch up!
Our first stop is a module that screams Dragonlance. Enter the Tyranny of Dragons game supplement, originally released as two adventures (Hoard of the Dragon Queen & Rise of the Tiamat) in 2014.
In an audacious bid for power, mysterious forces seek to bring Tiamat into the world from her prison in the Nine Hells. The forces of evil are sweeping from town to town, laying waste to all who oppose them and gathering a hoard of riches for their dread queen. Never before has the need for heroes been so desperate.
– Tyranny of Dragons
This adventure takes place on the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms world of Faerûn. Every Dragonlance junky worth their salt knows one of Takhisis’ aspects is Tiamat, the five-headed uber-dragon. Having an organized cult attempting to bring her back is icing on the cake and works in several places and times. Personally, I am not a fan of Takhisis being killed off in the Age of Mortals. Instead of breaking a god out of the Nine Hells (or the Abyss for Takhisis), how about we focus on resurrection? If not, you can base it elsewhere, but the below attached conversion documents cover that timeline, with a suggestion of taking place a decade after the War of Souls. That gives a Dungeon Master plenty of leeway for fallout from the printed Age of Mortals novels, and leaves time for the Cult of the Dragon to gain a following.
If you feel passionately about placing Tyranny of Dragons in a time other than the Age of Mortals, I suggest potentially right after the Time of the Twins novels and Blue Lady’s War. If you want to go back farther, you need to be aware that dragons are not available as monsters after the third Dragon War (Huma’s War), and all through the Age of Might. Tyranny of Dragons would be mostly unplayable due to its reliance on our large, scaly friends. You can try earlier, but information is spotty about the Age of Dreams pre-Huma.
As far as the locations of Krynn for this article, below you will see two documents covering Ansalon and Taladas. I placed Tyranny of Dragons in Taladas for my own campaign. If you aren’t familiar with it, Taladas is a continent that is located across the Courrain ocean, hundreds of miles northeast of Ansalon. It’s a bit more varied and less structured and fits naturally well with D&D 5E. On Taladas there is no Order of High Sorcery, Knights of Solamnia or dragon armies. You’ll find suggested reading in the Taladas document to help you along your way. And if you want to stat traditional, the Ansalon document has more than enough information to get you started!
Please keep in mind, these are suggested locations for both conversions. As always is the case, your own game and players may have different places that work better within your story and plot. We hope this article helps kindle adventures in Krynn, so happy gaming!
I’ve been homebrewing this as 5e DragonLance for 6 years now. Looking forward to seeing what your homebrew content is!