Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn (Dungeons & Dragons Cooperative Board Game for 3-5 Players)

Product Information

even Commanders just change their names, and customize new ones. I would use the same abilities to not screw with balance, just change the name and image. This is always an interesting moment because you’re torn between keeping your cards and actions to try and progress towards your scenario goals, while also wanting to pool enough dice to guarantee success. Sometimes you have to do the latter and it’s always a thrilling moment. However, despite a range of difficulties, these challenges are disappointingly faceless and repetitive, with little to differentiate between some Goblin Poisoners and a Red Dragon other than the stat and successes required. While avid board gamers might get really excited about the concept, in practice I found the process of moving between TTRPG and board game to be extremely cumbersome. That’s because the documentation that comes with Warriors of Krynn is a bit of a mess.

Something else Daviau says Warriors of Krynn isn’t is “a traditional war game”. “You are not commanding the units – the battle is bigger than you”, he explains. “You are a component, and you can put your finger on the scale, but at lower levels you can only influence.”“The battle is happening around you, and your job as heroes is doing a special mission.” The press briefing showed off an early scenario that has the players evacuating civilians (which ties into the book’s first chapter preview). Gloomhaven gets away with its impractical setup because it’s one of the best board games out there; the same can’t be said for Warriors of Krynn. When players begin a Warriors of Krynn scenario, a huge battle is already underway. Large battle tiles are set up with rows of ally and enemy units, and smaller adventure tiles make up the “connective tissue between battlefields” where players can perform helpful actions. Players must manage an increasing number of battle tiles and flanks, one of which is always active. “We’re doing a very cinematic thing,” Daviau adds.

Visually, these components come together to create a game that’s lovely to look at. However, they all add up to nearly 600 tokens, cards, and tiles. Many of the scenarios took well over 25 minutes just to set up. In my recent Gloomhaven review, I criticised the behemoth board game for its long and fiddly setup times – and I’ve managed to start Gloomhaven up in less time than a typical game of Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn.

Because the adventure is so focused on Solamnia, Shadow of the Dragon Queen won’t contain a sweeping gazetteer of the world of Krynn, but it will include a poster map of the continent of Ansalon. Shadow of the Dragon Queen will also provide details on the different groups, organizations and races found in Dragonlance to provide inspiration for player characters. Warriors of Krynn includes 12 board game scenarios across three difficulty levels. Scenarios divide your team between completing objectives and influencing mass battles, and both of these take place on a variety of unique battle and adventure tiles that can be combined in various ways. Your playable heroes are represented by DnD miniatures, while wooden tokens and plastic markers stand in for various DnD monsters, as well as ally and enemy units. Each turn, you have several choices to make. You can rally your troops, explore special dungeon areas on the map to find new items or tools, initiate combat (determined by a dice roll) or inspire your troops. Each of your soldiers on the battle has multiple hitpoints, but are vulnerable to being ‘shaken’. Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is a tale of conflict and defiance set during the legendary War of the Lance. Create characters from Krynn, the world of the Dragonlance setting, then march them to the front lines of battle against the terrifying Dragon Armies.You’re still playing your characters,” Schneider said. “You’re having your adventures in the fray or around the edges of battle, doing the things that are important to really turn the tide of battle.” This status refers to the mental state of your soldiers, and how they’re faring. Many of them come from the embattled town of Vogler, which as mentioned was an idyllic and peaceful fishing town, making them vulnerable to being scared and losing their strength as inexperienced warriors.

Set to take place at the very beginning of the War of the Lance, before many of the events of the Dragonlance Chronicles, Shadow of the Dragon Queen is a D&D campaign book that will see players becoming embroiled in a conflict between the people of Krynn and the nefarious Dragon people. Warriors of Krynn, meanwhile, is an upcoming board game that can be played separately from Shadow of the Dragon Queen, but largely serves as a platform for players to experience the various large-scale battles they’ll encounter during their journey through the D&D adventure book. The August Wizards Presents online event where Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Warriors of Krynn were last featured.

Is Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn good or bad?

But if you rally your heroes together, using the skills of your battlefield leaders, you’ll be able to conquer your goals and move on with the overarching Dragonlance story setting. Once a major Warriors of Krynn battle is concluded, the Shadow of the Dragon Queen scenario book will guide you on your next steps through the main narrative. Image: Wizards of the Coast It’s a shame, really, since many will find the struggle of playing through Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn to be worth it. Designers Stephen Baker and Rob Daviau put a lot of care into designing and balancing this experience. The mechanics are consequential and engaging, and the writers do an excellent job weaving in the narrative from the RPG. It’s so robust, in fact, that I am confident ambitious DMs will be able to modify it for their own battle-heavy campaigns. It’s ultimately a disappointment, then, that the creative team’s work was not able to be supported by a better final product. Those will certainly come in handy. As a general rule, the evil armies of the Dragon Queen outnumber those on the good side, so the bad guys will slowly push their enemies from the field (which is another loss condition). If there are heroes present on the same tile as the fighting, they can stall this inexorable advance by soaking up hits or using their response powers. The campaign isn’t overly difficult as it is; it feels like narrative was prioritised over challenge up until the game’s later scenarios. This design choice makes sense for a tie-in TTRPG product, of course, but it seems to conflict with the part of Warriors of Krynn that still wants to be a strategic war game. The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure book and Warriors of Krynn board game are the very first of their kind. Based on the world of the beloved Dragonlance Chronicles books, whilst there have certainly been Dungeons & Dragons books and board games that are shared themes and stories in the past – such as the Ghosts of Saltmarsh or Dungeon of the Mad Mage D&D board games– Shadow of the Dragon Queen and Warriors of Krynn are the first to be tied so closely together.