Dragonlance Dragonlance Brings New Options to D&D

As expected, Wizards Presents had Dragonlance announcements, starting with a release date – December 6, 2022 – and players will have several choices as to which Dragonlance product they buy. Like other adventures, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, will have two editions: a mass market edition with a cover by Cynthia Sheppard, and an alternative cover edition featuring Lord Soth, only...

As expected, Wizards Presents had Dragonlance announcements, starting with a release date – December 6, 2022 – and players will have several choices as to which Dragonlance product they buy.

Dragonlance - TRPG Standard Cover (Front) – Art by Cynthia Sheppard. .png


Like other adventures, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, will have two editions: a mass market edition with a cover by Cynthia Sheppard, and an alternative cover edition featuring Lord Soth, only available through game stores. That latter cover, with art by Chase Stone, almost makes his helmet look three dimensional. The 224-page adventure will take players from 1st to 11th level.

Dragonlance - TRPG Alt Cover (Front) – Art by Chase Stone.png


Another of the new purchase options is one fans have been clamoring for – bundles of the physical book and a digital copy through D&D Beyond. Those who pre-order the bundle will get their digital copy on November 22, two weeks before the physical book is available. Unfortunately, the digital/book bundle only applies to the standard cover so if you buy alternative covers through your local game store, a digital bundle isn't available.

Dragonlance - Standard Bundle.png


Additionally, WotC is offering Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Deluxe Edition, which includes:
  • The physical book (Cover by Antonio Jose Manzanedo and Anato Finnstark)
  • The digital book via D&D Beyond
  • The board game Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn
  • A DM screen
The deluxe edition will cost $154.98 and includes free shipping for the U.S., UK, France, and Germany.

Dragonlance Deluxe Edition – Outer Box – Art by Antonio José Manzanedo.png


Dragonlance is really D&D's setting for war, for massive conflicts, for these worldwide, sweeping, world-changing battles” Wes Schneider, Senior Game Designer for D&D and project lead for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, said at a press event on August 16. “In this adventure, we're going to take players back to the storied War of the Lance where the forces of the infamous Tiamat, or Takhisis as she is known in Krynn, is marching her armies of evil dragons and draconian dragon folks and other evil humanoids against the people of Krynn, trying to take over the world.”

329834 – ch 1 opener – Art by Kieran Yanner.png


“In this adventure we're going to see the dragon army's incursion into Solamnia, which is a land of knights and heroes. The players will find themselves at the forefront of this battle in the defense of Solmnia against this evil wave of tyranny,” continued Schneider. “It's not just the fate of a town, it's not just the fate of your pocketbook. It's the fate of the entire world at stake in this.”

329847 – ch 2 opener – Art by Evyn Fong.png


Kate Irwin, Principal Art Director for D&D, then talked about demonstrating the expanse of Dragonlance to life through the artwork.

329862 – ch 4 opener – Art by Daarken.png


“It's not just plucky band of adventurers going off to do something,” said irwin. “The stakes are very high. So when we were talking about art for this, we asked how do we show that epic expanse of what can happen. Our chapter openers are always a big flashy part of the book so in this case instead of doing a single page piece of art, we're doing a double page piece of art. The artists who are doing the chapter openers were able to focus then on some personal stories and also that great, big expanse of war and see how this is different from other books.”

“We took aspiration from movies and famous photographs from World War I and World War II. The dragon where the adventurers are on top of the dragon was kind of inspired by 'oh, we captured a tank and now we're taking a picture with a tank'.”

329908 – Kansaldi on Dragon – Art by Katerina Ladon.png


“Another thing you don't often see in D&D stories is people riding dragons, partnering with dragons,” added Irwin while talking about what makes Dragonlance different. DLSotDQ features several images of dragon riders, sometimes leading armies.

329972 – Lord Soth on Death Dragon – Art by Kieran Yanner.png


When talking about a piece of art featuring knights from early in the adventure Irwin said, “I think there's something really relatable even though it's showing this big epic. Like I said, we were taking inspiration from movies like Saving Private Ryan or 1917 where you are involved in the characters that are in the movie, but you're also involved in feeling like a part of something so much bigger.”

That aesthetic ties into the design created by Bree Heiss, Art Director for D&D, for the board game, Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn. “That Dragonlance through line, that small group fighting against the odds in a world at war is present in the board game, as well.”

For groups playing both the TTRPG and the board game, there will be places where you can switch from RPG to board game to play out a battle and then go back to the RPG. The board game comes with a few “plucky allies” that players can choose, and one such ally is especially dear to Heiss.

“I'm a huge Dragonlance fan, in case that isn't obvious, and I always imagined myself as a Knight of the Rose and I got to, as we were making the figures for the game, I got to have a little bit of input,” said Heiss, “and we wanted our Solamnic knight to be maximum tall, like [Game of Thrones'] Brianne of Tarth, so strong and so big, and I'm so ready to play this. The horns on her helm, she would place [in real life] at 6'5”, 6'7” – she's gonna stomp.”

Iconic Dragonlance villain Lord Soth appears in the adventure, riding a Death Dragon, a new type of undead dragon. Schneider commented that even if people don't know Lord Soth from dozens of stories and adventures that they know him from the Monster Manual.

“Lord Soth is D&D's iconic Death Knight, and when we knew we were returning to the world of Krynn and the Dragonlance campaign setting, we knew we had to have one of D&D's most famous villains central to the threat,” said Schneider.

329899 – Captain Hask – Art by David Sladek.png



Draconians were also re-conceptualized for DLSotDQ to clearly distinguish them from dragonborn and other bipedal lizards in D&D. It also plays up the fact that in Dragonlance evil chromatic dragons have been stealing metallic dragon eggs, manipulating them with magic, and turning them into Takhisis' evil foot soldiers. This has both weakened the forces of good and made the adult good dragons hesitate because they'd be fighting their own children.


Warriors Of Krynn Box inside Deluxe (front) – Box Art by Dominik Mayer.png


DLSotDQ also contains a gazetteer. The focus is on eastern Solamnia, though, so don't expect a deep dive into Krynn. A poster map also comes with the book. DLSotDQ is a complete story, not beholden to the novels or prior adventures. Schneider compared it to the new Star Wars TV shows in that you know the beloved heroes are out there doing things but DLSotDQ focuses on different characters in a different region.

Warriors of Krynn inside Deluxe (back) – Box Art by Dominik Mayer.png


DLSotDQ and DLWoK fall “very early in the War of the Lance, early into the invasion of western Solamnia,”said Schneider. “Stories have been told about the major offenses from the middle of the continent further to the west. This is a new story about the very first launch the red dragon army does into Solamnia, an early forey with specific plots and goals to bring a devastating weapon to bear.”

“You're getting not just this massive, epic, D&D narrative adventure in the RPG experience but you also have the Warriors of Krynn board game... and they're meant to weave in and out of each other,” said Schneider.

Schneider then clarified that if you play both, you can take your RPG characters to the board game and then back to the RPG. “Warriors of Krynn isn't your usual moving units and strategy. This is more of a strategy game that focuses on those elements but from a D&D perspective. You're still playing your characters, around the edges of battle, doing what's important to turn the tide of battle, all of the little things that thousands of lives might be riding on. And then once you've played that out you can then take that result back to [Shadow of the Dragon Queen] and have that result affect how your RPG continues.”

However, you do not need DLWoK to play DLSotDQ and vice versa. DLWoK can be played independently from the RPG DLSotDQ. Similarly, if you only want to play the TTRPG, it has instructions on how to handle the battles instead of switching to the board game.

Miniatures that come with DLWoK are the same scale as conventional miniatures, such as WizKids minis. So if you want to use the exact mini for your character while playing the RPG you can bring it right to the board game. The board game also comes with six hero miniatures you can use while playing if you don't have your own minis.

Choices that you make in DLWoK will carry through, but it's not a legacy board game. No cards or such are torn up or removed, but what you do in the board game affects the RPG if you're playing both.

Dragonlance: Warriors of Krynn is a cooperative board game designed by Rob Daviau and Stephen Baker. Back in April at D&D Direct, when asked if DLWoK could be used to stage large-scale battles in other iconic D&D settings, Ray Winninger, Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons, said yes, adding that if it does well they'll consider customized versions for other settings.

Pre-orders for the bundles can be placed through dndstore.wizards.com.
 

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Beth Rimmels

Beth Rimmels

Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
I granted that for the sake of the argument already ;)
So you admit there are parallels.
according to Google, the closest relation is basically the gods leaving mankind alone.

“And [people] shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.””

ok, I can see that, but this is certainly not unique to Mormonism
I grew up Mormon. I know more about the doctrine than you could probably gather from a simple Google search.
The Great Apostasy is a core principle of Mormonism. According to Joseph Smith, he was told by God and Jesus that no church was true and none had been true since Jesus's apostles died. This time period where the world was without prophets and apostles is called the "Great Apostasy" and, according to Mormon doctrine, is the reason why societal and technological progression was so slow during the Dark Ages. Mormons don't actually believe their church is just 200 years old. They believe it is about 2,000 years old and is simply a refounded version of the church Jesus started in the New Testament.

Now, compare this to the Cataclysm. The Cataclysm is blending two parts of doctrine Mormons believe in: the Flood and the Great Apostasy. The destruction the gods inflicted on the world at the Cataclysm is Dragonlance's parallel to the Flood, where the world was apparently so wicked that God flooded and killed basically everyone and it took the world a long time to recover. Additionally, in the Cataclysm, the gods of Dragonlance abandoned its people until a new blonde-haired, blue-eyed prophet discovered and refounded the religions due to plates made out of precious metal that have sacred knowledge written in a dead language on them.

Additionally, there is the whole aspect of the "priesthood" in Mormon doctrine. Mormons believe in "the priesthood", which is divine power granted by God to worthy men than can bless the worthy, heal the sick, protect the vulnerable, and even bring back the dead/create matter. Mormons believe that the priesthood was gone during the Great Apostasy, that no one had access to it. This echoes healing magic being impossible post-Cataclysm pre-Goldmoon on Dragonlance, because Dragonlance's equivalent of the "priesthood" hadn't been rediscovered yet.

Do you see the parallels? Because they're quite apparent.
really ? These are based on the actual native Americans, not the Mormon version of them (i.e. Iraelites who somehow managed to make it to America, which are much more middle-east inspired and e.g. have chariots), so clearly not Mormon inspired, quite the contrary
You're thinking of the Nephites and Lamanites from (according to the Book of Mormon) 600 BC to ~400 AD, which Mormons believe transitioned into the colonization-era Native Americans over the course of ~1,400 years. Goldmoon and Riverwind are clearly inspired by that same era of Native Americans. I'm also going to point out that there are 12 tribes of Abanasinian Plainsmen (Dragonlance's equivalent of Native Americans), which hearkens back to Mormons believing that the Native Americans are the descendants of some of the lost tribes of Israel.
no idea how many occurrences there are, I only know of the ones in Chronicles (and Legends, but that are the same individuals).

Also, if any encounter with anumeric tribes describes them as anumeric, it still is not genetic…
???

I never said it was. I was just saying that anumeric tribes can be taught about numbers. It's unclear if Gully Dwarves have the mental capacity to (which would be genetic).
 

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mamba

Legend
So you admit there are parallels.
gold (or platinum, not sure) disks in one, gold tablets in the other ? sure, a similarity, but nothing that screams ‘this can only be based on Mormon beliefs’, texts on metal is not so unique to make it clearly Mormon, and even if that is where Tracy took the inspiration from (being a Mormon after all…), it is not so on your nose that this is the unavoidable conclusion. I even concede that it is probably at least in part inspired by the gold tablets, given that Tracy is a Mormon, but ultimately that is not important. It could have been inspired by the ten commandments, real life copper scrolls, real life stone or clay tablets (I believe somewhere it even says that the script is Kuneiform, which the tablets were not), they are all interchangeable. All it really screams is ‘ancient religious texts’, the medium is not important, to the plot or otherwise.
I grew up Mormon. I know more about the doctrine than you could probably gather from a simple Google search.
The Great Apostasy is a core principle of Mormonism. According to Joseph Smith, he was told by God and Jesus that no church was true and none had been true since Jesus's apostles died. This time period where the world was without prophets and apostles is called the "Great Apostasy" and, according to Mormon doctrine, is the reason why societal and technological progression was so slow during the Dark Ages. Mormons don't actually believe their church is just 200 years old. They believe it is about 2,000 years old and is simply a refounded version of the church Jesus started in the New Testament.

Now, compare this to the Cataclysm. The Cataclysm is blending two parts of doctrine Mormons believe in: the Flood and the Great Apostasy. The destruction the gods inflicted on the world at the Cataclysm is Dragonlance's parallel to the Flood,

Fully agree with the Cataclysm = Flood analogy, not that the flood is a Mormon (or even Israelite) invention

where the world was apparently so wicked that God flooded and killed basically everyone and it took the world a long time to recover. Additionally, in the Cataclysm, the gods of Dragonlance abandoned its people until a new blonde-haired, blue-eyed prophet discovered and refounded the religions due to plates made out of precious metal that have sacred knowledge written in a dead language on them.
I guess this goes back to what I wrote earlier, people interpreting things through their frame of reference. You being a (former? no idea, not relevant) Mormon clearly tie it to Mormonism, someone not knowing anything about Mormons can see it reflect the Bible or what have you, these are all very generic ideas that exist in a lot of cultures
Additionally, there is the whole aspect of the "priesthood" in Mormon doctrine. Mormons believe in "the priesthood", which is divine power granted by God to worthy men than can bless the worthy, heal the sick, protect the vulnerable, and even bring back the dead/create matter.
None of which exists in any other D&D setting, so it can only come from Mormonism ;) To me this clearly is a consequence of this being a D&D setting, and where Gygax got it from, no idea, but it again is a widely existing idea and not unique to Mormons

If your point is that DL took inspiration from the ‘real world’ / traditional religion and middle-eastern myths in general, I completely agree. I just do not see it as clearly and specifically Mormon - and even if that is where it is from, it is sufficiently generic to not matter to the story
Mormons believe that the priesthood was gone during the Great Apostasy, that no one had access to it. This echoes healing magic being impossible post-Cataclysm pre-Goldmoon on Dragonlance, because Dragonlance's equivalent of the "priesthood" hadn't been rediscovered yet.
Do you see the parallels? Because they're quite apparent.
to this last part? that is the best parallel (outside the disks), the middle part is shared with Christianity / lots of greek / roman / …myths however, so just plain generic
You're thinking of the Nephites and Lamanites from (according to the Book of Mormon) 600 BC to ~400 AD, which Mormons believe transitioned into the colonization-era Native Americans over the course of ~1,400 years. Goldmoon and Riverwind are clearly inspired by that same era of Native Americans. I'm also going to point out that there are 12 tribes of Abanasinian Plainsmen (Dragonlance's equivalent of Native Americans), which hearkens back to Mormons believing that the Native Americans are the descendants of some of the lost tribes of Israel.
Yes, those are the ones I was thinking of. Still, no chariots, so could easily just be based on real native americans. The 12 tribes might very well be the 12 tribes of Israel, which again is not specifically Mormon, but yes, I concede there is more that could be seen as based on Mormonism and some of it probably even is.
I never said it was. I was just saying that anumeric tribes can be taught about numbers. It's unclear if Gully Dwarves have the mental capacity to (which would be genetic).
We do not know either way, don’t think anyone ever bothered teaching them.
 
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Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
gold (or platinum, not sure) disks in one, gold tablets in the other ? sure, a similarity, but nothing that screams ‘this can only be based on Mormon beliefs’, texts on metal is not so unique to make it clearly Mormon, and even if that is where Tracy took the inspiration from (being a Mormon after all…), it is not so on your nose that this is the unavoidable conclusion. I even concede that it is probably at least in part inspired by the gold tablets, given that Tracy is a Mormon, but ultimately that is not important. It could have been inspired by the ten commandments, real life copper scrolls, real life stone or clay tablets (I believe somewhere it even says that the script is Kuneiform, which the tablets were not), they are all interchangeable. All it really screams is ‘ancient religious texts’, the medium is not important, to the plot or otherwise.
The medium is important because it's a big part of Mormon doctrine. Ancient texts written on precious metal that bring back the old, dead, true religion that grants healing powers after over a thousand years of dark ages is a huge similarity that Dragonlance has with Mormon doctrine. You don't just stumble into that. And the link between having metal plates conveying important information isn't unique to Dragonlance, either. Mistborn uses that too, and those books' author, Brandon Sanderson, is also openly Mormon.

The medium the old religion is brought back is important if it has a ton of direct parallels to Mormon doctrine and multiple popular Mormon fantasy authors have used metal plates with crucial information engraved in them shows that it's a common link.
Fully agree with the Cataclysm = Flood analogy, not that the flood is a Mormon (or even Israelite) invention
No, but Mormons believe in the Flood. I was demonstrating that major aspects of the books were inspired by at least one of the author's religious beliefs.
I guess this goes back to what I wrote earlier, people interpreting things through their frame of reference. You being a (former? no idea, not relevant) Mormon clearly tie it to Mormonism, someone not knowing anything about Mormons can see it reflect the Bible or what have you, these are all very generic ideas that exist in a lot of cultures
(Former.)

Yeah. But my personal experience in this matter makes me qualified to analyze whether or not the books have Mormon ties. Which it definitely does. Pretty major aspects of the novels and setting are directly inspired by Mormon beliefs.
None of which exists in any other D&D setting, so it can only come from Mormonism ;) To me this clearly is a consequence of this being a D&D setting, and where Gygax got it from, no idea, but it again is a widely existing idea and not unique to Mormons
Not what I was saying. I was just showing that divine magic with the power of healing and raising the dead being lost for a millenium until a blonde-haired, blue-eyed prophet brought it back was an obvious tie.
If your point is what DL took inspiration from the ‘real world’ / traditional religion and middle-eastern myths in general, I completely agree. I just do not see it as clearly and specifically Mormon - and even if that is where it is from, it is sufficiently generic to not matter to the story
Maybe none of the things I listed are exclusively Mormon, but a lot of them are especially Mormon. And, pardon the assumption, but I'm guessing you're not very familiar with Mormonism beyond possibly briefly interacting with some and reading a few Wikipedia articles/internet posts about it.
to this last part? that is the best parallel (outside the disks), the middle part is shared with Christianity / lots of greek / roman / …myths however, so just plain generic
Again, this is a core aspect of Mormon theology. It's basically the first thing missionaries teach you when they start trying to convert you, and they repeat it all of the time at church. "The true religion died 2 thousand years ago when we lost the priesthood/healing magic, and a new prophet brought it back and restored the church" a summary of exactly what a Mormon will tell you if you ask them the reason for their religion's existence. It's hammered into you over, and over, and over again. It's really, really important to Mormons. And the setting being built with that same assumption is really showing that the setting was built around the author's biases.
Yes, those are the ones I was thinking of. Still, no chariots, so could easily just be based on real native americans. The 12 tribes might very well be the 12 tribes of Israel, which again is not specifically Mormon, but yes, I concede there is more that could be seen as based on Mormonism and some of it probably even is.
Mormons don't believe that the Native Americans they were familiar with had chariots. They believe that technology was lost after the Nephites died.

And I wasn't saying that the 12 tribes of Israel are specifically Mormon, I was noting that Mormons are the only "major" religion that believes in a connection between the lost tribes of Israel and Native Americans. So having the setting's version of Native Americans have 12 tribes is a connection (a small and tenuous connection, but it's still there).
tl;dr - Dragonlance is absolutely based heavily on major parts of Mormon doctrine, coming from someone that was Mormon for 18 years

Anyway, how did this line of discussion get started? What point were either of us trying to make? Because I don't remember.
 



Levistus's_Leviathan

5e Freelancer
No, it was specifically about Mormon elements ;)
No, it was about them including parts of the real world in their settings. I found the post:
That's pretty easy to do with Weis and Hickman's content. As has been mentioned before, they frequently put direct parallels to the real world in their works (Vistani in Ravenloft, all of the Mormon-inspired content in Dragonlance). Whether intended or not, people can put their biases and other problematic content in their works.
 

I rebember to have readen in a Dragonlance book telling the true origin of the gully dwarves was the mixed marriaged between gnomes and dwarves, and then the mixed marriage between both is forbidden. I didn't like it, because I am Spanish, and my land is very cosmopolitan, we are very used to the mixture of blood. I guess that will be retconned in the name of the politically corectness.

In my game the gullys were the mixture of gnomes and dwarves, but thanks this they could survive an epidemic what cause more damage against the "pureblood". Then they were abducted and carried to a "domain of delight" within the Feywild, used by the fey lord to "gather glamour", but in the end a group of gullies could escape when that fey lord was killed by a rival. If gullies are dumbs, it is because they couldn't go to the school, and here you can blame that fey lord.
 

mamba

Legend
No, it was about them including parts of the real world in their settings. I found the post:
well, I asked specifically about the Mormon part, no one was arguing there are no real world parallels at all (there obviously are) - and since the rest was a reply to my question and focused on the Mormon bits…
 

mamba

Legend
I rebember to have readen in a Dragonlance book telling the true origin of the gully dwarves was the mixed marriaged between gnomes and dwarves, and then the mixed marriage between both is forbidden.
First time I am hearing this, but then there are plenty DL books I never read (probably about 90% of them ;) )

Google leads me to Pathfinder for that, no idea if they came up with it or took it from 3e (yet)

EDIT:

Ok, looked into this a bit and apparently we have 3e to thank for this, that is the first time the Gully Dwarves are mentioned as a mix of Gnome and Dwarf, ironically 1e/2e had them in a better light (there they were a fertile mix of Human and Dwarf - which is not what makes them better, for that see the following bits from Tales of the Lance)

"Aghar are proud, long-suffering survivors. Beneath a cheerful and hapless appearance beats a tenacious heart. The Aghar has survived, even thrived, in conditions that would kill any other dwarf."

"Innumeracy: Gullytalk, the recently discovered language of gully dwarves, has no word for numbers greater than two. In gullytalk, “one” is singularity, “two” is plurality. The constant poverty of gully dwarves negates the need for any greater differentiation. They have no money to count, no possessions to value, and nothing to sell. They rarely need to describe large quantities"

"Aghar intelligence is routinely underestimated by the so-called “intelligent races.” This slight does not offend gully dwarves; being underestimated allows them great latitudes for behavior, and the chance to surprise their foes. Gully dwarves, especially the kings and adventurers, play the fool only to manipulate the true fools."

"Despite longstanding prejudices to the contrary, gully dwarves are not imbeciles. They speak in broken and halting sentences because Common is not their native tongue."

"The Cataclysm that doomed the world saved the gully dwarves [for what this refers to, see further down]. Destruction of Ansalon’s high civilizations created dozens of ruined cities where the gully dwarves could dwell. Soon once-mighty cities like Xak Tsaroth became havens for the Aghar. Undisturbed by their tormenters, the Aghar established their own culture, such as it was"

All is not well in 1e/2e either however (though it is remarkably better than 3e...)

"Gully dwarves are fertile crossbreeds of outcast dwarves and outcast humans. They appeared at the time of the Graystone. The hybrid unfortunately lacked the best traits of both parents. Noting these deficiencies, the humans and dwarves banned further intermarriages. The crossbreeds were driven out of their own clans, particularly by the dwarves, who regarded them as a blight."

Yeah, definitely in need of a revision, particularly the 3e stuff.
 
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Son_of_Thunder

Explorer
Wow, this thread has been so fascinating to read.

So I'm a long time DL dm. So I obviously have what DL is to me and my players. And while I'll likely buy the book to mine ideas here's what I've done in my game.

This is the list of races you're allowed to play if you want to play.
human, elf, dwarf, kender, gnome, minotaur, irda.
Here's the list of 5e classes.
barbarian, fighter, Holy Order of the Stars (cleric, druid), wizard (renegade or Wizard of High Sorcery), rogue, ranger, paladin
Only Fighters and Paladins can become Knights of Solamnia.

Your character must pass a test in the Towers of High Sorcery to become a Wizard of High Sorcery. Your character must complete specific quests to attain different Solamnic orders.

As the dm I have the final say on material. My players are happy and we have fun. I run kender and gully dwarves like I have for three decades. WotC has zero say in how I choose to do that.

So run and play the game you like.
 
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