Wizards of the Coast reintroduced the 40 year-old Dragonlance setting to 5e this last December with Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. Here we are just a few months later, and Beadle & Grimm’s is back with another fabulous boxed edition of that release.
If this is your first time checking out one of my Beadle & Grimm’s reviews, then here’s what you need to know. The company takes official D&D adventures like Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen, and does all the hard work of blinging out the adventures for Dungeon Masters and their players to enjoy. This includes NPC stat cards, reproduced artwork, custom handouts, full-sized maps, props, and more.
I’ve previously reviewed several Dungeons & Dragons releases from Beadle & Grimm’s, most recently the Platinum Edition of Spelljammer: Adventures in Space, and the Silver Edition of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. This is Beadle & Grimm’s first Steel Edition, named so because of the incredible value of steel on the continent of Ansalon in the Dragonlance setting.
As with my other coverage of the boxed editions from Beadle & Grimm’s, this is not a review of the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen adventure book from Wizards of the Coast. Instead, this will be a review of the copious amounts of content you get in the Beadle & Grimm’s Steel Edition of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. To warn you, there will inevitably be spoilers for the adventure in this review. While that won’t be an issue for any Dungeon Masters looking into running the adventure, prospective players of the campaign may want to not look too closely at all of the photos to follow.
And for those of you specifically interested in the contents of the adventure itself, you can look to Rory Bristol’s preview from last November.
Some Spoilers for Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Ahead!
What Is Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition?
Like the smaller Beadle & Grimm’s Silver Edition boxes, the Steel Edition of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen comes complete in a single box. Here’s a list of the contents:
- Book broken into five booklets, including a Player-Only Character Creation booklet
- Four Area Maps of key locations and a Poster Map of Ansalon
- 13 full-page dungeon maps
- 12 gridded battle maps of key combat areas
- 25 in-world handouts
- Four in-world artifacts
- 60 Encounter Cards
- 27 Affiliation Cards for the Krynn Pantheon, the Knightly Orders and the Mage Orders
- Art pulled from the book, including an 11″ x 17″ piece by Jedd Chevrier
- Three Bonus Encounters
- Six Sidekicks printed separately with level-up information on the back
- DM Aids and DM Reference Guide
The Steel Edition of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is $299, and is packed full of content. What content, exactly? Let’s take a look.
Unboxing the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition
As with every edition from Beadle & Grimm’s, pretty much the first thing you’ll encounter is an introduction to the particular edition, as well as an itemized description of the contents.
Encounter Cards
One of the staples of all of Beadle & Grimm’s editions are the encounter cards. Dragonlance is no different, with 60 NPC cards in total.
The encounter cards are designed to hang over the DM screen, so that the players can see an image of the character or monster, while the Dungeon Master has access to the stat block.
Artwork Pulled From the Book
There are several bits of artwork that can be used to aid in immersion during the campaign which, like the encounter cards, can be hung over the DM screen. In addition to the art cards, there is also an 11″x17″ copy of Sidege of Kalaman by Jedd Chevrier.
Artifacts
Another staple of Beadle & Grimm’s boxed editions are the crafted artifacts. With Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen there are four different artifacts, designed by Han Cholo.
Affiliation Cards
These cards introduce symbols for the Krynn pantheon. There are 21 deity affiliation cards to hand out to players.
There are also 3 Knightly Order cards, and 3 Mage Order cards.
DM Aids
Beadle & Grimm’s has started including at-a-glance aids for Dungeon Masters. These include a guide for what components of the Steel Edition are used in each chapter of the adventure:
As well as some Dragonlance-specific info that can be quickly referenced:
And these that go into a bit more detail:
Handouts
One of my favorite parts of any Beadle & Grimm’s edition are the custom handouts created for the sets. In the case of Dragonlance, the handouts have been designed by Alan Azez and Tim Liljefors. As always, a wide variety of paper types and weights are used, as are different graphical styles, to provide a high degree of immersion in the world.
Maps, Maps, and More Maps
For a single boxed edition, Beadle & Grimm’s has definitely crammed a lot of maps into the set. There are 4 key area maps, 13 key dungeon maps, and 12 gridded battle maps, which are scaled for use with miniatures. The dungeon maps are on thick, glossy stock so that you can use a dry erase marker, and there’s even a section for writing notes on their backs.
Sidekicks
In the adventure, it’s possible that a player character might be accompanied by a sidekick. Included are individual sidekick sheets for those NPC’s, as originally presented in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen’s index.
The Adventure
The book of Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen has been broken into 5 smaller, easy to carry booklets. One of these is specifically for character creation, and may be given to the players.
Bonus Encounters
Finally, Beadle & Grimm’s has created some bonus, optional encounters. The booklet, Dragonlance: Tales From the Warehouse, is written by Jon Ciccolini and Bill Rehor, with art by Shen Fei and Lars Weiler. These encounters provide additional options during the Missions for Kalaman and while exploring the Northern Wastes.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition – The Verdict
Beadle & Grimm’s crams their D&D editions with tons of great content, and Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition is no exception. As always, there are lovingly-crafted artifacts, fantastic handouts, and a ton of other materials designed to make the adventure immersive for the players. In their more recent releases, Beadle & Grimm’s is also providing some nice extra content specifically to make it easier for the Dungeon Master to prep and run the adventure, which is much appreciated.
Having reviewed several of the boxed sets from Beadle & Grimm’s, it’s therefore very noticeable what they left out of Dragonlance. Gone are pre-generated characters, which are quite handy for new players.
Also missing is a Coin of Completion for the adventure. You can buy one on the webstore for $20, with a discount if you’re buying several to hand out to all the players. However, there has been a Coin of Completion in almost all of the other sets I’ve reviewed. And while not as expensive as a Platinum Edition, the Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition is still priced quite a bit higher than the Silver Edition of Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons, which does include a Coin.
If this is your first Beadle & Grimm’s set, you would have been unlikely to even miss those omissions. Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen Steel Edition brings you not just the adventure, but beautifully designed accessories and resources to run an immersive campaign. As I’ve said in the past with other Beadle & Grimm’s editions, they’re not cheap, but you’re getting your money’s worth. When you consider the time and resources it would take to make all of that content yourself, as well as the fact that most Dungeons & Dragons campaigns take a year or more to run, the value of the Steel Edition becomes apparent.
For more information or to make a purchase, visit the Beadle & Grimm’s webstore.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this set for review purposes.
