So, I've been running "Shadow of the Dragon Queen" for my group for the past several months (we just finished chapter 6 and started chapter 7), and I have some thoughts I thought I'd share with everyone (not that my opinion matters... just making conversation). DISCLAIMER: lots of spoilers, so BE WARNED.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the campaign as well! My setup was face-to-face, running Owlbear Rodeo (we just switched to 2.0) and Justin Bailey's Improved Initiative, along with the DnDBeyond app for character management, all displayed on my 60" television and available to the players on their laptops. So, here goes nothing:

1. I love the setting overall. Getting back to a simpler set of lore and options is refreshing. When playing in the Forgotten Realms, there are so many options and variations available for players and DM, it can all get overwhelming. With Dragonlance, the race restrictions were most welcome; I actually had one of my players create a human! That NEVER happens in the Forgotten Realms setting where you can play the most outlandish race, and it's "acceptable" because the weird and fantastic is par for the course there.
2. As I've stated elsewhere on this forum, I did NOT like that all the good and meaningful NPCs in the setting were women (with one major exception: Darrett). I have no problem with women in the game, but I decided to blend the ratio of male/female NPCs (good and evil) to something more even. Of course, this allowed me to make some minor narrative alterations (e.g., Jeyev Veldrews kidnapped Darrett to draw one of the PCs, who was also a Solamnic Knight hopeful, into the sewers to assassinate him. While seeking Darrett in the sewers, the party ran across a being buried in a pool. They freed him only to realize that he was the founder of Kalaman and a vampire to boot. More on that later...).
3. I was worried, at first, that the pacing of the campaign was going to be a problem. As a campaign of not only war but an ever-present and imminent threat, Shadow of the Dragon Queen does not really allow for much character development. So much of the campaign is go-go-go because the dragon army is right behind you! Because of the constant threat, however, my players have not minded the minimal amount of character development or subplots involving their backstories. Don't get me wrong, there was indeed some time for development (one of my PCs changed classes mid-game from fighter to paladin -- it was a great scene!).
4. I disagreed with the narrative's sidelining of the Test of High Sorcery, so I found a really cool homebrewed test on the DM's Guild: the Test of High Sorcery by Donathin Frye & Kienna Shaw. This was a really cool "chose-your-own-adventure" kind of story for one player and the DM.
5. The sandbox section of the Northern Wastes was jarring after the preceding two chapters of nonstop reacting to the dragon army threat. My players seemed kinda confused by it, requiring me to nudge them a bit, reassuring them that they could do things in any order they wanted. For the moment, at least, there wasn't a set path they had to follow.
6. Upon reaching the City of Lost Names, the players were really surprised to see such a large contingent of the dragon army there. Throughout the chapter it had been stressed that the dragon army was looking for Onyari just like the characters were, only to find that they'd not only found it first but had clearly been there for a while -- long enough to have explored the city somewhat. This may have a DM presentation problem, however, so I'm reluctant to blame the campaign itself. If I had to do it over, I would have Soth make it clearer in the tomb beneath Kalaman (where the party follows him into the cataclysmic fire-wreathed dungeon) that he already knew where the city was.
7. My biggest disappointment with the campaign has to be the culmination of Chapter 6, where the party engages Belephaion. Going into it, it seemed like a good fight... lots of low-level encounters leading up to the boss. Very well-paced and even. In the end, however, the characters had no impact on this point in the story. Belephaion triggers the city's rise, which the characters cannot stop; the city destroys itself (although some more fun narrative finagling here: the party had befriended the cyclops in the library who then helped them escape the dying city); and Soth's tower rises, which again the characters cannot stop. It was like realizing that Indy's involvement in Raiders of the Lost Ark was completely pointless all over again. Fortunately, the players did not seem to see it this way and were satisfied with how events unfolded.
8. Because my players did not explore every nook of the Northern Wastes, they never met Clystran. I had to devise another way for them to interact with someone who could round up some wasteland dragonnels for them. No worries there: more narrative alterations.
9. When the party gets back to Kalaman in Chapter 7 and is introduced to the new governor, Thren, I reintroduce the vampire they'd inadvertently rescued from the sewers. It turns out that while they were gone he'd started dominating the right people and managed to get himself elected while impersonating one of the city's guild masters. I absolutely LOVED the look on the players' faces when they realized what had happened. And what followed was the best roleplaying of the campaign: they couldn't just out him because that would most likely cause chaos, confusion, and panic, none of which could be endured while the dragon army was only days away! It was an area of grey that was lovely to watch them navigate.
10. After reading through the "Night of Terror" and "Battle of Kalaman" sections of Chapter 7, I decided to reduce the number of encounters. I get that the narrative is trying to depict the desperation of Kalaman's situation, but I was worried about it becoming a slogfest. And I'm glad I did. I reduced the number of encounters and combined both sections. The point still came across, but rather than go through 8 to 10 "random" encounters, they got the point after 5. And, whoo boy!, the "Bakaris Defects" encounter was quite fun. The party really let loose and took out their frustration there... they were quite mad at him.
11. We haven't gotten there yet, but I plan on replacing the Red Ruin character with Bakaris the Younger (using Red Ruin's stats). The party already has reason to hate Bakaris the Younger and has no foreknowledge of Red Ruin. It would be a challenging encounter as written, but changing the character to Bakaris the Younger gives it more drama.

I may update this post as we finish the campaign, but those are my thoughts for now. Overall, I've been very satisfied with the campaign. It's great to play in the Dragonlance setting again. My criticisms above are only minor, and easily overcome. Overall, I have only one criticism that stands out and I have found no easy way to avoid it. The main antagonists are mostly unavailable in play and never encountered. Their status as "big bads" don't really feel earned.

As an aside: I know this campaign is a sort of soft reboot of the original story, but I am shocked to see that the question of "if the chromatic dragons have returned, where are the metallics?" was never brought up or addressed in the campaign. Oh well, that'll be the next story I run for these characters homebrew!

It might be an idea to download the old TSR module DL9 Dragons of Deceit from Drivethru RPG for a bit of inspiration for the next bit.

That one covers why the metallics are not involved yet and you don't really have most of the old characters involved other than Gilthanas and Silvara as quest-givers.

"It's a simple mission really. All you have to do is sneak into the heart of the enemy`s capital of Sanction and have a look around. What can possibly go wrong?"

Stats would need to be updated to 5e for NPC`s and a bit of other updating by a DM but it could work.

Great idea! I've downloaded that module and will be reading through it shortly. Gonna take a wee break after the end of the campaign and let someone else run for about a month or so before I ramp up again with a high-level Dragonlance follow-up!

Late to this post, but I have been prepping this campaign for a while, and just kicked it off with my players this week.

First of all thanks for your original post.  It gave me some "look-for", and "make sure to do" adjustments for the campaign as I move forward.  I had a few of the same quibbles as you, but my biggest issued with the module as written is that Soth, Red Ruin, and Kansaldi as big bads are always in the distance, as you say, until the very end.  and 2) The prequel adventure to bring the gods back to Krynn felt weak/hand-wavy:

Here's what I have done. Much of it was advice from "How to be a Great GM"

1) I rewrote the prequels and had my low level PC's (2 at a time) accompany Ispen and either Cudgel or Becklin on quests to "Try to restore the Gods to Krynn". I introduced them to the greenshield  That way they are more connected with Vogler/Ispen, and the funeral and future destruction of Vogler.   I made Kansaldi Ispen's half-sister, who shows up at the funeral demanding the shield as an heirloom of the family.  She is denied by Becklin.  Being a jerk who demands her inheritance at the funeral really got the animosity flowing between her and the PC's  . Ispen turned the shield into amulets for the players.  I created a side quest using clues from the prequels and the amulets for the players to complete a ritual/puzzle/skill challenge that returns the gods to Krynn.  As a reward their amulet becomes a ring of protection +1. 

2) I made Kansaldi the BBEG running around as an errand girl for Soth.  He shows up as a mastermind type in the background, but Kansaldi shows up on a dragon to finish of Vogler.  Kansaldi goes through the crypt to get the mourning fire and is the one the characters fight in the temple with the mirror in the city.  Soth will remain at large and will be an opponent for them if they wish to continue beyond this module, with Kitiara as his lieutenant in an epic campaign where the PC's have a chance of actually surviving an encounter with Soth.  Kitiara is nodded to in the final letter of the campaign.

3) I like subbing Bakaris the younger for Red Ruin.   I may steal that when the time comes in my adventure.

Oh my god, I 100% Agree with Point #2. The Female/Male ration in that module is wild. I only discovered Kansaldi was a 'girl' until like halfway through reading it and from a quick look at the art I totally wouldn't have guessed. Yeah, I'm switching that gender, and that is not something I do often.

I'm also about to start doing this and started prepping as well. Mainly the changes I made were
-Making Kansaldi an Actual threat that's constantly tyranizing the characters
-Making the first dragon reveal much more dramatic and later on
-Buffing Soth because they will actually be able to kill him at that level I don't care what the module thinks
-The Belephion thing is actually such an easy fix: Just let the players do it. Come on, it's a big red button, do you really thing the players are incapable of making ANY decision?
-Also, thanks for the idea of subbing red ruin, I'm stealing that one.

Other than that, I have a handy document detailing, for the players, Kansaldi, and Soth:
-What they want
-What's getting in the way
-What they're going to do about it