MtG RPG?

[An Enemy Spy]

So, I was thinking about MtG today, and wondering why it never had an RPG spinoff. After all, it's owned by Wizards of the Coast and it has a setting absolutely ripe for having adventures in.

So here's some of my ideas.

Instead of alignment systems, you have colors. White, Blue, Black, Red and Green. There is no Good or Evil, just the colors, and each one with it's own ideology. It seems simpler to base a character off of these anyway.

Classes would be based off colors too. Clerics are White, Druids are Green and so on. And each class has abilities based off its colors, maybe having spells and abilities based off the actual cards to an extent.

I think this would be something fun to design with you, the Playground.

I will update this post when I have a more concrete idea to work with. In the meantime, feel free to make suggestions.

[Logic]

I have always wanted to play Magic: The Gathering*. But seeing as I am currently fond of my financial well-being, I have never risked getting into this hobby.

That being said, I have always been interested in the setting in which MtG takes place. I would love to see an RPG based on the setting, and borrowing from the mechanics couldn't hurt.

*For the record, I know how to play a game of Magic, I just don't own any cards to continually play.

[atomicpenguin]

I've actually been thinking about this a great deal lately and in my ponderings I've come to a few conclusions about this idea:

1) You cannot make a single setting out of the entire multiverse. Rather, it seems to me that it makes more sense to make each plane into its own distinct setting and let players use it as a module. So for gamers inclined towards horror games, let them run Innistrad. For Pulpy urban politics games, Ravnica. And so on. As for planeswalking, maybe make a different book that focuses on the travel between planes and how to run campaigns that take place on multiple planes. My point is, it seems like it would be wise here to pick a plane that makes for good, generic fantasy gameplay, fully develop that setting, then move on to another.

2) No planeswalkers, no summoners. At least not at the base level. Having characters with that kind of power from the get go upsets the balance of the world too greatly, in my opinion. Instead, let players start with the usual starting classes (the dungeons and dragon classes are pretty good for this), then make planeswalkers a form of prestige class. Summoners would require some work to bang out the mechanics, but it could be doable.

3) Don't use the cards. I had a friend that really wanted to make an RPG where you played with a real deck of MtG cards. There are so many problems though with how the cards are generated, how the stats transfer to whatever system you use, etc. that it seems way easier to just do without. Use an existing system that plays well in fantasy games and draw inspiration from the cards. It'll be a lot of homebrewing to make it work, but I still say it beats homebrewing a system designed to put a square peg in a circular hole.

4) Learn from Legend of the 5 Rings. Lot5R was another card game that did make an RPG based on the existing canon. But they made mistakes that we can learn from. Namely, the details of the world of Lot5R were made as a backdrop for the actual card game that was being played and the stories therein were neither developed nor important to the game. So, when this canon was imported into the RPG, what we were left with was a world that was colorful and detailed, but completely devoid of life. We knew what was there, but there was no real story to live out. So, when designing the planes from MtG, think about who the major players are, the important people and factions. Think about what they want. Think about who the players could be and what they might want to do.

[An Enemy Spy]

'Kay, here's an idea. At the beginning of your character build, you choose your color. You can either be one color, or you can be a combination of two. The classes you can choose are dependent on your character's color. For example, if you want to be a Barbarian, you must be either Red or Green. You can be a Red/Blue or a Green/White or whatever, but at least one of your character's colors must be one of those two.
Here's a list of classes I've come up with initially. None of these are necessarily permanent and you can come up with other ones.

Paladin: White
Sage: Blue
Necromancer: Black
Blastercaster: Red
Druid: Green
Spy: Blue/Black
Warrior: White/Red
Cleric: White/Black
Barbarian: Red/Green

I also have a list of races that would be be good
Humans
Elves
Vedalkin
Dwarves
Goblins
Faeries
Leonin
Rhox

[Zovc]

Poke around in this old community (http://community.wizards.com/planeswalker) on the wizards forums. A few years ago I was trying to help Optimus21 crystallize and evaluate his ideas for a game system. You ought to be able to find his most recent rules .pdf.

http://community.wizards.com/planeswalker

I really liked where he was going with it.

Last time I tried getting in touch with him, I'm pretty sure he responded, so don't hesitate to try!