MTG setting

[Chadamantium]

There was speculation a while back that Wizards was going to bring one of the planes from Magic: The Gathering in as a campaign setting. Has there been anything on that lately?

Quick note that I know about people making their own campaigns from MTG. I been really enjoying the Innistrad campaign Dralnu made.

[Dralnu]

First, I'm glad you're enjoying the adventure!

Second, here is the latest response we've got from Mike Mearls on the topic. (https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2l69tp/ama_mike_mearls_codesigner_of_dd_5_head_of_dd_rd/cls0zc0)

He seems to indicate that both the D&D and Magic teams would need to collaborate in order to make a Magic setting happen. I'm not sure why, unless he meant coordinating the release of a new Magic setting on both D&D and Magic platforms -- which would be an AWESOME and BRILLIANT move, in my opinion.

As for porting existing Magic settings, it seems possible but unlikely, since he indicates many other classic D&D settings have priority to be ported first, and at the slow rate they're going it would be a loooong time before they got to any Magic setting.

[Cybren]

First, I'm glad you're enjoying the adventure!

Second, here is the latest response we've got from Mike Mearls on the topic. (https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/2l69tp/ama_mike_mearls_codesigner_of_dd_5_head_of_dd_rd/cls0zc0)

He seems to indicate that both the D&D and Magic teams would need to collaborate in order to make a Magic setting happen. I'm not sure why, unless he meant coordinating the release of a new Magic setting on both D&D and Magic platforms -- which would be an AWESOME and BRILLIANT move, in my opinion.

As for porting existing Magic settings, it seems possible but unlikely, since he indicates many other classic D&D settings have priority to be ported first, and at the slow rate they're going it would be a loooong time before they got to any Magic setting.

the magic the gathering people are very against "crossing the streams", for what it's worth. They want to keep the brands separate.

[kaoskonfety]

the magic the gathering people are very against "crossing the streams", for what it's worth. They want to keep the brands separate.

and I kinda get why? D&D wouldn't even notice a bit more cross branding, but it might take some teeth out of MTG.

And if they released some new crossover setting before doing at least a core for Ravenloft I'd lynch them myself. :smallbiggrin:

[Dralnu]

I'm not sure I follow with the cross branding problem. Could someone please elaborate for me?

My idea is that Magic has a huge fanbase, while D&D 5e has a far smaller one that might benefit from the crossover. While the Magic team releases an expansion like Battle for Zendikar block, some time during that half year run, the D&D team releases a miniature "Zendikar Setting Guide," possibly electronic only Unearthed Arcanas, detailing the geography / people and maybe offering a little bit of new mechanics like a new race or spells. Half the guide would already be written because the Magic team releases an online "Planeswalker's Guide to Zendikar," which is ~20 pages of lore material you could just port over. Also attach a short level 1 adventure that takes place in Zendikar. Hopefully that reels in the people who wanted to try out D&D and the Magic setting was the nudge they needed to go out and do it.

[Chadamantium]

I'm not seeing cross branding as a problem. I highly doubt Magic would be losing it's fanbase to dnd over this. The only thing I could see is consumers having a finite amount money to either spend on dnd or magic. but Wizards would still be making money off of it and those that can afford both make them even more money.

I can understand they have other settings they want to cover before moving onto new material. Just wanted to see if there were updates.

I wonder if planeswalkers would be included in the setting.

[MrConsideration]

It might be very good for D&D if they launched a M:tG setting with some unique classes and races and so on - M:tG's fanbase is huge in comparison to D&D.

Plus, being a serious contender for M:tG is incredibly - prohibitively - expensive. Not so for D&D, which is also more group friendly. In our club, there's a group of 5 people who play Magic and there's always one staring and drooling in boredom or being relegated to getting the beers in.

I don't even play Magic (aside from the PC games) but I'd probably buy a Ravnica or Innistrad setting book over Forgettable Realms or Generichawk.

[Soular]

Brilliant topic, Chadamantium!

I have often speculated about this very subject, and am glad to read other people's perceptions and opinions on it, especially Mearle's.

I stopped playing M:tG many years ago, but I kept a number of cards (especially artifacts, creatures, and lands) to use as inspiration for magic items, creatures, heroes, and fantastic locations my D&D game. Who the hell wouldn't want to adventure in some dystopian world based on The Brothers' War? For example, I use enchantments like Bad Moon to describe a sinister, evil night where evil creatures gain the benefit of an environmental bless spell. It helps set the tone and make my players feel threatened in a way that just casting Bless on the baddies doesn't.

While on the subject, I got lucky in that none of my gaming buddies are WoW players. So I have cribbed a metric sh!t-ton of ideas from that franchise too. From the shattered planet of Draenor, to the Tuskarrs, and from the flightless Arakkoa with their Terokk mythology to Illidan and the Black Temple, I have used a lot of Blizzard's creation to fill my game world.

@Dralnu: That Innistrad campaign is sick! I am really enjoying reading it, and am looking for ways to incorporate some of your ideas into my own games, both as a DM and as a player.

[MrConsideration]

I've seen a few people use M:tG cards to randomly generate whole adventures, dungeons, treasure and monsters. It's a great tool for random generation which is a lot more evocative than tables.

[Warwick]

I don't even play Magic (aside from the PC games) but I'd probably buy a Ravnica or Innistrad setting book over Forgettable Realms or Generichawk.

It's a shame more isn't done with MtG settings, really, because a lot of them a lot more interesting and inventive than the standard fantasy settings. Ravnica is a stand-out example, as are Zendikar, Rath, Phyrexia, and Mirrodin.

On the other hand, for a lot of them you'd need to significantly retool either the setting or DnD if you wanted to try and represent them mechanically.


I'm not sure I follow with the cross branding problem. Could someone please elaborate for me?

It isn't perhaps quite the same thing, but there's probably legitimate concern at Wizards that all an MtG RPG would do is cannibalize sales.

[Scarab112]

A big issue I could see with it is that magic in D&D doesn't work similarly to magic in MTG.

In MTG, most non-planeswalkers only know a handful of spells, if that. Your typical D&D wizard is already a league above in that regard.

Magic is also divided by color, sometimes referred to as schools, and there is far less crossover between these. You'd need to completely change how spell lists function to get everything into a proper category.

The last big thing is mana vs. spell slots. For MTG casters, having mana of a certain color is pretty important. It's never been made overly clear, but most casters can use hefty amounts of their preferred spells so long as there's enough ambient mana of the type they need. Spell slots, or even spell points, wouldn't fit their style.

[Freelance GM]

I had a talk with an FLGS owner about this the first time the rumors went around. So, I have no clue how accurate/credible it is, but here's his argument:

If you made a crossover, then apparently the legal rights may get incredibly sticky. What if, in the future, they do a D&D/MtG crossover, and then a decade later, Wizards got sick of D&D and sold it to Paizo?

Paizo would get the rights to D&D settings and characters like Elminster, but Elminster has his own Magic card and a book from the crossover set. So, could Wizards continue to use Elminster, since he's now part of both IP's, kind of like how Age of Ultron and Days of Future Past both used Quicksilver? Would they keep the rights to Elminster, but not Drizzt, or would Paizo get exclusive rights to both of those characters?

Apparently, the answer lies within a dark legal rabbit-hole Wizards would really prefer not to get into, since it's completely preventable.

[AirApparent]

Considering it doesn't look like WOTC will be doing a crossover...How would we mechanically represent planeswalkers and many of the other things in Magic?

I'm unsure if trying to fit mana into the d&d framework would really work, and splitting up spells/feats/classes by color has always come off as choppy and/or arbitrary, but the five-color alignment system is one of my favorites, especially opposed to the basic D&D alignments.

And I would love to play in/run a planeswalker game set in the MTG multiverse.

[Dralnu]

The mechanics of a planeswalker spark is very easy to represent in MTG: a PC with an awakened spark has the ability to cast plane shift, targeting only themselves, once per long rest without requiring material components. It works wonderfully with what we know of post-Mending walkers and how they planeswalk: they don't seem to have any of the augmented powers that pre-Mending walkers had, and when they planeswalk they don't land exactly where they want to, but somewhere close enough to their destination. They also need some time to "gather their mana," attune to the ley-lines of the plane, in order to perform the jump -- it's not something they can do right on the spot, one jump after the other.

Going beyond that, trying to add colors to D&D and all that, is a complete mess. I wouldn't bother. You can have all the flavor of Magic in a D&D setting without worrying about changing the fundamentals of D&D to accomodate Magic mechanics.

[D.U.P.A.]

MtG setting is pretty much quite compatible with d&d (especially when Eberron comes out), so it should be easy to convert stuff by basically homebrewing without even changing mechanics. Maybe some monsters should be changed, but everything can be refluffed. Both even have Fantasy gun control (except Portal). Honestly, converting to Warhammer would be harder.