Wait... Strixhaven is primarily an adventure module?

[Millstone85]

I was under the impression that Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos would be like Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica and Mythic Odysseys of Theros, a setting book with maybe a short adventure in it.

But I guess I never did read the product page:

"Rollicking campus adventures for the world's greatest roleplaying game"
"Through the book’s multiyear campaign, players begin as first-year students who study, socialize, and adventure their way to graduation."
"Includes four adventures that can be played as stand-alones or woven together to create one campaign taking players from level 1 to level 10."

And I see now that being called "Place: Something" puts it in line with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist or Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

Did anyone else get blinded by the MtG connection?

[Dork_Forge]

Huh, yeah I thought it would be like the other MtG books, but it looks like they went full 'play Hogwarts!' with it, which is... I guess going to confuse but satisfy a lot of people.

[Yakk]

Structuring a university sourcebook as a 4-year campaign makes a lot of sense.

Universities are two things. They are mainly places for the faculty, and they are mainly a sequence of life-events for students. As the perspective is for playing students, an adventure (a sequence of events) format fits it better.

[Sharur]

I expected this (and the level range doesn't surprise me either, its the same as CoS).

I think people buy/like adventures more than setting books, and a good adventure can open up new product opportunities for WOTC in a way that a setting book can't.

What is the best selling "setting book" for 5e? Ravnica? Theros? Are there any follow ups (that wouldn't be done without that product; I don't count SCAG as WOTC can sell a FR adventure without SCAG, even one set in the Sword Coast)? Anything that they can build on that, that benefits from having a setting book?

I'd say the best selling adventure is CoS (or at least the most talked about). What follow ups does it have? A special pack of cards, a second/revised edition, the VRGtR "spin off", and possibly future adventures. To say nothing of Adventure's League scenarios, and support for Adventurer's League (which, in addition to potentially bringing new people in, was also a boon for FLGS, which are/were WOTC partners for their real money-maker MTG).

That said, I'm dreading it, because they seem to have gone "full mage" for Strixhaven; which is fine for MTG and if you want to play a mage only campaign. But it would have been easy, in my opinion to convert MTG Strixhaven Mage's College into D&D Strixhaven Adventuring Academy; judging by the UA, they are very much not doing that.

[Millstone85]

I think people buy/like adventures more than setting books, and a good adventure can open up new product opportunities for WOTC in a way that a setting book can't.I, for one, am no longer going to buy this book, if so much of it must be about who can be found in room A134 at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday. :smallsigh:

[KorvinStarmast]

Huh, yeah I thought it would be like the other MtG books, but it looks like they went full 'play Hogwarts!' with it, which is... I guess going to confuse but satisfy a lot of people. I'll offer a guess: WoTC looks at how many people in their target demographic liked Harry Potter books and movies. And they decided "a lot" and so they decided to give their version of that.

Hence the UA for Strixhaven has nothing useful for martials.

Quelle Surprise :smallyuk:

[Thunderous Mojo]

I think people buy/like adventures more than setting books, and a good adventure can open up new product opportunities for WOTC in a way that a setting book can't

I agree. There really isn't that much implied flavor from the MtG Strixhaven set, in my opinion, not like Ravinica, that works as a D&D world.

I would much rather WOTC show players how Strixhaven is through actual play as a module...instead of just text on a page. Hopefully it will be a good adventure.


That said, I'm dreading it, because they seem to have gone "full mage" for Strixhaven; which is fine for MTG and if you want to play a mage only campaign. But it would have been easy, in my opinion to convert MTG Strixhaven Mage's College into D&D Strixhaven Adventuring Academy; judging by the UA, they are very much not doing that.

Magic and spell use is so prevalent in 5e, that any class can, with just a free Magic Initiate or Ritual Caster feat, feel at home at a place like a center of Magical Learning.

I've DM'd a Gnome Totem Barbarian that had the Sage Background that was based off Professor Sprout from the Harry Potter books. Thistle Loveblossom, (the character's name), was no Conan the Barbarian....but it did convey the idea of a cursed and hapless academic that was surprisingly lucky, and resilient in an Inspector Clouseau sort of fashion.

The PC was not a power gaming, powerhouse, but it was effective, and was a Role Playing Power House.

Druids and Clerics are plenty magical enough already. EKs and ATs abound already, Pallys have a good spell list, and the Fey Wanderer Ranger would excel adventuring with an Enchanter. Modify the 4e monk by making them Arcane Monks and add spells such as Counterspell to a 4e Monk....and you have a person that can turn on or turn off Magic at will.

I think it can work. I certainly hope it does.

[quindraco]

I was under the impression that Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos would be like Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica and Mythic Odysseys of Theros, a setting book with maybe a short adventure in it.

But I guess I never did read the product page:

"Rollicking campus adventures for the world's greatest roleplaying game"
"Through the book’s multiyear campaign, players begin as first-year students who study, socialize, and adventure their way to graduation."
"Includes four adventures that can be played as stand-alones or woven together to create one campaign taking players from level 1 to level 10."

And I see now that being called "Place: Something" puts it in line with Waterdeep: Dragon Heist or Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus.

Did anyone else get blinded by the MtG connection?

Things are going to get very weird if the PCs go to level 10 but the book has statted professors. Most of the tropes of these magic academy stories break down in the face of an actually intelligent adventuring party, but things go absolutely pear-shaped if students are level 10.

[Unoriginal]

Things are going to get very weird if the PCs go to level 10 but the book has statted professors. Most of the tropes of these magic academy stories break down in the face of an actually intelligent adventuring party, but things go absolutely pear-shaped if students are level 10.

Teachers don't have to be more powerful than students, though. And there can be teachers that are super badasses far above lvl 10 characters too.

I agree with your point on magic academy story tropes breaking when confronted by an adventuring party, though. But I'm not going to complain if WotC tries to tackle a challenge and something new.

I may be disappointed if they don't succeed at the challenge they gave themselves, but won't fault them for trying.

[Lord Vukodlak]

I think they’re actually copying the Humblewood route. Where the adventure path primarily teaches you about the setting.

If you want to detail a small region(like a school)an adventure path is probably better then a text book. It’s likely the book is designed to slot the school into more then one campaign setting.

And just because it’s slotted to 10th level doesn’t mean your students the whole time. You may return as teachers or as graduates called back to solve and issue.

[Lord Raziere]

Most of the tropes of these magic academy stories break down in the face of an actually intelligent adventuring party, but things go absolutely pear-shaped if students are level 10.

Yeah, thats pretty much the problem with all fictional plots really. Players are either more intelligent than any fictional protagonist or have seen the plot before, so they're going to fail one way or another most of the time, but if your lucky you'll get someone who knows the plot but wants to play along and so knows the right beats to do it in a way thats still smart.

[Millstone85]

I agree. There really isn't that much implied flavor from the MtG Strixhaven set, in my opinion, not like Ravinica, that works as a D&D world.

I would much rather WOTC show players how Strixhaven is through actual play as a module...instead of just text on a page. Hopefully it will be a good adventure.So, what I am getting from your comment is that the only interesting characters for Strixhaven would be students freshly planeshifted (planeswalked?) to this strange new place. Thus, no need for players to have any prior knowledge of the setting or of how their characters could tie into it.

Well, okay. But in contrast, I just don't get why Curse of Strahd was released so long before Van Richten's. I feel that, as a non-DMing player, I have no business reading or even owning the former, while I bought the latter as soon as it was availble at my local store.

[Lord Vukodlak]

So, what I am getting from your comment is that the only interesting characters for Strixhaven would be students freshly planeshifted (planeswalked?) to this strange new place. Thus, no need for players to have any prior knowledge of the setting or of how their characters could tie into it.

Well, okay. But in contrast, I just don't get why Curse of Strahd was released so long before Van Richten's. I feel that, as a non-DMing player, I have no business reading or even owning the former, while I bought the latter as soon as it was availble at my local store.
For one thing CoS is a classic adventure module, and traditionally most Ravenloft adventures are temporary trips.

But that aside what I think the poster is saying,
Strixhaven doesn't work as a campaign setting its a school not a WORLD, its not even a country. The world would be Arcavios but that's not the book being published. Maybe Aravios will come latter if Strix does well or maybe the book is designed to slot Strix into other settings.

As I said in my first post, The Humblewood Campaign setting book is largely an adventure path, it has eighty pages on the world, about a hundred pages on the adventure path. Then forty pages on various appendixes of monsters, npc's magic items
Strixhaven may be doing the same thing, the first part will tell you the basic information about the school,

[Yakk]

The implied Strixhaven plot in the MtG card game (as revealed by card flavor text) is pretty bloody.

The teachers at Strixhaven include at least one of the most powerful beings in the MtG mythos, hiding as a professor.

If you take the adventures in the forgotten realms stats as an idea of what the power scale is, a powerful lich is a 3/3 creature in MtG, and the professors and deans vary from 1/1 to 4/4ish, plus planeswalkers. All of them are not mainly "beef" (their non-combat abilities are more important than their power and toughness); so they look like CR 5 to 25ish in D&D 5e terms.

(The groundskeeper is a 5/5, the cook a 5/3)

The dragons (heads of houses) are (2-5)/(4-5), and also have what appears to be insane magical abilities.

Students are usually in the 1/1 to 3/2 range.

The level range sort of checks out.

[Azuresun]

That said, I'm dreading it, because they seem to have gone "full mage" for Strixhaven; which is fine for MTG and if you want to play a mage only campaign. But it would have been easy, in my opinion to convert MTG Strixhaven Mage's College into D&D Strixhaven Adventuring Academy; judging by the UA, they are very much not doing that.

No you're not. A book that you have no use for will come out, you'll ignore it or spend your money on something else, and those who like it will have fun playing wizards in the setting that was described from the very start as wizard school. Dial down the hyperbole a notch?

I'm normally not interested in adventure books, but they make the most sense for something like this, I guess. I just hope there's enough info elsewhere to run the setting beyond the adventure and it doesn't have any obvious "power-level the PC's past level 1" parts.

[Luccan]

I, for one, am no longer going to buy this book, if so much of it must be about who can be found in room A134 at 7 p.m. on a Wednesday. :smallsigh:

To be fair, if I were buying a setting book about a magic university, I'd actually like it to include a general idea of the faculty's schedules and where/when specific classes are held

[Thunderous Mojo]

.
But that aside what I think the poster is saying,
Strixhaven doesn't work as a campaign setting its a school not a WORLD, its not even a country. The world would be Arcavios but that's not the book being published. Maybe Aravios will come latter if Strix does well or maybe the book is designed to slot Strix into other settings.,

Yes to this....much clearer, and more succinct than what I wrote. 👍

The Adventure Path direction broadens the product's potential use....Strixhaven can become Arcantrix in Eberron or the Cormyrian War College in the FR...fairly easily...I hope.