Quote Originally Posted by Telesphoros View Post
Thanks for that, haven't delved too deep into the Candlekeep anthology. I do dislike that it doesn't have an appendix in the back, and all the new monster stat blocks and new magic items are printed in the section of the story itself. I foresee lots of page flipping.




That Kaldheim card art is pretty awesome too ;) I am pretty sure that Tony DiTerlizzi will be doing some of the M:TG Adventures in the Forgotten Realms card art. He's shown up a lot in the past year drawing stuff, and when Planescape fans asked him if it was for a new Planescape setting he confided it was for a M:TG card set crossover with D&D. Makes sense since he's done M:TG card art and worked on D&D projects before.





I doubt they'll convert every D&D setting to 5e. I think the ones that have the best shot are the ones that get constantly mentioned in the Core books and Adventure books on where to place those adventures. And even then I think some might get left out depending on how long 5e lasts. At some point they're probably going to churn out a lot of Forgotten Realms sub-settings.

Dominaria was converted already with the other Planeshift entries. But yeah, I agree a lot of their settings probably have difficulty crossing over. Why I mentioned it would have been cool if they had a D&D derivative game for the M:TG settings. Come out with a Planeswalker core book and have Dominaria be the first setting since it's the nexus of that multiverse.

I'm still leaning towards a Kaldheim book. I know it's new and untested, but no other settings make sense for awhile in M:TG and since Kaldheim is based on Norse mythology (like Theros was based on Greek mythology) I don't see having to make up that much ground. The card art is spot on for that Viking vibe. Theros was released in hardback last year in July... increased cadence, I can see them releasing a July hardback for M:TG every July from now on.

In regards to James Wyatt and Planeshift, yup, unofficial for D&D, but he was working on the M:TG side of the house at that time after he left the D&D team. Those years (2016, 2017, 2018 first half of the year) were all the Planeshift releases. And James Wyatt was the author of those associated "The Art of Magic: The Gathering - (Setting Name)" books. He came back to D&D in 2018. And since then it's been one D&D book a year from him as a Lead Designer. Here, I'll spell out exactly why I see Kaldheim coming down the pipeline:


2018 Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica ==> Lead Designers: James Wyatt, Jeremy Crawford
Associated UA: Races of Ravnica by James Wyatt, Ari Levitch, Jeremy Crawford

2019 Eberron: Rising From The Last War ==> Lead Designers: Jeremy Crawford, James Wyatt, Keith Baker
Associated UA1: The Artificer Revisited by Jeremy Crawford, Keith Baker, Mike Mearls, Ben Petrisor, James Wyatt
Associated UA2: The Artificer Returns by Jeremy Crawford, Keith Baker, Mike Mearls, Ben Petrisor, James Wyatt

2020 Mythic Odysseys of Theros ==> Lead Designers: F. Wesley Schneider, James Wyatt
Associated UA: Centaurs and Minotaurs by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, James Wyatt

So I'm thinking something gets released with James Wyatt as a Lead Designer in 2021. He worked on the original Eberron Campaign setting so makes sense he was in on this one too. I'm expecting 2021 to look like this:

2021 *Epic Sojourns of KALDHEIM* ==> Lead Designers: Dan Dillon, James Wyatt
Associated UA: 2020: Subclasses, Part 5 by Dan Dillon, with Jeremy Crawford, Ben Petrisor, Taymoor Rehman, and James Wyatt

The above 5 UAs are the only UAs associated with James Wyatt. He's been a Lead Designer on all those projects for the first 4 UAs listed. Now, he's also worked on a lot of other D&D Settings, but the telling thing with the Subclasses UA is that Dan Dillon is listed as primary author. Dan Dillon previously worked at Kobold Press and worked heavily on various titles in their Norse setting, Midgard. The Theros card set was released in January last year with a book in July, so since Kaldheim's card set was released back in January and early February I think July might be the release date. I'll admit that the Dan Dillon entry and James Wyatt's previous releases play a big part on why I think it'll be Kaldheim. But not the only reasons. Taymoor Rehman's blurb in the latest Dragon+ reads "Taymoor works with the creative teams behind D&D and Magic: The Gathering." There's that M:TG thing again. Ben Petrisor also worked on the UA "Spells and Magic Tattoos" so I'm hoping maybe there will be more of the tattooed flavor magic and runes. Finally, a 2009 James Wyatt interview sticks in my mind where he says he wants to work on new settings. He goes on to say he likes Ravenloft, but not as a setting. Spelljammer he has no great love for. He never got into Mystara. Greyhawk is not a huge personal favorite. And so on. All which leads me to think Kaldheim is the only thing that fits here and checks all the boxes.





Yeah, the BG3 thing and the other Spelljammer pointers make me think it's going to come out at some point as one of those Classic Setting entries. Maybe they wait on Dragonlance until all the books are released as some have been saying. The 40th anniversary of the creation of Dragonlance is coming up next year (1982-2022). Might be a good time to release something end of year.

Interesting list of rankings. It does amaze me how many cool things came out during 2nd edition. I can see Greyhawk just get mentions in other 5e works like characters, spell names, adventures and whatnot without ever being released as a setting again since Gygax passed. I still have my doubts Dark Sun gets released as a setting for 5e. It's just so different with races and classes that it might be a turnoff when someone wants to play a race and/or class combination that doesn't fit in Dark Sun. It's also meant to be harsh and deadly, and I don't see 5e's rules gelling so well with it. I love the setting and still have fun with the second edition version, but I can see a lot of players, especially newer ones maybe not receiving it so well. I would hate to see them release a watered down version.





Would a Kara-Tur or Al-Qadim or larger Forgotten Realms setting book surprise me? Nope, not really. I just think it might be a little later down the road, early next year, maybe even November this year. Especially since the M:TG crossovers came out months before the hardback. FR M:TG crossover comes out in July, so the timing would add up.

Of course jaappleton did say his guess was Kara-Tur. So I'm probably just flat out wrong and we'll see it in July, lol.




It is fun to speculate, look around for clues, and discuss upcoming releases.
Darksun is no worse then Theros or Ravnica for race restrictions and its art style would look great on MtG cards. Preserving and Defiling would make very interesting keyword mechanics. I could see Defiling tapping an enemies land. And Preserving might reduce mana costs.

You've actually convinced me even more that there will be an FR book in July.

1. James Wyatt has written major FR books before, Player's Guide to the Forgotten Realms in 2004, and Monster Compendium: Monsters of the Forgotten Realms, as well as FR articles for Dragon Magazine.

2. Subclasses part 5 does not fit Kaldheim at all, the subclasses lore does fit FR to a T. Kaldheim does have beautiful Dragons, but they are a minor Kaldheim race, not one of the big 10 races. There are 2 Kaldheim dragon cards, the Innersturm Dragon and Goldspan Dragon (which btw I got in a $7cad Red Theme Booster, its worth $32cad), and one human Bezerker (Barbarian in D&D terms) that makes Dragon tokens. If the Dragon subclasses were for Kaldheim one of them would have been a Barbarian.

3. I do believe Kaldheim was designed to be turned into a D&D setting someday, but not on its first release. I think Kaldheim was first MtG setting created with an eye toward eventually converting it to D&D, Mark Rosewater has said Kaldheim that new settings no longer get multiple sets until WotC can see how folks respond to the setting, so I think that logic applies to a D&D hardcover. Next time we visit Kaldheim, that will give them a chance to fill the Setting out more now that its been tested.

4. James Wyatt will absolutely be helping with the D&D Forgotten Realms MtG set, he has experience in D&D, The Forgotten Realms Lore, and MtG, and the MtG and D&D teams have worked together on this project, like they did in previous crossovers. No way James Wyatt isn't apart of that.

You add 1 and 4 together it adds up to James Wyatt helping to make an FR world book.

As for Tony DiTerlizzi, MtG sets art gets commissioned roughly a year before the set actually comes out from what I hear, so depending on when he posted that it could be for the FR set OR it could be confirmation of an MtG Planescape set in 2022 (Planescape would have been my second choice for the next D&D MtG set, its got alot of distinctive art styles and weird creatures and monster types that would fit into MtG, like Demogorgan). When was the tweet?