Ravnica: Is This The New D&D Setting? [UPDATED & CONFIRMED!]

If so... meh?

 

[MechaPilot]

I mean, it's not like a single level in DND actually has a set length of time, it's entirely possible that there's an immense amount of low level content in that book where you can play at low level for months with interesting and engaging content. It's not really $ per level that matters, more like $ per session, and even that's kind of dubious. I would be very surprised if that adventure doesn't use milestones to focus in on 1-5 with an experience that would take a normal amount of time for a hardcover.

In fact with the companion book being what it is, I wouldn't be surprised if it had decelerated leveling 1-5, and then accelerated leveling to get players to 10+ or 15+ in the early part of undermountain.

A level doesn't have a set amount of time. It does has a set amount of Xp. That set amount of Xp is earned mostly through encounters, which are going to be spelled out in the adventure (and probably given as random encounters as well), and which can be roughly estimated as to how long they'll take and how many you can fit into a session. If you know your group (as I do mine) it's also fairly easy to assess how quickly they'll go through the story and hit the encounters. Put those estimates together and you can calculate an approximate time for getting through the product.

Without seeing the product, I can't be certain of how long it'll take, but let's look at the starter set. My players made it from first to fifth level in the starter set in about 8 sessions, each of which was 4 hours long. They hit second level at the end of the first session, and third level at the end of session three. So, yes, the early levels go quickly simply because they were built to go quickly. The Xp values on the level progression table, and the fact that many classes don't get defining features (like subclasses) until second or third level is evidence of that.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Gotta admit, I don't like it. Ravnica shouldn't be the first non-Forgotten Realms setting in D&D 5e, and I really hope it's not going to be the *only* non-Faerun setting we see get a full treatment. If it turns out the announcement tomorrow is that they're publishing a full Ravnica setting book and opening Planescape up to the DM's Guild or something but not publishing an actual book for it, I'm not going to be pleased at all.


Yes, cross-promotion/corporate synergy is a good idea and all, but it's not like the Magic the Gathering lore actually matters (or, for the most part, exists). It'd be a lot easier to create a MtG pack based on D&D than the other way around if they wanted to cross-promote, so I'm not certain what their goal is here - though I wouldn't be surprised if the order for cross-promotion came from corporate.

The goal is to sell a $50 book to the gazillions of Magic players with high disposable incomes. That makes a lot more sense businesswise than trying to sell some $4 booster packs to the smaller number of D&D players who may not be as willing to spend as much.

 

[robus]

They've also referenced Curse of Strahd as the model.
So at most I'm expecting a 30-page PDF that is mostly an introductory adventure with very limited new crunch, followed by opening up the DMsGuild and letting the fans do it. At very likely just the latter with the Guild and fans doing the work.
Which is okay, but hasn't exactly resulted in a whole lot of support for the setting or really introduced the setting to new fans as the vast, vast majority of D&D players don't visit the Guild.

I think the issue with Ravenloft is its scope, at least in 5e, is so limited. It’s not a living, breathing world bursting with adventure possibilities. Instead it’s a demiplane focused on a small region bounded by the mists. Basically it’s a setup for a one-shot.

Innistrad, on the other hand, has a similar vibe but has very distinct regions that could host a variety of adventures.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Agreed. I'm hoping we get *something* in the Guild that isn't just "fans can do Eberron now."


There's going to be disappointed people, yes. But people are more upset because we'd spent a month wondering what the announcement would be and staff at WotC spent much of that time teasing up with the possibility it might be something classic.

Had this come out of nowhere, people would be surprised and no one would be disappointed.
Had they instead said "something is coming, and you will be surprised as it's not what you think..." people might be surprised and fewer people would be disappointed.

But, instead, they trolled us. They got people's hopes up. Which has moved some people from unimpressed to pissed off.

"It's not what you think" - that's pretty much the exact words they used.

And there where lots of hints of an original setting, and even more for some kind of crossover - just look back through the earlier threads if you don't believe me.


So there was no foul, no trolling, they played with a perfectly straight bat.

 

[Leatherhead]

I stopped playing M:tG back sometime in 5th edition. Back when WotC said they were never going to do this kind of thing.

Two issues I would have with this:
One. The magical systems in the games follow dissimilar philosophies. Which is a huge deal, seeing as how the 5 types of mana represent the core brand identity of M:tG, and the magic in D&D has always been intentionally weird and slightly incompatible with other known systems for reasons. One way or the other, something is going to lose out.
Two. There are multiple existing metropolitan settings for D&D that feature distinct "clubs" of people. There is a difference in scale, but so much in kind, which is what matters because nobody has the time to explore an entire planet. Additionally, those existing settings will most likely be remembered more favorably in the long run, considering they were more or less tailor made to showcase whatever edition they debuted in, and this is made to showcase M:tG in a totally different mechanical system.

 

[pming]

Hiya!

*shrug* Not interested, but then again I wasn't expecting to be. I haven't bought a single non-core book from WotC (I picked up the spells book and the monsters book from Necromancer Games iirc). The biggest problem I see for the whole Ravnica Planet-Sized City thing is that after an hour or two of DM'ing it me and my players will be thinking...Uh, ok, so why aren't we playing a sci-fi game instead. If I want a huge city with advanced "tech/magic" and so much "diversity" that you might as well not bother to learn or care about anything other than "Whats your name? What do we do? How much are you going to pay?" because of diverse-information-overload...then the setting will fail. At leas for me and my group. The old line from Syndrome still holds true: When everyone is super...no one will be!

A setting needs to have the majority of it be plain, boring, and "common" so that the things that are different stand out. If everything and everyone is "special" with regards to race, guild, political view, religious view, special abilities, hair colour, etc...then people will just ignore all of it and pick a single thing to define that person. "...yeah yeah yeah....bla bla bla...you will be 'pink-haired inn chick', and you will be 'wierd mecha-gnome dude'...how much you gonna pay us?". All that "diversity" will be ignored. At best. At worst, it becomes a running joke or even a point of contention. (I swear, if this Jill person isn't a regular, brown haired blue eyed human female in a plain old dress...I'm gonna scream!).

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm mostly interested in hearing what the two 'other' releases they will announce are going to be. Actually, scratch that, I'm interested in reading about the people who think it's the best idea since the d20 argue and debate with the people who think it's the heralding of the great end times of the RPG industry. I love hearing other peoples views on stuff...even if I'm of a completely opposite mind. Helps keep me grounded in reality (which is usually somewhere in between).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Jester David]

"It's not what you think" - that's pretty much the exact words they used.

And there where lots of hints of an original setting, and even more for some kind of crossover - just look back through the earlier threads if you don't believe me.


So there was no foul, no trolling, they played with a perfectly straight bat.

Except the senior director has trolled the fans repeatedly with suggestions of classic settings:
https://mobile.twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1014196339368812544?s=20
https://mobile.twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1016444525886128128?s=20

He even referred to it as “trolling”:
https://twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1014199261808881664?s=20

There was foul. There was trolling.
He got hopes up. And now I’m disappointed by the reveal.

 

[Parmandur]

So the rumors are panning out. This is exciting, and hardly precludes other setting material, particularly since they have said multiple setting products are in the works.

 

[pkt77242]

Except the senior director has trolled the fans repeatedly with suggestions of classic settings:
https://mobile.twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1014196339368812544?s=20
https://mobile.twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1016444525886128128?s=20

He even referred to it as “trolling”:
https://twitter.com/NathanBStewart/status/1014199261808881664?s=20

There was foul. There was trolling.
He got hopes up. And now I’m disappointed by the reveal.

You are jumping the gun a little. You should wait till the end of tomorrow to see if you are disappointed or not. You are taking one piece of information and making a lot of assumptions based off of it.

In the end you might be correct but at this point you don’t really know that at this point.

 

[Dire Bare]

It's not that we don't want something new, it's that we don't want MtG in our D&D.

"We"? Speak for yourself.

Obviously, not everyone is excited that Ravnica appears to be a new setting for D&D. But some folks are, and some folks are ambivalent. There has never been a strong consensus "we" when it comes to what the fans want WotC to produce for D&D.

(not aimed at MJS in particular, more of a general rant) And, as always, if crossing Magic with D&D isn't your cup of tea . . . stop whining and just don't buy the book! It's okay not to like the idea, it's okay to wish WotC had gone a different direction, it's okay to be bummed by the revelation . . . but some of you guys just turn into big crybabies when you don't get what you want!