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

If so... meh?

 

[Staffan]

Combine this with the $50 adventure that only takes characters to level 5 (Dragon Heist says on the WotC products page that it's an adventure for lvls 1-5. That's $10 per level, and the first three levels of play are really short in 5e.) and I'm not terribly impressed by what's been announced for release this year.

I'll definitely give the products a proper once-over when they arrive at my local hobby shop, but the only one I'm currently thinking I might buy is the 5-20 adventure. Maybe. It depends on how interwoven it is with Waterdeep. I don't play in FR.

My impression of Dragon Heist is that it's at least 50% Waterdeep sourcebook and no more than 50% adventure. Now, if you're not interested in FR, it's probably not the book for you, but saying it's "$10 per level" is implying that it's all adventure and has no value for money at all.

 

[Remathilis]

"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.

I think you're both wrong.

There was some implication of crossover, but aside from a few forum posters here, I never saw any reference to MTG in regards to the setting(s) being revealed.

The only reason we know about Ravnica is because an Amazon store jumped the gun and put a presale up on a physical product that will go on sale in 4 months. We don't know about any classic D&D settings yet because a.) there is no physical product or b.) its release will be in 2019 and thus way too early to put on Amazon. My wager is both.

We could end up with a playtest for Eberron until the book comes out in April of 2019. Or get some sort of web-series detailing different settings. Or a new Manual of the Planes, or a the oft-mentioned "Guide to the D&D Multiverse" style book next year. All of those things could be announced tomorrow and they wouldn't affect the Ravnica stuff this year.

All we know is a.) the Mythical 4th D&D book in 2018 is real and b.) its an MTG crossover setting. We also know Nathan Stewart has heavily implied one or more D&D settings that will satisfy the "hardcore D&D fanbase". This leads me to believe the other shoe will drop.

We WILL get an MTG setting as something new/fresh for D&D.

We WILL get at least one classic setting back in some form or another.

We will know the extent of both tomorrow.

Until then, I remain optimistic for Eberron and Ravnica (perhaps the artificer class can appear in both).

 

[SkidAce]

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.

What if they reveal classic setting tomorrow?

Then it wasn't trolling, right?

Edit: Sorry, I see my point was already addressed.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

My impression of Dragon Heist is that it's at least 50% Waterdeep sourcebook and no more than 50% adventure. Now, if you're not interested in FR, it's probably not the book for you, but saying it's "$10 per level" is implying that it's all adventure and has no value for money at all.

Plus, what other people seem to already be forgetting about Dragon Heist is that it is four separate level 1-5 adventures, one for each season and with four different bosses at the end to deal with.

 

[Dynel]

To each their own and all but this is one I'm going to pass on, if it does indeed turn out to be a Ravnica setting for 5e. It'll be the first official 5e product I don't buy. If WotC feels the need to produce a M:tG-based setting when there's so many cool D&D settings waiting to be released, that's cool I guess. I'd much rather see an old one redone for 5e, but that's my personal opinion.

 

[neogod22]

The only things that are actually official are what comes out in the hardcover books. UA is for playtesting and DMs Guild is mostly unofficial stuff for homebrew.

What's different about this is it comes out at the end of the year after the new season of D&D has already started. Dragon Heist comes out, then Undermountain and this. This being a new setting with new races and a few new class options (I hope I get to use some in AL, even though that may not be available, but we'll see.) I also hope that the colors of magic means something other than flavor. The guild system is interesting and much more fleshed out than the factions in D&D. If for no other reason, I'm getting it because my name will be in it. Lol

 

[vpuigdoller]

I think the mana colors are better handled either by backgrounds, factions or feats than actual magical mechanics.

 

[neogod22]

I think the mana colors are better ha dled either by backgrounds, factions or feats than actual magical mechanics.

I feel like there should be something to the colors. If you're in a red/green guild, and you use red magic, you should maybe get some kind of bonus, like maybe +1 to your spell DC.

 

[DMZ2112]

Third, the ISBN is associated with that book:
https://isbnsearch.org/isbn/9780786966592

This may or may not be relevant, but it doesn't seem to be anymore.

I agree that it is pretty unlikely that this is a fake out, but I'll reserve the bulk of my frustration and disappointment for tomorrow just in case.

 

[Jester David]

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.

So... I got my hopes up and was disappointed. And so I should get my hopes up again?
Won't I likely just be disappointed again?

We could end up with a playtest for Eberron until the book comes out in April of 2019.

Again, there's pretty much no way they'll do two campaign settings back-to-back.
Even if they did decide to risk it, there's not really enough time to playtest a revised Artificer class for April (barely enough for subclasses). It'd be races at best.
Plus, do you remember seeing a Ravnica playtest? Why would we get an Eberron one?

Or get some sort of web-series detailing different settings. Or a new Manual of the Planes, or a the oft-mentioned "Guide to the D&D Multiverse" style book next year.

They've been pretty clear that they're not doing the same books they did previously. So no Manual of the Planes.
And the "Guide to the Multiverse" was half expected by the content we ended up getting in Tome of Foes. The idea of a "big book of setting crunch" is pretty much wishful thinking. Like the requests for more boxed sets.

All of those things could be announced tomorrow and they wouldn't affect the Ravnica stuff this year.

They're not. Because they'll announce the spring 2019 book in January or February of that year.
Anything they announce tomorrow will be the stuff they tease that's coming out this summer. Which, since we don't have Amazon listings or ISBNs, will be digital offerings.

All we know is a.) the Mythical 4th D&D book in 2018 is real and b.) its an MTG crossover setting. We also know Nathan Stewart has heavily implied one or more D&D settings that will satisfy the "hardcore D&D fanbase". This leads me to believe the other shoe will drop.

We WILL get an MTG setting as something new/fresh for D&D.

We WILL get at least one classic setting back in some form or another.

We will know the extent of both tomorrow.

Until then, I remain optimistic for Eberron and Ravnica (perhaps the artificer class can appear in both).

Again, I expect PDFs akin to the MtG Planeshift books, only for the other settings.
Possibly with an updated draft of the artificer. Which won't appear in Ravnica, as there's not enough time to playtest it before it goes to print.