X Marks the Spot: What's This Magic: The Gathering D&D Adventure?

PAX Unplugged (a US convention) took place this weekend. These photos were taken by Robert Adducci. "A prison escape for an unlikely group of heroes turns into a race for an ancient relic sought by the Legion of Dusk. Can you brave the unknown and capture the treasure before the enemy does? This Dungeons & Dragons adventure is set on the plane of Ixalan from Magic: The Gathering. It uses 4th-level characters provided with the adventure."

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[cbwjm]

For me? Yeah, those immunities and other color based effects would matter a lot. Without them, the feel would be different- it would be a lot harder to explain a tiny pixie fending off an attacking red dragon, after all...

Or how it is that the necromancer and many of his minions are virtually powerless against a paladin...

Fair enough, add them in. I do think that with the various colours and abilities added in that you can run into some fairly ridiculous situations that you would have to look out for. You could have a white knight and a black knight squaring off and all they wouldn't even be able to taunt the other to hurt their feelings. Some of the abilities in MtG work for the card game but don't make a heck of a lot of sense in an RPG. A tiny pixie I think shouldn't be able to fend off a red dragon, I could see the pixie perhaps having an ability that makes them resistant or immune to their fire breath but immune to the dragons teeth and claws? Unless you gave the dragon abilities like: Breath Weapon (Red), Claws (Colourless) so that while the dragon counts as a red creature, not all of its attacks count as red.

Definitely each player/group would have a different level of MtG that would need to be brought in, I think I just prefer a slightly modded version of the planeshift documents, they don't even split magic into colours, they just present the worlds as places to play in using the standard DnD framework. I think mainly I want magic split between colours because that gives me a reason to come up with some new subclasses or other mechanics.

 

[Sunseeker]

Personally, I think the spell-points mechanic is more appropriate to MTG than spell slots.

It also depends on if we want players to feel like the Iconic Planeswalkers of MTG lore (who are more sorcerers) or if we want them to feel like the MTG player. For the MTG player feel, traditional vancian casting based of wizard spellcasting would give a very "deck building" vibe. I don't however, think this is appropriate for the feel of PCs in the game, who IMO should come across feeling more like the Ionic Planeswalkers.

That said, I would suggest that we use the spell-point system and a hybrid of sorcerers and wizards. You prepare your spells, but you can cast as many of any one of them as you want, as long as you have the mana. You could spend all day casting Fireball, or cast a more nuanced set of spells, as if your want since Planeswalkers are shown to have innate sorcerous abilities, but also some ability to learn new spells in the way a Wizard does. Spells would all be assigned a color (based on the way the spell works, or it's outcome or whatever) and would be assigned a cost based on spell-level. You could integrate some of the alternate mana (such a phyrexian mana) fairly easily. Mana you don't specify to be a certain color would be "colorless". Magical items would likewise be given a "mana cost" to use them.

Certain classes would have mana restrictions, paladins for example may only be able to access 2 colors (Vengeance: Red/White. Ancients: Green/White. etc...) Classes that don't use spells would be given a monk-like ki system, less mana but your abilities cost less, and you are very limited on what you can do. Clerics would have access to mana based on their deities. Wizard schools would give specific bonuses to mana, IE: if you're an Illusionist you get +1 Blue mana to your mana pool /level, or spells that require blue mana cost 1 less.

I don't feel like MTG: D&D should feel like playing the card game, it should feel like playing D&D in the MTG settings with MTG flavor and variant rules.

 

[cbwjm]

Surely these can all be captured as Druid variants with new spell lists for each mana type? And you’d get adantage on casting if you’re in your favored terrain and disadvantage if you’re in hostile terrain?

I’m away from books at the mo, but I’m intrigued by this idea. A good thanksgiving project!

I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with, I love seeing homebrewed content, especially if it is something that ties into another interest.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You could have a white knight and a black knight squaring off and all they wouldn't even be able to taunt the other to hurt their feelings.

A complaint that goes back to Alpha, but so what? MtG Paladins don’t really heal. As mentioned, mana doesn’t map well vs a slot mechanic. Spells aren’t limited by class, but what kind of mana you can draw upon. And with enough of it, any “caster” can destroy lands.

Literally.

If you want to be as true to the card game as possible, a MtG RPG won’t feel like D&D with alternate rules. It won’t feel like Earthdawn with alternate rules. It won’t feel like a Runequest variant either. It will feel like MtG.

 

[cbwjm]

A complaint that goes back to Alpha, but so what? MtG Paladins don’t really heal. As mentioned, mana doesn’t map well vs a slot mechanic. Spells aren’t limited by class, but what kind of mana you can draw upon. And with enough of it, any “caster” can destroy lands.

Literally.

If you want to be as true to the card game as possible, a MtG RPG won’t feel like D&D with alternate rules. It won’t feel like Earthdawn with alternate rules. It won’t feel like a Runequest variant either. It will feel like MtG.

Oh I agree, if that's what you want then go hard. I'd just prefer my knights of white and black to be able to fight each other which is why I'd rather interpret the spirit of MtG while still using DnD, though I'd also probably also switch to spell points instead of spell slots. I'm pretty sure it would still feel like MtG even if I haven't used a strict interpretation of the CCG mechanics.

The signature of champions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Don’t get me wrong, I changed some things when I did some work on a Fantasy HERO version of a MtG setting. I didn’t always agree with the home or tournament rulings on mechanics, so that was inevitable.

But the thing is, there’s enough stuff in MtG that things like the black knight/white knight faceoff could still happen under certain conditions. I’m blocking on its name, but there’s an artifact that renders all permanents in play colorless- say goodbye to Protection from______ negating creature damage. Thus, the knights come to blows, and it’s mutually assured destruction (barring any other effects being laid upon them).

Another objection to using D&D rules as opposed to a toolbox or bespoke system is that certain colors’ & artifacts’ shticks would be much mutilated or nerfed. Consider blue, black, or artifact hand/deck manipulation. What about the different ways in which creatures get summoned. Hell...look at how much of MtG is centered around summoning.

Or what about temporarily or “permanently” cutting someone off from all or some of their mana supply, and thus, their magic. There are ways to do this in HERO, for sure, and probably other toolbox games as well.

 

[cbwjm]

There are summoning spells in DnD. I'd leave them for summoning get creatures and animals for green, celestials for white, demons for black, and elementals fronted and blue. Black can also animate/create undead. Updates to some 2e spells would bring back a feeling for deck manipulation but again, playing like you have a hand of spell cards and a deck isn't what I would bring into a MtG adaptation. If I wanted that, I'd just play MtG.

The signature of champions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

There are, but some of the ones in MtG would be akin to “Summon Tarrasque Herd”.

 

[CubicsRube]

At the moment there is 8 schools of magic that cross class boundaries. Perhaps they could be tweaked in the absence of basically writing a whole new spellbook?

You could have:
Red - evocation
Blue - illusion
Green - conjuration and transmutation
White - divination and abjuration
Black - necromancy and enchantment

Would not be perfect but could be thematic.

Any other working i think would require such a change that itd be honestly easier to make a new class and set of skills (planeswalker class wotc??)

 

[CubicsRube]

I think the hardest part wpuld be knowing where to stop. I loved a lot of the suggestions upforum, but that is a whole lot of work and really changes the feel of d&d. Totally fine if you want that, but how could you keep some of the mt:g flavour within a d&d framework?

Myself, I'm lazy. I would assign a colour to each spell and give a "spells known" table much like the wizards progression. Every 2 levels they can nominate a color. If they choose the same color they get access to the next level of spells in that group. If they choose another they get level 1, level 2 etc.

Downside? They either have to stick to one color of they'll never get 9th level spells.

Upside? Access to spells of all classes. A necromancer who can raise the dead, or a summoner with druidic powers. Or a white magician with healing, protection and divination powers.

I'd play them!