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

My own mixed response, summarized:

NEGATIVE

• I don't have a strong inclination to invest in a new fantasy world given the time constraints in my life.
• I doubt I'd ever choose to DM a Ravnica game.

NEUTRAL

• I have no emotional connection to any M:tG settings and lore, good or bad.

POSTIVE

• I'll definitely mine the book for any new mechanics and ideas to use in my own games.
• If I was asked to play in a Ravnica game, I'd give it a fair shot.

Jester David said:

I get the thought behind it.
Magic the Gathering has a tonne of lore that never gets explored. This can do that. And there's a decent overlap between MtG and D&D fans, who will be excited by this book. And it might sell to MtG fans who don't play D&D, potentially getting them into D&D.
But that last point is targeting a potential audience over a real audience.

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Its called expanding the audience.

You and I already buy everything. They can survive us being disappointed.

What's at stake here is getting new gamers into buying D&D books.

They have simply decided the number of new customers isn't increasing as quickly if they release something nobody outside of DnD has heard of.

darjr said:

I have friends that have wanted this for a long time.

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I have remained perplexed about the lack of MtG DnD content for decades.

It feels nice to relax that face finally...

CapnZapp said:

I have remained perplexed about the lack of MtG DnD content for decades.

It feels nice to relax that face finally...

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While I've not had the perplexed face that long I agree that this obvious product alignment has been a long time coming.

Each time a new D&D adventure comes out I wonder which plane it would suit best as I'm wanting to have each campaign have a fresh and distinct feel (mind you this is all in my head, we're still slogging through my high-level reboot of OotA! But a man can dream... )

Parmandur said:

Maybe take a break until something more solid is announced? At this point, we don't know what is coming.

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Firstly, I don't disengage well. When someone replies to me I need to reply back. Not doing so feels like something left undone, which nags at me for hours.
And replying usually prompts a second reply that typically snowballs and results in me doubling down on my position.

Secondly, turns out to be more of a chicken-and-egg situation.
Slow burning migraine without the usual warning aura, which makes me cranky and grumpy from the pain while also tanking my serotonin levels, giving me an extra surly disposition and a diminished ability to feel happy.

Ancalagon said:

You may be correct. Or not. No need to get upset *in advance* - plenty of time for that later.

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It's more trying to temper my expectations.

* * *

Slade Thirteen said:

I understand your frustration... But I have to disagree on the point of 'real vs potential'. They have been making Plane modules for 3 years now. We have: Zendikar, Innistrad, Kaladesh, Amonkhet, and Ixalan. They are under the title "Plane Shift". This will be their first full book, true, but there IS a real audience already. Sure, you specifically might not feel apart of it, but there is real interest.

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The catch is that the "sales" of free PDFs with no buy in cost are not a great representation of how well a physical book will sell.

Slade Thirteen said:

And Ravnica is a HUGE setting. And I don't mean lore wise (though there is a -lot- to mine there), I mean that of all the Planes that MtG returns to, the absolute most popular is Ravnica. (Dominaria, Zendikar, and Innistrad being a few others that trail just behind). Make no mistake, this is going to sell, especially if what's inside is worth it.

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It's popular to *some* MtG fans.
We enter the three-circle Venn diagram territory of MtG fans who are Ravnica fans who are also D&D fans.

I'm sure there are a lot of MtG fans who aren't Ravnica fans who won't care about this. (One of the first comments I saw on Twitter was "I want Tarkir".) And there are the MtG fans who are Ravnica fans who don't care about D&D and have no interest in this book.
Maybe some MtG fans will see this, give the book a read and decide to play D&D. But I suspect not having a familiar world was a the barrier to MtG fans jumping into the game or checking out D&D books.

robus said:

That’s interesting, because WotC have stated that they’re only interested in publishing settings that have a distinct feel. If Ravnica feels like Eberron why would they update Eberron. Perhaps Ravnica will include the mechanical updates needed to run Eberron in 5e and they kill two birds with one stone? (Eberron content, both official and otherwise, being available on DMs Guild...)

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As I've been reading this thread, this is the thought that started creeping in, and I'm not happy about it.

I don't really care if they produce a cross-over setting. Actually, I'm probably more positive on the idea, even if I really have no interest in any sort of "everything is a city" setting or MtG crossover, personally. I've always said that I really just don't want to see D&D devolve into being married to a single setting -- especially the Realms.

About the only legacy setting that I, personally, have strong feelings about getting 5E support is Eberron. I'm an avid home-brewer and have looted pretty much every other setting for spare parts, but Eberron is the only one that I've actively used, as a GM (I don't really count the handful of times I've set one-shots in Greyhawk as a sort of "neutral ground" as the same thing). I think some of the other settings (Dark Sun and Ravenloft, especially) have sufficient uniqueness to them that fans would feel similarly and there might be enough of a market to support something. I'd welcome a "grand tour of the worlds" where every year, a single setting was given a flavorful adventure (ala Curse of Strahd).

As far as the topic at hand goes, I'm trying to take an unfortunate leak as just that -- something without context. The existence of a MtG crossover doesn't mean there isn't something else, as well. The quotes from Nathan seem to indicate that we'll get three settings, in some form. At least one of those will "really make hardcore fans happy" (or something akin to that). If that's not some form of physical product, Nathan has no clue about what will make hardcore fans happy.

And this, maybe more than anything, is the real problem with the way 5E is being handled, right now. Maybe it's Nathan's style. Maybe it's Nathan doing his best to polish a turd being handed to him. There are a lot of things that can be done with D&D, at this moment. WotC could marry it to the Realms as the only supported setting because that's where the money is. They could opt to give basic, but formal support to older settings, whether the CoS one-and-done adventure, a SCAG one-and-done book, or even a "worlds of adventure" collection of strictly minimalist coverage. They could leverage other, known, IPs as with the Ravnica book. They could create something totally new. They could take a couple of "easy wins", too, and just open up settings on DMs Guild without any physical support. They could do some combination of the above.

What they shouldn't do, though, is be misleading and/or botch the hype machine. A huge, month-long plus build-up about how you're going to make "hardcore fans" happy that ends with an announcement about "Yeah, Eberron material can be released on the DMs Guild, but we aren't doing anything, ourselves," isn't appropriate. While it might "satisfy" hardcore fans, it isn't going to "excite", "please", or "make happy" any hardcore fans. This is especially true when they're (probably) announcing a hardcover for a crossover setting on the same day they're (potentially) announcing the lack of one for hardcore fans.

Again, it's not that any of the potential choices WotC is making about what products to make are strictly wrong. It's that they don't seem to jive with the hype. The problem with a leak is that we really don't know how this will play out, yet. I'm pointing out the potential issues and why folks might getting grumpy, but I'm doing a pretty good job of internally being comfortable with waiting for the official announcement before I grab a pitchfork.

Note that Eberron has one potential ace in the hole with a "DMs Guild support, but no hardcover" that no other setting enjoys: Keith Baker. If the announcement includes a statement that Keith is committed to producing an official 5E conversion and X additional "books" over the next year, then hardcore fans of the setting will likely actually be happy enough about that that the disappointment over the hardcover will be offset enough for the hype to make sense. As a semi-hardcore fan, I'd still love to see a hardcover of some sort. Really, though, my main beef with the current model is that, based on the current product line-up, the Realms appear to new players as the only setting for D&D, so I'll get over it.

Help, please:

1. RAV ni ka
2. Rav KNEE ka
3. Rav NEET sa
4. Rav NEETCH ah
5. Other

Thanks

Jester David said:

Firstly, I don't disengage well. When someone replies to me I need to reply back. Not doing so feels like something left undone, which nags at me for hours.
And replying usually prompts a second reply that typically snowballs and results in me doubling down on my position.

Secondly, turns out to be more of a chicken-and-egg situation.
Slow burning migraine without the usual warning aura, which makes me cranky and grumpy from the pain while also tanking my serotonin levels, giving me an extra surly disposition and a diminished ability to feel happy.

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I didn't want to rile you up, I'm sorry about that. Migraine sounds pretty crummy. No need to reply to this message, just wanted to extend some good will.

The Grassy Gnoll said:

Help, please:

1. RAV ni ka
2. Rav KNEE ka
3. Rav NEET sa
4. Rav NEETCH ah
5. Other

Thanks

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Rhymes with 'bow'.